Ghana Blogging Support

Hello, Ghana gang! I am wishing you a great trip filled with wonder and rich educational experiences. I will be happy to support your chronicling of the trip here at UMWBlogs. Feel free to call on me via comment here or email. Happy trails to you!

Sedans vs. Zombies

(Or, How I Debated Jim Groom and Lived to Tell About It.)

I happen, through happy circumstance, to work at the same university (University of Mary Washington) as Jim Groom – Blogger, Reverend, Zombie Hunter, EduPunker. As all who follow Jim know, he is an ardent proponent using innovative technology in teaching and learning – full of zeal, but not a zealot.  Some closely associate him with WordPress Multi-User blogs, which he has fostered to near perfection here at umwblogs.org. But he is SO much deeper than that.

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Reflective Online Activities

The following is an outline for a talk given at Germanna Community College on May 15, 2009.

From John Dewey in How We Think:

Active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends, constitutes reflective thought.

Further consideration at once reveals certain subprocesses which are involved in every reflective operation. These are: (a) a state of perplexity, hesitation, doubt; and (b) an act of search or investigation directed toward bringing to light further facts which serve to corroborate or to nullify the suggested belief.

Links:

1. Jane Hart, Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009
2. Jane Hart, 25 Tools Every Learning Professional Should Have in Their Toolbox
3. Gliffy
4. Gliffy, Cause and Effect Storyboard
5. Gliffy, The Bee and Jupiter
6. Gliffy, Red Pentagons
7. Twitter
8. Twitter Settings
9. Twitter Hashtags
10. Twitter Search
11. Twitter, Collective Notetaking
12. Twitterfall
13. Twitter Ideas
14. Google Docs
15. Google Docs, Forms (in or out of Bb)
16. iGoogle
17. SproutBuilder
18. Wordpress Multi-User Blogs
19. Glogster
20. Jing
21. DimDim

Presentation Take-aways:

• Introduce multiple small, low-threshold activities in your online (or traditional) class to promote reflective thought.