Learning@Richmond November 2011 Issue
November 1, 2011
If you have any comments, questions, or ideas for future issues, please contact the Learning@Richmond editor, Dr. Matthew Trevett-Smith.
November 2011 Issue
Faculty and staff from across the University of Richmond were invited to participate in an informative networking event sponsored by Boatwright Library and the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology that aimed to highlight innovative strategies in teaching, learning, and creativity.
Erika Damer (Classical Studies), Joe Essid (The Writing Center), Suzanne Jones (English), Jeannine Keefer (Art), and Melissa Ooten (Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies) discussed their experiences using tools such as iPods, Digital Stories, Google Maps, and WordPress blogs, and how these various technologies have encouraged student collaboration, active engagement, and stronger research and writing skills.
Plus the Fall CTLT Calendar, Pizza and Pedagogy Announcements, and what resources on enhancing teaching effectiveness has inspired your CTLT liaisons.
Click Here to Download this issue.
Links featured in this issue:
CTLT Liaison Blog
Boatwright Memorial Library
Old Medium, New Media Presentation
Americans in Paris Blog
Americans in Paris Interactive Map
Richmond Architecture Blog
Without Sanctuary Website
Tomorrows Professor Listserv
New Media Consortium
What the Best College Teachers Do
Quality Matters Rubric
CTLT Fall 2011 Workshop Schedule
CTLT Training & Classes
The future of the book
June 2, 2011
I am currently preparing for a class on social media. I am looking everywhere for resources supporting the use of social media but also questioning the value. One such book is “Digital Shock” by Herve Fischer (translated by Rhonda Mullins). In the prologue, he writes,
“…a book does not belong on the internet. The two media are in opposition. …A book is a comfortable recliner in which to rest the body and awaken the soul. Books require reflection and the critical questioning that freezing a word (like freezing a film frame) allows.”
This is fascinating to me because I am reading articles and books on several electronic devices that allow me to reflect, take notes, mark-up and do what I typically did with a book. The author wrote this in 2006 so there have been changes to ereaders and digital reading but the premise that books do not belong to the internet seems wrong to me. The Internet is an ever-changing, dynamic environment that allows consumers to become producers, editors, co-creators of works, who join the conversation. 
I am concerned by statements like this at the beginning of a book and will need to continue to read in order to get the full argument. I am sure that my bias as a technologist is filtering what I am reading but it doesn’t stop me from asking questions of the text.
It also brings me to the point of this post: Where are you with the future of the book in your classroom? Do you feel, as this author, that books need to be published on paper, stored on a shelf waiting for checkout? Can the same book be electronic? Are you currently using e-books in your course?
I would love to hear from you and I promise to write a new post after I complete the book!
Your Brain on Computers
August 17, 2010
What happens when you give up technology for a week? Five neuroscientists took a primitive trip to a southern, remote part of Utah, where they had no access to cellphones and e-mail, and lived to tell the story. This article chronicles their trip, their discoveries and ideas for research projects about the brain on technology.
