Category Archives: Publications

First on the List

Publications,

A paper that I wrote with John Miko last year entitled First on the List:  Search Engine Contests as Authentic Learning, and presented at CELDA 2010 in Romania was published recently in Towards Learning and Instruction in Web 3.0:  Advances in Cognitive and Educational Psychology, a volume edited by Pedro Isaias, Dirk Ifenthaler, Kinshuk, Sampson, J. Michael G. Spector and J. Michael Spector and published by SpringerLink.

The abstract follows.

Abstract
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) describes a set of techniques applied to a Web site over time so it achieves a desirable position with a search engine’s rankings. SEO is an important strategy for organizations and individuals in order to promote their brands online. This paper describes an online learning activity that mimics a popular real-world event known as an SEO Contest. SEO Contest participants make use of a variety of techniques in order to compete for the top position in a search engine’s results when searching for a specified word or phrase. Results from this study show that teachers can leverage an SEO Contest as an authentic learning environment to effectively develop college students’ competence in implementing SEO techniques.

My First Windows Mobile App

Publications, Uncategorized

I wrote a Bentley App that runs on Windows Mobile using Visual Studio 2010 in Visual Basic. After installing the Windows Phone Developer tools, I was good to go. Took a bit of time to learn a bit about page navigation, but I was able to get started. I took advantage of some of the code sample starters online.

The app showcases information about Bentley University, but is designed in such a way that by changing the college name, colors, logo, web site URL, etc., in various XML files, and then rebuilding,  it becomes an app for  any school.

Philip DesAutels presented this app at the Microsoft  CIO Summit in Redmond, Washington. It was designed as a template that will serve as a model for other educational institutions.

The app is available in the Windows Marketplace, and the code in VB and C# is up on Codeplex.

Randy Guthrie, an Academic Developer Evangelist from Microsoft,  wrote a review on his blog.

Web 2.0 Based E-Learning

Publications

I have a chapter in Web 2.0-Based E-Learning published by IGI Global Publications, edited by Mark Lee and Catherine McLoughlin of Charles Sturt University.

Web 2.0-Based E-Learning: Applying Social Informatics for Tertiary Teaching provides a useful and valuable reference to the latest advances in the area of educational technology and e-learning. This innovative book offers an excellent resource for any practitioner, researcher, or academician with an interest in the use of the Web for providing meaningful learning experiences.

My chapter is entitled “Teaching and Learning Information Technology through the Lens of Web 2.0”.  The abstract after the jump, or read it here.

Continue reading →

Two Screens and an Ocean

Publications

My colleague Diana Andone and I published a journal article about a collaborative project that our students worked on together. The paper, “Two Screens and an Ocean: Collaborating Across Continents and Cultures with Web-based Tools”  appears in the Information Systems Education Journal (July 2010).  The abstract follows.

This paper describes the implementation and results of a cross-cultural pairing between college students in the United States and Romania who worked together over the period of one month to create a multimedia presentation that shared their learning about topics of multimedia and culture. Students could use any web-based collaboration tools of their choice, including email, instant messaging, voice and video conferencing to complete the project, and documented their results on a collaborative wiki. The project gave students an opportunity to use Web based collaboration tools to create tangible work products with international partners. This paper presents an analysis of the technologies they used and how they used them to complete the project, and examines their learning based a survey and their own qualitative remarks. Results show that students gained proficiency at selecting and using appropriate web based collaboration tools. They also overcame issues related to language, time zones and technology.

(A preliminary version appears in The Proceedings of ISECON 2009: §3162. ISSN: 1542-7382.)

From Computer Literacy to Web 2.0 Literacy

Publications, Teaching, Uncategorized

Last year Larry Press  of California State University and I wrote a paper entitled “From Computer Literacy to Web 2.0 Literacy:  Teaching and Learning Information Technology Concepts Using Web 2.0 Tools”.  I presented it at ISECON 2009 and it is now published in the Information Systems Education Journal.

Abstract: Computer literacy has evolved from writing simple BASIC programs to using desktop productivity applications. The shift from mainframe to personal computer brought about the need to rethink computer literacy courses to introduce basic skills and familiarity using desktop productivity applications. While these skills remain important, the recent shift of applications and data from the desktop to the Web has brought about another stage in the evolution of computer literacy education to the extent that today’s students not only need to be “computer literate” but also “Web literate” or “Web 2.0 literate.” Computer literacy courses retained the old concepts, but had less time to cover them because of the need to introduce new concepts. This paper examines approaches to teaching first year college introductory technology courses and suggests practical exercises and skills required for today’s students to be Web 2.0 literate.