Sunday, August 23, 2009

IT Literacy and E-Portfolios

Sometimes you stumble across a blog that speaks directly to you – that happened early this morning when pre-semester jitters were keeping me awake, so I checked my RSS feeds – I had actually forgotten that I had subscribed to Computer Literacy 3.0 – IT Literacy. Wow.

This blog is concerned with questions like
What skills should be included in computer literacy 3.0?
What concepts should be included in computer literacy 3.0?
Who is developing courses that teach these skills and concepts?
Should we teach computer literacy as a stand alone course or disperse it throughout the curriculum?
Does computer literacy require two full courses?
Should all students take the same computer literacy course or should there be different versions?
Is the term "computer literacy" too narrow?

Then I found the link to a discussion of e-portfolios, which literally woke me up. I read the article E-portfolios at 2.0—Surveying the Field by J. Elizabeth Clark. Wow, again. This is some of what the author writes:

“At this point, hundreds of thousands of educators around the world know that e-portfolios are digital collections of student work, defined by the mantra: collect, select, and reflect. No precise count of the number of e-portfolio initiatives in higher education has been established, but available evidence suggests that the number is high.”

and

“Today, programs like Clemson University’s psychology department are experimenting with capstone e-portfolios for graduation that connect a student’s entire general education experience at the institution with their education in a major. Spelman College is redesigning and extending its first-year electronic portfolio to address benchmarks during each college year, culminating in a capstone portfolio.”

The implications and inspiration are huge for our revamped courses in Essential Information Technology at Trinity. Look at some of the e-portfolio examples from Penn State, and you can see why I am so excited that I can't get back to sleep.

‘Scuse me, I have to go rewrite my entire curriculum and syllabus for the coming semester!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Mobile blog post sent from iPhone - nice to have unlimited texting. This would work well if I had to post w/o an Internet connection.

Welcome to a New Semester

There’s always something new going on in Essential Information Technology (CSCI 1300/03). Right now, I’m trying to get back to posting to my all-too-inactive blog by trying some new ways to send posts.

This is an introductory post sent through my personal email account to my email posting account at Blogger.com. While I’m not sure it’s the way I’ll post most often, it is a interesting alternative. I’ll also set up mobile blogging from my iPhone.

For an overview, try this article written in 2003 <!!> - it’s amazingly current:

http://developers.sun.com/mobility/midp/articles/blogging/

And, as a test of emailing a post, I’ll attach a picture of our new kitten, Chico. He’s doing what most people in the 8:30 class would like to be doing. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ