Wikiuniversity

Wikiuniversity is a wiki"http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Wikiversity:Main_Pa that invites teachers, students and researchers to submit educational resources. It is hosted by the Wikimedia foundation, which also hosts wikipedia. All work submitted becomes available to others under a Creative Commons license but also through a GNU Free Documentation License, and that means that commercial use of the product. There has been discussion of closing this site down. It is agreed that the site needs more work and maybe better editing. Interesting.

Electronic Literature Directory

Electronic Literature Directory
http://eld.eliterature.org/ The Electronic Literature is a Web-based cooperative endeavor catalogue (wiki) in which electronic literature is catalogued. The site is searchable. The sites are peer reviewed. This is a good example of a wiki.

Social Media Use by Professors

The Chronicle of Higher Education's "Inside Higher Ed" blog reports on a recent survey about the use of Web 2.0 by college professors. http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/05/04/socialmedia
While 52% of professors in the survey reported using Web, the use was uneven: one fifth of those reporting use directed their students to YouTube videos, but less than 5% used Twitter. FaceBook and LinkedIn were used mainly to connect with colleagues. All professors did agree that social media are supplements to their teaching, and not replacements.

PowerPoint and understanding

In the news is the PowerPoint slide presented to Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan. It depicted, in a chart with many multicolored segments and connecting lines, the U.S. strategy in Afghanistan. As the article explained, McChrystal’s said, when he saw the slide: “When we understand that slide, we’ll have won the war.” The room “erupted in laughter.” http://blogs.geniocity.com/friedman/2010/04/there-is-no-shortcut-to-thoughtful-decision-making-it-requires-critical-thinking-and-discussion-and-powerpoint-not-only-doesnt-help-it-hurts/

There is a concern that PowerPoint can overwhelm, not add to, learning. I have seen many online teachers' proposed slide shows with multiple transitions and many colors and I think it detracts from learning. I do believe that PowerPoint can be effective in giving a talk to large audiences, but as for distributing reading material online the use may be limited.