A writing instructor describes her recent exploration of increasing student engagement in a writing class by using digital media.   Vance explains: “As technology shifts, so does our means of persuasion; if students do not explore this, they will find their skills quickly out of date.”

This meant several approaches, including a public class blog.  Blogging appealed for for several reasons.

1. “it forces them to take more accountability for their words while teaching them the power of communication. “
2. “This made the assignments more communal in nature and reinforced that writing is meant to be shared… Requiring students to blog, contact people outside their classroom, and post writing on the Internet teaches them to engage with the community, gives their writing more significance, and supports rhetoric – a term that, by definition, implies community.”

A second technological strategy required students to collaborative create a digital video.  “My goal was that this would provide continuity between assignments, while reinforcing one of the fundamental ideas underlying this class: rhetoric is found in a variety of media, not just writing… Always, the emphasis was on these crafts as rhetorical devices.”

Appropriately, the instructor made a video to complement her article.

(via Ed Webb via Diigo)

In the competitive world of Web browsers, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer continues to lead, according to new statistics from Net Applications.

The aggregate of all versions of Internet Explorer (IE) – 6.0, 7.0, and the new 8.0 – constitutes more than 60% of the browser field. Alternative browsers, both commercial and open source, continue to compete. Firefox (FF), an open source signature achievement, is the world’s second-most-popular browser, being the choice of about one quarter of Web users. Google’s Chrome is now in third place, with 5.22%, displacing Apple’s Safari.

Additionally the 8.0 version of IE is in the lead as an individual version, picked by over 22% of surfers.

Could Facebook become a leading portal for news consumption?  One observer thinks it already is, and will grow in that role.

Facebook is the web’s most popular subscription-enabled place to read news; be it from links shared by friends or by becoming a Fan of news organizations like Facebook is now encouraging. That doesn’t mean that Facebook is yet a better news-reading service than dedicated RSS readers are. But it has certainly caught on as a way to read news far better than dedicated news-reading software has.

How does Facebook work as a news portal?  Let GigaOM explain:

two different ways — both by picking up news from the friends you follow through their news feeds and status updates, but also by becoming a fan of pages from news outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN and so on.

According to Hitwise, RSS readers remain generally unused, and search engine sites serve to drive the leading amounts of news traffic.

One downside to this, according to the previously cited GigaOM:

One thing that might be hindering this process, however, is that most major media outlets are still only sharing a fraction of the news they have on their web sites through Facebook — and even then, it’s often the “soft” features or lifestyle issues rather than hard news. Many of the leading sites such as the New York Times and The Guardian use their pages in part for contests and other promotional items as opposed to news, although that could be changing as they get used to being on the network.

How can instructors use Twitter?  One teacher, and author of a book on learning communities, offers this observation: faculty can quickly form peer learning networks.

I could look inside the minds of motivated peers to learn about the new projects they were undertaking, the research reports they were studying, and Web sites they were exploring. As my comfort with Twitter grew—a process that took a few months, as is typical for new users—I became an active contributor to this knowledge network.

Note, too, this essential tip for growing a Twitter network: “I also followed Twitter users who were recommended by digital peers or whom I knew in person.”

(via DaisyPhD through the Emerging Social Software Diigo group)

Google added two services this week, one to its core Web search, which have subtle implications for teaching and learning.

Social search is now added to basic Web search.  When you look at search results, an “All results/Social” option appears.  This reveals new configurations, including “My social circle” and “My social content”.  For signed-in users, the latter returns content you’ve published through Picasa, Flickr, Twitter , FriendFeed, and others.  The former points to content produced by other users whom you’ve friended through those platforms.

For example,

As some have pointed out, the more information added to a user’s Google profile, the greater the results from social search can be.

From the side of consuming Web content, Google now lets users subscribe to Web sites which don’t publish RSS feeds. For example,

For site owners who don’t want this happen, Google also lets you opt out.

Previous Liberal Education Today posts on social search can be found here.

A new guide to digital storytelling for teachers has been published by Microsoft. There are several video clips, plus a pdf download.

Being a Microsoft publication, the texts naturally emphasize two products: Moviemaker and Photostory.

(via Helen Barrett)

How can students, faculty, and staff use the iPhone as a kind of notebook? One liberal arts researcher and teacher shares his guide to 30 apps which serve various notebook functions, from writing to multimedia.

Another alternative search engine has launched, emphasizing facts and their social presence. Factery tries to present Web content emphasizing basic information about a query, while tracking leading Web discussions about facts.

For example, a search for “liberal education” returns leading background descriptions:

At the same time Factery displays searches of interest (not shown).

Factery seems to be in early days, but could be worth following to see if it grows educational applications.  This sort of project could be useful to consider as an alternative to default Web searches.

(via TechCrunch)

The Chronicle of Higher Education offers its take on how to teach with computer games.  The article is aimed in part at pedagogy, but also at development.

(via Nancy Millichap)

A tablet device was announced by Apple today. The iPad, introduced by Steve Jobs, appears to be a multi-purpose machine, aimed at a middle ground between phone and laptop (excellent coverage here).

It runs on an Apple-built CPU, and uses a version of the iPhone operating system.  iTunes is central to media purchase and organization, as with other Apple devices.  iPhone apps will apparently play on the iPad.

Multipurpose: today’s announcement showed the iPad being used for media consumption (music, video), reading (via a newly launched service, iBooks), office productivity (via updated iWork apps), and Web browsing.  Gaming was showcased as well.

Connectivity: the iPad connects to WiFi points, and also to AT+T 3G networks.

Price ranges from $499 to over $800, depending on purchased memory and 3G connection plans.

No phone support seems to be available.  As with the iPhone, no multitasking.

And an odd glimpse of the liberal arts world, caught by Engadget, and quoted here:

“we’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts”

(thanks to Ruben Ruiz , Peter Naegele, and the commenting hordes via Twitter and Facebook!)