Multimedia Resources for Learning online

Luminosity- http://www.lumosity.com/

Luminosity is fun and interesting site with interactive multimedia games or brain exercises designed to improve memory and cognitive function. The games and activities have been designed by neuroscientists and target areas such as working memory, visual attention, fluid intelligence, and executive function. I signed up for a free account and played as many of the games that were allowed for that day, about 6 in all, I was told to return tomorrow for more games. You must register in order to use the site and you get free access to a number of activities per day. Once you register you can fill out a questionnaire stating what areas you wish to improve; such as memory, decision making, processing speed, logic and so on- then the games are personalized according to your goals.

I learned about different types of memory classification types just by doing the tests and reading my scores and I became interested enough to look up and study memory classification. I have a good memory on most levels and classification, however the site promises to improve memory and cognitive processing so I intend to return. Luminosity claims that users will see improved performance and concrete results in three months. Luminosity offers a subscription version of the site with personalized training and advanced services available to multiple users or on a family plan for as low as $7.70 a month for a two year subscription.

While I may not use this site to teach history, the site and games will benefit anyone struggling with memory issues or persons who are slow to process information due to illness or injury. From what I have experienced at the site, Luminosity meets many of the criteria for the games at the site to be considered an effective learning experience (Conrad and Donaldson, 2011). Luminosity engages the learners in complex decision making, it is conducted in a safe manner and learners have the opportunity to improve their performance as well as learn a great deal about themselves and how their brain works.

Civilization- http://www.civilization5.com/

It is very difficult to find free websites for adult students of history and I really want to consider a source for history educators. The second game I want to recommend would be Firaxis Games or commonly known as Sid Meir Civilization or Civ as it is called, although not a free game or resource. However, I am going to recommend it as older versions are available for very low cost online and they can be found in used gaming stores for $10.00 to $20.00. Civ is a game that requires a “high level of engagement, decision making and knowledge acquisition from a new perspective” (Conrad and Donaldson, 2011, p. 101). Civ will also appeal to adults as well as younger learners. In Civ, students will simulate, role play and experience a civilization, event or character that related to real historical events.

There are currently many educators using Civ games to teach students of all ages (Firaxis Games, 2012). I am providing a link to a video at Teacher Tube where an educator explains how the game was used in education accompanied by videos and visuals of the game. Students learn about trade, diplomacy, geography, climate, warfare and politics in various civilizations in different eras of history as they work a strategy to build their and maintain their civilization. The games also encourage critical thinking skills, decision making and as I know from my own sons, they inspire an interest in history and peoples from different times and places. The games should be used in conjunction with other academic work and could include group work or single projects and the learning from the games and on the projects will be authentic. Squire (2011) reminds us that games like Civ are “ideological models” that try to capture real experiences and although games may have limitations, biases and value judgments they represents systems where adults can learn. Adults learn engagement and meaning making and many have an underlying pedagogy (Ulicsak and Wright 2010).

References
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Firaxis Games (2012). Educators and Games in Education. Retrieved on January 31, 2013 from http://www.firaxis.com/educators/

Luminosity (2012). Retrieved on January 31, 2013 from http://www.lumosity.com/

Sid Meir’s Civilization (2012). Retrieved on January 31, 2013 from http://www.civilization5.com/
Squire, K. (2011). Video games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Teacher Tube (2012). Civilization III and World History. Retrieved on January 31, 2013 from http://teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=2142

Ulicsak, M. and Wright, M. (2010). Games in Education, Serious games a Future Lab Literature Review. Retrieved on Nov. 24, 2012 from http://media.futurelab.org.uk/resources/documents/lit_reviews/Serious-Games_Review.pdf

Establishing Effective Online Learning Experiences:
Best Practices For Good Beginnings

When setting up an online course, one way to establish best practices for course beginnings is to consider the importance of beginning themes. Boettcher and Donaldson ( 2010) state that the most important of these themes are instructor presence, a learning community, patience and clear expectations and guidelines ( (Boettcher and Donaldson, 2010). While an instructor’s presence in an online classroom may take a different a different form than their actual physical presence in a traditional classroom, their online presence is as important that classroom presence. Indeed, an instructor must take extra care and precautions to establish their presence so that online learners can begin to gain a sense of their instructors’ “voice” in the learning environment. When learners see and hear their instructor’s voice it can help become comfortable and at ease and begin to trust the instructor and learning experiences that lie ahead.

Instructor presence will allay uncertainties and early communications for good beginnings and best practices will include a class welcome and the instructor’s introduction. The instructor should also ask their students to post introductions and to share reasons for taking the course and may also include an icebreaker activity. I believe an instructor should always reply to a student by stating their name; we want out students to feel that we know and care about their contributions (Laureate, 2012). Moreover, it models an expectation that “we” address one another by name in the online classroom and this helps build a closer knit community of learners. These early activities are the beginning steps that will help ensure that you are doing everything you can to begin build a strong and active learning community.

An instructor should take care to communicate all course expectations to all their students. These guidelines may be listed along with the course details such as the syllabus or grading criteria and late submissions policies. However, just because these are listed in the course materials, an instructor can restate criteria that are especially important or be proactive and address common concerns of students based on past experiences with teaching. If an online classroom has a section for news or announcements, this can be utilized at the beginning on the course and will be especially helpful for students new to online learning of navigating new software. Instructors can also be open to questions and ask students to post their general questions to everyone in the class so that all learners can refer to that area before they email a question that may have already been answered.

Some additional points to consider in setting up an online class are that an instructor might continue many of these practices each week and not assume everyone gets it by the third week. For example, they can use the news and announcements section to discuss the upcoming week’s activities, sources, to give reminders of due dates or to introduce a new topic. This section can be also be used to encourage learners and commend their hard work. This communication activity is a best practices aspect of online teaching; we should be letting our students know how they are doing and that we appreciate their efforts and we can congratulate them on their progress or for their hard work on the prior week. My final comments are that the instructor must be prepared for the diversity of their students learning styles, prior experiences, perspectives and lifestyles or work habits. Instructors cannot assume everyone gets it right away or gets it the first time they run through something and this is where patience is essential. An instructor must be mindful of the themes for good beginnings and best practices and be prepared to practice and revisit various themes throughout the duration of an online course.

Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources for Creative Instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Launching the Online Learning Experience. Baltimore, MD: Author

In this blog entry I want to discuss an instructor’s role in online community building, stages of on an online community, and examples of how a strong learning community will positively impact our learning experiences in online classrooms. When I reflect on my personal experiences and learning in various online courses; the courses that stand out are the lively, supportive and structured communities with involved instructors. I recall these communities as superior educational experiences that contributed a great deal to my own learning. The learning community was strong because of course design, student participation, an instructor’s engagement with students and their ability to empower learners. In addition, the instructor was responsive to student’s uncertainties in a new environment and guided them as they learned to become comfortable with the technology, posting in their classroom and the level of self directed learning that was required (Conrad and Donaldson, 2011). Moreover, an instructor’s contribution to community building and participation to that community can serve as a model for students in terms how to post and respond, how to be a responsible member of that community (Laureate, 201n) and the level of engagement that is expected.

We know that instructor and student introductions are important to building community and we should never skip over this important first stage. Most online discussions have community boards or places for students to post their responses to questions, assignments or discussion where an effective instructor would be actively involved and present in these areas of the community. The instructor would support peer to peer discussion, ask students open ended questions, and give positive comments and remarks about each student’s experience or perspective. An instructor should be encouraging students to make meaning or connections with the material or making connections to real life situations, historical events or related contexts. The instructor can ask thought provoking questions that encourage their students to share perspective and insights, to think and share further about the topics or content (Boettcher and Conrad, 2010 pp. 224-225).

Some examples that should guide best practices for instructors who wish to build a strong online community are becoming aware of the various stages in an online community and staying up to date with research on theories and practice. Boettcher and Conrad (2010) describe three stages on online communities: the first stage at the beginning of a course involves getting to know one another, finding people we are comfortable with or making friends. In the second stage of the community that may develope about mid way through a course, individuals begin to share feelings and experiences, relate to and openly support one another. In the final stage there is a sense of community, connection, and camaraderie that has developed over the course as students engagement is more intense or personalized. The final stage may or may not be fully realized in all online communities, among all students, especially in the classroom that has a large enrollment (Boettcher and Conrad 2010).

My personal online learning experiences reflect these stages to a degree, although I have found I may make a stronger connection with a few of my colleagues in each course, and that may change in the next course. Most recently I completed core courses of a program that was about sixteen months long and interacted with the same 20 students nearly every day. I had been interacting with, sharing with, and learning from my colleges for so long, I felt a strong sense of connection to them and our community and have experienced a sense of loss as I and my colleagues moved onto different specializations.

An engaged and involved instructor is aware that their contributions to the community are models of scholarly discourse and respectful online communication; both are essential to the success of a building and sustaining an online community. In an online community people learn about each other based on the information participants choose to share about themselves (Bellanca and Brandt, 2010) and we learn even more about one another due to individual contributions in the course. Students lean to construct knowledge as they collaborate or learn from one another to co- construct knowledge (Laureate, 201) on discussion boards, blogs or other venues within the community. A strong online learning community begins with the level of engagement of the instructor and their understanding stages of learning communities and how students learn from one another in these communities.

Boettcher, J. V., & Conrad, R. (2010). The Online Teaching Survival Guide: Simple and
Practical Pedagogical Tips. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Conrad, R., & Donaldson, J. A. (2011). Engaging the Online Learner: Activities and Resources
for Creative Instruction (Updated ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Evaluating Distance Learning Theory.
Baltimore, MD: Author.
Bellanca, J. and Brandt, R. (2010). 21st Century Skills: Rethinking How Students Learn.
Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Today’s Adult Educators need to be informed about the themes and principals of Digital Citizenship and the safe, appropriate and responsible practices associated with using technology. Digital Citizenship encompasses than digital etiquette or what was known as netiquette back in the early days of internet computing with Telnet and UseNet news groups. Although most easily located sources are the internet are geared toward k12 educators or targeting at file sharing and copyright laws; a responsible and progressive educator would not assume that their adult students know or practice digital citizenship and a creative educator can adapt the information on these sites can for adult students. I would like to thank my Walden colleagues who recently shared links related to digital citizenship on their blogs; I would like to share these resources on my blog this week.

Gayle Simon’s Blog is located at http://educ6177galej.blogspot.com/2012/12/educ-6177-week-7-assignment-1.html and she shared Common Sense Media at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/about-us/our-mission
Common Sense media is a comprehensive website with tons of resources and references related to all types of media and the internet, including special sources for educators.

It appears that most of Common Sense Media resources are free; they cover lessons and modules on everything from email to passwords, to safety issues, creative work, responsibilities, online gender stereotypes, cyber bulling, data and file sharing, sexting. The lessons range from primary ages to college bound high school students in grades 9-12 and many of these lessons and issues could be easily adapted for adult learners.

Revonne Lester’s “Education Station’ http://educationstation2012.blogspot.com/2012/12/digital-world.html#!/2012/12/digital-world.html featured a link to Brain Pop located at http://www.brainpop.com/technology/digitalcitizenship/

Brain Pop is an animated interactive site for students and educators and its page on digital citizenship covers all the important themes: copyright, safety, on line searches, privacy, viruses, plagiarism, cheating, cyber bullying and more. This is a great introductory and refresher information source for everyone.

William Caruso’s blog http://carusoeducationtechnologies.blogspot.com/2012/12/digital-citizenship-ethics-and.html shared a significant resource with Exam Guard and URL ishttp://www.examguard.com/TestingEngine.asp

Exam Guard is a program that prevents all learners; distance, remote, self paced or even in classroom exam takers from cheating on exams with their computers. The program blocks tabs or windows and makes certain that only one tab or window can be open at a time of a PC. This means educators need to no longer hire exam proctors, and students should not have to travel to take exams if the software is installed on their PC.

Digital citizenship is a priority in education as integrating technology as a major teaching and learning strategy is essential for preparing learners to live and work (PBS, 2004). Technology is here to stay and its use is increasing in all aspect of our lives; we can no longer make up rules as we go along or be satisfied with simple and basic rules of netiquette (Network Netiquette, 2012). Educators and learners must be aware of principals of digital citizenship; it is essential for educators to integrate these principals into their teaching practice and to be informed by and teach the rights as well as responsibilities of digital citizenship (PBS, 2004).

Most digital citizenship sources, projects and professional learning management systems on the internet are geared to K-12 instructors (Teach Hub, 2012) (Edmodo, 2012) (Schoology, 2012). A majority of sites and projects for adults are targeted toward teaching digital citizenship with respect to illegal file sharing (Digital Citizenship Project, 2012). However, the themes of digital citizenship encompass much broader principals thank the problems of illegal file sharing and the concerns of the Recording Industry Association of America.

One site educators should be aware of is the Digital Citizenship Project at Illinois State University. The project goals were twofold: research and monitor file sharing and community outreach and education. They hoped for a ripple effect; train 3,000 teachers yearly, if each teacher passed on their learning, to 20 students, and then about 60,000 students would learn how about citizenship every year (DCP, 2012). Unfortunately, it appears that the project is in an inactive status or that it did not realize its full potential. I suspect this is because the scope of the project was too focused or file sharing. Adult educators can benefit from utilizing the project’s resources and philosophies and perhaps and should be aware of this major digital citizenship project for college level educators and learners.

The second site I would like to share is a link to a pdf file published in 2004 by PBS; although a dated publication, and again geared toward younger learners, PBS were forwarding thinking and got it right with Digital Citizenship: Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior (PBS, 2004). Most digital citizenship sites focus heavily on the restrictions and responsibilities; PBS notes and I would like to point out that students have rights as well and it is important for educators to consider and understand their rights. “Rights. When creating or publishing anything digitally, students have the same copyright protection as any other content creators” (PBS, 2004).

Finally, this post would not be complete without referencing the work of Mike Ribble and his site Digital Citizenship (2012). Although Ribble was not the first to advance the themes and principals of Digital Citizenship, his work on defining and advancing digital citizenship brought the concern to the our attention and popularized the concepts in the mainstream of education (Ribble, 2012). Although Ribble’s work and many of the sources on the internet are geared for younger learners, we should not assume all adults are aware of digital citizenship. Adult educators and adult learners can benefit and improve their digital literacy from information gained on most sites related to digital citizenship.

References

Digital Citizenship Project (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://digitalcitizen.illinoisstate.edu
Edmodo (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.edmodo.com/
Network Netiquette (2012). http://www.networketiquette.net/netiquette.htm
PBS (2004). Digital Citizenship: Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior. Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/courses/tech340/docs/tech340_bailey.pdf?cc=tlredir
Ribble, M. (2012). Digital Citizenship: Using technology Appropriately. Retrieved on Dec. 10, 2012 from http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html
Schoology (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from https://www.schoology.com/home.php
Teach Hub (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 11, 2012 from http://www.teachhub.com/teaching-digital-citizenship

Open Access and Distance Learning for College level History Courses

This week I searched the web for open access and distance learning courses, programs and degrees in the discipline of History. I have conducted this search many times over the years and am always surprised that my searches yield few opportunities and such meager results. I conducted research last year to try and discover why history degrees were not readily available in on line and distance learning programs. The results of my research were a mix of complex factors related to economics, faculty training, technological infrastructure, and old school ways of thinking in the academe about teaching and learning. The most obvious problem I noted was not a lack of personal interest in studying history, but rather a lack of offering studies in the humanities in general. I consider history to fall under the umbrella of humanities and the study of peoples and the lifeworld. Distance education and distance educators are serving an educational system geared to supporting corporations, the military, the medical or educational fields and profit making entities (Sumner, 2000). The majority of online and degree programs are aimed at preparing learners for careers in those industry and growth fields. There are very few courses and programs, especially advanced degree programs for history and other humanities courses offered in distance, on line or open learning formats; I will discuss an example of each and provide links to those sources.

Open Access and History

I was able to find an open access, entry or survey level U.S. History course at http://www.uccp.org/ . This course is offered through the University of California as an open research for teachers and students. It is considered a college prep type course and only a supplemental learning experience. Although this course is free; there is no way to track enrollment, there are no credits, grades are assessments available. The course seems to be a very general U.S. history courses covering the colonial era and up to Reconstruction period following the Civil War. I think someone would have to have a very specific reason to take the course; a newbie history buff, refreshers courses for GED exams, prep for college entrance, new teachers syllabus example, but otherwise I see very little value and predict there is very little interest in such a broad survey course on U.S. History. The site does not look like it has been updated or revised in quite a long while.

Distance Learning and History

As I mentioned above; it is virtually impossible to earn a history degree in a distance program or on line. There are very limited advanced degree offerings from a few dubious and questionable proprietary on line colleges.
My search this week for history courses revealed that more distance courses were becoming available from traditional universities. The History department at Michigan State University is offering distance courses in all levels (100-400) of history during the summer months. The courses are full credit bearing and offered by regular faculty; the courses are not free, but tuition is reasonable and out of state students do not have to pay out of state fees. The courses count toward degree and graduation credit and most credits are transferable to other degree granting universities. http://history.msu.edu/onlinecourses/

A very nice feature of the on line history studies at MSU is a link to MATRIX http://www2.matrix.msu.edu/.
Matrix is a great resource for history educators and history students; it is one of the premier online humanities centers in the U.S. MATRIX is dedicated the application of new technologies, hosts on line resources and databases for teaching, learning and research. It houses major digital library repositories, partners with museums and is devoted to the application of new technologies for teaching, research, and outreach. As one of the premier humanities computing centers in the United States, MATRIX creates and maintains online resources, provides training in computing and new teaching technologies, and creates forums for the exchange of ideas and expertise in the field.

References

History Department University of Michigan (2012).
Retrieved on Dec. 6, 2012 http://history.msu.edu/onlinecourses/
Matrix (2012) Retrieved on Dec. 5, 2012 from http://www2.matrix.msu.edu/
Open Access (2012). Retrieved on Dec. 5, 2012 http://www.uccp.org/
Sumner, J. (2005). Serving the System: A Critical History of Distance Education. Open
Learning. Vol. 15, No. 3. Retrieved on Dec. 4, 2012 from http://pages.towson.edu/bsadera/istc717/modules05/module8/3888263.pdf

Video Games for History Educators and Students

In my search to discover ways college educators could use video games, interactive sites or virtual worlds to teach college level history courses I found many promising leads and articles, but most of the recent, real hands on websites or academic publications are for primary and secondary history educators. The October 2012 Comic Con held in New York hosted a panel “Games and Learning” for educators interested in integrating video games into their classrooms; the panelists addressed the failing K-12 educational system and how games could be utilized to better educated kids (Sarkar, 2012) and it appeared that college instructors were not represented at the convention.

Several extensive searches on the internet have yielded many websites for K-12 students such as BBC’s Interactive on Line Learning site (BBC, 2012) and the Catan “Settlers” series of educational games (Catan, 2012). The sites are very interesting, but would not be suitable for adult students of history. Even a recent and excellent Routledge publication, “Gaming the Past: “Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History”(McCall, 2011) is written by a high school educator for high school history and social studies educators. Another leader in gaming education is Tim Ryland, an award winning educator who utilized the game MYST for teaching, motivating and inspiring his primary students many years ago (Sarkar, 2012). Indeed, most of the innovative educators that have utilized gaming technology to support student learning have until most recently been teaching students in K-12 grades.

College educators may have slow to embrace video games and leaning in the mainstream; but there have always been educators who recognized that their students were already learning history from their video games- and realized that they might as well harness those teachable moments (Parrino, 2004). I believe there will soon be more college level courses that utilize gaming technology and we have only begun to discover that there are many learning opportunities possible (Epstein, 2005).

In the spring of 2013 Professor Joseph at The University of South Carolina is offering a course, “Computer Games and History”(Sarkar, 2012). At Rice University a professor was inspired by Skyrim, a game based on Norse saga, to create a course on mythology and fantasy for third year English students (Game Guide, 2012). I have selected two video games and will discuss ways they could be integrated into teaching college history to adult students.

Total War Rome II official website is accessed at http://www.totalwar.com/en_us/media/rome2/videos#video-CGSHI0Ohgqc

Total War Rome is a game that could be used to teach Ancient history, Roman Empire History and a more general World History. This is a real time and turn based strategy game so I believe it would be best to put students in pairs as teams of players to support one another in history computer gaming lab. I would try to match up students with lesser gaming experience with those that have stronger gaming skills. . The gaming would be supported by lecture, scholarly readings and in class discussion the other 3 days of a week. I would have an on line discussion board with a weekly question related to the game and the class learning for that week; each student would be required to answer the question and respond to at least one other student post. This is a place where students could comment on historical inaccuracies they might find in the game and more complex problems such as biases that all conflict is natural or cultural misrepresentations of people (Squire, 2011). I think it would be fun to set up a class twitter page with access and ask all student players to post real time tweets to report their progress during labs or if they are playing the game at home and to always make real connections to their research or things we’ve covered in readings or lectures.

Europa Universalis II official website is accessed at http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii

Europa Universalis is an award winning game recognized for its ability to translate historic events into lessons for the players; through factual historic information, planning and game strategy (Parrino, 2004). This game could be utilized in history courses that teach about European powers during the Middle Ages, Age of Exploration, European colonization, The Reformation, World history, The American Revolution, The Crusades and French History to list just a few possibilities. This game will give students an introductory level glimpse into military strategy and tactics, and should provide context and a more meaningful understanding to course readings and lectures.

I would use Europa Universalis in a history computer gaming lab style course. Lab would meet two days per week and the class would meet three days per week. In lab, each student would choose what country they are going to build and they would be in control of their own game play. To measure learning, I would ask student’s to keep learning journals to describe what they are doing and learning and to make connections to our other course lectures, readings and class discussions. I would also have students select their topic or area of interest and write a ten to twelve page research paper that they work on incrementally throughout the course. The research paper should include primary and secondary sources that would be related to what they are doing, what country they are building within the Europa Universalis game.

Total War and Europa Universalis are games that will foster critical thinking skills, planning, and understanding long term strategies as they assume identities of monarchs, world leaders, battlefield generals. They also can gain a greater understanding of geography and the changing geopolitical map throughout history. Students get a glimpse into the complexities of war, commerce, weaponry and armor, naval warfare, diplomacy and trade and the diversity of people and cultures around the world. Instructors need to time lectures, readings, activities and class discussion carefully to support the learning that is going on from gaming.

References

Catan (2012). The Official “the Settlers of Catan” Website. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.catan.com/games.html

BBC (2102). Interactive Games Content. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/games/

Epstein, D. (2005). Not Just Child’s Play. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/11/28/civ

Europa Universalis II. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.paradoxplaza.com/games/europa-universalis-ii

Game Guide (2012). Skyrim Inspires Norse Saga Course at Rice University. Retrieved on Nov. 26, 2012 from http://www.gamenguide.com/articles/3832/20121020/skyrim-inspires-norse-saga-course-rice-university.htm

Gaming the Past (2012). Student Created Sims as Historical Interpretations. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://gamingthepast.net/theory-practice/mccall-student-created-sims-as-historical-interpretations/

McCall, J. (2011). “Gaming the Past: “Using Video Games to Teach Secondary History”. New York, NY: Routledge.

Parrino, S. (2004). Europa Universalis 2 as a History Lesson. WarGamer. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.wargamer.com/news/736/press-release-europa-universalis-2-as-a-history-lesson

Sarkar, S., 2012. Meet a Team of Educators Who Are Adding Games to the 21st-Century Curriculum. Polygon. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/15/3508572/bringing-video-games-into-the-21st-century-curriculum

Sarkar, S., 2012. College Class Explores Video Games’ Version of History. Polygon. Retrieved on Nov. 28, 2012 from http://www.polygon.com/2012/10/19/3527938/college-class-explores-video-games-version-of-history

Squire, K. (2011). Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Total War Rome II (2012). Retrieved on Nov. 27, 2012 from official website is accessed at http://www.totalwar.com/en_us/media/rome2/videos#video-CGSHI0Ohgqc

Kindle Fire

Amazon’s Kindle Fire is an example of affordable mobile technology that might be utilized to assist educators and students at the college level. I have had a Kindle Fire for almost a year now and seriously, I have not had time to do more than look at it a few minutes here and there. Now that I am looking at it and using it, I realize I should be using it more often as I really like the Kindle Fire. It has a nice interface, small, slim, portable, and a long battery life. Yet it is big enough to use the touch pad easily and has a high enough resolution that it is easy to watch a movie on Netflix or as I just learned- the History Channel. I like the fact that it was just $200.00 new on Amazon, although the price has just dropped to $159.00 due to the release of Kindle Fire HD which sells for 199.00 – 299.00 (Amazon, 2012).

With the Kindle Fire you can search the web anywhere wireless technology is available. If your course is using social networking such as Twitter or Facebook, it is easy to log on and check for updates and news. I have Twitter, Facebook and the icons for You Tube, Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, IMDB.com, LinkedIn and Craigslist on my web home page. I just used Google to find my blog, logged in and am looking at my edublog as I type this.

I just logged onto my Google account and into my Google reader; I can see my subscriptions for all my colleagues education and technology blogs. Now, this is exciting, I can see how this would be really helpful for students and educators and for me right now. I am a little exhausted, I’m at 14 hours nonstop work and study today and I do not feel like I can sit up at my PC and do any more reading or studying. However, I am not mentally tired, so I could grab my kindle Fire, lay on the couch, put my feet up and do a little catching up on my blog reading. I can see students using Kindle Fire to keep up with classes and assignments while they are in a coffee shop, waiting at the bus station, in between classes, or just a few minutes between class and work, or their work break. Instructors can use Kindle Fire in the same way and keep up to date or post tweets and status updates and important classroom reminders.

Google Bookmarks

Educators, students or anyone who conducts a lot of on line research can benefit from anyone of the many sites for storing and saving bookmarks that they can access from a mobile device. My favorites bar on my computer has about a zillion links, I have to scroll down forever to find anything and there’s absolutely no real organization in there. This computer is 5 years old and even though I have a good backup system, I would probably not want to recreate the chaos of my current favorites on a new PC.

This is where sites like Google Bookmarks (Google, 2012) can save educators and students time, stress, not to mention paper and printer ink. Imagine the benefits of saving and collecting all your research for a specific paper or project in one place and then be able to return and retrieve the results of your research- no more lost sources, or printing an article that was not really helpful. Google Bookmarks lets you save the shortcuts and links from your favorite web sites or recent research and you are able to return or navigate them in seconds. Google bookmarks are stored in your Google Account, you can access them from any computer’s Toolbar or from the Google Bookmarks homepage (Google, 2012).

Other great features of Google Bookmarks are that you can access the bookmarks from any computer or mobile device by signing into your Google account. You can also create and name categories to store your bookmarks; all my bookmarks for my research on education and technology are stored in a file with that name, I have another folder for my emerging technologies proposal. I would encourage students to use Google Bookmarks as they conduct library and internet research for their courses. I have known about other bookmarking sites and just never took the time to use them. It may take a few minutes to get your Google Bookmarks set up, but the time saved later will make it worthwhile. I love the idea that I will no longer have to store research sources on a WORD document,; this will save me time, lots of time and I like that I will not lose important research.

References

Amazon.com (2012). Retrieved on Nov. 19, 2012 from http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0083Q04IQ/?tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=15258864564&hvpos=1t1&hvexid=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16477779654441174&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&ref=pd_sl_7tcliwwieu_b

Google Bookmarks (2012) Retrieved on Nov. 20, 2012 from https://www.google.com/bookmarks/?hl=en

Social networking is a practical way for educators to reach out to students and extend learning beyond the classroom. Students have a real time way to stay up to date, and remain engaged with their course, resources and each other.

Pinterest

The social networking site Pinterest has excellent potential for educational purposes, http://pinterest.com/ . I have a Pinterest site of my own, although I have not really had time to get into it. Pinterest is a social photography sharing site that allows users to collect, organize and share digital images, I believe you can also share videos, webcasts, and info on blogs. You pin your images to a to virtual pin board, think of it as a visual bookmarking site. People can find categories they are interested in and follow various “pins” according to their selections. You can follow all types of things such as home design, wish lists, weddings, education, history, celebrities, recipes, fashion and much more; the pins are as varied as varied as are people’s interests.
I had wondered about Pinterest’s usefulness in Education, especially so, since my current research is focusing on digital images and visual literacy. I found several references to education, and an article about education and technology that lists several sites to follow. Here’s a main link to Education and Technology on Pinterest http://pinterest.com/edudemic/
Pinterest Links

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/edudemic/
http://edudemic.com/2012/10/pinterest-education-technology/

Twitter

The second social networking site I recommend for educators would be Twitter, often referred to as a microblogging site (AHA, 2011). http://twitter.com/. I like Twitter because it is quick and to the point as posts or tweets as they are called in the twitterverse are only 140 characters long.
This following link directs to an article with 100 helpful suggestion on how to use Twitter in Education. It covers basics, etiquette, setting up a network, how to find and build a following. , http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/ .

I would love to use Twitter for History; I would have a “This day in History” Tweet as related to my course. I would also post helpful suggestions, new resources, great work and encouraging comments. Twitter would be a way to extend learning and engage students, to get the quiet, shy or reserved students to share. Instructors could send reminder tweets on due dates, format expectations, links, important notifications such as weather related cancelations or illness. Here’s a link to the Twitter account for teaching History.org, https://twitter.com/teachinghistory .
Twitter can be linked up with other social networking sites such as Facebook. For instance in my work, when I post a Facebook status update, it automatically posts on Twitter as well. So this does not have to be as time consuming some might imagine. Many folks I know may want to dismiss these sites as useless, and a waste of time and energy. True, there is a lot of fluff and nonsense out there in the social networking world, it’s a mirror of our society in a way. Users soon learn to focus on what they need to know and tune out the static and fluff.

Social networking can be beneficial for educators who want to facilitate engagement, collaboration and communication. Students are able to stay up to up to date, receive important communications and feedback and continue learning through social networking. Last year when Walden was updating software and having technical issues I followed Walden’s updates on Twitter and Facebook . I was able to go into my classroom before the whole site crashed and copy all my assignments and readings for that week to a word document. Social networking helped me stay on my schedule and prevented me from getting stressed out over late assignments or not knowing what was going on at Walden.

Twitter Links
http://twitter.com/
http://edudemic.com/2012/04/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-education-by-degree-of-difficulty/
https://twitter.com/teachinghistory
http://www.historians.org/perspectives/issues/2011/1104/1104tec1.cfm
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/
http://www.aacom.org/people/SOME/Documents/DavisTips/50-Ways-to-Use-Twitter-in-the-Classroom.pdf
http://www.teachthought.com/social-media/60-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-classroom-by-category/

The Digital History Reader Project

The Digital History Reader Project resources are for introductory college level and advanced level high school learners. There are two learning modules to choose from; Introduction to United States History and Introduction to European History. Each respective module contains easy to navigate pages that include introduction, context, evidence, assignments, conclusion, resources and questions about the central topics. I was pleased to find many primary source documents listed throughout the lessons. The site is easy to navigate and contains useful lessons and questions for educators and students. It really is a wonderful site that was created by experienced educators and learned historians alongside dedicated students who were at the cutting edge of what was possible at the time of publication.

It is unfortunate that the Digital History Reader Project site appears to have been abandoned sometime after 2007 and before it was fully realized. I would love to see this project revitalized and updated with new topics, more primary sources, images and links to map collections, national archives and of course utilizing newer technologies available to us today. I suspect the project did not continue due to budget limitations and faculty time constraints.

The Digital History Reader Project is an example of why digital educational and multimedia resources are an ongoing endeavor and why it is vital that sites remain dynamic and relevant (Richardson, 2010). Historians should devote time and expertise to the development of these sites and the academe must support their efforts. A site such as Digital History should not be considered a side project to be completed during a scholar’s spare time. Faculty and partners need time, support and budgets to develop, maintain, revise and implement new technology into their multimedia educational sites. Please see http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Digital History: Using New Technologies to Enhance Teaching and Research

Digital History was created by the College of Education at the University of Houston. It is a fully developed multimedia resource to support teaching American History in college and grades K-12. Digital History is an outstanding resource for educators and one that has the potential to actively engage students of history of all ages. The site includes a full text book, primary sources, time lines, audio archives of historians speaking, multimedia exhibitions, and visual archives. In addition, there are over seventy inquiry based interactive learning modules and a tremendous amount of resources for history educators.

I was pleased to see a section on The First Americans as an integral learning module and as the first topic listed in the study of American History. I worked through the multimedia resources on the First Americans and was impressed with the presentation as well as the scholarship and sources. For an introductory course the site offers some very sophisticated primary sources. It is my opinion that students of history should be introduced to primary sources very early and this site meets that standard.

I would recommend Digital History to all history and social studies educators and students of history and cultural studies. This learning resource serves as a reminder that the creation of a body of work such as this site is truly a collaborative undertaking. The trend toward collaborative work where teams of experts create multimedia learning resources is facilitated now with easier access to more programs and applications (Richardson, 2010). The credits on Digital History include a team of professionals from the University of Houston and an impressive list of partners and sponsors. I hope these experts will continue to create, revise and enhance Digital History and that this team will continue to receive support and sponsorship for their work. Please see http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

References

Ewing, Watson, Stephens, Lehr, and Thorp (2007). The Digital History Reader. Retrieved on Nov. 5, 2012 from http://www.dhr.history.vt.edu/about/index.html

Mintz, S., & McNeil, S. (2012). Digital History. Retrieved on Nov. 6, 2012 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd Ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.