Most students have cell phones, and more than half of all US undergraduates own an internet-capable handheld device and more plan to purchase one in the next 12 months (ECAR Research Study 2009). Why not use them?

How?  Here are three ideas:

Cell phones and internet-capable phones can be used as polling devices, like clickers, to engage students during class. Poll Everywhere will supply an easy to use interface for small classes for free, or large classes for a fee.

Students could access information during class, to contribute to discussions or to inform critical thinking. How? Students could query Google or Google Scholar, access the library or librarian, use news sources, or specific applications for your topic.

Leverage student interest in texting to learn about their thinking during class, by setting up a backchannel, like Hotseat at Purdue University. A teaching assistant or other instructor can monitor the backchannel, and alert you to questions, problems, and student interest at appropriate points in the class.

Come to a discussion of using mobile devices for education, both in and out of class, on the second Tuesday of each month.

Last year, Amazon made headlines with their release of the Kindle, a new generation of portable e-reader that uses E ink, a low power display technology that mimics the look of a printed page.  The screen isn’t backlit like a computer display.

Since that time, interest has grown in the Kindle and similar offerings from Sony and we’re seeing a new generation of devices that add functionality, increased screen size, and partnerships with publishers to provide content for the devices.  Some are predicting that the hot electronics item this holiday season will be the e-reader.

Sony is offering three models this year.  The Reader Touch Edition is a thin, touch screen version of the device selling for $299.  An included stylus can be used for highlighting and annotation on the 6″ screen.  The Reader Pocket Edition, priced at $199, has a 5″ display and is a kind of “entry level” model.  Due for release sometime in the next couple of months is the Sony Reader Daily Edition, which includes a 7″ touch screen display and adds wireless capability, mainly aimed at downloading news content.

The most well publicized and largest selling e-reader to date is the Amazon Kindle.  The Kindle is notable for being a wireless device, which operates independently from your computer – you browse for content at Amazon’s e-book store and download material directly using a wireless technology that uses a cell phone network.  If you want to read your own documents – PDF files or Word documents, for example – you email them to a special address and they are converted and downloaded to your Kindle for a small fee.  The cost of wireless access is hidden in the cost of a book or document conversion.

The Kindle is available in two models.  The Kindle DX, selling for $489, features a 9.7″ screen while the latest version of their entry level device with a 6″ screen sells for $299.  The Kindle allows for annotations using a small keypad on the device.

Philips is introducing a new version of their iRex Reader, the DR 800 SG, in October.  Priced at $399 and featuring a 8.1″ screen, it includes a stylus that can be used for adding annotations.  The iRex is wireless using cellular network technology similar to the Kindle.  For content, Philips is partnering with Barnes and Noble for e-book offerings.

Just announced is an offering from Barnes and Noble – the Nook.  This e-reader has some features in common with the Kindle – access to a large library of titles for purchase through their bookstore, availability of subscriptions to newspapers and magazines, and wireless connectivity.  The Nook also includes a touch sensitive color lcd screen along the bottom of the device that can be used for controlling options, selecting books, or entering notes with an online keyboard. One distinctive feature of the device lets you “check out” books to friends using a Nook.

There are two clear models that have emerged for content on e-readers.  Amazon’s using a “closed” system – you can only download books from Amazon’s site and have to do a conversion to get other documents on the reader.  All of the Sony models and the iRex support EPUB, an open format for digital books, so you can download books from independent authors and publishers or public domain material from Google Books.  You can also create your own EPUB formatted documents with several online or desktop tools and EPUB files can also be viewed in e-reader software on other devices – laptops, netbooks, or even the iPhone.

Both Sony and Amazon offer programs for authors to self publish.  Sony has a partnership with Smashwords while Amazon’s service is called the Digital Text Platform.

For faculty that are interested in using electronic books in the classroom, the main issues with ereaders are availability of content applicable to your course and whether your students have an e-reader or other device capable of displaying the file..  Both the Amazon and Sony e-book stores concentrate on current best-sellers and older catalogue titles in the areas of genre fiction, business, popular history and hobbies.  Some textbooks are available for both devices.

The market for e-readers and e-books is small, but growing.  Faculty that use primarily public domain texts or assemble a textbook and readings from documents available on the Web might find the use of PDF and EPUB files useful in courses – both formats can be viewed on a wide range of devices including e-readers, laptops and mobile phones.

Through our exploratory equipment loaner program, the CIT has an original Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle that can be checked out by faculty.

Meet with other  Duke faculty and talk about ideas for using cell phones (or any small, mobile devices) in teaching, both in and outside the classroom.

At a previous meeting, participants discussed using these devices in class to engage students and foster interaction.  Owen Astrachan demonstrated how he used Poll Everywhere with his class of 344 students.  Poll Everywhere allows students to use their own devices as personal response systems, to give answers electronically in class.

Other participants discussed using applications that provide information relevant to the course, like Epocrates for accessing drug information, Labs 360 as a medical laboratory guide, or other applications for medical students.  Other examples might be using the mobile version of the Wall Street Journal in a business class,  flash cards for organic chemistry reactions, or spreadsheet applications for laboratories.

We discussed how instructors could incorporate the social networking and connectedness of applications like Smule’s Ocarina to engage students, and how Twitter could be used to build a community of students in an educational program.

Join us:

• Register for our next discussion at 10 am on October 13.
• E-mail Andrea Novicki to suggest topics.

Earlier in September, several of us met as part of the monthly DDI Twitter program brown bag lunch discussion series.  One of the overall goals of the program is to encourage a few faculty members to actively use Twitter in their courses, but another goal is to have meaningful discussions among interested faculty on academic uses of Twitter.

After introductions, I provided a list of potential uses of Twitter in a course (below).  We discussed everyone’s ideas for using Twitter, which ranged from trying out Twitter in a language class to tweeting as an entire discipline to develop its community. Attendees were concerned about privacy, as far as FERPA and HIPAA, and representing the university as an institution.  Attendees expressed a need for Duke to have an explcit social media policy, without stifling its use. Despite perceived complications, there was a lot of excitement about potential for spontaneous student participation, particularly from those who are more introverted.  I also demonstrated two Twitter clients for following a large volume of tweets, Tweetdeck for the desktop and the web-based Tweetgrid. Two additional discussions sessions have already been scheduled for this fall, so you can register now.

Apple has released their new operating system for the Mac, Snow Leopard.

The update isn’t for everyone - it only works on newer Intel-based Macs and, since this is a major rewrite to the operating system, it has had some glitches on some computers and isn’t compatible with some current Mac software.

However, it gives you a glimpse of some new features that will be common on the Mac that will provide some useful options for you and your students.

A new version of Quicktime has a redesigned interface and simplified options for saving videos.  One of the most intriguing new features in Quicktime X is a built-in screen recording utility, allowing you to make a video of your computer screen.  Here’s a YouTube video demonstrating screen recording in Quicktime X.

If you work with the Chinese language, a new feature of Snow Leopard might be useful – input of Chinese characters using the computer’s trackpad.  The YouTube video below shows a demo.

If you’re interested in investigating Snow Leopard, talk with your local technical support staff to see if the upgrade is for you.

It’s hard to go anywhere or listen to anything without hearing something about Twitter these days, but how does it apply in an academic setting? Can the same technology that was used to communicate during Iranian political protests, following their presidential election, be used to help students learn?

You and several other faculty members can explore that topic during monthly brown bag lunch sessions. We’ll talk about ideas of how Twitter can be used in your course and look at tools that can make using Twitter for teaching easier. The first one will be on September 10th at 12pm. Sign up to join us!

Read more about this year’s Duke Digital Initiative programs.

Now that many students carry a single device that can make phone calls, take pictures, record audio and video, store data, music, and movies, and interact with the Internet, how can we use this in teaching?  This fall, meet with other faculty to discuss and test ideas and software for using cell phones or other small devices in teaching.  We’ll meet once a month, for demonstrations and discussions.  Come and share your ideas and learn.

On Tuesday, September 8th at 10 am, we’ll discuss topics and ideas for this semester.  In addition, Owen Astrachan will talk about his plans for using Poll Everywhere, a simple polling system that uses student cell phones as “clickers” to gather student responses.  We’ll try it out.  Sign up to join us!

Read more from the Duke Digital Initiative.

Get more ideas and share the future of education.

Guest post by Julie Reynolds, Duke University

Twitter posts are limited to 140 characters, but I discovered it takes slightly more than 140 characters to convince colleagues of Twitter’s value. I’ll try to make my argument for why professionals should use Twitter, and I’ll do it in just 14 tweets. Here we go.

#1) Professional use of Twitter 1 of 3: Post URLs for blogs, articles, & events that you want to make public to a larger audience

• #2) To promote publications, ex: “When Communicating with Diverse Audiences, Use Velcro to Make Science Stick http://bit.ly/4GD4fX“
• #3) To publicize students’ work, ex: “#DukeEngage interns turn dung into fuel in India http://bit.ly/c3u1a”
• #4) To publicize events, ex: “Citizen Science Training Opportunity July 19, 2009 http://bit.ly/16NYgc”

#5) Professional use of Twitter 2 of 3: Network w/folks who share interests or are using similar pedagogy/technology/research method

• #6) Networking tip: be sure your Twitter profile has a descriptive bio so people can find you, ex: http://bit.ly/Vqepp
• #7) Twitter can be like a virtual business card. Be sure your profile bio and webpage are up-to-date and informative
• #8) Join a twibe to find similarly-minded people. Visit http://twibes.com/ to search and join twibes
• #9) Add yourself to http://wefollow.com twitter directory so people can find you (I use #scientist #conservation #educator)
• #10) I posted ex of students’ use of edu software, was contacted by software maker to ask if they could showcase my students’ work!
• #11) Retweet to share info & build community, ex: “RT @saprasanna: Our DukeEngage project is on Duke News: http://tinyurl.com/nmuxkz”
• #12) Search for keywords http://search.twitter.com/ (or via Tweetdeck, my fav Twitr app) & follow people who have interesting tweets

#13) Professional use of Twitter 3 of 3: Back-channel conversation at conferences for feedback on talks & updates on things you missed

• #14) Ex: search for #NECC09 for examples of rich conversation and information resulting from back-channel conversations at a conference

You can follow this conversation on Twitter by searching for #TwitValue. For professional updates, follow Julie at http://twitter.com/JulieReynolds88.

Sometimes we instructional technologists get so excited about the next big thing (or Wave) that we forget to let everyone know about some of the really useful tools we use on a daily basis. Case in point – Firefox. Firefox is a free “open source community-powered” web browser developed through Mozilla. The Firefox website provides a good summary of Firefox’s key features. Some of my personal favorites include Firefox’s excellent use of “tabbed” browsing, the “awesome bar,” and the ability to zoom in and out of pages.

While it’s true that many other browsers (Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome) have also implemented similar features, one key Firefox feature really makes it worthwhile: Add-ons. According to Mozilla, add-ons are “little extras that customize Firefox.” With nearly 6,000 of these “little extras” now available, Firefox can be customized to fit most any workflow.

Here are six of my favorite Firefox add-ons that I use almost daily.

1) Easy YouTube video downloader

Ever needed to show a YouTube video at a conference, but didn’t have internet access? Or maybe you wanted to archive a clip for a research project? This add-on places a small set of links within a YouTube video’s page, allowing users to download the video in various formats. (Note: All applications that download content should be used in compliance with copyright law.)

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