[Offtopic] Fwd: Infobits -- Aug 2006

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Hi all,

As always, Infobits notes current edu research. Thank you Carolyn.

For example .. "Of 10,000 high school and college students asked to 
evaluate a set of Web sites last fall, nearly half could not correctly 
judge which was the most objective, reliable and timely ... "

----- Fwd Message ----- 

From: "Carolyn Kotlas" <kotlas at email.unc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 5:20 AM
Subject: TL Infobits -- August 2006

TL INFOBITS August 2006 No. 2 ISSN: Not Yet Assigned

About INFOBITS

INFOBITS is an electronic service of The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill ITS Teaching and Learning division. Each month the
ITS-TL's Information Resources Consultant monitors and selects from a
number of information and instructional technology sources that come to
her attention and provides brief notes for electronic dissemination to
educators.

NOTE: You can read the Web version of this issue at 
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/bitaug06.html

You can read all back issues of Infobits at
http://www.unc.edu/cit/infobits/

.....................................................................

Technology Literacy Test Reveals Student Deficiencies
Playing Games
Sloan Semester Archives
Obstacles to Educational Use of Digital Material
Papers on Digital Collections
Recommended Reading
Infobits RSS Feed

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TECHNOLOGY LITERACY TEST REVEALS STUDENT DEFICIENCIES

Educational Testing Service's Information and Communication Technology
(ICT) Literacy Assessment "uses scenario-based tasks to measure both
cognitive and technical skills . . . and assesses individual student
proficiency." Institutions that were early adopters of the test are
finding that it reveals student deficiencies in critical areas. "Of
10,000 high school and college students asked to evaluate a set of Web
sites last fall, nearly half could not correctly judge which was the
most objective, reliable and timely, according to preliminary results
of a digital-literacy assessment." ["Students Don't Know Much Beyond
Google," by Leila Fadel; STAR-TELEGRAM, July 27, 2006;
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/15134538.htm] 

While college students may be competent Google searchers, many lack
skills for evaluating online resources and are unaware of other digital
resources, such as library databases, that could provide more reliable
content. The test's results indicate the need for more formal training
for students at all levels to acquire the skills they need to
critically evaluate online resources.

For more information on the ICT, go to 
http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.435c0b5cc7bd0ae7015d9510c39215
09.

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PLAYING GAMES

Several recently-published articles discuss the role of game playing as
tools for education or social engagement.

"Simulations, Games, and Learning"
By Diana Oblinger
EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative, May 2006
http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI3004.pdf

"Today's games are complex, take up to 100 hours, require
collaboration with others, and involve developing values, insights, and
new knowledge. They are immersive virtual worlds that are augmented by
a more complex external environment that involves communities of
practice, the buying and selling of game items, blogs, and developer
communities. In many ways, games have become complex learning systems."


"Digital Game-Based Learning: It's Not Just the Digital Natives Who Are
Restless"
By Richard Van Eck
EDUCAUSE REVIEW, vol. 41, no. 2, March/April 2006, pp. 16-30.
http://www.educause.edu/apps/er/erm06/erm0620.asp

According to the author, "The combined weight of three factors
has resulted in widespread public interest in games as learning tools."
These factors are (1) "ongoing research conducted by DGBL [digital
game-based learning] proponents;" (2) "today's 'Net Generation,' or
'digital natives,' who have become disengaged with traditional
instruction;" and (3) "the increased popularity of games. . . nearly as
many digital games were sold as there are people in the United States
(248 million games vs. 293.6 million residents.)"


"Scavenger Hunt Enhances Students' Utilization of Blackboard"
By Dianne C. Jones
JOURNAL OF ONLINE LEARNING AND TEACHING, vol. 2, no. 2, June 2006
http://jolt.merlot.org/Vol2_No2_Jones.htm

       "The use of the Scavenger Hunt game has made the use of a
web-based course management system, like Blackboard, less threatening
for students and has significantly reduced the need for additional
instructor time to deal with technology-related issues throughout the
course."


"Where Everybody Knows Your (Screen) Name: Online Games as 'Third
Places'"
By Constance Steinkuehler and Dmitri Williams
JOURNAL OF COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION, vol. 11, issue 4, 2006
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/steinkuehler.html

The authors studied how massively multiplayer online games
(MMOs) provide a means for establishing informal social relationships
beyond the workplace and home.
(This issue has other articles related to games and play. Link to other
articles at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol11/issue4/.)

.....................................................................

SLOAN SEMESTER ARCHIVES

The "Sloan Semester" was an initiative by Sloan-C member institutions
to provide free online courses to college and university students whose
studies were impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. In
twenty-one days a "virtual" institution was set up to provide "more
than 1,350 courses from over 150 institutions in 38 states available to
over 1,750 students, utilizing over 4,000 'seats' in online courses at
the undergraduate and graduate levels." The Sloan Semester Archives
website includes "includes links to an archived version of the Sloan
Semester Catalog, a case study of the project, data about participants
and lessons learned." The archives are available at
http://www.sloan-c.org/sloansemester/index.asp.

Sloan-C is a consortium of institutions and organizations committed "to
help learning organizations continually improve quality, scale, and
breadth of their online programs according to their own distinctive
missions, so that education will become a part of everyday life,
accessible and affordable for anyone, anywhere, at any time, in a wide
variety of disciplines." Sloan-C is funded by the Alfred P. Sloan
Foundation. For more information go to http://www.aln.org/. 

.....................................................................

OBSTACLES TO EDUCATIONAL USE OF DIGITAL MATERIAL

"The Digital Learning Challenge: Obstacles to Educational Uses of
Copyrighted Material in the Digital Age" reports on a year-long study,
conducted by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, to "explore
whether innovative educational uses of digital technology were hampered
by the restrictions of copyright." Four serious obstacles were
identified in the study:

-- "Unclear or inadequate copyright law relating to crucial provisions
such as fair use and educational use;"

-- "Extensive adoption of 'digital rights management' technology to
lock up content;"

-- "Practical difficulties obtaining rights to use content when
licenses are necessary;" and

-- "Undue caution by gatekeepers such as publishers or educational
administrators."

The complete report can be download at no cost at
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=923465.

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School is a
"research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study,
and help pioneer its development. For more information, contact Berkman
Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, 23 Everett Street,
Second Floor, Cambridge, MA 02138 USA; tel: 617-495-7547; fax:
617-495-7641; email: cyber at law.harvard.edu; Web:
http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/.

.....................................................................

PAPERS ON DIGITAL COLLECTIONS

This month's issue of FIRST MONDAY is devoted to selected papers from
"Inspiring Discovery: Unlocking Collections -- WebWise 2006," the
seventh annual conference on libraries and museums in the digital world
held in February. Of particular interest is "Scholarship and Academic
Libraries (and their kin) in the World of Google," the conference's
keynote address given by Paul N. Courant. The author has placed the
paper in the public domain so it can be freely shared with colleagues.
This and other conference papers are available at
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_8/.

First Monday [ISSN 1396-0466] is an online, peer-reviewed journal whose
aim is to publish original articles about the Internet and the global
information infrastructure. It is published in cooperation with the
University Library, University of Illinois at Chicago. For more
information, contact: First Monday, c/o Edward Valauskas, Chief Editor,
PO Box 87636, Chicago IL 60680-0636 USA; email: ejv at uic.edu; Web:
http://firstmonday.dk/.

.....................................................................

RECOMMENDED READING

"Recommended Reading" lists items that have been recommended to me or
that Infobits readers have found particularly interesting and/or
useful, including books, articles, and websites published by Infobits
subscribers. Send your recommendations to carolyn_kotlas at unc.edu for
possible inclusion in this column. 

"Perspective: Teen's Warning on the Gospel of Wikipedia"
By Soumya Srinagesh
CNET News.com, August 11, 2006
http://news.com.com/2010-1038_3-6104446.html?
part=rss&tag=6104446&subj=news

"Yes, teachers and parents constantly remind students to think twice
before relying on certain online sources, but it's easy for a student
in a rush to forget that Wikipedia belongs in the category of
unverified information rather than credible information--especially
because its format is one of a traditional encyclopedia. Which isn't to
say Wikipedia's a bad thing."

.....................................................................

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--

Cheers all ..
Stephen Loosley
Victoria,
Australia

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