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Stacks CMS for libraries

EBSCO Launches Content Management System for Libraries

By Leila Meyer 09/26/16

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/09/26/ebsco-debuts-content-management-system-for-libraries.aspx

EBSCO Information Services has debuted Stacks, a hosted content management system for libraries, and Stacks Mobile, a native app for iOS and Android devices.

Social media integration, including Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn;

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more on technology in libraries in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=library

CMS (Course Management System/Software) alternatives

Desire2Learn (D2L) is the MnSCU purchased commercial product of CMS.

Prior to D2L, MnSCU paid license to WebCT. WebCT merged with Blackboard, which at the moment is the largest CMS.

in the first decade of the 21st century, dozens of commercial CMS products appeared on the market, but they were gradually absorbed mostly by Blackboard (BB). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_Management_System

The advent of Web 2.0 tools, such as blogs and wikis offered viable alternative to the commercial CMS. Further, open source products such as Drupal and Sakai posed additional competition to commercial CRS.

Last but not least, with the advent of cloud computing, a new generation of products are competing with BB and D2L

Alternatives to D2L:
Moodle, Drupal, Sakai
Edmodo, Sophia (http://www.sophia.org/), Piazza, Prulu
http://www.quora.com/Who-are-competitors-or-other-services-similar-to-Edmodo

http://www.quora.com/E-learning/What-companies-are-Piazzas-direct-competition-in-the-edTech-space

http://wazmac.com/discussion/edmodo-v-schoology-v-moodle/

Mukurtu CMS (http://mukurtu.org) is a free and open source community archive platform and content management system built on Drupal 7

Google Classroom

India privacy

https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/india-orders-vpn-companies-to-collect-and-hand-over-user-data/

A new government order will force virtual private networks to store user data for five years or longer.

The directive isn’t limited to VPN providers. Data centers and cloud service providers are both listed under the same provision. The companies will have to keep customer information even after the customer has canceled their subscription or account.

India has a history of applying a heavy hand to online activity.

In April, India banned 22 YouTube channels. In 2021, Facebook, Google Twitter ended a tense stand-off with the Indian government when they largely complied with the government’s expanded control over social media content in the country. In 2020, the country banned over 200 Chinese apps, including TikTok, and ultimately banned 9,849 social media URLs.

digital equity

https://www.govtech.com/network/infrastructure-bill-promises-historic-boost-for-digital-equity

The recently signed $1.2 trillion federal infrastructure package includes $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion work, delivering an investment that advocates are calling unprecedented and historic.

Within the $65 billion going toward broadband, the $2.75 billion for digital equity and inclusion is set for two programs made up of grants. First, the money will go toward a digital equity capacity grant program for states.

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More on digital equity in this blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=digital+equity

 

teaching

The Damaging Myth of the Natural Teacher

Despite decades of evidence, good teaching is still considered more art than science. That’s hurting faculty and students alike.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-damaging-myth-of-the-natural-teacher

Even as universities have become more bureaucratic and centrally controlled, teaching continues to operate largely independent of oversight

when she was a college administrator, before becoming a professor, she was expected to spend two to four hours a week on professional development. It was written into her job description. Her training as a faculty member, by contrast, “has all been self directed, self led, things I want to do. It’s never been part of my annual evaluation.”

At most research universities if you were publishing in pedagogy journals they would not be counted or weighted as heavily as if you were publishing in a traditional journal.

Valencia College, a community college in Central Florida that relies heavily on part-time instructors, encourages them to improve their teaching by offering certificates and pay increases for participating in 60 hours of professional development.

Some of the most notable reform efforts are coming from external funders and academic associations. The National Science Foundation, the Association of American Universities, the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, the American Historical Association, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, and others have sponsored research and projects on teaching reform, including work on how to advance discipline-based education research.

a pilot program at Kansas to reinvent the evaluation process, as part of a multi-campus project called TEval. The new process, she says, considers seven benchmarks, including course planning, class climate, and evidence of student learning. Teaching reviews consider, for example, how well course content is aligned with the curriculum, whether a faculty member is involved in scholarship about pedagogy, and how much time they spend advising and mentoring students. Departments are also encouraged to develop “peer triads,” in which small groups of faculty members whose coursework is related meet regularly to talk about their teaching and course design.

He and his peers were heavily involved in pedagogical innovation on campus, including the Center for Project Based Learning and discipline-based education research.

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More on teaching in this blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=teach

the Nonsense Papers

The Mysterious Case of the Nonsense Papers

A peer-reviewed journal published hundreds of them. Why?

https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-did-a-peer-reviewed-journal-publish-hundreds-of-nonsense-papers

One clue is that the overwhelming majority of the papers were ostensibly written by authors who claim to be affiliated with Chinese institutions. Universities in China often reward researchers for publishing in notable journals listed on the Science Citation Index, in some cases paying them cash bonuses, though China’s science and education ministries have recently tried to crack down on the practice. It’s also long been a requirement that doctoral students at many Chinese universities publish a paper before they graduate.

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China’s Plagiarism Problem

https://www.forbes.com/2010/05/26/china-cheating-innovation-markets-economy-plagiarism.html

Plagiarism and the lack of academic integrity it engenders are intricately connected to the larger debate about intellectual property rights (IPR) in China and the government’s promoted idea of a harmonious society to support stability.

7 Strategies to Change the Norms of Class Discussions

How to Hold a Better Class Discussion

ADVICE GUIDE

https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-hold-a-better-class-discussion/

7 Strategies to Change the Norms of Class Discussions

Norm No. 1: Civil attention.

nodding their heads, taking notes, chuckling at the instructor’s attempts at humor, or making brief eye contact. And by the things they don’t do: sleeping, texting, whispering to classmates.

Norm No. 2: Consolidation of responsibility.
a few students assume responsibility for most of the discussion

  1. No. 1: Ask better questions.
  2. No. 2: Set the stage on the first day.
  3. No. 3: Use a syllabus quiz to show that you value participation.
  4. No. 4: Try a discussion about discussion.
  5. No. 5: Don’t give up on discussion in a large class.
  6. No. 6: Have students pair up.
  7. No. 7: Take the conversation online.

How to Keep a Discussion on Track

  • Slow down the dominant talkers.
  • Quizzes are good for more than just the syllabus.
  • Use discussion questions to focus their reading (and the resulting debate).
  • Shine a light on the “muddiest” point.
  • Encourage comments from students of varied backgrounds.

Should You Grade Class Discussion?

  • The argument against:
  • The argument in favor: 

What If a Student’s Remark Is Wrong or Misguided?

  • Affirm, then correct.
  • Be respectful when they’ve lost the plot.

How to Handle News Events and Controversial Topics in Class

  • When to raise controversial issues.
  • Should you stake out a position?
  • Be clear about the ground rules.
  • Ask students to take sides.

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more on discussions in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=discussion

Liberal Arts

An Unconvincing Argument for the Liberal Arts

We say we prepare students for undefined futures. Are they better for it?

https://www.chronicle.com/article/an-unconvincing-argument-for-the-liberal-arts

The medieval European understanding of liberal arts, based partially on a reinterpretation of classical ideas, suggested that elites needed an open-ended education based on the trivium and quadrivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) because, as rulers, they would face complex and unexpected problems, whereas others only needed an introduction to “practical arts” relevant to specific repeated labor.

either everyone needs liberal arts or no one does. If liberal arts and preparation for uncertainty are synonymous, it can’t possibly make sense to limit that training to future leaders or a small elite.

Liberal-arts faculty can be surprisingly incurious about how teaching actually happens in educational settings different from their own

Helga Nowotny calls “the cunning of uncertainty” and accept her argument that everyone — rich and poor, college educated in a liberal-arts curriculum, or high-school educated in a trade — can and should live with and even embrace that cunning. By “cunning,” Nowotny means that uncertainty is an irreducible part of human life and the physical universe, and that we should follow where it leads us.

John Kay has called obliquity: that in a very concrete and empirical sense, many of our most cherished goals and values are achievable only if we do not try to achieve them directly.

Maybe a liberal education is, or could be, about embracing uncertainty where it is generative, necessary, and useful.

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more on liberal arts in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=Liberal+Arts

gender gap among college students

The Missing Men

The gender gap among college students only worsened during the pandemic. Is it a problem colleges are willing to tackle?

https://www.chronicle.com/article/the-missing-men

n the late 1970s, men and women attended college in almost equal numbers. Today, women account for 57 percent of enrollment and an even greater share of degrees, especially at the level of master’s and above. The explanations for this growing gender imbalance vary from the academic to the social to the economic.

In 2018, the female-male gap in enrollment among 18- to 24-year-olds stood at eight percentage points for Black and Hispanic students, and six percentage points for white students. Over all, nearly three million fewer men than women enrolled in college that year.

Though well-paying jobs are still available for men without a four-year degree — jobs in the skilled trades, and advanced manufacturing, for example — most require at least a certificate or associate degree.

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more on male students decline in this iMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=male+students

Dos & Don’ts Teaching With Technology

7 Dos & Don’ts for Post-Pandemic Teaching With Technology

Here’s what students hope you’ll keep doing in the fall — and what they hope you’ll drop.

https://www.chronicle.com/article/7-dos-donts-for-post-pandemic-teaching-with-technology

February panel of students sharing their views on pandemic teaching….

  • DON’T lecture with slides for an entire Zoom class.
  • DO offer more active-learning and discussion exercises in class. 
  • DON’T require students to use a tech tool that you don’t understand. 
  • DO keep using anonymous polling.
  • DO get students up and about.
  • DO provide more asynchronous materials and activities.
  • DO emphasize interaction with and between students.

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more on online learning in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=online+learning

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