Making it visual = amazing

Please watch this: it really is an amazing and interesting testament to the power of technology to present information in new ways that illuminate the issues:

http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_rosling_reveals_new_insights_on_poverty.html

“Opening Up Education” Remix Version

Opening Up Education, edited by Toru Iiyoshi and M.S. Vijay Kumar, has been reproduced on the Academic Commons site. This is well worth scanning and picking out articles of interest:

http://www.academiccommons.org/commons/essay/opening-education

Understanding Gartner’s hype cycle

The image below shows the Gartner Group’s assessment of where a number of leading technologies are on the “hype cycle.” This analysis can help us in higher ed to understand which web 2.0 technologies actually have staying power. While blogs, wikis and social networking in general have gone through the initial euphoria of high expectations and the trough of disappointment, microblogging (e.g., twitter) has not. It would make sense that we look at established technologies that likely have some staying power first to see what how they can support student learning, and avoid jumping on the bandwagon of the “latest and greatest” until it is proven. The hype curve is (hopefully) reproduced below (you will probably have to increase the view size to read it):

“Segunda Vida” Digital Storytelling project

BCC Professor of Foreign Languages Lois Cooper shows the Segunda Vida project using role-play and social networking to support cultural information and identity