Cell phones on exams

Here is a story from Austria about using cell phones on exams. It is not the one that I originally read, but it is an interesting idea. I am pretty sure the other story was from Australia and it was a writing class. Has anyone seen this????

On a related note, folks in Denmark are going to allow students to use the internet on exams.

I find these ideas pretty interesting. With the right exam questions, it may be a great way to assess the students' understanding of the material, instead of their ability to repeat a disjointed set of facts. It reminds me of the dreaded take-home exam--the first time you get one, you are excited--then you realize its really hard.

Blogging...reflectons

I am not a fan of this sort of thing. I see how for some people it might work well to help to organize and review thoughts but it is not my style. I have tried to use this sort of thing in the past and it really just becomes a task for me that I have to do. I feel that same about learning journals set up as wikis. I appreciate the opportunity to try different technology, but so far, these don't work for me as a study tool. If I had information that I wanted to share, a blog would be great, but as it stands I am not impressed. I understand that some people find them incredibly helpful so I guess it is good for people to find that out.

Second Life...the ultimate Social Software?

Second Life...Like I need another life to deal with. I have an account there (Snook Zeplin is the name). I have taken 2 courses from Sloan-C: one on the basics and one on using it for education. I have lost entire days wandering around trying to figure out what the heck is going on. I am still really not sure. There seems to be a lot of sex going on...that is a shock the first time you walk up that! It is a fantasy world and the stores that are in there definitley allow for you to explore any fantasy you want (again, its amazing what you can walk into). I think the two most interesting things that I have done are attending the Science Friday broadcast (I got my t-shirt) and figuring out how to make my avatar have bare feet.
Using SL for education...I know people are doing it. I keep thinking about what I could do. Without ENORMOUS development, I am not sure that I would feel comfy sending students in there to study ecology and evolution. I have been to Univ. of Cincinatti's Galopogas Islands to study Darwin's voyages and I wasn't all that impressed from an educational point of view--I am not convinced students would get much out of it. I have thought that you could use it as a virtual meeting room--maybe good for office hours or review sessions. I don't teach fully online so my use is limited that way.
I have some other concerns to work through before I would use it to teach. The major one is the use of avatars. Wallace and Maryott wrote an excellent article discussing this. They found that students were more likely to interact with other people (actually their avatars) if they were of the same ethnic group. If you knew your group might have a bias you could change your avatar to "fit in". I find this kind of a slippery slope--do we really want to encourage that sort of behavior? On a related note, is it better to use an avatar that looks basically like you if you are acting as an instructor (maybe I can be skinnier than in real life). Would students take me seriously if I show up with wings and horns? Would I take them seriously if they showed up as a snowman? Things to think about as this sort of thing grows...

Wandering through social software

Over the past year or so I have been doing what I can only term as "collecting" social software accounts. I am not really sure what to think of most of them but I will post some thoughts here. Gene Smith has put together a summary of the building blocks of social software as well as what he terms a "social software honeycomb" It is a great tool for evaluating how various social software programs will work.



Of the sites that he mentions I have used a couple: Flickr, Twitter, Slideshare and LinkedIn. In addition I spend way too much time on Facebook.

I never really thought of Flickr as a social site--but I guess people are using its interactive features more than I realized. I plan on exploring this angle of it some more. Maybe it will be a good tool to distribute pictures to students. I am not sure yet if I see it as more than a way to share my vacation and party pictures...

Twitter, ah yes Twitter... I have an account. I got if for a conference that I attended. I dutifuly loaded it onto my Crackberry and spent way too much time figuring why I needed or wanted to write tiny little messages to post for everyone to read. I really don't think that I am that interesting...but then again I have a friend who can't get through her day without hearing from Ashton Kutcher. Even my tech friends mock me for having an account. I really don't get it. Teaching with Twitter? Really? Do my students want my little comments all the time? Maybe I am selling myself short...

I have only used SlideShare as a user and enjoyed it, but didn't feel very "social" with it. I noticed that the feature presentation is about Michael Jackson--I am not sure that is a big selling point for the site.

LinkedIn is intriguing to me...seems like Facebook for people who grew up -- boring -- maybe if I wore a tie to work it would seem like a good thing to me--I work at a university so not so much.

Which brings me to Facebook. I have been a regular user (sounds like a drug habit) of the site for a while. I feel like I actually use a fair amount of the social tools there...but then I listen to my students talk and realized I use a small portion (but then again, I actually TALK to people). I have tried to cross the divide and use FaceBook for teaching but I have not had much success--I feel like my students (mostly college freshmen) think I am playing behind enemy lines. They may be correct. I really don't want to see their party pictures or read their status updates. I don't want their weekend behavior to influence my opinion of them in the classroom. I would like to think that would not happen, but I think it is human instinct. I plan on trying again...we shall see.

I need to clean up my social software accounts...if I actually used them all, I would never look up from a keyboard.