This is my first try using XMind to compose a Mind Map. This has all sorts of interesting pedagogical uses.

Using Technology to free up lecture time

Gasp! Give up lecture time! The Chronicle is running a series Killing the Lecture With Technology. Part II of the series highlights the stories of three professors who found alternative methods of delivery for the lecture and used time freed up for more one-on-one discussions and give and take. David B. Miller a psychology professor at University of Connecticut reports in the Chronicle "almost half the class earned A's (I do not curve grades), and for the first time that I can recall, nobody failed the course"Dr. Miller has a video explaining his methods.

Omeka: “five-minute setup” makes launching an online exhibition as easy as launching a blog

Anything with a "five-minute setup" appeals to me. Omeka is a free, flexible, and open source web-publishing platform for the display of library, museum, archives, and scholarly collections and exhibitions. I haven't tried it yet but I'll let you know if I do and what I think. Meanwhile, has anyone out there tried it?

Some example of libraries that use it include the Ringwood Public Library and the University of Arizona.

University faculty at George Mason have used Omeka to teach history with primary sources that make “history making” visible and vivid.

The Blended Librarian: Blending Instructional Design, Technology, and Librarianship

Well I think I've found my tribe! The Blended Librarian according to Jennifer Howard in her August 2, 2010 Chronicle article "a fairly new model of academic librarianship that took root about five years ago. It combines traditional reference skills with hardware and software know-how and an interest in applying them to curriculum development and teaching." I went to the Blended Librarian Online Learning Community website. There's lots of free webcasts, digital learning resources, and information literacy links. Mark McBride, a blended librarian at Buffalo State is profiled in Howards article. McBride teaches the basics of 21st-century information literacy. The Chronicle asked Mr. McBride to lay out some of those basics.

"First you have to understand the nature of information," he said. "You have to identify what you need and be able to understand why you need it, and at the same time, if you’ve located something, understand who created it and why they created it."

Plagiarism lines blur for students in digital age

This article, appearing in today's New York Times, addresses a growing issue for many in
academia. The abundance of instantly and freely available online resources like Wikipedia, compiled by numerous uncompensated contributors, has created a notion that information is simply there for the taking. Apparently some students, while engaged in the writing process, are seeing less and less need for the application of traditional academic processes. For example, the writer cites a case where a student simply copied and pasted sections of a online article into his paper claiming he saw no need to give credit for information that lacked a clear author and was already common knowledge.

John Palfrey and Urs Gasser, authors of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, also cover this and similar issues. In conjunction with their book, the duo launched a variety of websites which function to discuss these issues further and to keep the book's information current. The main page is here, but this is a shortcut to their tidbit on Digital Information Quality.