Textbooks of the Near Future

by Larry MacPhee, Associate Director When I went to college, back in the 1980s, each of my new hardcover textbooks weighed over 5 pounds and cost over $100.00. Cheaper used and softcover texts weren’t yet readily available. Since that time, increasing numbers of students have been selling their textbooks back to the bookstore or other [...]

On the Horizon

by John Doherty and Lorraine B. Elder The annual Horizon Report, published by the New Media Consortium (NMC), describes educational technologies that are ripe for adoption in the coming year, the next 2 to 3 years, and 4 to 5 years out. The 2011 Horizon Report is now out. The full report (.pdf) is available [...]

Pedagogy and the iPad

by John J. Doherty and Kevin Ketchner Perhaps the hardest part of owning an iPad is trying to avoid the addictive world of Angry Birds, the favorite game app of the new British Prime Minister. For just $5 you, too, can attack pigs with hard-headed flying birds. That kind of distraction is exactly what many [...]

Twitter Spreads Wildfire News Like, Well, Wildfire

by Lorraine B. Elder Some people still think of Twitter as a tool for sending out 140-character messages about trivia such as what you ate for lunch, but during Flagstaff’s wildfire crisis, Twitter turned out to be one of the best sources for up-to-date information on the Hardy Fire (282 acres with 95% containment as I [...]

College Is for Everyone, So Attendance Is Mandatory!

by Larry MacPhee Amidst the flurry of bad press over SB 1070 (.pdf) and the resulting boycott of Arizona, you might have missed something interesting on page two. NAU made the Chronicle, and Slashdot picked up the story. It has been spun as a privacy and digital rights story, but it’s really something much bigger. [...]

Why You Shouldn’t Use PowerPoints in (Most) Online Courses

by Lorraine B. Elder Sigh. Where to begin? There are so many reasons why using PowerPoint for online courses is a Bad Idea. PowerPoint is just a tool, of course, but it’s so often the wrong tool for the job, especially in teaching online. A hammer is only a tool, but in the wrong hands, well, [...]

Under Pressure?

Successful adoption of educational technology depends on the instructor’s understanding of the potential educational benefits of the technology, consideration of the technology’s pedagogical appropriateness for a given course, skillful implementation of the technology, and clear communication to students about how they should use the technology.

A Tweet a Day Keeps the Swine Flu Away

by Lorraine B. Elder Okay, Twitter is not really the new Tamiflu, but educational technology and social media are useful tools in combating the effects of sweeping illness. The World Health Organization has declared a flu pandemic, meaning widespread human H1N1 infection is occurring. Many colleges are bracing for large numbers of flu-related absences among staff [...]

We’re blogging!

To kick off the Fall 2009 semester, the e-Learning Center (ELC) is introducing our new blog. Various authors from ELC will post on topics that tickle their fancy, and we encourage the NAU community to join the conversation, either by commenting on the posts or contacting us to write guest posts. We’ll focus on educational [...]