E-Textbooks and Ipad

In a previous blog, I wrote about e-books vs. traditional books. I personally have been happy with using an Ipad to view books and texts.  I guess I am not the only one.  Cost is still going to be an issue though for many. Check out the following from an NPR.org article:

For a few years now, people have been expecting electronic textbooks to take off in a big way: They’re cheaper than traditional textbooks, easier to carry around in a backpack, and seem like a natural progression for students who have grown up playing and working with digital devices.

Despite all that, traditional textbooks have prevailed — until now. The game changer, according to Matt MacInnis, may be a little thing called the iPad.

MacInnis is the founder and CEO of Inkling, a company that designs textbook software for the iPad. He says the iPad has allowed for the reinvention of the textbook.

to read the rest of the article click here:  npr.org

Posting Teacher’s Reviews Online – What is RateMyProfessor?

Today’s Ask Dr. Diane:  What is the site ratemyprofessor.com all about?

Ratemyprofessor.com is a website dedicated to allowing students to find out more about their professors and the courses they are going to take before they begin class. The site allows students to give their opinion of the classes and the instructors of those classes they have taken previously.  It is not unlike the rating one would give a book they have read on Amazon.  Because of that, you will see a wide variety of responses on there.  Some students may write wonderful, glowing comments, while others write less flattering things.  You can search for a professor or a school on the site.  I have found it to be the most accurate to first search for the school and then look for the individual professor within that school where they are listed alphabetically.  To search for the school, you would type in the upper right hand search box.  It will then give you a list of schools.  Click on the one you want and then it will pull up a screen that lets you browse by last name of the professor. 

I haven’t heard as many of my students refer to this site lately. It seemed a lot more popular a few years ago.  It is kind of a fun little site to see what others are saying. However, just as with any review, you have to realize there could be “sour grapes”.  A student who may not have done well in the course may be more likely to say something negative about the professor.  Also there is a lot of subjectivity so what may be a horrible class to one may be a wonderful class to another.  The information is fun but it should be taken with a grain of salt. 

To see my ratings, you can go to the following links for some of my schools:  1, 2, 3, 4

As I mentioned, it is not new to publish information about professors online.  However, there is a new trend that has some people up in arms.  Take a look at a recent NPR article where the author mentions that 6,000 elementary teachers in Los Angeles will see their names published online, along with data showing how much their students improved on standardized tests by clicking here.

When Did We Become Mentally Modern? : NPR

When Did We Become Mentally Modern?

by Alix Spiegel

August 9, 2010

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All Things Considered

[10 min 37 sec]

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via npr.org

Listen to NPR’s story about how we became human in our minds.