Is Facebook Making My Brain Bigger?
We mammals have a unique part of our brain called the neocortex that separates us from every other animal on the planet. Among mammals, neocortex sizes vary greatly and humans having the largest neocortex. The research is still not yet definitive as to why humans are the largest. The most popular theory, created by biologist […]
Marketing Red Rover with a Facebook Note
The list of schools signing up to use Red Rover is growing daily, with UCLA being the newest. A great byproduct of so many active users navigating the system is seeing the new creative ways in which admins and group leaders are marketing Red Rover. Nick Chapa, a group leader at UCLA, wrote this note […]
Web 2.0 to Take Down Blackboard
In the Chronicle this afternoon there was a choice quote: Weller says new Web tools (such as wikis and video-capture technology) put power in the hands of students, but traditional learning-management systems (such as Moodle and Blackboard) emphasize central control by the learning institutions, so he predicts that “monolithic LMSs will be deserted, digital tumbleweed […]
It Will Be Amazing, If People Use It . . .
I got a very straightforward question on Facebook today from a staff person at a very large school: About your software: do you have evidence that students will use it? How do you suggest schools get students to do that? (Just wondering if students would see this as one more “hoop” to jump through and […]
What’s the Responsibility of the Digital Consumer
Most of the conversations I’ve read about the importance of digital identities (here and here) put the responsibility on the producers of the information to be more aware of what they are posting online. Like teaching students about their digital identity so next time the student will pause to think about what they post online […]
Please Stop Buying and Building Walled Gardens For Higher Ed
There was an article a few days ago in the Chronicle with the headline “Colleges Create Facebook-Style Social Networks to Reach Alumni.” The first paragraph claims “hundreds of college alumni associations have begun to offer their own online social networks . . ” To me, this seems like a very sad waste of time and […]
Yah, What He Said
From The Chronicle this morning: Mark David Milliron, from Catalyze Learning International: OK, what happens at Amazon after you buy a book? People like you who bought this book also bought this, this, and this, right? They immediately give you that kind of a choice. They do data mining about the past, predictive modeling about […]
First Year Students as a New Thought – The Learning Institutional “Brain”
Because we speak quite a bit at Swift Kick, and because we work on the new stuff, where abstraction is common, “vision” is everywhere, and hard experience is limited, we love the analogy. We love to ground the new in the schema of the old. This is just what effective teachers do all the time. […]
Getting an “Expert” Mentor in 3 Minutes With Delicious
Used to be one had to put long hours of Googling into research. Not so much anymore. Want to get and stay current? Use delicious.com to find the fast-fingered searcher types in any field. I thought this was a known way to use delicious – that of course it was fine for storing things but […]
Utlizing Facebook Flyers for Marketing Red Rover and Swift Kick
Last November, Facebook updated its semi-useful “Facebook Flyer” advertising system. The biggest updates were better target marketing by keyword and the ability to pay-per-click instead of impressions. This is big news for people who work in the marketing industry, especially for a PPC Agency Los Angeles as what that meant was very little harm in […]