EDUCAUSE | Presented at EDUCAUSE Annual Conferences and Social Computing

Social Software in Higher Education: Isolated Accidents or the Start of Something Big?

drupal — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:39:00 -0600

Blogs, wikis, and networking tools appear to gain widespread acceptance. How are higher education professionals using social software tools in their practice? Is there any convergence with what students using them bring to the institution? We will invite participation to explore these questions and determine if there are international differentiators.

Undergraduates Speak about IT: Results of the 2007 ECAR Survey

drupal — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:17:57 -0600

What information technologies are used by undergraduates? How does IT contribute to their academic experiences and learning? What has changed since 2005? ECAR presents key findings from the fourth annual survey of undergraduates, with responses from 27,846 students at 103 higher education institutions. Plans for 2008 will also be discussed.

Teaching and Learning Experiences in a User-Created Virtual World

drupal — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:49:43 -0600

Second Life is a user-created virtual world simultaneously played by thousands of people around the world. In this session, we’ll share our experiences of teaching in Second Life. Using the interaction combinations integration model we developed as a framework, we will describe our projects, outcomes, and recommendations.

Social Networking Technologies: A "Poke" for Campus Services

drupal — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:24:34 -0600

Social networking software like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube has become a way of life for today's students. In this session, we will explore whether and how we might use these technologies, or ideas they generate, to create better and more effective student and academic services at our institutions.

Let's Get Visual! Integrating Concept Maps, Rich Media, Social Software, and the LMS into Teaching and Learning

drupal — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 16:56:46 -0500

Today’s students favor visuals and social computing tools, while instructors want to foster the development of deep, expert knowledge. Using concept maps connects student desires and instructor objectives. INHOLLAND University of Professional Education and the University of British Columbia have innovatively linked concept maps, rich media, and Web-based content.

At INHOLLAND University students learn in a visual and social online environment, using concept maps to engage in argumentation, writing, reflection, and brainstorming. Combinations of concept maps and rich media with a learning management system, wikis, and blogs help students create a unique yet structured viewpoint that retains a bird’s-eye view of complex ideas and concepts.

Instructors and staff from INHOLLAND, SURFdiensten, and UBC will discuss the process of choosing, implementing, and piloting a new concept mapping tool; demonstrate 10-plus practices and templates; and present tools in a hands-on manner.

A Discussion on Disconnects Between Library Culture and Millennial Generation User Values

drupal — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:42:38 -0500

Join this panel that continues the discussion addressed in a 2006 EDUCAUSE Quarterly article by McDonald and Thomas on the disconnects between library culture and millennial generation values. Panelists will cover three broad areas of demographics, design, and social outreach as related to the needs of the millennial library researcher.

Resource Sharing in a Self-Organizing Online Forum

drupal — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:56:51 -0500

Open Learning Support is social software integrated with MIT OpenCourseWare that allowed users to find each other to ask/answer questions. This session will describe how learners shared resources to answer questions about math and science course content. It will also describe the process of improving an online forum to meet learner needs.

Technology as a Learning Workbench

drupal — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 12:34:26 -0600

Throughout the world, people use different forms of digital workbenches for p2p (person to person) publishing and for knowledge seeking, sharing, and co-creation via different forms of social software. These uses of technology reflect social and individual competencies necessary for productive functioning in a knowledge economy. What are the implications of these competencies for higher education and the ways that technology is used for learning?