ProfHacker now aligned with CHE

The blog which discusses technology in teaching, ProfHacker, is now under the umbrella of the Chronicle of Higher Education blogs. This is from their post about the move...
"Today marks a new partnership between ProfHacker and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Since George and Jason founded the site, ProfHacker has focused on pedagogy, productivity, and technology, and the various ways these intersect in higher education. ... The Chronicle was interested in the idea of a site that looked at the practical side of academic life, and rather than starting one themselves, they offered to bring us on board."

Computerized math instruction beats out traditional classroom

A new study reported by the What Works Clearinghouse found that, "at the end of the school year students in classrooms using 'I Can Learn' scored higher onthe assessment of pre-algebra and algebra skills than students in traditional math classrooms. The growth was equivalent to moving a student from the 50th to the 57th percentile."
The study met WWC evidence standards and the full report is linked here.

6 Technologies to watch for in education

From the January 14, 2010 issue of Wired Campus...
"The Horizon Report," an annual guide to tech trends... And it’s predicting a new technology king: open content.After failing to make last year's “Technologies to Watch” list, the open-content movement now joins mobile computing as the two trends most likely to enter mainstream learning in the next year, says the report, from the New Media Consortium and Educause.

Undergraduate Students & Technology

From the most recent Educause survey...
"Since 2004, the annual ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology has sought to shed light on how information technology affects the college experience. We ask students about the technology they own and how they use it in and out of their academic world. We gather information about how skilled students believe they are with technologies; how they perceive technology is affecting their learning experience; and their preferences for IT in courses. The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009 is a longitudinal extension of the 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 studies. It is based on quantitative data from a spring 2009 survey of 30,616 freshmen and seniors at 103 four-year institutions and students at 12 two-year institutions; student focus groups that included input from 62 students at 4 institutions; and review of qualitative data from written responses to open-ended questions. In addition to studying student ownership, experience, behaviors, preferences, and skills with respect to information technologies, the 2009 study also includes a special focus on student ownership and use of Internet-capable handheld devices."

University lectures on YouTube

Just read this posting in the CHE's Wired Campus blog about YouTube now claiming to host complete lectures from over 200 colleges and universities.

Peer discussion increases comprehension

This study reported in the Jan. 2, 2009 issue of Science by Smith et al at the University of Colorado, may offer ideas and hope for promoting student learning in lectures. Here's the abstract:
"When students answer an in-class conceptual question individually using clickers, discuss it with their neighbors, and then revote on the same question, the percentage of correct answers typically increases. This outcome could result from gains in understanding during discussion, or simply from peer influence of knowledgeable students on their neighbors. To distinguish between these alternatives in an undergraduate genetics course, we followed the above exercise with a second, similar (isomorphic) question on the same concept that students answered individually. Our results indicate that peer discussion enhances understanding, even when none of the students in a discussion group originally knows the correct answer."
(M.K.Smith, W.B. Wood, W.K. Adams, C. Wieman, J.K. Knight, N. Guild, T.T. Su. Why peer discussion improves student performance on in-class concept questions. Science 2 January 2009:Vol. 323. no. 5910, pp. 122 - 124)
If you have trouble with the link, you can go through the Journals tab on the Libraries homepage to get to our electronic subscription to Science.

2009 Horizon Report is out -- emerging technologies and education

The newest version of the Horizon Report was released at EDUCAUSE conference this week.

"The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the NMC’s Horizon Project, a research-oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have considerable impact on teaching, learning, and creative expression within higher education. A collaboration between the NMC and ELI, the 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth in the annual series.

Each year, the Horizon Report describes six areas of emerging technology that will have significant impact on higher education within three adoption horizons over the next one to five years." (from the Website)

New PEW report on the future of the Internet

Links to all portions of the new PEW report, "The Future of the Internet III," are available here as are links to earlier reports. Just in case you run out of things to read over the semester break :-)