Interact at the Center » Tech Tips

Can Wikipedia be Used to Teach Writing?

ctl — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 12:24:16 +0000

The use of Wikipedia for class assignments or as a citation source has been an ongoing debate. Some professors accept the website’s use, usually after encouraging their students to caution what they take from the website. Other professors absolutely abhor the use of the website by their students. Robert E. Cummings says that he has found a new way to incorporate the use of Wikipedia into his classrooms and makes a strong case for using it in higher education, particularly as a writing tool.

According to Cummings, detractors of Wikipedia’s use in higher education assignments have reasons to be concerned. Wikipedia, indeed, is an open source where essentially anyone can edit or create information concerning almost any subject. With this in mind, people who use the website do expose themselves to getting inaccurate information or are subject to relying on information that is unfounded.

On the other hand, Cummings believes that Wikipedia offers several advantages for students. He believes the major advantage to helping student essay writing with the use of Wikipedia is that students have audiences that are real and can provide plenty of immediate feedback to their writing. In his classes Cummings literally has his students post their work to the website for people all over the Internet to provide them with comments concerning their work. More importantly for the students, Cummings believes that students are writing and having more exposure to having having to write formally. According to Cummings,

“Composition assignments in Wikipedia frame writing as a collaborative practice hosted within a network. This arrangement seems much more predictive of the environment our students will find themselves writing in after they leave the composition classroom, both in later college courses (as they collaborate across networks with fellow students in coursework) or in the workplace (as they collaborate with co-workers to prepare reports, proposals, or Web pages).”

We invite you to read Cummings’ article and see if what he has to say can be beneficial in any of your classes.

Choosing Technological Tools

ctl — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 06:26:00 +0000

With all the encouragement to integrate active learning techniques into your teaching, it’s easy to get confused about what to use when. Specifically, deciding which technological tools to use can seem overwhelming. Three of the most common tools instructors use in their classes are blogs, wikis, and dicussion boards. To guide you in the process of choosing which tool to use, we have collected information and dveloped a chart.

It is important that you consider the answer to some important questions as you make your choice:

What is the purpose of using the tools?
What features are most important for you?
What level of privacy do you need?

The answers to these questions and others can be found by looking at the chart. Make sure to use the left-most colomn labeled “Topic” to guide your selection.

You can download the document here.

And don’t forget that you can always schedule a consultation at the Center for help on how to use your tool in class by calling the Center at 372-6898 or emailing the Center at ctl@bgsu.edu.

3rd Annual BGSU Teaching & Learning Fair Slideshow

ctl — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 15:42:00 +0000

Here are just a few pictures from the Third Annual BGSU Teaching and Learning Fair, held on Friday, February 6, 2009 in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union. Barbara Millis, from the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Teaching and Learning Center, presented the keynote, Persisting with Passion: A Summary in Break-throughs in Teaching and Learning. For more information on presenters or the keynote, visit the CTL Fair site.

Upload and share your work on Scribd.com

ctl — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:21:05 +0000

One of the leaders in online publishing is Scribd. Scribd allows people to upload documents – which can be in the form of reports, brochures, books, spreadsheets, puzzles and games, etc. – to the Internet for sharing with millions of readers. The website also allows you to discuss work that belongs to other people. And, Scribd is free for users!

As per Scribd’s FAQs:

Scribd lets you publish and discover documents online. It is like a big online library where anyone can upload. We make use of a custom Flash document viewer that lets you display documents right in your Web browser.

Part of the idea behind Scribd is that everyone has a lot of documents sitting around on their computers that only they can read. With Scribd we hope to unlock this information by putting it on the web.

Scribd would a useful website for students, especially, graduate students to get feedback on term papers, thesis or dissertation chapters, and for providing feedback to other users. For professors Scribd could prove helpful in publishing pre-publication documents for feedback or learning about what other college instructors are doing in their field or another field.

Over the past couple years Scribd has steadily grown in its users and readership. Please take a look for yourself and see what you can share or discuss.

e-cheating

ctl — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:55:14 +0000

While the Internet has opened us to a world of information and sources, it can also cause problems in our classrooms. The Internet has provided our students with a wealth of websites that will sell, barter and even give away research papers, English papers and essays. How do you combat this in our classes?

In a recent article in T.H.E. Journal titled “e-cheating: Combating a 21st Century Challenge,” Kim McMurtry provides us with a list of 8 suggestions to combat this type of plagiarism:

Take time to explain and discuss your academic honesty policy

Design writing assignments with specific goals and instructions

Know what’s available online before assigning a paper

Give students enough time to do an assignment

Require oral presentations of student papers or have students submit a letter of

transferal to you, explaining briefly their thesis statement, research process, etc

Have students submit essays electronically

When you suspect e-cheating, use a free full-text search engine like AltaVista or

Digital Integrity

Consider subscribing to a plagiarism search service, like Plagiarism.org or

IntegriGuard

Read the entire article by clicking here

How have you dealt with e-cheating in your classes?

Google Books

ctl — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:13:26 +0000

Do you ever have a hard time finding books and sources to help you prepare for lectures and classes? Do you have a list of books that you would love to read, but just don’t have the time or money? Could your students benefit from free book viewing online? Well, Google has launched something that could help: Google Books.

Google Books allows you to search through a wide variety of books and even provides access to the content of those books. This means that you can read whole books online, although some authors and publishers only allow a few pages to be read. Google books categorizes books into subject matter, has a great searching capacity and even allows you to create your own library where you can recommend books and write reviews.

The topics that can be found within the archives of Google Books are vast. A simple search of books on teaching pulled up 131,582 results. This could be a tool that may help in your research and something that may help your students in your classes as well.

What do you think about Google Books?

Google Jockeying

ctl — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 13:54:00 +0000

If you haven’t heard of Google Jockeying, you will probably be hearing or reading about it soon. Its popularity is growing quickly in higher education.

Here’s a quick example of how Google Jockeying works in the classroom:
An instructor is doing their presentation on the American Revolution or some other topic. At the same time there is a pre-designated member of the class is “Google-ing” (the student doesn’t have to use Google either, they can use any search engine they want) the different terms or aspects from the presentation, which students may want to know about. They are doing this with a projector attached to their computer for the entire class to see while they participate in the presentation or listen to the lecture. So, in the American Revolution discussion, the “Jockey” may Google a name like Lord Dunmore or pull up an image of a British soldier or display online links for students to read the Declaration of Independence.

Many instructors are finding Google Jockeying helpful for their students. It’s popularity is growing.

Link to more information about “Google Jockeying”:
<http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAbout/39391>

Is Google Making Us Stupid?

ctl — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:13:00 +0000

Nicholas Carr recently wrote an article for the Atlantic Monthly about what he believes the Internet is doing to people’s brains. Carr’s, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” asks the question over whether people are relying far too much on the Internet for instant access to information, and changing the ways we think and altering “our understanding of the world.”

Below are two short reactions to Carr’s popular article.

Reaction #1

Nicholas Carr may ask the question, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, but his clear answer is that it certainly isn’t helping us think critically or deeply. Carr draws some comparisons to other technological advances in history, including writing and the printing press, fairly noting that although certain prominent thinkers of the time were certain we would see detrimental results in society’s collective cognition, the opposite is generally true. Carr is obviously skeptical of a positive affect of technology on the brain and learning. He raises good questions that amount to a consideration of how much “concentration and contemplation” actually occurs with an increase in technology and the future outcome of this change in learning. Whether you are concerned or celebratory of the change technology has made in learning, addressing the philosophical issues of “What is important to learn?” and “How can we best learn it?” will remain at the forefront and Carr gives us such an opportunity to reflect.

Reaction #2
“So, yes, you should be skeptical of my skepticism,” is what Carr offers as a disclaimer after he essentially writes about the negative affects the Internet has on how people think and read. He proposes anecdotal evidence to support his assertion that the Internet is somehow controlling what people read, how they read, their reading and comprehension habits and, ultimately, how people think. He makes a formidable attempt to show how the giants of the Internet, like Google, have a predetermined plan to alter the web surfers intelligence. His argument is not the greatest defense of his overarching thesis, but he does ask a worthy question. It would be interesting to see what academic studies would say about how the Internet has morphed people’s minds.

Please take a look at Carr’s article and feel free to post your reaction or thoughts about it. Here is a link to Carr’s article: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google

What do you think about the article and suppositions?

Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

OLN – Resource of the Day

ctl — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Many people are learning new words everyday by subscribing or going to the Merriam-Webster website or from Dictionary.com to expand their vocabulary or the size of their “word bank.” A brilliant resource for any educator can be found any day on the Ohio Learning Network’s “Resource of the Day.” Daily random tips from how to deal with aspects of everyday classroom teaching, up to tips concerning Distance Learning-it can all be found at:

http://www.oln.org/rss/rotd.php

The Ohio Learning Network even has a Search option where you can determine your search by topic, date, field of dates, and/or keywords. Please take a look at:

http://www.oln.org/rss/rotd_search.php

ODCE Conference: BGSU Faculty/Staff Presentations

ctl — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 13:29:00 +0000

The following BGSU community members presented last week at the 2008 Ohio Digital Commons for Education Conference (ODCE), which is sponsored by the Ohio Learning Network (OLN), Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC), and OhioLINK.

Colleen Boff & Gwen Evans (University Libraries)
Hi Tech, High Touch, Low Cost: Library Instructional Tools Across a First Year Experience Program

Terry L. Herman, Melanie Alt, Daniel Lemmerbrock, Christopher Pappas, Todd Pavlack, Christopher Pittman and Mark Stevens (College of Technology)
Virtual Learning Environments: A Look into the Future

Michael Kudela (IDEAL) & Garrick L Ducat (Mercy College of NW Ohio)
Creative Commons: Share Your Work, Keep Your Rights and Learn from Others

Connie Molnar & Carolyn Matzinger (IDEAL)
The Metamorphosis of Biology 101: Face-to-face to Online Course Delivery

Carrie Rathsack (CTLT)
Today’s Digital Tools for Enhancing Future Learning

For more information about ODCE or the conference events and resources, including the keynote address by Chancellor, Eric Fingerhut:

Website – http://www.oln.org/conferences/ODCE2008/
Wiki – http://wiki.conference.oln.org/
Blog – http://blog.conference.oln.org/

Podcasting with Gcast and iTunes U

ctl — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 17:18:00 +0000

We have had many posts about podcasting in the past, however, today we want to introduce you to a couple things you might not have heard of.

Gcast
Have you ever wanted to add an episode to your podcast when you were out and about and not at home with your audio recording equipment? Have you wanted to interview people on the spot and create a audio files on the go? Well, now you can!

Gcast allows you to do mobile podcasting without having to have a laptop and recording equipment. You can do it all with just a phone!

BGSU iTunes U
The University has partnered with Apple to implement a BGSU iTunes U page. Before starting ,ensure that you have iTunes intalled; if not you can download it at http://www.apple.com/itunes/. Simply go to http://www.bgsu.edu/itunes/ or click this link and you will asked to load the BGSU iTunes U page in iTunes. As a faculty member you can post your podcasts here and make your information available for free. Contact The Center at ctlt@bgsu.edu for more information.

Podcating Workshops
New to podcasting? Not sure what it is? Just need some guidance on how to effectively use it and create audio files? Find out how podcasting can be utilized in your course to facilitate or enhance student learning. Basic topics such as what is podcasting, how to subscribe, classroom uses to achieve learning outcomes, and an overview of what is needed to create your own podcast will be discussed. Common uses for podcasts include updating students on current events, providing information to students between classes, and recording lectures or review sessions so students can use them to study.

Wednesday, March 12, 1:00pm–2:00pm
Monday, March 31, 11:00am–12:00pm
Wednesday, April 16, 2:00pm–3:00pm

Visit our workshop page or click here to register…

Have you used Gcast or iTunes U? If so, how? Have you ever attended one of our podcasting workshops? How have you used podcasting in the classroom?
Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

The Center’s New Resource Page

ctl — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:11:00 +0000

Our newly designed Resource page is now available on the Center for Teaching Learning, and Technology’s web site. The new appearance was designed to allow the user to navigate various resources more easily. The page contains an organid set of resources located in sections pertaining to The Center, Technology Tools for Learning, The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and Blogs and Wikis in Education. To view the new Resources page, click on the link below.
http://www.bgsu.edu/ctlt/page10679.html

What other resources (Web or print) do you find valuable? Click on the COMMENTS link below to leave your suggestions.

TIME’s 50 Best Websites 2007

ctl — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 14:47:00 +0000

Time Magazine lists some of the best websites of 2007. Categories include Arts & Leisure, Audio & Video, News & Info, Social Networks, and Web Services. Many of these websites include tools that could be utilized in education. Below are a handful of the top 50 that could be useful…

Expertvillage.com: Worlds Largest How-To Video Site

Odeo.com: Millions of MP3s and 1000’s of audio channels—podcasts, music, and more.

Ecofoot.org: Measure your Eco-Footprint

Fafsa4caster.ed.gov: Federal Financial Aid Calculator

Pollingreport.com: An independent, nonpartisan resource on trends in American public opinion.

Linkedin.com: A social network for business professionals and career-minded folks.

Wetpaint.com: With Wetpaint you can start, share, and grow a wiki with anyone about anything.

And Many More…