Web 2.0

Two examples of social media in the classroom

December 20, 2010

Today we’ve got another guest post.  I’ve been writing quite a bit about social media in the classroom, and how it is (and isn’t) a useful way to support student learning.   Kate Willson had a few interesting examples of ways that an instructor — and an entire college — are jumping on the social media [...]

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Facing Facebook: Social media in and out of the classroom

August 21, 2010

Your students are already using tools like Facebook and Twitter. In fact, they’re often using them when you’d rather they’d be doing something else (like paying attention in class). How can we turn the potential obstacles of Web 2.0 and social media into an opportunity for effective teaching and learning? I recently gave an overview [...]

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Web 2.0 in the classroom (#ISTE10)

July 4, 2010

I wanted to let you know about a blog post that I recently created over at The Active Class, on the use of blogs and wikis in K12 classrooms. There are some nice summaries of one small research study that looked at what worked (and what didn’t) in teachers’ uses of these tools, with some [...]

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Podcasting in the University Classroom (#coltt2009)

August 13, 2009

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs has been experimenting with using podcasts in their nursing courses, though it was four years ago so things might have changed.  They discovered several things along the way: Students needed to be educated that they could listen to podcasts on any MP3 player or on their computer (and [...]

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Say what? Promoting discussion in online courses (#coltt2009)

August 12, 2009

Blogging from the Colorado Teaching and Learning with Technology (COLTT) conference.  This session, from Joni Dunlap, how to promote discussion in online courses. How can we get learners to talk in online discussions, and how can we get the chatty students to shut up?  The results have been pretty disappointing so far.  Most instructors set [...]

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Scholarship in the digital age #coltt2009

August 12, 2009

I’m blogging today from another conference — the Colorado Learning and Teaching with Technology (COLTT) conference. The keynote speaker is Richard Katz, the VP of Educause. It’s an old story by now that digital technology has completely changed how we access media — nobody under 30 reads newspapers, and newspapers haven’t responded with a new [...]

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Blogs on teaching and learning

March 24, 2009

As y’all know, I’m a big fan of the blogosphere.  I recently ran across a couple blogs that I thought others might be interested in. The Teaching Professor, by a retired professor of teaching and learning at Penn State (MaryEllen Weimer).  Very good posts, on topics that we often discuss, such as self-assessment, and whether [...]

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Why twiddle with twitter?

March 16, 2009

A recent query on a writers’ listserv pleaded: Can someone, anyone, please explain the advantages to me of being on Twitter? I certainly understand the “concept” of repeated exposure, and that it takes less time and words than blogging, but in all honesty, even though this is called “social” networking, it leaves me a bit [...]

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Bloggers unite at AAPT!

February 14, 2009

On a totally random note, I had my first sciencegeekgirl hallway recognition moment, from a faithful reader, Danielle, who writes Urban Science Adventures — a really beautiful blog helping young people explore ecology and environmental science from their backyard.  We tend to think there’s no naturalism to be done in urban environments — not true!  [...]

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Downloading videos from YouTube (for schools with blocked internet access)

February 3, 2009

I’ve been meaning to write a post forEVah about all the wonderful ways there are to download YouTube (and other) videos to watch offline. This is particularly helpful if you’re at a school with blocked internet access so you can’t show streaming video, but it’s also just useful if you want to archive a certain [...]

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Exchange of scientific ideas

December 17, 2008

I just read this lovely discussion of how a more open scientific culture (think open-access science) could improve the collective memory of science. This was on the Back Page of APS News (subscribers only) and here is the author Michael Nielsen’s blog post about the topic too, with some additional information. His basic premise is [...]

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Free webinar with Michio Kaku for teachers and students

December 11, 2008

Wow, I was just sent this information about a wonderful chance for teachers and students to connect (for FREE) with a really dynamic scientist, Michio Kaku.  You can see my previous post about a talk he gave on the Physics of the Impossible at AAPT last summer — he was an incredibly gifted speaker. Funny, [...]

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Over 60 education blogs!

December 1, 2008

Richard Hake has updated his ongoing list of education blogs.  You can now find over 60 of them on this quite long post from a physics listserv — several of which were donated by yours truly through my article in The Physics Teacher. Woo!  I feel so famous…

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32 education blogs

November 9, 2008

Richard Hake (of Physics Education Research fame) has just posted a very nice list of 32 education blogs, fully annotated with useful descriptions of the content and author of each blogs. Includes blogs on eLearning, how people learn, mathematics education research, and more. UPDATE 12.1.08  Hake has now posted an updated list of 60 education [...]

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Young women in science – Social networking site

November 4, 2008

I’ve been making up for my prolific posting during the National Association of Science Writers conference by not posting for days on end. Life is busy for geekgirls nowadays, what can I say? But this tidbit just came across my desk — a new website for young women interested in science that sounds really neat. [...]

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For teachers: Summaries of research for your classroom

September 30, 2008

This just in from another blog (Discovering Biology in a Digital World): Researchblogging is a great resource for the classroom. She writes: How does this work? Bloggers who write about scientific literature use a special icon to identify those posts. They also register at the Researchblogging web site with their credentials and favorite topics. When [...]

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Upcoming FREE NSDL web seminars on science!

September 10, 2008

Again, for you K-12 educators out there… did you know the NSDL and NSTA offers free web seminars on science topics? These are very nicely done workshops, I’ve been to one, with a live presenter and chance to simulchat with other participants. Here’s the schedule Web Seminar 1 Date: Thursday, September 25, 2008 Time: 6:30-8:00 [...]

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Using Wikis in the K-12 classroom

August 26, 2008

I just wanted to direct my K-12 teacher readers to a really nice post from one of the NSDL sponsored blogs “Exemplary Resources for Middle School Math and Science” about using wikis in the K-12 classroom. Here’s an excerpt: Wikis in the Classroom Let’s take the course of study mentioned above as the example: Start [...]

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Who am I, and why do I blog?

August 24, 2008

Over at Living the Scientific Life, GrrrlScientist writes about a study matching the Big Five Personality Traits to people who blog Are there particular personality traits that make certain people more likely to write a blog? If so, what are those personality traits? Do you have them, too? A team of scientists, led by psychologist [...]

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Solar eclipse live in Second Life! August 1

July 27, 2008

Any of you Second-Lifers out there, who are also crazy enough to stay up all night to watch an eclipse, come to one of many locations in Second Life the night of July 30/August 1. Totality is at 4:09 am Linden Time, but the party starts earlier than that. Put it on your calendars! Should [...]

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