To be presented online via Skype:
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Presentation for 'Hand-in-Hand'
Tag: Skype
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Getting off the starting block: Skype
It appears that a combination of new technologies, and fee rises in the UK are encouraging more to look to the States:
Professor McAuliffe said that once this was taken into account, students might actually be charged “a good deal less” in the US.
She added that the admissions process was also changing with the advent of new technologies, with one of the schools at the meeting helping its students to prepare for interviews in the US using Skype.
According to the Fulbright Commission, which promotes educational exchanges between the US and the UK, traffic to its website increased 30 per cent in the wake of the decision to increase tuition fees in England to a maximum of £9,000 a year.
Read full story.
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Travelling in the Digital Age
On Saturday I was supposed to fly to Egypt. Snow hemmed us in (yes, Wimba can help with meetings, etc. but it can’t get us physically to places… !), and I’m still in the UK, trying to find out if our new flight on Wednesday is going. There are a raft of digital tools at our fingertips; company websites, weather forecasts, online booking/checkin, Skype, Twitter, Email, etc that we have used in trying to rearrange our trip. See the ‘full’ story on my other blog:
And whoever was talking about that we’ll stop travelling physically and choose to travel digitally only… I can’t quite see it – there’s something about being abroad that is different. Maybe 4D will one day replicate all the sensations, etc. but … we’ll see!
“The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education.
Pockets of experimentation are emerging all around the world, and I hope to inspire my fellow teachers with some stories of success. From cell phones to social media, below are three schools that have chosen to go with the flow of popular technology to turn the tide for education.”
Read full story (and it’s not just a problem in America!). The story forcuses on the use of Skype for language learning, the integration of mobile phones into the learning experience, and the use of Twitter… this one is particularly inspiring:
“Many universities have internal e-mail systems and message boards. But getting students to routinely check these systems for updates can be a chore. As a college teacher myself, my students have been required to participate in group message boards, which is a poor substitute for genuine intellectual curiosity. As a solution, Leicester University in the UK turned to Twitter, hoping that the popular micro-blogging technology would encourage collaboration outside of class. Students were provided with an iPod touch, given instructional materials, and told they had to make a few academic-related tweets a day. Soon, a thriving community grew, complete with @replies and hashtags flying back-and-forth between participants, tutors, and even members outside of the program. Additionally, the study has become an unexpected marketing boon for the university. The Association for Learning Technology noted in its newsletter:
“One year ago, a Twitter search for ‘University of Leicester’ revealed little of interest. More recent searches reveal a growing volume of conversation between existing students, often across institutional boundaries, and also from prospective students, commenting on perceptions of the University and Higher Education in general.”
The university was impressed by the experiment and has begun collaborating with teachers and staff to extend participation throughout the campus. Leicester University joins the growing ranks of major universities, such as M.I.T., that are preparing students with technological and cooperative skills essential to real-life scientific experimentation.”