The Google Art Project

The Google Art Project has been launched.  http://www.googleartproject.com/ This is really a wonderful resource for learners everywhere.  Students and faculty can explore museums from around the world, discover and view hundreds of artworks at incredible zoom levels, and even create and share their own collection of masterpieces.  Many academic disciplines could incorporate assignments using this resource.

One of my favorite assignments for the freshman University 101 class is to have my students visit the Columbia Museum of Art, find a particular piece of artwork (any type) that evokes feelings for them and write an essay on that piece.  Student usually complain at first that the "museum will be boring" or "I have never been to a museum", but the course evaluations and commentaries suggest that they learned a lot about themselves while learning to appreciate art.  I want my students to be productive members of civilized society and while they don't have to be connoisseurs of all art forms, there is bound to be something that moves them.

The Rise of Kindles, NookBooks and the Like

Having gone through the mass marketing/consumer frenzy that was the 2010 Holiday season, I was wondering about the rise of ebooks, Kindles, NookBooks, and the like. From the media coverage and commercials, it would seem that they were in the hands of everyone in the U.S.   However, not many people that I know have one.  I could be in a vacuum though.  How many of you have an ebook?  How often do you use it?  Has it encouraged you to read even more?
My main thought about this digital reading proliferation is that anything that gets people to read more is a good thing. But are people really reading more now? What are they reading?  Oprah Winfrey's book club has certainly spurred the US reading circles but her last entry, Charles Dickens' classics Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities wasn't a success. http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2010/1220/Oprah-s-book-club-picks-falling-short  It seem that the "Oprah Effect" hasn't really worked with the classics.
I would love to hear your opinions.

The Shadow Scholar

The Chronicle of Education had an interesting interview/article (November 12, 2010) on the sale of academic papers by a "Shadow Scholar".  This process seems to be widespread (and profitable) for those who have writing abilities and worthwhile to the hoards of students needing a paper. Or a draft, thesis statement, or revision.  They interviewed a "shadow scholar" to better understand this phenomenon which probably has been under scrutinized by those of us in academia. An area of concern for me personally was that he occasionally had parents order papers from him because "failing is not an option" for their students. In other words, success did not equate learning. Success was having something to turn into the professor.  This article should be taken seriously but there were some areas of humor. I especially liked his quote that students were "communicating in haiku, each  less decipherable than the one before it".

http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shadow-Scholar/125329/ 

The "Shadow Scholar" participated in a Live Chat on November 17, 2010 and the transcript is available at http://people.stu.ca/~hunt/temp/livechat.htm.  In essence, the "Shadow Scholar" is saying that grades are "killing" students and we should be looking at other ways to effectively encourage actual learning instead of encouraging to make a good grade.    Let me know what you think.

A colleague passed on an interesting YouTube video about using Twitter in the Classroom at the University of Texas at Dallas.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8&feature=player_embedded  Here at the University of South Carolina I know that foreign language faculty (Dr. Lara Ducate and Dr. Lomicka-Anderson) have used it in past in their German and French classes respectively.  Is anyone else using it?

As faculty, do we just provide customer service?

We are generally told as faculty members that we should try our best to teach tomorrow's leaders and give forth our knowledge to our students. We take courses and enrich our teaching skills when possible. Most of us teach because we love our field and want to give back to society. Not many of us truly just teach because they pay us so much. Of course these statements are just my opinions.
Interestingly, I was speaking with some University students the other day about this subject and about their perceptions of faculty and the relationship that they have with faculty. I was frankly stunned by what I heard.  It seems that these students perceived faculty as customer service "clerks" who only wanted to do the very least in teaching.  Students felt that when faculty tried to motivate them to do better (i.e. get better grades, learn the materials, do their assignments) that there was an ulterior motive. The ulterior motive was that faculty try to get students grades up "so that they can look better and make more money".  Once I picked up my jaw from the floor, I asked them "seriously do you really think that is why we want you to do well in college? So we could get raises from the good evaluations?"  They replied, "yes, why would you be in a profession if you weren't trying to get a raise?"
This (Millennial) generation, as someone wrote recently, "values money and what it can buy."  When we teach, we "render customer service, a somewhat menial calling, to a society that doesn't value abstraction, intellectual discourse, or knowledge for knowledge's sake."
As I ponder how to make my class on Friday more meaningful for my students, I would love to hear others' thoughts.

Oktoberbest- University of South Carolina October 1, 2010

Oktoberbest at the University of South Carolina was a success last Friday.  I was pleased with my session entitled "A Multi-faceted Approach to Teaching Freshman Students- UNIV 101".  I showed the pros and cons of using several types of communication/community building tools in Blackboard as well as my classroom Facebook presences. The session participants were active and we had some meaningful discussions on what inhibits students engagement and how we can get students to participate in the discussion forums.  Thanks to everyone who came to my session.

Special thanks go out to my University 101 students- I have attached a few photos of them here!

Interesting event coming up at the University of South Carolina

Here is an interesting event coming up at USC later on in October.

Voyages into the Technology Frontier:  Mobile Applications for Teaching

 Thursday, October 28, 2010, 2:00 - 3:15 p.m.

Center for Teaching Excellence, Thomas Cooper Library, Room 511

---

Description

iPhones, iPads, iPods, Blackberries, Droids. They’re everywhere, no matter how far we travel. They’re an integral part of our students’(and often our own) lives. If these communication devices are so prevalent, how can we harness this mobile wave to enhance teaching and learning? This session will demonstrate three mobile applications that can be used inside or outside the classroom to expand the learning experience beyond the brick and mortar. Dr. Joe Johnson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Physics, will demonstrate QRECT, an application for classroom assessment, using the iPad. The development of a virtual tour smartphone application will be discussed by Dr. Duncan Buell, Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and computer science student, Maliek McKnight. Chris Brown, Director of Teaching and Technology Services, will present the new Blackboard mobile building block. Please join us for a voyage into our mobile technology as we showcase pioneers at the University of South Carolina.

Please RSVP by email cte@sc.edu , phone 803-777-8322, or CTE RSVP form.