zotero vs endnoteweb

Zotero is one mean tool for culling stuff from the web. I really like how, having found a webpage to read, one can save a snapshot of it and then annotate it. Although the snapshot file is not stored on the web (I think that's coming), there are advantages to that of course: you keep full control of the material. Where it falls down is at work where users may not have the rights over their machines to install the add-in. I really need to check this out...
As we found yesterday, endnoteweb feels like a technological tightrope walk when trying to do real work in work...

sms the lecturer

Have been triggered to thinking about this for a number of reasons. Partly it was the Dron book about so-called linear media. Txt messages are not free but peekamo makes it as near-to as could be imagined.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2005.11.014 have some good hints about unexpected outcomes. It seems that the time and cost of making an sms are factors of concern to students with many using pay as you go phones. It would make sense to give students 2 minutes at various points in the lecture to txt questions/comments.
One other issue raised is the fuzzing of boundaries between life outside the lecture hall and life inside it where students have subjected themselves to the pedagogic control of the lecturer and may be discomfited by him/her opening the lecture up in this way: normally we encourage students to turn their phones off! I liked the way that the messages were then made available after the in-class session in a discussion-type interface to encourage even more interaction.
I wonder if it might be possible to bring elements of the DFAQ system (see http://www.ifets.info/journals/7_3/5.pdf ) together with this...

Reflections on Dundee trip

Jon and I had come at 'teaching IT' in very similar ways - ie to integrate it into the course and send off those who really struggled to central IT provision. In many ways we have not really helped students by forcing them to all do ECDL - not least because the flavour of the month is moving off ECDL in the NHS
More later hopefully!

new call for new literacies education

This time it's from the Horizon report:

The academy is faced with a need to provide formal instruction in information, visual, and technological literacy as well as in how to create meaningful content with today’s tools. Webbased tools are rapidly becoming the standard, both in education and in the workplace. Technologically mediated communication is the norm. Fluency in information, visual, and technological literacy is of vital importance, yet these literacies are not formally taught to most students. We need new and expanded definitions of these literacies that are based on mastering underlying concepts rather than on specialized skill sets, and we need to develop and establish methods for teaching and evaluating these critical literacies at all levels of education. The challenge is to develop curricula and assessment rubrics that address not only traditional capabilities like developing an argument over the course of a long paper, but also how to apply those competencies to other forms of communication such as short digital videos, blogs, or photo essays.

http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2008-Horizon-Report.pdf

eee

This is getting quite exciting. £240 (inc VAT & Delivery) for all the everyday stuff you do on the Internet. I would choose this form factor over a smartphone anyday.
http://www.rm.com/FE/Products/Product.asp?cref=PD1024415
http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/reviews/review.phtml/2731/3755/Asus-eee-701-pc-laptop.phtml
This is getting quite exciting.

bibtex or endnote

So I'm trying to decide whether to make the leap into using bibtex. It sounds like a massive programme though - not sure I want to install it! I thought it was just a means of formatting using ascii text editor like notepad... doh! Seems like it's particularly important for sciency subjects. Since I hardly ever use an equation it may be a bit of a waste to learn it. But what do people do who cant afford Endnote... www.connotea.com? I'm just going to have to try it and see...