HRC Blog

The blog entry on the Teaching with Classroom Response Systems blog titled "Five Types of Mobile Learning" discusses how a mobile phone could be used in the classroom five different ways. One way is to use the mobile phones like "clicker" devices, a device that can respond and enter an answer to a poll asked by the professor to the students. Other ways discussed on how to use a mobile phone in the classroom are that it can be a way students can connect with each other or a way a professor can deliver material to students (via a podcast, text notes or online video lectures). If you would like to read more about ways you can use mobile learning in the classroom, click on the link below:

http://derekbruff.com/teachingwithcrs/?p=355

PhraseBASE is a service where you can learn a foreign language and also practice it with native speakers of that language. Some of the features are free on the site, like learning phrases or using the E-Phrasebook Flash cards online. Some of the free services you need to sign up for to access the service (like the online flash cards). To use the full language lessons feature, you need to make a payment online. To check out PhraseBASE, click on the link below:

http://www.phrasebase.com/

Profhacker has a new post describing Wordles as a gateway drug to textual analysis and provides an interesting potential use for them.  In case you are not familiar with Wordles, the Wordle service allows you to input a text, run a word-frequency analysis of the text, and generates a 'word cloud' of the text. Within the 'word cloud', words that appear more often in the text appear larger and words that appear less often appear smaller. Although a visualization of word frequencies in a text may not lead to the discovery of any really deep meaning with the text, it can certainly be a conversation starter. This is where Wordle can be useful in teaching, since it's in the conversation where the real textual analysis takes place.

http://www.profhacker.com/2009/10/21/wordles-or-the-gateway-drug-to-textual-analysis/

The peacecorps.gov site contains a good collection of language learning resources.

http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/multimedia/language/

Here is a very good and varied list of readings from Doug Holton, an assistant professor at Utah State University, on research in college teaching.

http://edtechdev.wordpress.com/2009/08/31/50-examples-of-the-need-to-improve-college-teaching/

We've blogged about this site before, but it's worth another mention:

"smARThistory.org is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic
enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional and static art
history textbook. Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker began
smARThistory in 2005 by creating a blog featuring free audio guides in the form of podcasts for use in The
Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Soon after, we embedded the audio files in our online survey courses. The response from our students was so positive that we decided to create a multi-media survey of art history web-book. We created audios and
videos about works of art found in standard art history survey texts, organized the files stylistically and chronologically, and added text and still images."

I recently came across this YouTube video that animated the actual Bayeux Tapestry. The Bayeux Tapestry depicts the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. It's a very pivotal point in England's history. The Bayeux Tapestry currently resides in France. To learn about the Norman Conquest of England and to see the tapestry animated, watch the embedded YouTube video below:

 

 

I recently came across this great video demonstrating how to get started with learning language for free online. The video was produced by FreeLanguage.org and this video is the first in this series. They highlight what sites are good to learn languages for free and other free tools that will help you on your journey. You can watch the first video in this series below (or you can visit their YouTube account page at http://www.youtube.com/user/freelanguageorg

 

 

Firstmonday has posted a very interesting article on the inherent pedagogies of course management systems (instructional by default) and the often overlooked features of CMSs that could encourage more constructivist learning activities.

http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2530/2303

PBS and NPR have teamed up to launch a new service called Forum Network. According to their site the "The Forum Network online library features thousands of lectures by some of the world's foremost scholars, authors, artists, scientists, policy makers and community leaders, available to citizens of the world for free."

This is great because not only does this site provide lectures that align their topics with programs such as NOVA and Frontline, it allows the viewer to explore these topics at greater depth.

To check out the Forum Network, click on the link below:

http://forum-network.org