I love having access to online videos that I can use in my lectures. I often will go looking for videos online to show or explain a processes better that can be shown by arm waving at still photos (though I do an awful lot of arm waving, most geologists do). Arm waving is often key in lectures because most of geology is spatial discipline, especially when it come to teaching structural geology. I even found a blog from a structural geologist (All of My Faults Are Stress-Related) where there is a post entitled "Arm waving in class is good". I tried to find a video of this but all I really could find are some still photos.
Most of the videos I use have been short clips of under sea volcanic eruptions, black smokers, earthquake dynamics, or mountain formation. Recently, I found a whole documentary on You Tube entitled Global Warming - Doomsday Called Off by the CBC. The class had to answer a series a questions related to the information in the documentary; it keeps their attention focused. I chose to show this particular videos to teach them about the contrasting views on global warming an climate change. Its always good to play devil's advocate every once and a while.
Since I can figure out how to embed a You Tube file in my blog I'll leave you with one of the videos of my experiments. In this clip you can see the vigorous reaction and violent potential that exists by mixing magma and wet sediments.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Geolgical Podcasts
I wouldn't have even thunk it! The United States Geologic Survey has podcasts. This excites me greatly. I can upgrade my "In Geology News This Week" to the next level by getting students to subscribe to their podcast allowing us to have an open discussion on the topic following the new podcast syndication.The latest podcast is entitled "Disappearing Ice Shelves on Antarctic Peninsula". It would have fit right in with last weeks lectures on Climate Change and Geology. I think I should be able to fit it in with the lectures after reading week on Glaciers.
Using Wikis
Creating our own Wiki was actually kind of fun. I think that it would be a excellent way to set up a group research project and monitor the groups progress along the way at their various mile stones. This would be much more fun to work with the the old fashion group term paper!
What the difference between a blog and a Wiki? Blogs are simply online journals. They convey the writers thoughts and emotions. They are a great place to express one's creativity and post photos. Blogs are the property of the individual who writes them. A Wiki on the other hand is an editable online platform that can be updated by multiple users in real time. Wikis allow the reader (or Wiki members) to collaborate by creating, modifying and organizing a web page.
When is one more appropriate to use than the other? Wikis are appropriate for applications that involve multiple authors, and require that this work be edited by a group or team. Since things are continuously changing and growing rapidly, Wiki are ideal to keep up with what's current.
Should you allow your students to use wikis as valid sources for academic research? and Would you allow your students to submit a paper to you that cites a wiki as a source? On our Wiki (http://learningtogetherwithtechnology.wikispaces.com) there is an entire section dedicate to "Trusting Wiki's". The author is of the opinion that Wiki's have a great potential to be trusted resources and I agree that with proper monitoring they could be. On the other hand open source Wiki's, like Wikipedia can be modified by any of its users. The problem with that being that false information might make it on to any page. Wikipedia is monitored for quality on a regular basis but that's not to say that things don't slip through the cracks on occasion. In addition, wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts int he field and because of this fact Wikipedia is not a valid source for academic research. For this reason I would not allow for the use Wikipedia in research papers, though I do often say the it is a great place to start to gather basic information on a subject.
What policies could wikis enforce that could garner more confidence from the public? As I eluded to above wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts in the field. If Wiki pages are to be used as academic reference then they should under go stringent peer review. If this happened people would have more faith in the materials contained on each page.
What the difference between a blog and a Wiki? Blogs are simply online journals. They convey the writers thoughts and emotions. They are a great place to express one's creativity and post photos. Blogs are the property of the individual who writes them. A Wiki on the other hand is an editable online platform that can be updated by multiple users in real time. Wikis allow the reader (or Wiki members) to collaborate by creating, modifying and organizing a web page.
When is one more appropriate to use than the other? Wikis are appropriate for applications that involve multiple authors, and require that this work be edited by a group or team. Since things are continuously changing and growing rapidly, Wiki are ideal to keep up with what's current.
Should you allow your students to use wikis as valid sources for academic research? and Would you allow your students to submit a paper to you that cites a wiki as a source? On our Wiki (http://learningtogetherwithtechnology.wikispaces.com) there is an entire section dedicate to "Trusting Wiki's". The author is of the opinion that Wiki's have a great potential to be trusted resources and I agree that with proper monitoring they could be. On the other hand open source Wiki's, like Wikipedia can be modified by any of its users. The problem with that being that false information might make it on to any page. Wikipedia is monitored for quality on a regular basis but that's not to say that things don't slip through the cracks on occasion. In addition, wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts int he field and because of this fact Wikipedia is not a valid source for academic research. For this reason I would not allow for the use Wikipedia in research papers, though I do often say the it is a great place to start to gather basic information on a subject.
What policies could wikis enforce that could garner more confidence from the public? As I eluded to above wiki pages are not specifically reviewed by experts in the field. If Wiki pages are to be used as academic reference then they should under go stringent peer review. If this happened people would have more faith in the materials contained on each page.
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