Archives: Bookmarks

Rheingold U

Saved on February 22, 2011

Rheingold U. is a totally online learning community, offering courses that usually run for five weeks, with five live sessions and ongoing asynchronous discussions through forums, blogs, wikis, mindmaps, and social bookmarks. In my thirty years of experience online and my six years teaching students face to face and online at University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University, I’ve learned that magic can happen when a skilled facilitator works collaboratively with a group of motivated students. The first course, “Introduction to Mind Amplifiers,” ran in two sessions in January, February, and March, 2011. Live sessions include streaming audio and video from me and from students, shared text chat and whiteboard, and my ability to push slides and lead tours of websites.

How to “Gamify” Your Class Website – ProfHacker – The Chronicle of Higher Education

Saved on February 21, 2011

When Jason B. Jones wrote about “Gamifying Homework” in November, I felt inspired to try something new with one of my courses this spring. As an avid World of Warcraft player used to completing silly tasks for nothing more than a badge of completion, I definitely believe that motivation through achievements and other rewards systems works. But implementing these types of elements in a class can be a challenge. Games work best when they provide immediate rewards, but most of the traditional feedback in a class has to be delayed—grading, particularly in classes that demand writing and projects instead of multiple choice, takes time and reflection.

Rise of the digital information age

Saved on February 17, 2011

In 2002, digital data storage surpassed non-digital for the first time. By 2007, 94 percent of all information on the planet was in digital form. These were among the conclusions of researchers at the University of Southern California who tried to quantify the amount of data in the world.