iTeach - Skip Via

Why Blog with Post-Secondary Students?

Skip — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:55:13 GMT

I have been requiring my post-secondary education students to blog for the past four semesters. At first, I wanted to experiment with the medium–to see if it improved writing and communication between students and between faculty and students, to...(read more)

What’s in a Name?

Skip — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 20:37:58 GMT

If you arrived here looking for iTeach - Skip Via, you’re in the right place. I’ve changed the title to more clearly reflect the intent of the site. Read More......(read more)

Some Recent Articles of Note

skipvia — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 17:19:04 GMT

The beginning of each school year–whether it be k-12 or post-secondary, since my teaching activities touch both worlds–is always a reflective time for me. I think what I can do to improve my own instruction and, hopefully, the ability of my...(read more)

Tackling Copyright Issues with Flickr Storm

skipvia — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:55:09 GMT

In my classroom, we deal with digital images on a daily basis. They end up in our digital videos, PowerPoint stacks, blogs, and posters. My “Teaching with Technology” students are required to have Flickr accounts to organize and share their...(read more)

What is the Value of a College Education?

skipvia — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 21:04:01 GMT

I’ve been aware of the concept of “disintermediation” since reading Donald Tapscott’s Growing Up Digital in the mid-90s. Essentially, disintermediation refers to the elimination of the proverbial middle man in a supply chain. As...(read more)

A Tantalizing Tabblo

iTeach - Skip Via — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:00:52 GMT

Over the past three semesters, my education undergraduate students have been working with Panraven, a compelling and interesting web site that allows users to create, publish, and even print online storybooks. We have used Panraven to create sense-of-place...(read more)

Does Technology Produce Antisocial Kids?

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 22:39:09 GMT

There are many times when the reality of a situation seems counterintuitive to an observer. A heavy skier reaches the bottom of a hill more quickly than a lighter skier, even though we think that objects should fall at the same rate or that a heavier...(read more)

The Power of Embedding

iTeach - Skip Via — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:40:40 GMT

As an educator, I find myself posting content on a variety of online sources. In addition to semi-regular blogging, I manage several wikis, maintain a faculty home page, store and publish presentations on Google Docs, and I (somewhat reluctantly) use...(read more)

CoSN Investigates Scandanavian Students’ Success

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:34:03 GMT

An interesting follow up to my Feb 29 post (What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?) showed up today from eSchool News. The article, U.S. Educators Seek Lessons from Scandinavia, reported on a visit to Scandinavian schools by the Consortium for School Networking...(read more)

CoSN Investigates Scandanavian Students’ Success

skipvia — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:34:03 GMT

An interesting follow up to my Feb 29 post ( What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart? ) showed up today from eSchool News . The article, U.S. Educators Seek Lessons from Scandinavia , reported on a visit to Scandinavian schools by the Consortium for School Networking...(read more)

Smithsonian Images Database

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:10:34 GMT

Finding images for use in school settings is always an interesting exercise. Aside from the very obvious question of appropriateness of the image, there are questions of copyright, image resolution, and image authenticity. Google image searches and Flickr...(read more)

What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?

iTeach - Skip Via — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 07:56:06 GMT

That’s not my title. It’s from this article in the Wall Street Journal. Read it right now. There is much food for thought here. Not mentioned in the article is the fact that Finland is the most wired country in the world with very high bandwidth...(read more)

Podcasting in Education

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:51:03 GMT

Podcasts are compelling tools for educators from two perspectives. For consumers of information, podcasts can provide portable, repeatable content that can be accessed at any time as often as needed. Study materials, how-to guides, lectures, guest speakers,...(read more)

Digital Consumers

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:57:36 GMT

In a recent article on Ars Technia (The “Google generation” not so hot at Googling, after all), Nate Anderson reviewed a study by the British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee that examined the internet researching habits...(read more)

The Dark Side of Technology

iTeach - Skip Via — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 21:21:33 GMT

My favorite teaching assignment is a class titled “Teaching with Technology.” In this class, we examine not only how to teach with technology but also why to teach with it. We look at ubiquitous computing environments (”one to one programs”)...(read more)