Adventus Internetus and the Anaerobic Soul
by Stephen Healey, University of Bridgeport
Stephen Healey offers a "jeremiad" against the Internet—or does he?

Three Stars and a Chili Pepper: Social Software, Folksonomy, and User Reviews in the College Context
by Joseph Ugoretz, Manhattan Community College, CUNY
Joe Ugoretz discusses how a new group of internet tools —Google, Wikis, Flickr and others included in the family of "social software"—provide new methods of creating, sharing, categorizing, accessing and critiquing content, while lacking a central authority or a hierarchy of editorial control. Joe presents some suggestions "for how we, in the academic world, the college context, can use these tools to the advantage of our teaching and our students' learning."

Using World of Warcraft and other MMORPGs to foster a targeted, social, and cooperative approach towards language learning
by Todd Bryant, Dickinson College
Games, in one form or another, have long been a part of foreign language learning. MMORPGs take this one step further, creating a simulated environment of language immersion where students are given the opportunity to apply their language skills toward "real life" goals within an extensive context that is by design supportive of a wide variety of solutions. Todd's article reviews some of the current literature concerning this social environment along with its practical implications. He then explains why simulations, and MMORPG games in particular, combined with a task-based approach, provide an ideal fit for this model that engages the students and requires them to expand their use of the target language in order to succeed. Todd includes a sample lesson for teaching modal verbs in German using the most popular MMORPG at this time, the World of Warcraft.


Notes & Ideas
What Are You Implying About My First Life? Real Students, Virtual Space and Second Life 
by Christopher Watts, St. Lawrence University
Christopher Watts cannot quite decide how he feels about Second Life. But he thinks it has potential for liberal arts. Meanwhile, he strives to be cool as his avatar.

Paperless, Wireless, Inkless Mapping
by Meg Stewart, Vassar College
Meg Stewart provides a strong argument in favor of exploring wider use of Tablet PCs equipped with GIS for field work. She points out that "mobile mapping" addresses fundamental teaching issues, helping students to see and understand "the landscape at multiple scales, and with multiple layers of geospatial data..." and greatly simplifying field data collection by allowing students to input data directly onto a computer.

TEACHING & TECHNOLOGY VIGNETTES
Digitized Audio Commentary in First Year Writing Classes
by Susan Sipple, University of Cincinnati Raymond Walters College
Sue Sipple shares her experience with providing digitized audio commentary; she says, "The results have convinced me that audio instructor commentary on student writing is received more positively by college composition students and leads them toward more substantive revision of their essays."

Using Student Podcasts in Literature Classes
by Liz Evans and Peter Schmidt, Swarthmore College
Asking students to create podcasts for literature classes opens up a whole new realm of learning for Professor Peter Schmidt and his students: "Students found that the readings brought the passages and the novels to life—and that when they heard passages aloud, they noticed many more things than when they just read an assignment before class. In addition, students could respond to the interpretations of the selections that the podcasts made—adding their own collaborative insights, arguing with the interpretation, etc. With literature, this new technology encourages close reading, thoughtful interpretation, and student involvement."

REVIEWS
Review of "Emerging Trends for Teaching and Learning" A NERCOMP event (10/27/05)
by Gail Matthews-DeNatale, Simmons College
In the field of educational technology, there have always been "emerging trends." But after attending one of this year's  NERCOMP workshops on the topic, Gail came away with the feeling that right now, the range of possibilities on the horizon is particularly rich. She highlights for us some of the main ideas discussed and provides a list of links to technologies that were referenced during each presentation.

Review of "Digital Images Workshop" A NERCOMP event (4/24/06)
by Valerie Gillispie, Wesleyan University
Valerie Gillispie reports in about an event that brought together faculty, information technology specialists, librarians, and others who work with images to discuss the impact of digital images on the liberal arts curriculum. The conference was inspired by David Green's recent survey and interviews with 35 institutions about their use of digital images. She writes, "It seems clear that digital images are becoming a standard component of curricula, and the ability to interpret and critically analyze these images is becoming a required skill for students and faculty."

Review of "Connecting Technology & Liberal Education: Theories and Case Studies" A NERCOMP event (4/5/06)
by Shel Sax, Middlebury College
Shel offers this take on a workshop looking at a very broad topic which offered a slight twist as far as NERCOMP workshops go: all of the presenters came from an academic background rather than a technological one. Says Shel, "My interest in the interaction of technology and pedagogy was well met by presentations combining strategic thinking about what constitutes and shapes a liberal arts education and examples of technology being used in the classroom in a traditionally 'liberal' manner."

Cyberinfrastructure = Hardware + Software + Bandwidth + People
by Michael Roy, Wesleyan University
At the October 27, 2005 NERCOMP meeting entitled "Let No Good Deed Go Unpunished," Leo Hill, Leslie Hitch and Glenn Pierce from Northeastern University gave a presentation about how they planned for and implemented a university computer cluster that serves the research agendas of a wide array of Northeastern's faculty. Mike Roy attended the meeting and lets us know about some some of the exciting outcomes—and repercussions—of a campus-wide (and perhaps nationwide) change in attitudes and support for the idea that IT-supported research can fundamentally change for the better how we conduct research and eventually how we educate our students.


SHOWCASES—Exemplary Academic Web Projects

Looking at Learning, Looking Together
With the support of The Visible Knowledge Project and the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship at Georgetown University, two faculty from the Borough of Manhattan Community College have developed a website that documents student learning, as well as collaborative scholarship of teaching and learning—using the web as a medium to publish the process as well as the conclusions of their research into student-created digital storytelling projects.

The Daedalous Project
This website is home to an ongoing study of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) players. MMORPGs, or MMOs, are a video game genre that allow thousands of people to interact, compete, and collaborate in an online virtual environment. Over the past 6 years, more than 40,000 MMORPG players have participated in the project by completing surveys about their playing style, habits, and preferences. Various topics have been examined, from gender-related motivation factors to the effect of running an in-game guild on one's real life experiences. The results of the research are available as reports sorted by topic.

Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta
The Learning Commons at the University of Calgary has worked with the Glenbow museum to create Mavericks: An Incorrigible History of Alberta, an extensive, interactive website that introduces the legendary tales and colorful personalities who shaped and defined Alberta's history, and are the predecessors of Alberta's maverick nature.

Online Learning Highlights
Two short videos prepared by the Online Learning department at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) showcase the center's activities. The first video provides an overview of several projects at RIT. Topics include Pachyderm, the Student Response System, RIT's course management systems approach, remote tutoring with Breeze Meeting, and blended learning courses. The second video highlights the advantages of using technology to facilitate teamwork and social networking among deaf and hearing students.

The Education Arcade
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and University of Wisconsin-Madison have joined forces to catalyze new creative teaching and learning innovations around the next generation of commercially available educational electronic games.