Social+Media+Resources2011

**Social Media Resources**
Here is a site I found that is quite interesting: []

I could see using this in my courses in the following ways: 1. Bulletin board 2. Brainstroming a concept/issues 3. Pose a question and ask for responses

I have created a wall that everyone can access at [] If you have any ideas you'd like to share, just go to the site and post them. Thanks.

//Foursquare guides real-world experiences by allowing users to bookmark information about venues that they want to visit and surfacing relevant suggestions about nearby venues.// I could possibly incorporate this into my course by creating a listing of resources to source fabrics (for the fashion design students.) This could allow for discussion and feedback as to where certain types of fabric are found and what store has the best deals. This would in turn assist students to know exactly where to go to source their fabrics and to be able to obtain the best price quotes, therefore saving time.
 * Submitted by KateL:** I also have found []


 * Submitted by Juanita:** [|www.stumbleupon.com] is a cool site that allows you to keep track of all of your favourite websites and share them with your friends, colleagues, students. When you select your interests, the site automatically starts to send websites that you might be interested your way. You then decide whether you like them (with a thumbs up) or dislike them (with a thumbs down), and the software will then determine which sites to send to you in the future.

I can imagine using this site as a way to get my students to introduce themselves to one another. It would also be a great tool to use for collaboration both with my colleagues and with my students. One drawback might be that students would have to be forewarned to be sure to follow the student code of conduct and only share websites that are appropriate.

[|http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/plastic-to-oil-fantastic/]
 * Submitted by PaulR:** In my course on Peak Oil, students have tended to rely on videos, most notably through Youtube.com, for information on energy issues outside of the course material that I present in the form of classnotes and PowerPoint presentations. They offer an interesting way to respond to the course material, especially to look at an issue from angle either overlooked or lightly covered in class. One such video, from Japan, involved the conversion of discarded plastic into oil.

However, on their own, Youtube videos tend to offer a limited, even uncritical, picture of an issue discussed in the course, particularly when it comes to presenting some alternative source or way of generating energy as the magic solution to our predicament, with respect to resource depletion("Limits to Growth").

To provide a critical context for on-line videos, I emphasise to my students the need to explore the Energy Bulletin website. Updated each weekday, Energy Bulletin offers a wide range of selected news articles, blog entries, videos(e.g. "Story of Stuff") as well as more scholarly articles, publicly-released official reports and secret documents leaked out through //The Guardian//, //Der Spiegel// and Wikileaks. Since its start in 2002, Energy Bulletin has archived all of entries posted on it and you are able to access them through the "Search" function. Over the past year, Energy Bulletin has added a toolbar for tweeting messages along with a comments section at the bottom of each entry. []


 * Submitted by Debbie:** I love foliospaces. A freemium Mahara eportfolio service provided @ []

While old-fashioned paper-based portfolios, can be one-dimensional, expensive to maintain, difficult to keep current, and do not reflect the digital world of today, digital portfolios provide students and teachers alike with a platform that promotes reflective teaching/learning practices and critical thinking skills, while also providing a tool to showcase authentic materials... including text-based materials as well as multi-media video, audio, blogs, and wikis (to name a few). Web-based E-portfolios provide an organic learning space that encourages life-long learning and creates a space for dialogue, feedback, and assessment. Accessible anytime-anywhere, they support teachers in their role as dual professionals by facilitating global collaboration, allowing individuals to build a web-based digital presence that is professional and appropriate, and providing a vehicle to maintain and develop currency...a critical challenge for every teacher.

Benefits to Students and Teachers o Builds a diverse community of practice for life-long and life-wide learning o Supports local and global collaboration via social networking o Allows individuals to build a web-based digital presence that is professional and appropriate o Develops and showcases technological literacy o Promotes a culture of creativity o Encourages pride of ownership

Additional Benefits to Teachers o Leverages student motivation by encouraging students to publish dynamic multimedia work online o Provides visual evidence of a student's developmental process and achievements o Creates a space for dialogue, feedback, and assessment o Integrates into existing learning management systems

Benefits to Institution o Promotes a culture of community and innovation o Provides an cost-effective collaborative web vehicle to showcase students and teachers to the wider community o Allows for scalability o Supports the Academic Strategy's call for excellence in teaching and learning


 * Submitted by Yasmin**:I am science teacher and in winter semester I taught environmental science course and while discussing different factors which brought hugh change in environment due to human intervention.I showed one Youtube video about shrinking of sea, which normally we do not think that this big water body could vanished from surface of earth.[|http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Pi61SyVSM]

Submitted by Terri: Writing teachers are using social media in different ways--one great way to use a WIki (is that considered old-fashioned now?) is to use it for students to collaborate on a "smartphone novel"--which is like an e-book, but usually has readers download a bit at a time so they can read it on their phones. So, after introducing the students to a tighter form of writing, (such as the six-word memoir, inspired by Hemingway), they are asked to come up with the first section of their smartphone novels, and then post subsequent (75-100 words) sections to a Wiki throughout the course. Along the way, their classmates read the stories section by section, and critique them. It would be a fun way to really distill the writing workshop, get everyone involved, and even gain the new writers real-world readers, if the wiki is made public.


 * Submitted by Trish:** The video Shirley posted about using Wikis to achieve learning outcomes reminded me that I have been meaning to set up a Wiki for students in my Sexual Diversity class so that they can consolidate, update and augment the various LGBTQ History timelines we're currently using in the course.

We use a timeline from the UWO website that covers key events in the 70s and 80s, but it ends abruptly in 1986. My students find this frustrating. The Pride Toronto web page is more current, but it focuses on events related to Pride. We also have a timeline that explains key changes to legislation related to LGBTQ people in Canada, but it is poorly organized and difficult to follow.

Every semester, I encouraged by students to create their own versions of the LGBTQ history timeline that include more current events and events that are often not included in the more "established" timelines. However, I have yet to create an opportunity for them to collaborate on actually creating a timeline as a class project. This would likely work best if the students were divided (or divided themselves) into groups, with each group responsible for researching and constructing the timeline for a particular time period. I'd also like students to be able to contribute to other sections of the timeline, though, so that diverse perspectives are represented.

An additional piece of this project might be to add links to web pages that provide additional information about key historical events and people who are mentioned on the existing timelines, and on the ones the students create.

My main concern is that I would have to carefully monitor the sources my students are using to make sure the information provided is accurate.

Post by Darinka: I found this really useful link to the page for collaboration. The link is [] Although I do not assign large pieces of writing, the concept of a tool for students to use when they write longer papers is appealing. It also indicates that it is good when there is limited supervision. I would also check the copyrights prior to using i

The link to these documentaries is []
 * Posted by Anu Harder**: I would like to bring attention documentaries on various economic topics that are free of charge. Business students may find this a useful supplementary tool for deeper understanding of theory and practice. There are also historical and political documentaries if the student would like to explore the context of a particular topic.

[]
 * Posted by Harmeet Kohli:**
 * This is an excellent site to read about Customs and Border protection, International Trade Statistics, Filed Operations, and Enforcement Activities.**
 * People involved in trade with the USA would find this link very useful.**