As a recent invitee to Google Wave, I am still experimenting and sampling this new resource [with the help of The Complete Guide to Google Wave]. As more people receive invites and the beta version of Google Wave develops, educators will get involved and as they find value and potential for their profession.
is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright.
[They] provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.
If you look at the Content Directories of CC is utilized by many companies, and even educational institutions. Some faculty started to challenge the traditional methods of research collection and how intellectual property is shared with others. One faculty shares how to encourage this open education movement in a publication called - Open Doors and Open Minds.
The recent development and contribution from Creative Commons is the DiscoverEd search engine, which provides accessible searches for open educational resources. This allows educators to access and share teaching and learning materials in an effective, easy way.
ACE (Academic & Career Explorer) is an online, peer buddy who connects with students at UTSC to share information & resources about job search, academic questions, career options and study skills support. You can connect to ACE various ways online:
The ACE project was a fun project to work on with staff and students. Kudos must go out to E-Lin, Suzanne, Esther & the great team of student staff at the Centre for all their creative work and on-going support.
Here’s a shot of E-Lin celebrating ACE’s birthday today with some cake (office tradition), of course:
When we first look for things online, we often turn to the popular search engine – Google. But have you thought about what else Google can do for you? Take a look at the various Google Apps that could be utilized for your practice in education, and an interesting article that supports use of Google technology for learning.
Here are a few suggestions on how YOU can use Google as an educator with your learners or colleagues:
Google Scholar: encourage scholary research & utilizing online publications for students and professional development; accurate & credible resources; also a fan of Google Book Search for similar use
Google Earth: geo-tagging is all the rage in higher education; you may want to include Google Maps to this app to create collaborate landmarking & mapping
Google Notebook: Interested in keeping those searched websites in an orderly fashion? Great for research & archiving
Google Docs: store Word, PowerPoint & Excel documents online; share & collaborate with students, staff & faculty; excellent project management tool
Google Calendar: keep track of assignments, itemize lesson plans visually, and more to help with better time management
Blogger: course contributions, themed journal writing, writing & development classes, and MORE! Blogger has been used for a wide variety of contributions to learning. Here are some blog examples in Higher Ed.
Google Sites: plan meetings or lessons, share information on a secure website, collaborate on projects, or stay connected to learning communities; similar to website or wiki development; easy to use
Google Reader: lets you subscribe to web sites so that new content comes to you when it’s posted; similar to RSS feeds
Google Talk: send instant text messages, voice and/or video conference, chat from desktop or Gmail, send documents, files or hyperlinks; easy way to host “office hours” from any location
