[Offtopic] Fwd: INFOBITS

Sat Jun 30 20:35:31 EST 2007

At 04:59 AM 30/06/2007, Carolyn Kotlas wrote:

TL INFOBITS     June 2007               No. 12  ISSN: 1931-3144

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://its.unc.edu/tl/infobits/bitjun07.php.

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

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

Report on Current Issues in Higher Ed IT
Proposed Solution to "Broken" College Textbook Market 
Papers on Mobile Learning
Humor in Online Classes
New Chronicle Column on Scholarly Writing/Publishing
Recommended Reading

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

REPORT ON CURRENT ISSUES IN HIGHER ED IT

The report of the 2007 EDUCAUSE Current Issues in higher education
information technology is now available online. The survey, now in its
eighth year, asks "campus information technology leaders to rate the
most critical IT challenges facing them, their campuses, and/or their
systems." As it has been in five previous years, funding was ranked as
the number one IT issue. Included in the top ten issues listed were
faculty development, support, and training (number 6) and
course/learning management systems (number 9). The report and related
readings are available at http://www.educause.edu/2007IssuesResources.

EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to advance higher
education by promoting the intelligent use of information technology.
The current membership comprises more than 1,900 colleges,
universities, and educational organizations, including 200
corporations, with 15,000 active members. EDUCAUSE has offices in
Boulder, CO, and Washington, DC. Learn more about EDUCAUSE at
http://www.educause.edu/.

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

PROPOSED SOLUTION TO "BROKEN" COLLEGE TEXTBOOK MARKET 

"Most debates over high textbook prices devolve into a blame game . . .
Publishers go after excessive profits, bookstores stock too few used
books, professors ignore prices and switch books on a whim, colleges
fail to guide their faculty members, and students are not smart
shoppers. Such claims are unproductive, the [Education Advisory
Committee on Student Financial Assistance] says, though it sides more
with students than with publishers." [The Chronicle of Higher
Education, June 1, 2007]

After a yearlong study, the Committee, an independent panel that
advises the U.S. Congress on student aid policy, has released "Turn the
Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable," a report that
addresses the problem of rising prices of college textbooks. Long-term
solutions would entail an "infrastructure of technology and support
services with which institutions, students, faculty, bookstores,
publishers, and other content providers can interact efficiently. This
infrastructure would consist of a transaction and rights clearinghouse,
numerous marketplace Web applications, and hosted infrastructure
resources. . . . The hosted infrastructure would ensure that all
systems interface, support a registry of millions of learning items,
provide marketplace services to thousands of campuses and millions of
users, and process hundreds of millions of transactions for both
fee-based and no-cost content."

The report and related materials are available at
http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/acsfa/edlite-txtbkstudy.html.

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

PAPERS ON MOBILE LEARNING

Mobile learning is the theme of the current issue of the INTERNATIONAL
REVIEW OF RESEARCH IN OPEN AND DISTANCE LEARNING. Papers include:

"Mobile Distance Learning with PDAs: Development and Testing of
        Pedagogical and System Solutions Supporting Mobile Distance
        Learners" by Torstein Rekkedal and Aleksander Dye, Norwegian
        School of Information Technology

"The Growth of m-Learning and the Growth of Mobile Computing: Parallel
        Developments" by Jason G. Caudill, Grand Canyon University

"Mobile Learning and Student Retention" by Bharat Inder Fozdar and
        Lalita S. Kumar, India Gandhi National Open University

"Instant Messaging for Creating Interactive and Collaborative
        m-Learning Environments" by James Kadirire, Anglia Ruskin
        University

"m-Learning: Positioning Educators for a Mobile, Connected Future" by
        Kristine Peters, Flinders University 

The issue is available at
http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/issue/view/29. Papers are
available not only in HTML and PDF formats, but you can also download
and listen to them in MP3 audio versions.

International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning (IRRODL)
[ISSN 1492-3831] is a free, refereed ejournal published by Athabasca
University - Canada's Open University. For more information, contact
Paula Smith, IRRODL Managing Editor; tel: 780-675-6810; fax:
780-675-672; email: irrodl at athabascau.ca; Web: http://www.irrodl.org/. 

See also:

"Are You Ready for Mobile Learning?" 
By Joseph Rene Corbeil and Maria Elena Valdes-Corbeil, University of
        Texas at Brownsville
EDUCAUSE QUARTERLY, vol. 30, no. 2, 2007
http://www.educause.edu/apps/eq/eqm07/eqm0726.asp

"Frequent use of mobile devices does not mean that students or
instructors are ready for mobile learning and teaching."

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

HUMOR IN ONLINE CLASSES

"A recently published study examined the intentional use of humor in
two otherwise identical sections of an online psychology class . . .
Statistical comparisons at the end of the semester showed no difference
in final grades between sections, but did show that students in the
'humor-enhanced' section earned more participation points by more
frequent participation in online discussions. Students in the
'humor-enhanced' section used the interactive class features more
(including email and discussions), and were more likely to reply to
other student's questions in the discussions."

In "Using Humor in Online Classes" (EDUCATOR'S VOICE), Gail E. Krovitz
presents some tips and cautions for instructors who are considering
incorporating humor into their online classes. The article is available
at http://www.ecollege.com/news/EdVoice.learn.

Educator's Voice is published monthly by the eCollege Instructional
Design Team. For more information contact eCollege, eCollege Building,
4900 S. Monaco Street, Denver, CO 80237 USA; tel: 888-884-7325; fax:
303-873-7449; Web: http://www.ecollege.com/.

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

NEW CHRONICLE COLUMN ON SCHOLARLY WRITING/PUBLISHING

This month THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION launched a new monthly
column on the writing and publishing process in academe. The column is
written by Rachel Toor, formerly of Oxford University Press and Duke
University Press. The first column is at
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/2007/06/2007060101c/careers.html.

The Chronicle of Higher Education [ISSN 0009-5982] is published weekly
by The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inc., 1255 Twenty-third Street,
NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA; tel: 202-466-1000; fax: 202-452-1033;
Web: http://chronicle.com/.

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

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. 

As a follow-up to last month's article on teaching different
generations, Infobits reader Sam Eneman, Instructional Technology
Consultant at UNC-Charlotte, recommends:

"Of Hot Tubs and Beowolf: E-learning for Seniors"
By Mark Notess
eLearn Magazine
http://elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=85-1

and

"Online Learning for Seniors: Barriers and Opportunities"
By Mark Notess and Lesa Lorenzen-Hube
eLearn Magazine
http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=research&article=7-1

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

To Subscribe

TL INFOBITS is published by the University of North Carolina at Chapel
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ITS-TL supports the interests of faculty members at UNC-Chapel Hill who
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If you have problems subscribing or want to send suggestions for future
issues, contact the editor, Carolyn Kotlas, at kotlas at email.unc.edu.

Article Suggestions

Infobits always welcomes article suggestions from our readers, although
we cannot promise to print everything submitted. Because of our
publishing schedule, we are not able to announce time-sensitive events
such as upcoming conferences and calls for papers or grant
applications; however, we do include articles about online conference
proceedings that are of interest to our readers. We can announce your
conference on our "Calendar of World-Wide Educational
Technology-Related Conferences, Seminars, and Other Events" at
http://atncalendar.depts.unc.edu:8086/. 

While we often mention commercial products, publications, and Web
sites, Infobits does not accept or reprint unsolicited advertising
copy. Send your article suggestions to the editor at
kotlas at email.unc.edu.

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