Start-Up Aspires to Make the World 'One Big Study Group'

Retrieved from Wired Campus on September 12, 2010 By Marc Parry

Thousands of students are enrolling in gigantic open online courses.
Would students go for vast open online study groups, too?

OpenStudy, a start-up company spun off by Georgia Tech and Emory University, is betting the answer to that question is yes. Its Web site is the latest effort to create a social platform for independent learners who want to help each other study the huge trove of educational materials published free online by universities like MIT.

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Latest Attempt to Hawk E-Textbooks: Make Them Easier for Professors to Use

Retrieved from [Wired Campus] on July 18, 2010

http://chronicle.com/blogPost/blogPost-content/25540/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+chronicle%2Fwiredcampus+%28The+Chronicle%3A+Wired+Campus%29

By Jeff Young

It has been hard to get most professors excited about e-textbooks, but publishers continue to try new ways to sell them on the format. The latest strategy seems to make the e-textbooks even easier for professors to use, by integrating them more tightly into the course-management systems they are already familiar with.

Today Blackboard announced deals with a major textbook publisher— McGraw Hill—and two college bookstore chains—Barnes & Noble College Booksellers and Follett Higher Education Group—to sell textbooks through the tech company's course-management system and to tie online assignments from the e-texts directly into existing online gradebooks.

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Cambridge to study computer games

Retrieved from [BBC] on 11/02/2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/8500657.stm

Computer games and comics are to be analysed alongside the time-honoured classics of children's literature at a new Cambridge University centre.

The ideas children pick up from books as well as other sources will be studied at the university's new centre for the study of children's literature.

Academics argue that books, films and other media, reach children in a way that their teachers and parents cannot.

The centre will be part of the University's Faculty of Education.

The faculty's current teaching programme covers material including ABC books, folk and fairytales, as well as classics like Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

'Trash is popular'

The new centre is being expanded to cover the representation of young people in films and video games, along with children's comics.

On the literature side, modern best-sellers like Harry Potter and the Twilight Series of vampire books will be covered as well as classics such as Alice in Wonderland and Little House on the Prairie.

[Mors]

Strawberry Fields Forever Lyrics

The Beatles: Strawberry Fields Forever [You Tube]

No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right.
That is I think it's not too bad.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.

Always know sometimes think it's me, but you know I know and it's a dream.
I think I know of thee, ah yes, but it's all wrong.
That is I think I disagree.

Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.
Strawberry Fields forever.

7 Things You Should Know About Second Life

Retrieved from [EDUCAUSE] on 14/11/2009
http://www.educause.edu/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAboutSecon/163004

Second Life is a virtual world with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million “residents,” and a thriving economy. Large numbers of colleges and universities—or, in some cases, individual departments or faculty—are active in Second Life, not only for academic purposes but also for campus visits, recruiting activities for prospective students, and fundraising. Second Life lets educators easily build and modify learning spaces to test how different strategies for a physical space affect learning, and a similar approach can be taken toward educational activities in those spaces.
The "7 Things You Should Know About..." series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues.
In addition to the "7 Things You Should Know About…" briefs, you may find other ELI resources useful in addressing teaching, learning, and technology issues at your institution. To learn more, please visit the ELI Resources page.

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Are Schools Preparing Students for 21st Century Learning?

Retrieved from [Educational Technology] on 06-11-2009

http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/2009/11/are-schools-preparing-students-for-21st.html

Friday, November 06, 2009

Are Schools Preparing Students for 21st Century Learning? - David Nagel, THE Journal

There's a "disconnect" between school administrators and parents. While more than half of America's school principal's said they think they're "doing a good job" preparing students for the 21st century, only a third of parents of middle school and high school students agreed, according to research released by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard. The research also showed that only 40 percent of students in grades 6 through 12 think their schools are doing a good job preparing them for the future.

Primary schools All four-year-olds to be offered school or nursery place

Retrieved from [Guardian] on 31/10/2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/19/balls-primary-school-starting-age
*Polly Curtis, education editor *Monday 19 October 2009 01.05 BST

Every four-year old in England will be offered a place at school or nursery under plans set out by the schools secretary Ed Balls today to bring forward the age that children start full-time education by a year.

The move comes days after the biggest independent inquiry into primary education in 40 years recommended delaying the start of formal learning until a child turns six to prevent those who struggle being put-off learning at an early age.

From September 2011 every family will be able to choose to between a free place at school or nursery from the September, January or April after their child turns four. If they opt for a nursery place the child will learn the early years play-based curriculum but if they start school it will mean more formal lessons in reading and writing. The Cambridge University primary review last week argued children should not start formal learning until they turn six reporting that England, where children currently have to start school at five, is out of step with international practice.

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