The latest newsletter from MERLOT includes many news items; I'll highlight the information about MERLOT's Annual Conference and the online journal JOLT September issue.
Most of the presentations from the Conference are viewable as ppt, text, or html files. In my opinion ALL scholarly conferences should make all of their presentations available for interested readers who cannot attend the conference and for attendees who want to follow-up and provide citations. Memory and server space is cheap enough to make all scholarly papers freely available; this step would be an important movement forward in open source efforts.
Among the Conference presentations that I read was one about how to use MERLOT's rss subject-matter feeds to keep up with additions to the MERLOT collection: "Jazzing it Up with MERLOT RSS Feeds" by Jeanne Sewell. After learning to use email and web browsers, learning to use newsreaders and rss feeds is probably the most useful Web skill that students and instructors can acquire. Sewell's presentation clearly explains how to find and use feeds.
The latest JOLT issue includes an interesting article about "Bloggine across the Disciplines" that describes how blogs are being used in classroom learning.
"Using blogs across the disciplines can enhance liberal learning in professional programs. Each of the instructors in this study used blogs in a way that enhanced liberal learning in the classroom. The authors found that students came to class discussions having engaged in inquiry and analysis through online writing exercises. Thus, blogs helped students develop their critical-thinking skills and reasoning skills. In addition, by preparing students for class discussions, blogs helped them develop both their written and oral communication skills.
Liberal learning depends on students taking responsibility for their education. Instructors in any discipline can use blogs to begin conversations about course materials before students arrive in the classroom and continue them long after a class has ended, thus fostering a sense of active learning both inside and outside the classroom."
These selections from Grapevine, the MERLOT Conference, and JOLT reflect my own special interests; check the newsletter for yourself to see what you find interesting. ____JH
10:22:38 PM 
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