Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Industrial or Social - what type of marketer are you?

Source: Mobileyouth

For over a century we have practised marketing based on industrial principles continuing to manifest its DNA in advertising, PR, marketing, product development and the ubiquitous presentation “value chain“.

Monday, 26 January 2009

Make Way for Millenials: How Today’s College Students are Shaping Educational Space

Source: Technorati

Rickes, P. (2009) ‘Make Way for Millenials: How Today’s College Students are Shaping Educational Space‘ Planning for Higher Education, Jan - Mar An interesting article on the generation of students now entering colleges and universities in the USA. It includes discussion of the role of technology on campus for these students and preferred learning styles.

Monday, 19 January 2009

Nintendo Bringing Wii Music to Schools

Source: Escapistmagazine

In an effort to boost interest in music among kids, Nintendo is partnering with The National Association for Music Education to bring Wii Music to classrooms across America.

Friday, 16 January 2009

College courses: even "offline" classes are online now

Source: Mixed Musings

College courses: even "offline" classes are online now: Not a formal college-level course,

Thursday, 15 January 2009

The Alternative School: a mainstream model

Source: edu.blogs.com

Schooling, despite the concentration on curriculum and assessment reform in recent years, largely still hasn't tackled the main issue: meaningless (to young people) pedagogy. It's not the fault of teachers, of course, but of those who "manage change" not managing to give enough time for teachers to think about what they would do differently from the last 400 years. One day extra a year for "the biggest innovation in curriculum in a generation" is to ridicule the enormity of the task in hand.

Wednesday, 14 January 2009

The Potential For Mobile Learning In The Classroom

Source: Ypulse

Today I'm giving a quick summary of a new report on mobile learning released from the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas. Consider it a sneak preview of what Anastasia will share when she gets back from vacation in a week or so. Since the Center was kind enough to let us a take a look a few days early I thought I'd give a few highlights here, but you can access the full-length version on their site.

Tuesday, 13 January 2009

Text Messaging Tips for Parents & Educators

Source: Barking Robot

CommonSense Media has put together a really good texting 101 video along with some other educational materials for parents. In addition to the video, they have complied a list of useful mobile and texting factoids that every parent should know.

Monday, 12 January 2009

University Life in China and America

Source: Slideshows

A one-hour lecture intended for Chinese ESL learners that looks at differences between Chinese and US universities, including admission process, academic requirements, and student life. I use this presentation to help prepare students who will study abroad.

Friday, 9 January 2009

But Are They Willing to Pay for It?

Source: Millennial Law Prof

Students are unhappy with the amount of practice-based legal writing they're able to do in law school according to the latest LSSSE results

Despite near universal agreement on the value of these skills and competencies, legal writing, for example, is typically featured primarily in the first year, and viewed by students as a sidebar in their doctrinal classes,” writes George D. Kuh, LSSSE director and professor at the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research, in his introduction to the 2008 results. “The low value placed on writing is symbolized by the facts that relatively few legal writing faculty are tenured or in a tenure-eligible role and are often paid less than other faculty members. Nevertheless, good lawyers must be good legal writers; it is a skill that will serve students well as they transition to the practice of law.”

Thursday, 8 January 2009

Research Supports Collaborative Learning for Millennials

Source: Millennial Law Prof

Today's edition of Inside Higher Education reports on a study of peer instruction and concludes that students learn more when they have an opportunity to discuss concepts with their classmates. The study was able to differentiate between just mimicking answers from smarter classmates and actually learning information that could be applied to different questions and hypotheticals, and researchers found that actual learning increased when students talked about new material together. While the study dealt exclusively with in-class learning, there's nothing to suggest that the same wouldn't be true of out-of-class collaboration like study groups.

Monday, 5 January 2009

More Colleges Expected to Offer Online Interviews

Source: Washingtonpost.com

RALEIGH, N.C. -- For her college interview, Avery Cullinan put on her best outfit but didn't bother with shoes. She sat in her living room, smiled into her computer's webcam and told an admissions officer more than 800 miles away that Wake Forest University was right for her.

Stop Killing Students With PowerPoint - SlideShare

Friday, 2 January 2009

Downturn Economy is Online Education's Best Friend

Source: Big Brand On Campus

It started with the rising fuel costs, then came the market crashes. The downturn economy sure has been the most powerful marketing agent for the online education industry says a recent survey. Massive layoffs, hiring freezes, and increases in part-time workers has made a perfect environment for online universities to thrive. People who have lots of time on their hands and no opportunity for employment have taken to affordable education to capture new degrees. Magazines are reporting that college programs are not worth the money. Colleges' tuition rates are on the rise. So what is the future of distance learning, of online education. Well, a recent survey released from the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) indicate students studying with American Public University System (APUS) have an extremely favorable view of the online learning system and would overwhelmingly attend again if they could start their college career over. In fact, ninety-seven percent of seniors at American Public University System would choose the online institution again. If this satisfaction rate is any indication, wouldn't we expect to see the offspring of these online grads have their children follow in the same sensible footsteps? Are colleges and universities just the tip of iceberg? If .edu's make the best educations accessible to everyone with an internet connection how will it effect the entire educational system as we know it. Will homeschooling become the norm?