Technology and education coming together to make college students smarter, faster, better! I’m so excited I can barely keep my pants on!

CourseSmart announced today that they’ve launched some sweet techno wonderfulness for reading eTextbooks on mobile devices. It means carrying fewer of those spine-telescoping textbooks and saving reams of tree parts.

SAN MATEO, Calif., November 21, 2011 — CourseSmart®, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, today announced the launch of their new, industry first, mobile Web app that provides students and faculty access to a catalog of more than 20,000 eTextbooks andother digital course materials on a variety of mobile devices including the Kindle Fire and the iPad®. This breakthrough brings thousands of digital course materials to the most popular mobile reading devices furthering the company’s mission of anytime, anywhere access to course materials in higher education.

“Our mission is to connect students and faculty with affordable course materials that they need to become successful. With this new Web-based application, we are putting the world’s largest catalog of eTextbooks and digital course materials in the hands of an increasingly growing number of digitally-dependent students and faculty,” said Sean Devine, CEO at CourseSmart. “As mobile devices like the Kindle Fire and iPad continue to make their way onto college campuses and into the classroom, we are excited to offer yet another option for our users to not only access their digital textbooks but to improve their reading experiences with features such as page fidelity.”

The mobile Web app is optimized to best support multi-touch screens of today’s most popular mobile devices and it is designed to offer users the:

&bullConvenience to view all eTextbooks from a single location,
&bullAbility to search for a topic within your eTextbook including access to the Table of Contents,
&bullCapability to zoom in on text and graphs as well as to add and view notes, and
&bullSame page fidelity experience as found in a print textbook version equivalent.

There is no downloading process to access the free Web app. On supported browsers, CourseSmart users with an active eTextbook account will automatically be prompted to sign into the Web app when they begin reading their eTextbooks. Any future enhancements for the app are automatically updated, eliminating the need to visit an app store to obtain the latest app version.

The app is supported by Amazon Silk, Safari and Google Chrome browsers on the following devices: Kindle Fire, iPad and Androidâ„¢ 3.0 and higher OS tablets.

Further Reading:

CourseSmart Research Reveals College Students Lerve Their Digital Devices
College Students, eTextbooks, and Tablet Devices
Buying Textbooks: New, Used, Rented, or Digital
CourseSmart’s eTextbook App for the iPhone

Posted by Alexa Harrington

They always make you take history in school. I’m more of a math and science girl and will always choose a good chemistry lab over a history lecture. However, having been expected to complete several history courses (for the well-rounding of me and my education), I did pick up on the patterns we humans cycle through as decades and centuries go past. The technology we create for ourselves, ostensibly to make our lives easier/better/faster, seems always to impact more than just the job it was created for. I’m talking about wheels and looms, satellites and cotton gins, not Silly Putty and Flowbees.

Dean Shareski over at Ideas and Thoughts wrote a piece about technology in education and whether or not its just a tool. We’re in the midst of that changing moment, the one some hardcore science geek college girl will have to learn about a few centuries hence.

Further Reading:

Literacy: We’ve Still Got It
Another New and Exciting Way to Be Driven Over the Edge by Technology
New Essay Writing Apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch
Implementing Different Tools
Launching the Emerging Media Major
“Don’t Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please?”
The Future of Education
Digitizing Knowledge
21st Century Learners

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(technology)

Remember the Open Courseware Consortium folks? They’re awesome in their wielding of powers for good. They make online courseware available to educators and students everywhere. The newest project is partnering with community colleges.

Press release:

OCW CONSORTIUM PARTNERS WITH LEADING COMMUNITY COLLEGE CONSORTIUM, CCCOER, TO EXPAND ACCESS TO OPEN EDUCATION

Merger Will Bring Greater Attention to Benefits of OpenCourseWare Movement

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., (June 20, 2011) — The OpenCourseWare Consortium (OCW Consortium) has partnered with the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) to maximize and expand the impact of opencourseware to community college students, faculty and learners worldwide. CCCOER represents an important voice in higher education, having over 200 affiliated community colleges that are interested in the benefits of open sharing. Nearly 50 percent of all higher education students in the United States are enrolled in community colleges. The shared resources of CCCOER, combined with the OCW Consortium’s more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide, and its collective free online educational materials, provide access to high-quality educational and job-training materials that many users tap into on a local level.

Under the direction of then Chancellor Dr. Martha Kanter, now Under Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, California’s Foothill-De Anza Community College District established the CCCOER in July 2007 to identify, create, and/or repurpose existing open educational resources as open textbooks and make them available for use by community college students and faculty.

“Open educational resources and opencourseware can be leveraged to enhance the quality and delivery of courses, increase access for learners, and reduce the essential cost of curriculum materials. With the current global economic crisis, the need to minimize financial barriers to education has become increasingly salient,” said Dr. Judy Baker, dean of technology and innovation at the Foothill-De Anza Community College District and one of the founders of CCCOER. “Both CCCOER and the OCW Consortium serve to increase access to education for students with limited means, which makes this partnership powerful. When educators pool their expertise to foster a culture of shared knowledge, everyone benefits.”

As part of the partnership, the OCW Consortium will represent the full spectrum of four-year and two-year universities and colleges that are part of the organizations’ memberships. The CCCOER advisory board will effectively act as a voice for the two-year colleges within the Consortium’s organization. The Consortium will help raise global awareness of community colleges’ work with open educational resources, and provide resources and support to institutions interested in participating in the movement.
“The Consortium is excited to showcase the work of community colleges and share the incredible benefits of the OCW movement with community and technical colleges around the world,” said Mary Lou Forward, executive director of the OCW Consortium. “The partnership between CCCOER and the OCW Consortium allows us to raise awareness and broaden access to higher education with new audiences.”

ABOUT THE OPENCOURSEWARE CONSORTIUM: The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a community of more than 250 universities and associated organizations worldwide committed to advancing opencourseware sharing and its impact on global educational opportunity. The mission of the OpenCourseWare Consortium is to advance formal and informal learning for educators and self-learners around the world through the sharing and use of free, open, high-quality education materials packaged as courses readily accessible on a digital platform. The Consortium showcases its members to a global audience and provides information and training through webinars, newsletters, and free and open opencourseware materials.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(Sacramento City College)

CourseSmart just released the results of a study by Wakefield Research. The study clears up any questions we all may have had with regard to how addicted college students are to their technological gadgetry. Students really, really need their Smartphones and their laptops and cannot go more than ten minutes without checking their devices for any updates from the outside world.

I would scoff and begin dishing out pen-and-paper snobbery if technology-is-for-sucks me didn’t also require her Smartphone, laptop, and iPod to get through the day. I mean, I don’t NEED my devices, and it goes without saying that I can stop anytime I want. But then I would be out of several social loops, I would have no idea what I should be doing or where I should be going, I would miss appointments and dinner parties and deadlines, and I would be unable to do my job or complete my coursework.

Which is to say I do not require technology in order to survive, but my life would deteriorate rather quickly if I were to unplug and stick with a pen-and-paper lifestyle. I choose life, people, and for that I prefer sexy, sleek little devices that connect me gracefully with my world. What a wretched thing to admit. I may have just rolled over in my future grave.

From the press release:

CourseSmart today announced the results of its “Digital Devices in Higher Education” survey, conducted by Wakefield Research. The new survey provides insight on the digital devices students are using, how often they use them and how these devices are changing the traditional college experience. The findings include:

“¢ Nearly all of the students surveyed (98%) own a digital device
“¢ 38% of students surveyed said that they could not go more than 10 minutes without checking in with their tech device
“¢ 63% have read an eTextbook on their device at least once
“¢ 46% reported they would be more likely to complete their reading if it was in a digital format
“¢ 85% of students reported that technology saves them time when studying—an average of two hours per day

Digital Dependence of Today’s College Students Revealed in New Study from CourseSmartâ„¢
Findings show college students feel helpless without technology—checking their devices at least every 10 minutes and foregoing face time for Facebook®

SAN MATEO, Calif., June 1, 2011 — CourseSmartâ„¢, the world’s largest provider of eTextbooks and digital course materials, and Wakefield Research, a consultancy specializing in strategic and tactical research, recently completed a survey of more than 500 currently enrolled college students, providing insight on how mobile devices and technology have changed the traditional college experience and the role technology plays in students’ academic abilities and success. Today’s students are truly carrying a digital backpack with nearly a quarter (27%) of students surveyed listing their laptop as the most important item in their bag—almost three times the number of students who chose textbooks (10%).

The findings further reveal that students are completely dependent on technologies—eReaders, Smartphones, laptops and more—to get through their daily college routine. Nearly all of the students surveyed (98%) own a digital device. And 38% of students surveyed said that they could not go more than 10 minutes without checking in with their tech device—about the same amount of time it takes to walk to class. Largely based on the fact that technology helps students learn more efficiently, 85% of students reported that technology saves them time when studying—an average of two hours per day.

Given this shift in behavior towards technological dependence, it’s unsurprising that almost three-quarters (73%) of students surveyed claim they would not be able to study without using some form of technology. Additionally, it is clear that laptops and Smartphones are two types of devices that students are using to further their academic potential. Nearly half (48%) of all students who own a tech device frequently read eTextbooks and 63% have read an eTextbook on their device at least once. In fact, of the 91% of students who said they failed to complete required reading before classes, about half (46%) reported they would be more likely to complete their reading if it was in a digital format.

According to the survey, eReaders and eTextbooks are some of the emerging technologies helping students save time while still being effective. While 69% said an eTextbook is easier to carry than a traditional textbook, 61% cited that eTextbooks make it far easier to search within a text (thus saving time), 60% mentioned that eTextbooks save them money, and 55% said that they are easier to read “on the go.”

Additionally, new media options are increasingly engaging students, who said they use tools such as CourseSmart (39%), videos and podcasts (24%) and iTunes® (12%) to access study materials from a professor — a far cry from the library card catalogues and encyclopedias of previous generations. Students are also spending their time using email (89%) and school Web sites (83%) for gathering course materials from their professors.

The library is not the only college campus fixture fading into the past; office hours are quickly becoming an antiquity as well. Students seem to prefer Facebook® to face time with the majority seeking extra help from their teachers via email (91%), cell phone (13%), or social networking sites (8%).

Furthermore, outside of everyday reading and studying, students also use digital devices for many of the tasks that previously required a pencil and paper to carry out—writing papers (82%), research (81%), taking class notes (70%) and making class presentations (65%).

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Educator Richard Byrne likes to point out Free Technology for Teachers. He has a timely list of three resources for teaching students about earthquakes and tsunamis. Sometimes understanding what the hell happened helps everyone feel a little better.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Are you an awesome teacher with too much time on your hands? If you answered, “That’s not even possible!“ then you’ve at least got the Awesome Teacher gene.

Congratulations, your karma is off the charts! (Not that anyone can tell from that heap of 80s Japanese driving technology you’ve been zipping around in since college because you’ve never been paid what you’re worth.)

It’s time-consuming coursework, but it’s cheap knowledge/inspiration should you need some: 50 Worthy Open Courseware Classes for Teachers.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(teach)

The New York Times Knowledge Network has announced its Spring 2011 schedule. From the press release:

The New York Times Knowledge Network Announces Spring 2011 Schedule

Register Today for Online Courses at www.nytimes.com/knownow

NEW YORK, Dec 13, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Registration is now open for the The New York Times Knowledge Network’s (www.nytimes.com/knownow) spring 2011 courses, offering a variety of unique online adult and continuing education opportunities. The spring roster will include Certificate Programs, For-credit courses, Continuing Education courses and expanded New York Times Programs of Study featuring new courses in arts and culture and business management.

“This semester, The New York Times Knowledge Network is enhancing its offerings by providing more courses in more areas of study than ever before,” said Felice Nudelman, executive director of education, The New York Times Company. “Our growth from individual courses to comprehensive programs speaks to the success we have seen over the years and further demonstrates our commitment to education.”
New York Times Programs of Study- are comprehensive online courses developed and taught by New York Times journalists. New courses this spring include:

Arts and Culture:
“¢ Beyond the Red Carpet: Oscar Talk with A. O. Scott
“¢ How to Listen to Classical Music with Daniel J. Wakin
“¢ Theater and Global Change with Ben Brantley

Business and Management:
“¢ The Corner Office: Lessons from Top CEO’s with Adam Bryant

Health and Science:
“¢ Understanding Global Viruses with Donald G. McNeil Jr.
“¢ Elder Care: Navigating the Maze with Jane Gross
“¢ Confronting Big Pharma with Barry Meier
“¢ Hazards of Radiation Treatment with Walt Bogdanich
“¢ Understanding the Middle-Aged Brain with Barbara Strauch

Navigating the Teen Years:
“¢ Staying in the Game: Young Athletes and Injury with Gretchen Reynolds and Alan Schwarz
“¢ College Admissions: Decision Time with Jacques Steinberg

Writing and Journalism:
“¢ Editing for Everyone with Don R. Hecker
“¢ Journalism 101: Reporting on Your Community with Mary Ann Giordano
“¢ Writing About Your Roots with Constance Rosenblum
“¢ Creating Video for the Web with Bill Horn

Popular courses from the fall schedule such as How to Start a Blog, Teaching Your Teen About Money and DNA Ethical Dilemmas will also be offered this spring.

Certificate Programs – are designed for professionals who want to learn new skills. This spring, these programs will be offered by the Knowledge Network in conjunction with Ball State University, The City University of New York, The Cooper Union, Florida State University, Rosemont College and Thomas Edison State College. Certificates include:
“¢ teaching
“¢ emerging media journalism
“¢ ePublishing
“¢ entrepreneurship
“¢ green building design
“¢ immigration law
“¢ paralegal studies

The Knowledge Network’s spring schedule will also present a rich mix of For-Credit and Continuing Education courses covering the areas of multimedia, journalism, business, art, food and health.

Certificate Programs range from $600 to $1,195; Continuing Education courses range from $200 to $500 and New York Times Programs of Study begin at $65. A full list of programs can be found at www.nytimesknownow.com.

The New York Times Knowledge Network, which uses the EpsilenTM platform, was launched in September 2007 to deliver lifelong learning programs on timely subjects. Through The New York Times Knowledge Network, extensive resources from The Times and other participating universities and institutions are readily available to students online, whether they are enrolled in an on-campus course or continuing their education through a distance learning program.

If you’re planning to add Learn More Stuff! to your New Year’s resolutions, I think the NY Times has you covered.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

Check out Six Revisions’ Comprehensive Guide to Saving Images for the Web. Joshua Johnson, the brains of the outfit, begins with:

On the surface, saving images for the web can be a pretty straightforward process. However, if you dig deeper there’s a wealth of information and techniques you might be missing out on.
This article will focus primarily on the diverse features of Photoshop’s “Save for Web & Devices” command along with some best practices related to saving images that are optimized for web use. More…

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(vintage sign)

Watch it, people. Just because information is second only in volume to pollution on this planet, it does not mean all info is available for you to use and then slap your name on to it like you wrote it or something. Plagiarism, for those of you who missed that day in class, is when you take someone else’s work and falsely claim it as your own. It’s very bad, and it makes you look like an ass@$%*.

The NY Times has an article up about plagiarism and the tech-savvy information generation. The lines are blurry for Gen-Y, apparently.

If you’d like to avoid being an uninformed cheating ass@#$%, the following links are helpful.

Purdue Online Writing Lab: Avoiding Plagiarism
Plagiarism.org

I must go. The line above regarding information and the volume of it is freaking me out. Can digital information have volume at all? And is it possible to measure the volume of every printed word on the planet? What about all the still-intact newspapers in old landfills? Do those count as existing information? Crap!

Posted by Alexa Harrington

ConstructionManagementDegree.org has a list of 100 Awesome Business Blogs That Are Better Than an MBA. It’s like a goldmine of information for MBA do-it-yourselfers.

The list is broken down into the following categories:

Small Business and Entrepreneur Blogs and Resources
Marketing Blogs and Solutions
General Business Blogs
Human Resources and Ethics Blogs
MBA Survival Guides and Business Career Blogs
Economy Trends and News
Investing News and Financial Blogs
Resources for Business Women
Online Business Blogs and Tools
Management Resources and Information
Harvard Business Heavy Hitters

Posted by Alexa Harrington

(image source)