Brain A is listening to a class. / Brain B is working on the web.

How best to use electronic [internet accessible] media materials for instructional purposes

by John Freed, Ph.D. freed@chapman.edu

University College of Chapman University

Walnut Creek Campus

1. Be very contextual with the material clearly relating it to a specific learning objective for the class.
2. Be highly selective about the quality of the material itself. Do your homework about the reliability of the particular source for the material as well as the content of the material. Produce your own electronic materials when appropriate from other less accessible media.
3. Be sure to critically question all virtual authority (Wikipedia case in point vs. Encyclopedia). A very specific assignment focused on this very issue should be incorporated early on with the actual use of an electronically accessible source. [Point out the essential difference between what a university library collects and distributes and what the internet gathers and provides open access to.]
4. Be very specific and current with the actual hyperlinks that you provide. The goal should be direct connection with a single click. Check them out personally immediately before you direct students to them.
5. Be sure to supply the “So What” epilogue to the exercise.
6. Be sure to provide a re-accessible [asynchronous] environment for everything above. This invites an opportunity for review, reflection and later synthesis of the learning. This environment might part of a course-specific BlackBoard site or a more generally accessible professional blog.
7. Be sure to expand the common-wealth of resources by contributing as well as borrowing – (join a viral academic community such as Rice University’s Connexions or iTunes University or post your own professional blog linked to iTunes or not [CF . Google’s blog creation site -- https://www.blogger.com/start].

Examples Sheet for Instructional Uses of Electronic Resources

1. The Open-Access Instructional Resource project at Rice University:

a. Richard Baraniuk: “Goodbye, textbooks; hello, open-source learning”: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/25

b. Rice University’s Connexions: Sharing Knowledge and Building Learning Communities: http://cnx.org/

2. Example of Electronic Primary Sources:

Ian Johnston’s The Iliad and links to other class primary resources:

http://malaspina.edu/~johnstoi/homer/iliad_title.htm

and Ian Johnston’s Translation of Homer’s Iliad reviewed on NPR:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6849615

3. Example of a Professor’s Professional Blog – (Expanding instruction beyond the classroom) such as this one.

4. Second Language Learning and Free University Courses:

1. LiveMocha Free Language Courses:

http://www.livemocha.com/ [This site can also be used to refresh learning of Standard English as well as connecting globally to other English Language Learners.]

2. BBC Spanish Course:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/

3. BBC Chinese Course:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/

4. General Language Resources:

http://degreedirectory.org/articles/Ranking_of_Foreign_Language_OpenCourseWare_Education_Sources.html

5. English as a Second Language Remediation:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/678/01/

5. Guide to University College of Chapman Library Resources:

http://www1.chapman.edu/library/centers/GuidetoLibraryResources.pdf.

6. Ubiquitous Web Search Engine and Google Resources such as News, Books, Scholar, etc.

http://www.google.com/

7. All Purpose Developmental Writing Tutorials

a. for Non-Purdue Instructors and Students:

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/679/01/

b. for use with Diana Hacker’s Handbook

http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/pocket5e/player/pages/Login.aspx?sViewAs=S&userid=

8. APA (American Psychological Association) Documentation and Style Guide (fifth edition):

http://www.vanguard.edu/faculty/ddegelman/index.aspx?doc_id=796

9. Academic Integrity (How to avoid Plagiarism):

http://www.indiana.edu/~istd/

10. Mathematics / Statistics:

a. Mathematics Tutorials from Beginning Algebra through College Algebra and GRE prep:

http://www.wtamu.edu/academic/anns/mps/math/mathlab/

b. Basic Statistics (MATU 203)

http://www.tufts.edu/~gdallal/LHSP.HTM

and

http://davidmlane.com/hyperstat/index.html

11. Miscellaneous Microsoft Office Tutorials:

a. MS Word Tutorial:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training/CR061958171033.aspx

b. PowerPoint Tutorial:

http://www.iupui.edu/~webtrain/tutorials/powerpoint2000_basics.html

c. Excel Tutorials:

http://www.usd.edu/trio/tut/excel/index.html

and

http://www.micquality.com/excel_primer/

12. Free alternatives to Microsoft Office software applications.

a. Open Office:

http://www.openoffice.org/

b. Google Docs:

https://www.google.com/accounts/ServiceLogin?service=writely&passive=true&nui=1&continue=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F%3Fhl%3Den%26tab%3Dwo&followup=http%3A%2F%2Fdocs.google.com%2F%3Fhl%3Den%26tab%3Dwo&ltmpl=homepage&rm=false

13. Other Free College Course Materials:

http://degreedirectory.org/articles/25_Colleges_and_Universities_Ranked_by_Their_OpenCourseWare.html

14. Study Skills and Adjustment to College:

http://www.studygs.net/

Final Note: This listing of open-access electronic resources was prepared co-operatively by Chapman University College’s Division of Arts and Science under the project coordination of John Freed. If anyone has any comments on the usefulness of the material here or suggestions for adding other material, please direct them to Dr. Freed at freed@chapman.edu.

Lera Boroditsky

Listen to a conversation about the inter-relationships between world languages and human thinking

From Stanford University’s

Entitled Opinions

Host Robert Harrison

Tuesday, November 4, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm, 2008
Guest host Joshua Landy in conversation with Lera Boroditsky about language and thought.

Listen to the show

Click here for instructions on downloading and listening

JOSHUA LANDY is Associate Professor of French at Stanford University. He has written Philosophy as Fiction: Self, Deception, and Knowledge in Proust (Oxford, 2004) and has edited, with Thomas Pavel and Claude Bremond, Thematics: New Approaches (SUNY, 1994). This is his first appearance as host of Entitled Opinions. He was a guest of the show in 2005, discussing Marcel Proust with Robert Harrison.

LERA BORODITSKY is an assistant professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University. Dr. Boroditsky grew up in Minsk in the former Soviet Union. After earning a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Stanford in 2001, she served on the faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences before returning to a faculty position at Stanford. She also runs a satellite laboratory in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Boroditsky’s research centers on the nature of mental representation and how knowledge emerges out of the interactions of mind, world, and language. One focus has been to investigate the ways that languages and cultures shape human thinking. To this end, Boroditsky’s laboratory has collected data around the world, from Indonesia to Chile to Turkey to Aboriginal Australia. Her research has been widely featured in the media and has won multiple awards, including the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation and the Searle Scholars award.