3M announces Cloud Library e-book lending service for ’21st century’ libraries — from engadget.com
Also see:
Also see:
On 05/21/2011,
in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, e-books, e-readers, library / librarians, tablets,
by Daniel Christian
On 05/13/2011,
in 21st century, budgets, digital learning, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, hybrid learning, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, library / librarians, mobile learning, online learning, student teaching/teacher education, teachers,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt from introduction (emphasis DSC):
Three factors are driving this new interest and enthusiasm for digital learning by educators. First, teachers and administrators are increasingly become technology-enabled themselves, using emerging technologies such as mobile devices, online classes and digital content to improve their own productivity. This development of a personal value proposition with the technology is propelling educators to think creatively about how to leverage these same tools in the classroom. Second, students and increasingly parents are demanding a different kind of learning experience and that is forcing even the most reluctant teachers and administrators to re-evaluate their perspectives about the value of technology within learning. As noted in prior Speak Up national reports, students have a very clear vision for 21st century learning. Their preference is for learning environments that are socially-based, un-tethered and digitally rich. Parents are also supportive of this new learning paradigm and as we noted in our first Speak Up 2010 report (released in April 2011) the emergence of a new trend of parental digital choice is an indication of this unprecedented support level. And schools and districts are waking up to this new trend. Concerns about parents’ capability to, for example, enroll their children in non-district provided online classes are compelling many districts to start virtual schools themselves. The third factor, the economy, and its resulting financial pressures on school and district budgets, has created a sense of urgency to more fully investigate how technologies can help educators meet their instructional goals with less expense.
All three factors converging at the same time has opened up a new window of possibilities for achieving the promise of technology to transform education. Evidence of this shift in perspective and vision by educators is noted in some comparative Speak Up findings over the past few years.
…
This report is the second in a two-part series to document the key national findings from Speak Up 2010.
…
In this companion report, “The New 3E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged, Empowered – How Today’s Educators are Advancing a New Vision for Teaching and Learning,” we explore how teachers, principals, district administrators, librarians and technology coordinators are addressing the student vision for learning around three key trends. These trends have generated significant interest in the past year at conferences, in policy discussions and within our schools and districts: mobile learning, online and blended learning and digital content.
While each of these trends includes the essential components of the student vision of socially-based, un-tethered and digitally-rich learning, they also provide a unique backdrop for investigating the role of educators to engage, enable and empower students through the use of these emerging technologies.
• Role of Librarians and Technology Coordinators: To enable student use of the emerging technologies through their planning, support and recommendation responsibilities.
• Role of Classroom Teachers: To engage students in rich, compelling learning experiences through the effective use of these technologies in the classroom.
• Role of School and District Administrators: To empower both teachers and students to creatively envision the future of digital learning, and to provide opportunities for exploring the elements of a new shared vision for learning.
On 05/11/2011,
in A/V -- audio/visual, collaboration, learning spaces, library / librarians, smart classrooms,
by Daniel Christian
On 05/05/2011,
in A/V -- audio/visual, library / librarians,
by Daniel Christian
Setting up a library iPad program — from College & Research Libraries by Sara Q. Thompson
Guidelines for success
Guidelines for success
On 04/01/2011,
in educational games / serious games, future, library / librarians, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/28/2011,
in Augmented Reality (AR), library / librarians,
by Daniel Christian
Awesome augmented reality app could save librarians hours — from ReadWriteWeb.com by Audrey Watters
On 02/16/2011,
in digital learning, Google, higher education, library / librarians, tools,
by Daniel Christian
Google’s Gadfly — from InsideHigherEd.com
“Uncomfortably familial.” That is how Siva Vaidhyanathan, a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia, describes the relationship between higher education and Google — a company that has, in a little more than a decade, evolved from pet project of Stanford doctoral students to chief usher of the information age.
…
But as is often the case with cousins, the genetic differences between higher education and Google are more striking than their similarities. Beneath the interdependence and shared hereditary traits, tensions creep. And like an awkward Thanksgiving dinner, Vaidhyanathan’s new book, The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) (University of California Press), provokes these tensions to the surface.
The Virginia professor, who is not afraid to confess his affection for the ease and usefulness of Google, nevertheless distrusts the company’s basic motivations as it vies for our intellectual inheritance. “Google has fostered a more seamless, democratized, global, cosmopolitan information ecosystem,” he writes. “Yet it has simultaneously contributed to the steady commercialization of higher education and the erosion of standards of information quality.”
On 02/07/2011,
in digital audio, digital learning, digital video, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, library / librarians, multimedia,
by Daniel Christian
Digital Media and Technology in Afterschool Programs, Libraries, and Museums
Becky Herr-Stephenson, Diana Rhoten, Dan Perkel, and Christo Sims — with contributions from Anne Balsamo, Maura Klosterman, and Susana Smith Bautista
© 2011 Massachusetts Institute of Technology | The MIT Press | Cambridge, Massachusetts | London, England
Excerpt:
This report synthesizes research and examples of the diverse ways in which organizations approach and integrate digital media and technology into their youth programs, practices, and philosophies. We aim to clarify a framework for understanding organizational efforts related to digital media and technology and to establish a foundation for future research in this area. Our guiding questions for this report are:
- How have digital media and technology been incorporated into youth programs within educational, civic, and cultural organizations, including afterschool programs, libraries, and museums?
- What types of participation and learning do digital media and technology support and/or complicate within these organizations?
- How can research in the area of digital media and learning contribute to better integration of technology within individual organizations and better coordination via technology among organizations?
On 01/27/2011,
in digital learning, digital textbooks, library / librarians, open courseware and systems, textbooks,
by Daniel Christian
Who needs textbooks? — from Newsweek.com
How Washington State is redesigning textbooks for the digital age.
Jessie Sellers, a student at Tacoma Community College in Washington state, was puzzled when he logged onto his school’s website last December to figure out which book he needed for his upcoming English class. Whereas for all his previous courses, the 24-year-old education major could simply click on a link to view the name of the required textbook, this time there were no books listed at all. It was no mistake: thanks to an ambitious pilot program aimed at reducing the cost of textbooks at public colleges, Sellers and hundreds of other students across the state won’t have to buy textbooks for more than three dozen courses offered this winter.
Washington’s Open Course Library is the largest state-funded effort in the nation to make core college course materials available on the Web for $30 or less per class. Financed with $750,000 from the state of Washington and a matching grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the goal isn’t just to reduce student costs, says program architect Cable Green. It’s also to create engaging, interactive learning materials that will help improve course completion rates. By the time the project is completed in 2012, digitized textbook equivalents for some 81 high-enrollment classes will be available online for the more than 400,000 students enrolled in Washington’s network of community and technical colleges. Even better, the materials can be shared across the globe, largely for free, because they will be published in an open format that avoids the most onerous licensing restrictions. To keep costs at a minimum, the teachers developing the materials are relying primarily on either existing material in the public domain or embarking on the painstaking task of developing materials from scratch.
Where the books used to be — from Thomas Frey, futurist
.
During the coming years, libraries will be faced with a number of options for replacing their current inventory of books with electronic book readers. As some of the early adopter libraries begin to understand the economics and freedoms/restrictions associated with the devices, they will begin to move forward, replacing thousands of volumes on the rack with what will seem like a relatively few e-readers occupying comparatively little space.
future scenario, new strategy, powerful idea, technology trends
On 11/17/2010,
in dangers of the status quo, disruption, library / librarians, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
.The centre of academic life at most universities is the library.
The rows and rows of dusty, hastily-mended bound books and journals hint at a vast world of knowledge and draw a link between generations of students who have roamed the halls.
But students in the engineering department at the University of Texas in San Antonio (UTSA) do not get that experience. Instead, they download whatever they want to any one of the terminals or their laptops.
In September, the UTSA opened the first completely bookless library on a university campus in the US.
The sleek glass library seats 80 people and holds 425,000 e-books and 18,000 e-journal subscriptions. And there is no need to share because all these budding engineers can read the same text at the same time.
On 11/06/2010,
in learning preferences, library / librarians,
by Daniel Christian
On 11/02/2010,
in global / globalization, higher education, library / librarians, Michigan, open courseware and systems, research,
by Daniel Christian
— Found originally at blog.oer.sbctc.edu
Homework Rescue offers online resource — from savagepacer.com by Keighla Schmidt
There’s Google chat, Facebook chat, AOL instant messaging, Yahoo! messenger and the list goes on when it comes to instant help at your fingertips. Add teenagers into the mix and consider the combo peanut butter and jelly.
And when it’s time to do homework at the Braun house in Savage, mom Sandy has no problem with her Prior Lake High School children Jake, a freshman, and Leigh, a sophomore, going online and chatting.
As long as they’re logged onto Homework Rescue, a free, online live one-on-one instant messaging tutor offered through the library and can be accessed remotely.
Homework Rescue is available at www.scott.lib.mn.us under the online references collection daily from 1-11 p.m. for free by using a library identification number. About 100 metro area libraries are part of the Metropolitan Library Services Agency (MELSA), which financially supports the program.