Tag Archive

Technology: Social Isolation or Connection?

By Fritz Nordengren

There is a continuing discussion and investigation of the idea of social isolation and community engagement in a variety of texts and studies.  One of the original works  was Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community. The general belief, supported by many of Putnam’s cited studies, is that people are... »

Hybrids Rule

By Ann York

Yes, I do truly love my Prius, but here I am discussing another kind of hybrid: a course that involves both online and classroom learning. An Inside Higher Ed report of new research from South Texas College indicates that 82 percent of students in hybrid courses were successful (that is, that got an A,... »

Back to the Future

By Ann York

Following up on a theme discussed in a recent PowerProfs post on the evolution of educators from a stand and deliver classroom teachers to a supercharged E-mentors using a variety of online tools, I read this article in the NY Times with interest: “SINCE the 16th century, the ideal of education has been the tutorial... »

Educators of the Future

By Ann York

Inside Higher Ed ran an interview with Curtis J. Bonk, a professor of instructional systems technology at Indiana University, and author of the book The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education. After discussing the open education movement, and outlining some factors or “openers” that are facilitating this transition in education, Bonk... »

Will Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter Fade?

By Fritz Nordengren

Over at EandPPub.com, they are asking a question of the day and I Tweeted the link because I found both the question and the comments very interesting. We discuss a number of new tools here, and try to identify best practices for use in the grdaute classroom.  When we talk about innovation, however, often the... »

The High Price of the Achievement Gap

By Ann York

Thomas Friedman has been sounding the alarm about US education for a while, and he notes in his April 21 NY Times article: …the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment that measured the applied learning and problem-solving skills of 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries, the U.S. ranked 25th out of the 30 in math and... »

Wading into the Stream

By Ann York

I joined the Connectivism and Connective Knowledge course, described as a “rather large open online course” with hundreds of participants worldwide. I had the intention of actively participating, but soon became overwhelmed, downgrading myself to lurking and snatching a few tidbits from their daily newsletter. This reminded me of a post on Zen... »

On Strategy and Points of view

By Fritz Nordengren

In January, Ann and I had the good fortune to meet many of you during the ELI annual conference in San Antonio. That was the first of three events I’ve attended in as many months which have given me a look at three conferences and how each represents a piece... »

Becoming a Catalyst

By Ann York

Are you a “sage on the stage” or a “guide on the side”? Those cliches have been around academia for a while. I must admit I still enjoy being a sage on the stage when I have the rare opportunity to teach in a F2F class. But since switching to online teaching... »

Dispatch – February

By admin

Ann and Fritz spent the week in San Antonio at the ELI Annual Meeting. Hear their comments, reactions and challenges for 2008. »