From eLearning to ‘mLearning’
There’s something in store for the way students send, receive, and exchange information off and on campus. Currently, campuses like Carleton are becoming increasing wireless, but whenever a student is on the move, there’s no telling what the university is trying to communicate to them. The laptop is transportable, but it’s more accurately labeled a ‘portable device’ than a mobile one, since students have to stop periodically and make themselves stationary, to open their laptops and receive information. On the battlefield we call campus, on which time is of the essence, this is a death wish for the average student on the run.
If you’ve ever heard the term ‘eLearning’ (Electronic Learning), a technical term referring to Electronic Learning and the use of computer aids to facilitate the electronic access to learning material, this
shouldn’t surprise you much. Ten years ago, accessibility to the Internet exploded as a new apparatus for the mass distribution of information. Today, it is a Web 2.0 and media rich collaborative classroom. In the same limelight, a similar transition is occurring between eLearning and what’s now referred to as ‘mLearning‘ (Mobile Learning).
Just as we’ve seen eLearning shatter geographic boundaries with tools like WebCT and Blackboard, virtual classrooms, and off-campus email, we now have the mechanisms to further support these tools, and
expand into a realm of mLearning. Other universities have done it, and in my upcoming post I’ll provide further insight.
The meat-and-potatoes of the matter is that not only will students continue the tradition of being able to access information anywhere, listening to lecture podcasts and videocasts on the go as they do, in
addition, mLearning could offer push-notifications, changing the rate at which pertinent campus and course information is delivered to students. Read more
Academic Idol
Much like the hugely popular American/Canadian/Dance Idol shows, the world of academics boasts its own competition. However here, the contestants are teachers and they are competing for the prize of top lecturer.
TVO’s 2009 Big Ideas Best Lecturer Competition, sponsored by TD insurance Meloche Monnex, searches all of Ontario for “the most engaging and intellectually stimulating lecturers” and awards the institution represented by the winning competitor with a $10,000 scholarship.
Now for the big news! 3 of Carleton University’s finest have made the top 20! Matthew Bellamy, Darryl Davies and John Stead will continue to fight it out for top spot in February, so best of luck to them from the EDC!
For more information on these professors, check out this article at the Carleton University News Room. Also, we here at the EDC will be sure to update you with news of the competition as more become available, so check back often!
WebCT use this term at Carleton
We used Google Analytics to take a look at the visitors to Carleton’s WebCT login page use, and here are some interesting stats to ponder.
From the start of classes (Sept. 4th 2008) to almost the end of term (Dec. 17th 2008) there were over 2,320,000 visits to WebCT, with the average of over 22,100 visits per day.
The most visited day of the week was consistently Monday with the highest use on Monday Oct. 27 with 32,994 visits. In terms of unique visitors as opposed to total visits on the same day, that is individuals on specific computers who have not cleared their cookies, there were 18,585 of them. On the other hand, Saturdays were consistently the lowest used days.
Over 98% of the visits were from Canada with USA, Germany, China, Spain, France, Japan, Chile, UK and Saudi Arabia rounding out the top ten.
Close to 88% of the Canadian visits come for Ottawa, with Aylmer, Toronto, Montreal, Etobicoke, Kingston, North York, Scarborough, Gatineau, and Carleton Place rounding out the top ten. There are over 200 other cities from all over Canada with moderate usage of Carleton’s WebCT, and another 100 with fairly low usage.
Using the same absolute unique users as mentioned above we are able to take a look at the frequency of visits or engagement of these people with WebCT. Please note that this is based on absolute unique users and the lower numbers may be misrepresented due to cookie clearing.
On this histogram, the most loyal visitors are shown on the bottom and the new and least loyal visitors are shown at the top. As shown, about 40% of visitors returned less than 10 times and about 30% of visitors returned more than 50 times to WebCT.
Taking a look at the operating systems used to access the site we see the usual three heavy hitters Windows (88.66%), Macintosh (10.59%), and Linux (0.44%). There are also a number of phone users calling it in with different operating systems like iPhone, SymbianOS(BlackBerry), Android, and PalmOS. We also see other people jumping in the game and accessing WebCT with their Playstation 3, Playstation Portable, and Nintendo Wii.
Breaking the data down to Browsers in specific OSs, shown above, we see that Internet Explorer is still the defacto, but Firefox has a ever growing piece of the pie and Google’s Chrome is making a steady increase every week.
To see how to view statistics in your own WebCT course, visite the Tracking Student Performance section of our WebCT Support Site (Note that this is not using Google Analytics, but WebCT’s built in Tracking tools). You are able to see overall statistics on how students have used the course as well as more refined data on specific tool or individual students.
Reducing File Size and Image Quality in PowerPoint
I often get asked how to make PowerPoint slides smaller so that they can either be emailed or how to make it so that people can not reuse (steal) the high quality images created by the author of the ppt once it is publicly posted.
To do so:
Go to the Office Button and choose Save As.
In the Save As window there will be a Tools button in the bottom left corner, click on it and choose “Compress Pictures”. On the Compress Pictures window select Options…
On the Compression Settings window choose the Compression Options and Target Output settings that you want and then click OK and OK again.
From here give your file a new name and click Save.
Napping for Knowledge
In our modern world of 9-5 jobs and demanding school schedules where work often spills over into overtime hours and weekends a nap can seem like some to be the ultimate indulgence. However, a recently released study suggests that taking time out for this can have some very rewarding benefits.
It has been revealed that napping is instrumental in boosting sophisticated memory and can even help make it easier to learn new skills and extrapolate information. In their study scientists focused on the state of sleep normally reached during napping called “slow-wave sleep”, a stage that comes before the better known REM sleep. It was suggested that our brains are capable of working during this stage to solve problems and come up with new ideas. To examine this theory a test was devised where two groups of English-speaking students were asked to remember a series of Chinese characters they were taught, one group was then allowed to nap after their lesson. Upon awakening both groups took a multiple-choice test of Chinese words they’d never seen before. As suspected those who benefited from a nap performed much better than those who did not as they were better able to make connections between the new characters and the one’s they had previously been taught.
In the experiment the students were allowed a 90 minute nap which for some is unfortunately a luxury not likely to fit into most daily routines. It is however suggested that even a nap as short as nine minutes could produce some of the desired results. With that in mind, take some time out and hit the hay, it could be just what you need.
via Napping Boosts Sophisticated Memory, Study Shows [Lifehacker]
via Nap without guilt: It boosts sophisticated memory [Physorg]
Google Earth unveils a 3-D Ancient Rome
We don’t know how you do it, Google, but you do. And you do it better than all the other guys. By the way, by that I mean taking world concepts and bringing them to life, in a virtual environment, allowing users be hundreds of miles away — and now, hundreds of years in the past.
A little over a month ago, Google let something out the bag, something big out of the bag. If you have the latest version 4.3 of Google Earth, within the “Gallery” section of the “Layers” pane on the bottom-left, you’ll notice a new item: Ancient Rome 3D. This is more than a simple layer, however, and something Google either hasn’t had the audacity, ability, or confidence, to get into until now. This is something that took the collaborative effort of half a dozen universities and computer science groups working for a decade in order to reach this achievement of epic proportions.
Brain Controlled Computer
If you were told about a computer that you could control using only your brain and your thoughts you would likely think it would be the product of the latest sci fi movie. However, as revealed in a story presented on CBS’ 60 Minutes this technology already exists and has been successfully employed for human use.
Brain Power Video via 60 Minutes [via Lifehacker]
The story focuses primarily on the plight of Scott Makler, a man who at age 40 was capable of running a marathon but is now confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed after the devastating effects of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. It is shown however that thanks to a radical new invention he has regained his ability to communicate with the world around him. In the segment it is shown that a system has been invented called the brain computer interface or “BCI” in which the user wears wears a cap that picks up the electrical activity of their brain and allows the user to select letters simply by thinking about them. The computer system is then able to take these letters and turn them into spoken language. Mr. Makler is shown to be able to effectively communicate using this device and although it’s slow, with it taking about 20 seconds to select each letter, it has nonetheless opened up a world of possibilities and opportunity which had previously been unavailable.
Researchers however say that this is just the first step in exploring the possibilities of this amazing new technology. It is said that the next step is to insert a chip directly into the brain which they suggest would allow for much clearer reception of the brains signals. This is then shown to have already been effectively employed for use in both monkey and human test subjects. Though still very much in the early stages of development this technology’s ultimate goal is to enable amputees to use BCIs to control robotic arms, and to allow those with paralysis to be able to move their own arms and legs again.
Check out The Wadsworth Center Brain-Computer Interface System website.
- Monkey’s brain controls robot arm via BBC
- Monkeys control robotic arm with their thoughts via CTV
- Mind-Computer Interface with NI LabVIEW
Laptops in the Classroom Part 4 – What do the Professors Think?
As a professor, there is a certain pleasure in knowing that during a 3-hour lecture, there has been a transmittance of knowledge from them to a student (or several for that matter). If that is indeed the case, have laptops interrupted that message or rather enhanced it?
Many professors, from those that teach Philosophy to those that teach Human Resources, have noticed students on FaceBook, eBay or even MSN Messenger during class. Not only are these students disengaged in the classroom but often tend to disturb or distract others around them. Often, these are also the students expecting the professor to repeat the previous point, instead of listening the first time.
If these actions distract other students then one could only imagine the agony it must cause a professor. I happen to be a relatively attentive student in class and love to take notes; but like others I too have been distracted by my laptop or that of a classmate. What students do not realize often enough is how much planning and effort that goes into one lecture. Yes, there are those professors who read slideshows or textbooks in class, but then there are those who go above and beyond to provide students with the best education possible. Is it a fair fight for them, as they constantly compete with our intense e-environment, by that I do not only mean laptops but also cell phones, blackberries, PDA’s and etc.. For now, not only must they watch out for wandering eyes during a test but also wandering texts. Read more
Carbon Neutrality in Higher Education Part 1
In our day and age environmental issues have now taken centre stage and as a result everyone is looking for ways to be more eco-friendly and subsequently this idea has crossed over into the classroom. Over the next couple of posts on this topic I will be discussing the emerging issue of greening your course in an effort to reach the ultimate goal of becoming entirely carbon neutral.
The phrase carbon neutral gets thrown around a lot these days and was even listed as the New Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year in 2006 highlighting its importance to global warming. However, the term itself can be seen as having two different meanings. Overall it refers to the idea of making no net release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and this can be accomplished first by balancing the carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, with renewable energy that creates a similar amount of useful energy, so that the carbon emissions are compensated, or alternatively using only renewable energies that don’t produce any carbon dioxide. The second method comes by way of offsetting your carbon output. Planting trees is the most popular way of doing so but funding ‘carbon projects’ that lead to the prevention of future greenhouse gas emissions, or buying carbon credits to remove (or ‘retire’) them are also options.
Transferring these practices to your classroom can understandably seem like a very intimidating project and there are a number of factors that one must consider. The average North American alone will produce over 19 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and on a global scale the world’s CO2 emissions are expected to increase at a rate of almost 2 percent per year. Read more
Google pulls the plug on a Lively hobby
In a recent blog post, the Lively Team announced on their weblog that they would be disbanding with the shutdown of Google Lively by the end of December. Google says the goal of their July 2008 launch of Lively Beta was to allow “users to be able to interact with their friends and express themselves online in new ways,” and with the creative ways users have applied themselves in the Lively realm, they have been largely successful. Google, however, has decided to shift their focus back to the search and web application utilities that they have enjoyed so much success with. Nevertheless, they noted on their development of Lively that “Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives”.
Educational communities traditionally have substantial reservations towards new ways of doing things, and the emergence of new technologies – regardless of the potential value – will always encounter some turbulence on their way to being adopted. Virtual worlds have taken ground-breaking steps recently, but more on an experimental level than a practical one. The challenge has been delivering concrete proof, to students and teachers of the educational community, that the use of computer-aided virtual environments can be truly beneficial if widely adopted. For the moment, though, it’s only a virtual reality for optimistic instructors who ambitiously embrace new educational technologies, such as virtual worlds, even though the real world isn’t quite ready for it yet. To those select few instructors with the initiative to utilise a virtual world for their classroom anyway, we applaud their efforts, and hotly anticipate future imitation of the constructive worlds they’re creating.
Despite the news, Google’s not all to blame. If anything, this is largely due to the direction of Google’s genetics, the nature of their business model, and not due to a weakened interest in the flexible and widely expandable application of virtual worlds. Virtual worlds have not fully matured, and Google is likely unprepared to dedicate any further resources at this time. While Lively may have been Google’s pet project over the past few months, we don’t blame them for shifting back to their traditional practices of creating products that make Web 2.0 experiences seamless with everyday life. As virtual worlds aren’t going away any time soon, we wouldn’t be surprised if Google returns to such a project in the future. Meanwhile, you will likely find the student voice to come a consensus, perhaps best summarized by the words of poet Theodore Roethke, when he wrote “I learn by going where I have to go”.
