Wikipedia Final Exam: Passed (Journalists Failed)

Below is an excerpt from the article about a college student's inquiry into Wikipedia and journalism in the digital age. What he found out might surprise some of you or even cause a reconsideration of using Wikipedia in the classroom. Read the full article here.

Here are some highlights (quoted here, not "lifted") ;-)

Irish student hoaxes world's media with fake quote 

DUBLIN -

When Dublin university student Shane Fitzgerald posted a poetic but phony quote onWikipedia, he said he was testing how our globalized, increasingly Internet-dependent media was upholding accuracy and accountability in an age of instant news.

His report card: Wikipedia passed. Journalism flunked.

The sociology major's made-up quote — which he added to the Wikipedia page of Maurice Jarre hoursafter the French composer's death March 28 — flew straight on to dozens of U.S. blogs and newspaper Web sites in Britain, Australia and India.

A full month went by and nobody noticed the editorial fraud. So Fitzgerald told several media outlets in an e-mail and the corrections began.

"The moral of this story is not that journalists should avoid Wikipedia, but that they shouldn't use information they find there if it can't be traced back to a reliable primary source," said the readers' editor at the Guardian, Siobhain Butterworth, in the May 4 column that revealed Fitzgerald as the quote author.

Walsh said this was the first time to his knowledge that an academic researcher had placed false information on a Wikipedia listing specifically to test how the media would handle it.

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How do you handle the use of Wikipedia in your courses and/or your own research?

Why All Professors Should Blog

David Albrecht, associate professor of Accounting and Management Information Systems, presented last week on "Why All Professors Should Blog." He provided examples and led discussion about: 

1. Why you should blog, 
   
2. What you should blog about, and 
   
3. How to get started. 
   

A blog post he wrote a few months ago nicely summarizes his main arguments. 

Now it's your turn... if you have a blog and are a BGSU faculty member, leave your URL and name in the comments below. If you are thinking about a blog, what are you waiting for? As David mentioned, blogging "is like adding Miracle Grow to your research"! 

 

Latest "Communicating for Learners" Newsletter (Spring 2009, #2)

The newest CTL “Communicating for Learners” newsletter has just been released. In the latest newsletter you can find the interesting "What If..." article concerning the University Learning Outcomes and how they can apply in classrooms here at BGSU. There is also a thought-provoking article titled, "Brain Rules for Learning" that describes John Medina's twelve famous Brain Rules. In addition, the newsletter features five new websites that we find helpful and beneficial to educators and students. Our Visionary Status in this newsletter is John Tagg, who is a well-known writer and researcher in the education field. Finally, you can also look at the different dates and times of workshops and discussions available here at the CTL.

To read a copy of the latest newsletter click here.

Choosing Technological Tools

With all the encouragement to integrate active learning techniques into your teaching, it's easy to get confused about what to use when. Specifically, deciding which technological tools to use can seem overwhelming. Three of the most common tools instructors use in their classes are blogs, wikis, and dicussion boards. To guide you in the process of choosing which tool to use, we have collected information and dveloped a chart.

It is important that you consider the answer to some important questions as you make your choice:

• What is the purpose of using the tools?


• What features are most important for you?


• What level of privacy do you need?

The answers to these questions and others can be found by looking at the chart. Make sure to use the left-most colomn labeled "Topic" to guide your selection.

You can download the document here.

And don't forget that you can always schedule a consultation at the Center for help on how to use your tool in class by calling the Center at 372-6898 or emailing the Center at ctl@bgsu.edu.

Disruptive Technologies or New Pedagogical Possibilities

This presentation, “Disruptive Technologies or New Pedagogical Possibilities” by Grainne Conole was delivered at the Eduserv Foundation Symposium 2008, in London, England. In this video, Conole discusses how Web 2.0 has changing our learning and teaching paradigms. She discusses how we need to develop new models to understand the relationship between pedagogy and technology.

In order to understand the pedagogical implications of Web 2.0 tools, she explores three case studies: Learning Design, Openlearn and SocialLearn.



To read a related article by Grainne Conole please click here.

After watching this video, do you think we must develop new pedagogies that involve Web 2.0 tools?

Learning Styles

It’s no secret that people learn in different ways. The key to success in teaching is realizing that people learn differently and finding ways to incorporate different learning styles into our classes. Recently, we held a workshop titled Pragmatic Practices for Teaching Assistants, Learning Styles that addressed how to assess learning styles and how to make our students aware of and responsible for their own learning styles.

In a paper titled Student Learning Styles and Their Implications for Teaching, authors Susan Montgomery and Linda Groat discuss the importance of recognizing learning styles and offered several different ways to assess these styles. Among the learning style models that they covered are the Myers-Briggs Model and the Kolb/McCarthy Learning Cycle. The authors also provide useful tips to engage students with different types of learning styles in your classes. These tips include using both group and independent work, requiring in-class presentations and providing less direction to students.

To read the rest of the article please click here.

How do you engage students in your classes that have different learning styles?

Two Opinions on Higher Education

Suggestions and opinions for ways to improve the quality of higher education is not a new discussion topic. Different scholars, studies, and projects suggest different strategies for improving higher education. Paul Basken and Kevin Carey are two of known researchers and writers who have ideas of why higher education needs improvement and strategies for bringing about its betterment.

Basken seems to agree with the idea that there is a culture amongst many faculties who simply are resistant to change. Hence, traditional methods and older pedagogical frameworks continue to prevail in institutions of higher education.

Carey, however, has a different take on how to improve higher education. In simple terms Carey is an advocate of holding faculty members responsible for the pedagogical methods they choose to implement in their courses.

Both writers have different, and interesting, opinions on how to deal with improving higher education. You can read the articles that both men wrote on The Chronicle of Higher Education’s website and see how many people are responding to the articles.

Upload and share your work on Scribd.com

One of the leaders in online publishing is Scribd. Scribd allows people to upload documents - which can be in the form of reports, brochures, books, spreadsheets, puzzles and games, etc. - to the Internet for sharing with millions of readers. The website also allows you to discuss work that belongs to other people. And, Scribd is free for users!

As per Scribd's FAQs:

Scribd lets you publish and discover documents online. It is like a big online library where anyone can upload. We make use of a custom Flash document viewer that lets you display documents right in your Web browser.

Part of the idea behind Scribd is that everyone has a lot of documents sitting around on their computers that only they can read. With Scribd we hope to unlock this information by putting it on the web.

Scribd would a useful website for students, especially, graduate students to get feedback on term papers, thesis or dissertation chapters, and for providing feedback to other users. For professors Scribd could prove helpful in publishing pre-publication documents for feedback or learning about what other college instructors are doing in their field or another field.

Over the past couple years Scribd has steadily grown in its users and readership. Please take a look for yourself and see what you can share or discuss.

Funding...Instructional Improvement Grant deadline approaching

The deadline for the Instructional Improvement Grant is approaching fast. The deadline for proposals is 5pm, March 2nd.

Awards of up to $1000 are provided for proposals that lead to significant and demonstrable improvement in pedagogical skills and/or have a positive effect on student learning.

More information and guidelines concerning proposals are available at:

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/provost/profDevel/fdcgrants.htm

Or call 419-372-5387.

Breaking Down the “Pay Wall” to Scholarly Works: Michael Carroll Presentation

On October 31, 2008, Michael Carroll presented "Copyright and Your Right to Use and Share Your Scholarly Materials" at BGSU’s Olscamp Hall. His presentation was recorded, so be sure to set aside 60 minutes for this thought-provoking view of the coming shift in scholarly communication:

For BGSU community – Click here to view (with description, time, scheduling options, etc)

For other non-BGSU viewers – Click here to view (with no other data or scheduling options)

Dr. Carroll began by comparing the scholarly communication movement of today to recycling 20 years ago – now recycling is commonplace as will scholarly communication (open access/author’s rights, etc.) eventually, due to changing times, needs, and the availability of digital tools.
Copyright laws are the crux of the issue behind the scholarly communication movement and the pressing need for change. The first laws, enacted in the early 18th century, were intended to protect those who wanted to make money from their written works rather than those who wrote for impact, as researchers and scholars do. Currently, when an author signs over their copyright to the publisher, they become limited in their own access to the work as well as limit many others due to what Dr. Carroll calls “the pay wall.”

From the price of individual journals offered through library subscriptions or access costs for individual articles online, the prices have skyrocketed, leaving many institutions to make difficult decisions about what they can or can no longer afford for their faculty and students. (Access to some individual journals can cost over $10,000 per year.) Carroll asks that researchers and authors make responsible decisions regarding the publication of their works – to consider the effects of simply signing the first or “opening offer” a publisher extends.
The issue of open access (OA), where the consumer of the works (reader, researcher) does not have to pay for access to the published works, often leads to misinformation about OA… “Open access does not mean lower quality or less rigor.” In fact, Carroll listed several ways that OA is good for authors/researchers:

• increases impact (# of citations) due to easier access by researchers
• serendipitous researchers come across works more often, making previously unforeseen connections
• researchers need broader access to a myriad of sources/literature
• helps international and poorly financed researchers – access/cost
• medical researchers – providing out of date treatments due to lack of access to most recent findings
• current pay-for journals are not searchable because they are not linked (lots of information could be added to the general pool of accessible resources)

One example Dr. Carroll highlighted was the OA journal, PLOS (Public Library of Science), and its successful growth over the past few years, including a 90% rejection rate, high impact, and the ability to publish peer-reviewed works immediately on the web. Other journals are using a similar model, but many other options are being investigated as viable options. (See Philosophers’ Imprint from the University of Michigan, which has been in service since 2001)

When considering to transfer your copyright to a publisher, Carroll asks authors to take an “Aretha Franklin moment” -- “You better think…” In other words, you may be limiting or hurting yourself and other future researchers by giving away all copyright control to a publisher.

So, what can faculty authors do?

• Check current authors’ rights with publishers (these can sometimes be altered after the fact)
• Negotiate with the publisher – they are getting used to this process and providing options for authors (it’s your call – they want to keep a good relationship with you too)
• Many publishers already allow some form of open access, but most authors still are not asking/requesting; it’s a usually a workflow issue, habit, or simply non-awareness (most faculty are simply not aware of their options nor the benefits of OA)

As Dr. Carroll opined, “we’re reaching the tipping point… (and we) need help to push this forward.” Spread the word and become a part of the soon-to-be-in-crowd of Open Access authors!

For more information:

• BGSU's Scholarly Communication page (including BGSU Author's Addendum .doc form)
• Michael Carroll’s blog on issues related to copyright, law, technology, and music
  
• SPARC’s Resources for Authors
• What you can do to promote Open Access
• Peter Suber’s Open Access Overview (Brief version -- Full version/links )
  

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What are your thoughts on Open Access and author's rights? How knowledgeable are faculty or graduate students (future scholars) in your department?... Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

Have You Tried DiRT?

DiRT is the acronym for a new wiki, Digital Research Tools. DiRT offers an array of resources for grad students or instructors in higher education. This wiki is a collection of resources that helps scholars do everything from manage citations, author a multimedia work, or analyze texts. There are over two dozen links to different software resources and websites that can offer help for researchers.

For example, you're writing an article with the intention of getting it published. This wiki can help with the publication process. DiRT offers a platform to share your work with other researchers, compare resources, help contribute to a collection, or help you organize your research tools.

Take a look for yourself and invite other people to visit DiRT.

Here's your link to this wiki: http://digitalresearchtools.pbwiki.com

Learning Community Updates - SoTL, Publication, & Library eTools

The Center for Teaching and Learning is sponsoring 13 learning communities (LC) for the 2008-09 academic year. Below are brief updates from four of them, regarding their accomplishments and future plans.


Scholarship of Teaching and Learning LC (Facilitated by Jackie Cuneen and Mark Earley)
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning LC read and discussed anthropologist Rebakah Nathan’s book My Freshman Year, an insider’s observation of modern college students focusing on the current state of academics and campus culture.
In addition, we examined other materials such as a 60 Minutes feature entitled Here Come The Millennials, and interacted with invited guest Professor Michael Coomes from the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs, an expert on the Millennial student and co-author of Serving the Millennial Generation. SoTL LC member Colleen Boff collected information from the group and created a LibGuide (see http://libguides.bgsu.edu/millennials) containing a comprehensive listing of scholarly sources about working with and teaching Millennials. The LibGuide features a menu of “Classroom Activities,” and LC members will add activities to the menu throughout Spring Semester 2009. The SoTL LC will demonstrate the LibGuide at the CTL’s Teaching and Learning Fair on February 6, 2009 (watch CTL's website for more information on this event).

Publication LC (Facilitated by Allie Terry)
The Publication LC has met 4 times to discuss 6 Learning Community members' research thus far and has already built a "culture of accountability" for the publication process within the group. Each session, at least one LC member pre-circulates a publication in progress for critique and discussion by the group. During our meeting, we dissect the text, move it forward in terms of readers' comments, conceptual frameworks, and issues of style.

The culture of mutual trust and respect in the group provides an ideal environment of "safe critique," one in which the shared goal is to publish the research in the best form possible. Thus, the author understands that the critique is not aimed at intellectual failure, but rather at intellectual achievement in the eventual publication of the research. Our LC's current works-in-progress include: 21 articles, 7 book chapters, at least 4 book manuscripts, 2 grant proposals, and 16 conference papers. (Note: this LC has 10 members this year.)

Library e-Tools LC (Facilitated by Colleen Boff and Linda Rich)
The Library e-Tools LC has been having fun digging into EBSCOhost, a common search interface to dozens of library research databases covering a variety of topics and disciplines. Here’s what we are in the process of exploring:

• Basic and advanced searching
• Customization of the search screen
• Saving searches and organizing research into folders
• Sharing research folders with other users (e.g. students, colleagues, etc.)
• Setting up automatic searches via email alerts/RSS feeds
• Setting up table of contents alerts for favorite journals
• Using EBSCOhosts’ Page Composer to easily build web pages

As we explore these different Web 2.0 enhancements, we discuss ways to use these value-added features with students in our teaching and for our own research and work with colleagues.

Pedagogy and Scholarship in Second Life Learning Community (facilitated by Anthony Fontana and Bonnie Mitchell) has been investigating various approaches to integrating SL into the BGSU learning environment and the issues involved. Members continually share their experiences, concerns, opinions, expertise and interests during group discussions and interactive dialog. The community consists of members from a variety of disciplines including Art, Interpersonal Communication, Intervention Services, the Writing Center, Computer Science, Psychology and Pop Culture.

The facilitators have shared the knowledge that they obtained while attending the Second Life Educators Community Conference in Florida and the Internet Research Conference in Denmark. As a group, the Pedagogy and Scholarship in Second Life Learning Community discussed issues related to research ethics and procedures, relevant and popular research topics in SL, and developments in virtual world technologies. Other meetings have focused primarily on teaching using Second Life and teaching experiences on the virtual campus.


For more information about these and other learning communities, visit the CTL's LC page or contact us at ctl@bgsu.edu or 372-6898.

Discussing Higher Education

Would you like to be discuss over 37 thousand topics concerning higher education with more than 22 thousand people around the world? Do you have a strong opinion about some practice in the classroom that you want to share with someone?


The Chronicle for Higher Education has a discussion forum where you can peruse more than 790 thousand posts that concern just about any imaginable topic of higher education. Faculty can go into forums about everything from taking attendance with an iPhone, on up to reforms that would better prepare students for college. The dozens of articles that the Chronicle posts are always being discussed there.

Please visit the forum and see what kind of discussion you get involved in.

Link to forum:
http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php

Link to Chronicle of Higher Education home page:
http://chronicle.com/

Foster article: "New Systems Keep a Close Eye on Online Students at Online Students at Home"

Just last week an article by Andrea L. Foster was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education. The article has been generating plenty of traffic and just as much discussion. If you wonder why the article may be attracting so many readers, please read the first two paragraphs of her article (below) and what she writes about the overhauled Higher Education Act that recently was overwhelmingly approved by Congress.

"Tucked away in a 1,200-page bill now in Congress is a small paragraph that could lead distance-education institutions to require spy cameras in their students' homes.

It sounds Orwellian, but the paragraph — part of legislation renewing the Higher Education Act — is all but assured of becoming law by the fall. No one in Congress objects to it."

Many instructors and students may not realize the impact this act may have on them. We would like to hear what some people say. Please read Foster's article or get some more facts on the Higher Education Act and give us a comment on what you read.

Link to Foster's article:

<http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i46/46a00103.htm?utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en>

Tomorrow's Professor

Would you like to be able to read what people all over the world are saying in the realm of higher education about an array of interesting topics? If this is something you would like, then you should read what a huge network of professionals share almost everyday on Tomorrow's Professor.

This is a collaborative effort by Stanford University and M.I.T., which shares advice, experiences, research and blog postings from all over the world. Tomorrow's Professor has a sharing network of over 25,000 people, at more than 600 institutions, in 108 countries. People can find articles that concern topics ranging from "Avoiding scientific misconduct" to "How to Get the Most Out of Scientific Conferences." In their blog you can find postings concerning a variety of topics, like "Adaptive Learning" and "Academic Advising in the New Global Century."

Please see their Listserv and blog with the links below:

Listserv: <http://ctl.stanford.edu/Tomprof/index.shtml>

Blog: <http://amps-tools.mit.edu/tomprofblog/>

Please leave us a comment about what you think about Tomorrow's Professor.

Call for Presenters from the Office of Service-Learning Fall '08 Faculty Focus Workshop Series

The Office of Service Learning is beginning to plan for the Fall '08 Faculty Focus Workshop series. "If you have taught, are teaching, or are planning on teaching a service-learning course, we would like to have you participate in our series."

Here is a description of the Faculty Focus Workshop series offered each semester:

Faculty Focus Series

These discussion-based workshops feature faculty members talking about their service-learning courses and experiences working with all aspects of service-learning and civic engagement. If you would like to present in a workshop or know of someone who you think would be beneficial to hear from, please let us know!

Please email the Office of Service-Learning to volunteer to be a presenter or to make a recommendation -- Call 419-372-9287, email slbgsu@bgsu.edu or visit them online at http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/service-learning/

Call For Papers: Insight Journal

This is a final reminder concerning the upcoming submission deadline for Insight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching. Insight focuses each edition on a specific topic or theme relevant to current trends in higher education; the theme of the third issue is scholarship of teaching and learning.

Submission details are as follows:

• STYLE - All manuscripts must be formatted in either APA or MLA style.
• LENGTH - Manuscript should be no more than 10 pages (not including abstract, references or appendices). Authors are encouraged to include appendices that promote application and integration of materials (i.e., assignments, rubrics, examples, etc.).
• ABSTRACT - Each manuscript must be summarized in an abstract of 50 to 100 words.
• AUTHOR - Each author should provide his/her full name, title and departmental affiliation, campus address, telephone number, and email address. Each author must also include a brief biography (no more than 50 words per author).
• FORMAT - All manuscripts must be submitted via email as attachments in Microsoft Word or Rich Text Format. Do not include personal identifiers within the manuscript. Include contact information only on a separate cover sheet. Each manuscript will be assigned a unique identifier for blind review processes. Send submissions to cetl@park.edu.
• DEADLINE - All submissions must be received by 4:00pm on April 7, 2008 (CST).

If you need additional information, please review the Call for Papers and Quick Tips located at http://www.park.edu/cetl/Insight.aspx or contact CETL at cetl@park.edu.

2008 Lilly Conference on College and University Teaching - Traverse City, MI

(Forwarded from the Conference Committee:)
Greetings,

The call for proposals for the 8th Annual Lilly - Traverse City Conference on College and University Teaching is now open. The conference will be held Thursday, September 18 through Sunday, September 21, 2008. This conference has sold out each of the past four years and participants comment time and again that this is one of the best teaching conferences in the country.

Keynote speakers this year include Denise Green, Bill McKeachie, Laurie Richlin, Debra Rowe, Norman Vaughn, and Todd Zakrajsek.

The conference theme is Millennial Learning: Teaching in the 21st Century, and includes four major tracks: advancing active learning, teaching well with technology, cultural competency, and adult learning in nontraditional formats.

An integral part of the Lilly Conferences on Teaching and Learning is the number of high-quality presentations on improving student learning. Come share what has been successful in your classes and what you have discovered about facilitating student learning.

Click here to submit a proposal: http://www.facit.cmich.edu/lilly/proposals.shtml The deadline for proposal submissions is Monday, April 14, 2008.

Please visit the Lilly -Traverse City conference website for more information about this conference: http://www.facit.cmich.edu/lilly/

We hope you'll consider joining us in Traverse City!

Todd Zakrajsek - Conference Director

Sarah Scoby - Conference Coordinator

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NOTE: Traverse City, MI is about a 5 hour drive from BGSU!

Scholarly Publishing 1.1? (On the way to 2.0)

According to a PBS blog post by Andy Carvin, a group of Harvard faculty recently:

unanimously adopted a new policy that would allow them to retain the copyright of scholarly research. As a result, students and the public at large could have much greater access to these materials online than ever before.

For more information about the transition (or transformation) in scholarly communication and publishing:

SPARC (Association of Research Libraries - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) - including information on author's rights (yes, you may have them... if you ask!) and open access

CreateChange.org is "an educational initiative that examines new opportunities in scholarly communication, advocates changes that recognize the potential of the networked digital environment, and encourages active participation by scholars and researchers to guide the course of change."

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How will changes in scholarly publishing and communication affect you?

...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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Academia 2.0: Blog Comments vs. Peer Review

From The Chronicle of Higher Education - Feb. 1, 2008 (Link to article for BGSU community):
Blog Comments vs. Peer Review: Which Way Makes a Book Better? (by Jefferey R. Young)

"What if scholarly books were peer reviewed by anonymous blog comments rather than by traditional, selected peer reviewers?"

Noah Wardrip-Fruin from the University of California at San Diego is asking this very question for a book he is finishing, Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies.

"The idea was to tap the wisdom of his crowd. Visitors to the blog might not read the whole manuscript, as traditional reviewers do, but they might weigh on a section in which they have some expertise...

"Ben Vershbow, editorial director at the Institute for the Future of the Book, concedes that comments on blogs are unlikely to fully replace peer review. But he says academic blogging can play a role in the publishing process."

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What are your thoughts on this type of peer review? What are the pros/cons/limitations/consequences?

...Click on the COMMENTS link below to get started!

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