Resources for Teaching Online - Biology, Earth Sciences, & Environmental Studies

With this timely book, editors Les Lloyd and Gabriel Barreneche present an eye-opening look at projects that are innovating with technology to improve education and, indeed, the very quality of people's lives around the world. From collaborative learning communities and social networks to Web 2.0 tools, MOOCs, and mobiles, experts discuss an array of tech initiatives that teach students to think and act globally while helping to close the education gap between developed and developing nations. Contributors explain how students and institutions can reuse "obsolete" technology in places where it will be "new" and describe the impacts of such efforts on communities abroad. If you are interested in service-learning, internationalization, and study abroad--or if you are just looking for a way to keep your organization's old technology out of landfills--"Educational Technology for the Global Village" will inform and inspire you. Chapters include: (1) Learning Global Citizenship Through...

In MOOCs, High Technology, and Higher Learning, Robert A. Rhoads places the OpenCourseWare (OCW) movement into the larger context of a revolution in educational technology. In doing so, he seeks to bring greater balance to increasingly polarized discussions of massively open online courses (MOOCs) and show their ongoing relevance to reforming higher education and higher learning. Rhoads offers a provocative analysis of a particular moment in history when cultural, political, and economic forces came together with evolving teaching and learning technologies to bring about the MOOC. He argues persuasively that the OCW and MOOC movements have had a significant impact on the digitalization of knowledge and that they have helped expand the ways students and teachers interact and develop ideas collaboratively. He also critically analyzes the extensive media coverage of MOOCs while examining empirical studies of MOOC content delivery, the organizational system supporting the OCW/MOOC movement, and faculty labor concerns. Too often, technology advocates champion the MOOC movement as a solution to higher education's challenges without recognizing the pedagogical, social, and economic costs. MOOCs, High Technology, and Higher Learning challenges many of the democratic claims made by MOOC advocates, pointing to vast inequities in the ways MOOCs are presented as an alternative to brick-and-mortar access for low-income populations. This book offers a clear-eyed perspective on the potential and peril of this new form of education

This practical guide is essential for anyone new to or intimidated by online instruction. It distills the wisdom of veteran instructors and program directors who have successfully navigated the transition from face-to-face classroom teaching to the online learning environment. Chapters cover all the bases from skills assessment to instructional technology basics to pedagogical strategies. The focus throughout is on minimizing distance and distress (especially for the technology-shy) and maximizing creative adaptations to the new possibilities that open up for humanities instructors and their students in the digital world. An introduction, "The Future Is Now," by Steven J. Hoffman and an index are included. Also included are the following chapters: (1) Before We Begin: Preparing to Teach Online (Khadijah O. Miller ); (2) Reducing Distance in Online Classes (Lisa M. Lane); (3) Using Electronic Courseware: Lessons for Educators (Sharmila Pixy Ferris and Maureen C. Minielli); (4)...