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MIT Opens its Doors to Online Ed...even wider!

Mit is developing a new online tool platform called MITx that will hopefully bolster MIT's already success OpenCourseWare by:

  • organizing and present course material to enable students to learn at their own pace
  • featuring interactivity, online laboratories and student-to-student communication
  • allowing for the individual assessment of any student’s work and allow students who demonstrate their mastery of subjects to earn a certificate of completion awarded by MITx
  • operating on an open-source, scalable software infrastructure in order to make it continuously improving and readily available to other educational institutions.

You can check out the full article here you can see the details on how they plan to revolutionize the quality of online education in America. Very exciting times indeed!

MIT President Susan Hockfield said,

                       “MIT has long believed that anyone in the world with the motivation and ability to engage MIT coursework should have the opportunity to          attain the best MIT-based educational experience that Internet technology enables..."

 

Guess What? GIS is a Beneficial Tool for All

 

GIS (Geographic Information Services) is empowering new ways faculty can teach in their classrooms and the way students interact and learn. Nowhere is that more evident than in the Department of Geography. Jeremy Crampton and his class surveyed part of UK’s campus with a camera, 2-liter soda bottle, a balloon, rubber bands and string. Find out more about how a do-it-yourself project like this makes it easy to be an active participant in data collection.

Matt Wilson’s students are also putting GIS to use by working with community members and organizations. Ranging from health and cultural advocacy, food systems, open data, environmental issues, historical preservation – the students collaborate with people and places in the community to provide a needs assessment that GIS technologies can offer, whether it is web-based mapping tools, information that can help with grants, or just general GIS analysis. Listen to this podcast to find out more.


To view full stories on these interesting topics, check out these helpful links:

Google's New Unified Privacy Policy

Google is updating its privacy policy effective March 1st. The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers the following advice, which I feel is very important to share.

"Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google's other products. This protection was especially important because search data can reveal particularly sensitive information about you, including facts about your location, interests, age, sexual orientation, religion, health concerns, and more. If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future."

I think it's great that Google provides an option to opt out - but perhaps it needs to be more widely publicized? What are your thoughts? Are you opting out?

Study Abroad with Semester at Sea!

This past Summer, I had the wonderful opportunity to study abroad with Semester at Sea. It was a fantastic learning experience and I was able to make many new friends. I was on the MV Explorer for a month and was able to see seven countries. With this program, you have the ability to study about a particular concept and then experience it in the countries you visit. I took a class in education on board the ship. My class then had the opportunity to teach in Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago. This was my favorite experience during my voyage. I cannot express how fun it is to study on a cruise ship. If you have the chance, you should look into this program or any other Education Abroad program! I highly suggest that as an undergraduate student you study abroad. It truly is a life changing experience.

http://www.semesteratsea.org/

Game-based Learning

I am taking a Digital Game-Based Learning course this semester, and so far it has been really interesting.  We look at the ways that games can provide great learning opportunities. For a project, I had to create my own game.  I had previously created a non-educational game in another class, so I built off of that one for my educational game.  Play both games at the links below.

Non educational game, "When Hippos Fly" : http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/FuzzyTurtles/2094222'

Educational game, "Hippos in Outer Space: A Math Adventure" : http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/FuzzyTurtles/2311162