Archiving Your Blackboard Course

Posted by on May 21, 2008

It’s the end of the semester and while we are looking forward to summer, there are a few things you can do to help prepare for next year. One of those is to archive your Blackboard course to be ready to use the material in coming semesters. Why would you archive? Archiving is great for […]

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And now for something completely different…The famous presidential debate on Blogs v. Wikis

Posted by on May 20, 2008

I found the following video on YouTube (of course). Since this is a highly-charged political year, I thought this might be an entertaining diversion. When it comes to providing content online for students, particularly when using a Web 2.0 technology such as a blog or a wiki, instructors have to weigh the benefits of each […]

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Using Facebook for Creating Study Groups

Posted by on May 15, 2008

Some time ago, Campus Technology published an article about a student in Toronto who set up an online study group inside Facebook. At its peak, his group included 146 students. However, the instructor for the class didn’t approve, so punished the student (Chris Avenir) by charging him with academic misconduct. The homework questions counted for […]

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"7 Things You Should Know About…" Series from Educause Learning Initiative

Posted by on May 13, 2008

Since 2005, the Educause Learning Initiative has been releasing a series of briefs–one a month–outlining new and emerging learning technologies. Each brief starts with a plausible scenario that introduces the technology in question. The brief then asks the following seven questions: * What is it? * Who’s doing it? * How does it work? * […]

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NASA’s Attempt at Educational Gaming

Posted by on May 13, 2008

An article in Campus Technology discusses how NASA is approaching the idea of introducing a gaming element into education. Massively multiplayer online games such as World of Warcraft are hugely popular, especially with college students and high school students. Simulation-type games that allow you to live a "virtual" life (e.g. The Sims) or control the […]

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Blackboard Upgrades over Summer

Posted by on May 12, 2008

Blackboard will be upgraded to version 8.0 over the summer of 2008. This includes vast improvements in functionality and features. Here are just a few of the features that will become available: • Grade Center – A new and much improved way of keeping track of students’ grades. This feature supports an interface similar to […]

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