Since August 2005
Readers can find the books by choosing the "Full view books" option on the Google Book Search home page before they activate their search. Once they have chosen a book from the results page, a download button is clearly visible on the top-right corner of the page.
Using Google Book Search, you can find The Free Library and many other extraordinary old books, such as:
* Ferriar's The Bibliomania
* A futurist from 1881's 1931: A Glance at the Twentieth Century
* Aesop's Fables
* Shakespeare's Hamlet
* Abbott's Flatland
* Hugo's Marion De Lorme
* Dunant's Eine Erinnerung an Solferino
* BolÃvar's Proclamas
* Dante's Inferno
After two years of work a panel convened by the International Astronomical Union has reached a decision about the definition of "planets" and smaller "solar system bodies" such as comets and asteroids. If the definition is approved this week the number of planets in the Solar System would rise from 9 to 12, with more to come. Read more in the USA Today article and an article from the Boston Globe.
"a series of free, hour-long interactive Web presentations on uses of emerging technologies and pedagogies within the contexts of teaching, assessment, and student success. Each seminar is delivered live using online audio and video/image presentation technology, allowing you to interact with the presenter(s) and your colleagues through your web browser.
With seminar-specific variations, the facilitator and presenter will discuss the topic and respond to questions submitted by seminar participants in an online meeting room. Generally, the guest will do an initial presentation, using PowerPoint slides, Web tours, or other online resources, and then engage in dialogue with the facilitator and online participants.
These seminars were created to provide Ohio's educators with accessible, timely, and outstanding learning opportunities at no cost. They have been designed to showcase excellence and existing expertise within Ohio's institutions, while providing practical approaches so participants can implement what they learn. All facilitators are sharing their expertise and resources within the TeachU online Seminar Series to benefit all."
The robot in the classroom, which displays a live picture of Achim, provides what its inventors call "telepresence": It gives the boy an actual presence in the classroom, recognized by teachers and classmates. It can move from class to class on its four-wheeled base, and it could even stop at the lockers for a between-periods chat.
"The robot literally is embraced by students in the classroom as though [it] is the medically fragile student," said Andrew Summa, national director of the robot project, which is in use at six other hospitals around the country. Achim's teacher, Bob Langerfield, said his other students have become used to the robot and were treating it as if it were Achim after just a few days.
Nevertheless, we believe that e-learning is a promising alternative to traditional classroom learning, which is especially beneficial to remote and lifelong learning and training. In many cases, e-learning can significantly complement classroom learning. E-learning will keep growing as an indispensable part of academic and professional education. We should continue to explore how to create more appealing and effective online learning environments. One way to do this is to integrate appropriate pedagogical methods, to enhance system interactivity and personalization, and to better engage learners.
I am keeping virtual office hours Spring semester.
• Via Skype (halavais): Thursdays, from 1pm to 2pm EST.
• UBLearns chat for COM497: Thursdays, from 2pm to 4pm EST.
• You can often reach me via AIM (DrHalavais), or Skype, Google, etc. (halavais). Happy to set up an appointment to chat via IM or phone.
“having classes observed and materials assessed by colleagues for the purpose of instructional improvement no more should be considered a threat to academic freedom than would having colleagues critique a proposed manuscript for publication.”
“These characteristics consistently appear in the literature on peer observation, and successful programs emphasize the necessity of keeping them constantly in mind when visiting classes. The basic task of a peer observer is to ascertain if the method being used seems to be effective, not whether it conforms to notions of teaching derived solely from personal experience. There are many ways to be effective.”
1. Has sensitivity; empathizes with the person being observed
2. Sees improvement as the primary objective of the evaluation process
3. Is an experienced teacher
4. Is a good listener
5. Gives specific, constructive feedback and advice
6. Has integrity; takes the process seriously; prepares for the observations
7. Sees different styles of teaching as valid and acceptable
8. Is not doctrinaire about teaching methods
- Think, talk, read, act
- Reflective teaching is a cyclical process, because once you start to implement changes, then the reflective and evaluative cycle begins again.
- Questions to ask:
• What are you doing?
• Why are you doing it?
• How effective is it?
• How are the students responding?
• How can you do it better?
1. Collaborate – team teach a course or design a research project
2. Experience life as a student – enroll in a course
3. Enhance your office – invest in a new chair, put new artwork on the walls, or turn your desk a new direction
4. Get more involved in your community – campus or otherwise
5. Take time to reflect – attend a teaching conference, read teaching journals or books, or keep a teaching journal
6. Try a new approach – include something fun for you and your students in each class period, change your assignments, or change your mode of delivery
7. Create a network of people with similar teaching or research interests, or with whom you enjoy spending time
8. Get to know new faculty – in and outside your department
9. Invite guest lecturers to your class, or volunteer to do the same for a colleague
10. Temporarily exchange positions with someone on another campus
• slideshow of insects of a certain classification (with taxonomy listed or not)
• slideshow of a recent trip to ___ (students view pictures with descriptions given or spoken)
• student portfolios of the semester/years art projects (with or without commentary)
• slideshow showing the detailed steps of how to ____ (fill in with a necessary skill that could be viewed online to help students, NOT something that they would have to watch WHILE doing the task -- something for review)
• portfolio with reflection on a subject or course (other students use comment feature to give feedback)
• weekly photos and reflections on given topic that can be RSS-ed (automatically updated) and viewed by the teacher and other students
"Three-quarters (74%) of college students use the Internet four or more hours per week, while about one-fifth (19%) uses it 12 or more hours per week. This is somewhat higher than the amount of time most students devote to studying: Nearly two-thirds (62%) reported studying for classes no more than 7 hours per week, while only 14% reported studying 12 or more hours per week."
June 13, June 21, June 29 at 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
July 12, July 18, July 27 at 9:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
June 13, June 21, June 29 at 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
July 12, July 18, July 27 at 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
The emergence of technology that allowed personal publishing on the Internet also triggered a tiring debate over who should be considered a journalist.
Apple claimed the public has no right to know a company's trade secrets. But the appellate court said any claim of legal protection for commercial secrets was trumped by the greater good served by the free and open disclosure of ideas and information.
"As recent history illustrates, business entities may adopt secret practices that threaten not only their own survival and the investments of their shareholders but the welfare of a whole industry, sector or community. Labeling such matters 'confidential' and 'proprietary' cannot drain them of compelling public interest," the court said.
Pop quiz. What's the capital of Bolivia?
While waiting for tardy clubs to show up to an orientation for Spring Fling last week, my roommate wondered aloud the same question.
He was sure I would know the answer. I spent a semester in Bolivia's neighbor, Chile, and my concentration in my international studies major is Latin America.
I didn't know it off the top of my head. Thirty years ago, I would have seemed unprepared and unknowledgeable. A fraud for saying I know about South America.
Instead, I took out my Blackberry, went on Google, and came back with the answer 20 seconds later. (It's a trick question. Bolivia has two capitals, La Paz and Sucre.)
It's a different world now. Memorization is a thing of the past. We have companies like Google, whose self-proclaimed mission is to "organize all of the world's information."
Our heads can't compete. Even the best geographer in the world is no match for the CIA World Factbook online. Wikipedia now has more than 1 million articles. Bloglines indexes over 1 billion blog entries.
No longer is it useful to be able to rattle off all 50 states in 30 seconds, except for maybe at parties. An 8-year-old who spends a week memorizing the Gettysburg address is probably less than 25 feet from the nearest computer when he recites it, if he doesn't already have a Sony PSP in his pocket. And I'd like to see ESPN's The Schwab, their trivia expert, compete against my mother - who knows little about sports - with the Elias Sports Bureau in front of her.
What does this mean for the professors who still think rote memorization is useful? The ones who make their tests so that students have to camp out in the library with flash cards?
It means they're wasting students' time. What they should be doing is focusing on what is going to be really important this century: Synthesizing and analyzing information. We're in an open-book world, and what's important now is how ideas and facts connect to each other.
This shouldn't be seen as letting students get away with not learning what they used to have to memorize. Instead, it means professors should list it, teach students how to find it and then move on.
Classes would actually get more advanced. "What's the capital of Bolivia?" would become "How has having two capitals influenced Bolivia's political development?"
This doesn't mean the end of all tests. Absolutely not. Tests will always be a staple of college life and an essential one at that. Tests let professors hold students accountable and serve the valuable purpose of distinguishing which students are best at the subject.
Instead, it means more open-book tests and take-home tests. Why not let students take tests with the Internet in front of them? When we get into the job market, how often will we have assignments when we can't use all available resources? When we produce reports, clients aren't going to care if they came from memory or from an online procedures manual.
Granted, this doesn't mean that everything should be done at home or with open books. One of my professors had everyone take a quiz before each class about the chapters we were supposed to read. Most of the questions were simply facts from the chapter, just to make sure that we read it. He would then use our knowledge about the chapter to have a more advanced class discussion.
Similarly, courses in subjects such as math and engineering may have some use for memorization. But why shouldn't an English class allow you to use writer's handbooks during in-class essays?
In 20 years, there will be much more on the Internet - including every book ever written, every speech that was written down and every newspaper article. We will also have advanced handheld computers more powerful than supercomputers today.
Shouldn't our education reflect that whenever we need information on anything, it's right there?
Professors, please try to make your tests reflect our reality.
Online textbook (American History)
Primary Sources (documents) - searchable
Ethnic Voices
For Teachers (resources/lessons)
Active Learning
Multimedia
Interactive Timeline
Visual History
Virtual Exhibitions
Special Topics
History Reference Room
This Web site was designed and developed to support the teaching of American History in K-12 schools and colleges and is supported by the Department of History and the College of Education at the University of Houston.
The materials on this Web site include a U.S. history textbook; over 400 annotated documents from the Gilder Lehrman Collection on deposit at the Pierpont Morgan Library, supplemented by primary sources on slavery, Mexican American, Asian American, and Native American history, and U.S. political, social, and legal history; succinct essays on the history of film, ethnicity, private life, and technology; multimedia exhibitions; and reference resources that include a database of annotated links, classroom handouts, chronologies, glossaries, an audio archive including speeches and book talks by historians, and a visual archive with hundreds of historical maps and images. The site's Ask the HyperHistorian feature allows users to pose questions to professional historians.
Our website offers a variety of ways for students and teachers to actually do history. We have created 72 inquiry-based interactive modules that we call eXplorations. These modules provide extensive primary sources on such topics as Mexican, Tejano, and Texian perspectives on the battle of the Alamo; Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to relocate Japanese Americans during World War II and the Lyndon B. Johnson's decision to escalate American involvement in the Vietnam War in 1964 and 1965; and children's perspectives on slavery, westward migration, and World War II.
We also allow students and teachers to create multimedia American history exhibitions. These exhibitions can include historical images from our extensive database, which currently contains over 600 photographs, art works, and digitized letters. Users can easily incorporate their own text in their exhibitions. These presentations can be e-mailed, downloaded, or saved on our servers.
Digital History offers many other ways to engage students in the study of history, from fact checks (multiple choice quizzes on every era of American history), to 19th century high school entrance examinations, a time machine, an interactive timeline that links to primary source documents, and a flash overview of American history.
For teachers, we have created 24 learning modules, each of which includes a succinct historical overview; recommended documents, films, and historic images; and teaching resources including lesson plans,fact checks, and activities.
The site also contains resource guides for 44 historical eras and topics. Each includes a historical overview, links to the relevant Digital History textbook chapters, bibliographies, classroom handouts, charts, chronologies, film guides,
historic newspaper articles, primary source documents, lesson plans, historic maps, music, cartoons, quizzes, and images.
Biography, History
Culture, Performing Arts
Education
Government
Poetry, Literature
Religion
Science, Technology
We are very excited about speech to text and are currently developing solutions to enable this capability. Also are in the works are indexing, categories, and meta-search.
