We now have access to all the resources of Ed/ITLib, Education and Information Technology Digital Library.

The vision for EdITLib, the Digital Library for Education & Information Technology, is to facilitate learning, discovery and innovation by connecting scholarly research on Educational Technology/E-Learning with learning opportunities.

The Library is encouraging you to pick up a book for your Holiday reading by displaying a sample of interesting titles on the Curriculum Collection area shelves. You will find books of interest to all categories ranging from children to seniors, and covering a variety of topics. This is just a small part of our collection but it goes well with this time of the year. Feel free to ask for recommendations.
Take some time check them out when visiting the library!

Like it or not, Massive Open Online Classes or MOOCs, are the not-very-new kid on the block and are taking up a lot of bandwidth in conversations amongst educators, policy makers and learning technologists, just to mention a few. This was evident at the Stanford IT Unconference held on October 18, 2012 at the Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge. The event kicked off with a panel discussion featuring John Mitchell, Vice Provost for Online Learning; Rob Reich, Director of the Program on Ethics in Society; Garth Saloner, Professor and Dean at Stanford Graduate School of Business; and Yoav Shoham, Professor of Computer Science. Bill Clebsch, Associate Vice President – IT Services, moderated it.

Some of the issues covered included access to quality education, technology platforms, institutional policies, ethical and professional considerations as well as leadership in this new model of delivering instruction. During a follow up session – here, participants discussed trends, initiatives and developments in this rapidly emerging space. Competency, assessment, authenticity of participants and models of demonstrating mastery of content, or completion of courses were some of the important areas covered in the 50-minute session. A lingering question concerned Stanford’s role as an education leader, and whether the elite status insulates the university from an urgent need to innovate in this area. Participants pointed out that middle-tier universities had to adopt and innovate, or risk extinction, unlike Stanford which has a firm financial base. Overall, These sessions left me with many questions, some of which may stay unresolved for a long time.

Are you involved with MOOCs in any way? What would you like to add to this conversation?

SUSE’s edtech.SHARE is pleased to announce a series of hands-on seminars for the fall quarter. They will cover a range of topics relating to effective technology use in learning environments – from traditional K-12 and higher classrooms to blended and massive open online courses.

Each session will be on a Thursday, from 12-1pm in Cubberley Library Room 205B.
The topics:
1. Student Response Systems . October 11
2. Using iPads in the Classroom . October 18
3. Creating and Publishing eBooks . October 25
4. Effective Online Discussions . November 1
5. Interactive Whiteboards . November 8
6. Inquiry Based Mobile Learning with S.M.I.L.E. . November 15

No RSVP required. Please share with friends and colleagues.

Did you catch Linda Darling-Hammond on the PBS News Hour on Wednesday evening?  They interviewed her as part of their segment on “Students at Chicago Public Schools Back in Class, Broader Reform Issues Remain.”  If you missed it, you can see the video online at the PBS site.

As requested, we have added the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education.  We have electronic only but access to all available issues starting in 1993 and continuing to the present for the Stanford community.

This is an update. We have three sessions planned, one on June 5th (1:30 – 3pm) and the others on June 7th (1:30 – 3pm and 5 – 7pm).
Use the following link to sign up for a session: “ http://stanforduniversity.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_01EE5sYV18NQvKA”

May 16th Post:
Our first iBooks Author and publishing seminar was held yesterday at the Large Instruction Room in Cubberley Library. Participants from three schools – consisting graduate and undergraduates, were represented. Two major parts of the publication process were covered – the first involves downloading iBooks Author App and creating the iBook/e-book, while the second pertains to the iTunes Account setup as well as the iTunes Producer App that prepares the book created in the first stage for submission to the Apple iBooks store.
While most of the work revolves around creating a visually appealing, interactive, multi-media rich book, we highlighted features and issues that authors need to be aware of to save time and avoid frustration with the publishing process. Participants were taken through individual steps, exploring and discovering features along the way. One participant was ready to submit his first iBook by the end of the seminar, having completed the account setup process in addition to setting up the different applications required on the Mac computer.
We had expected a larger STEP (and SUSE in general) representation but this was overtaken by a CTE social event. Another seminar will be held to give this group an opportunity to master the iBooks Author application and the publishing process. Look out for iTunes U Seminar coming up before end of this quarter!

Stanford patrons now have access to PsycTests from the American Psychological Association.  It gives you easy access to full text of many psychological tests and measures, plus information about tests.  It joins PsycArticles and PsycCritiques in the PsycNet suite.

We now have access to over 280 eBook on educational technologies available to us through the IGI Global portal at www.igi-global.com/gateway.  Stanford patrons can download chapters or an entire book for reading on a computer or mobile device.  About half the titles we also have in paper.

Ever wished you could check out a laptop at Cubberley Education library, just like we did with iPads in the past? We have good news for you. An instruction laptop is available for patrons to use IN the library. It is readily configured to work with the Smartboard in the large instruction room. Check-out period is 2 hours. Inquire at the Reference desk.