Search Tools and Technologies - Articles Archive
from November 22, 2008 to August 2, 2008

As more and more students begin to attend online courses, is the educational system well aware of the potential of outside-the-classroom approaches in learning? The abundance and consequent fragmentation of information gives increasing opportunity to specialized forms of education that more effectively address personal contexts and ... read more

Pretty soon mobile devices will be used to stream live and on-demand, recorded training courses, engaging learners on the move even in the absence of traditional face-to-face approaches. But, would you attend a course via your mobile phone? Easy of access to high-speed networks is indeed ... read more

Lijit is a free solution that helps you increase page views and reader engagement on your own site. By placing a non-intrusive search box on the side of your web pages, Lijit scans your site and discretely suggests your readers for additional relevant content. In this video ... read more

“New technologies offer new opportunities for educators to increase learner engagement and improve the overall value of the learning experience." (Source: George Siemens) Is your university or college using Facebook, wikis, podcasts, or other social media technologies to communicate, interact and engage with its students? Educational technologies ... read more

How do you make sense of the huge quantity of the increasing amount of fragmented, separate, granular information you're exposed to when learning? "We make sense personally. No one makes sense for us." If you just rely on educational and academic institutions to make sense of the ... read more

Wondering what's happening between social software and academics? If you were to read some of the opinions expressed in the press, you wouldn't bet a dime on these new tools to become a future staple of learning evolution. General message: "it's bad. Very bad. We must ... read more

How can you keep yourself updated with everything new and relevant that gets published on the Web? What is the best to find always fresh, new content for your blog to write about? In this short video Robin Good explains one of the key elements everyone wanting ... read more

How long can we continue to add technology to teaching and learning before we fundamentally reconsider the entire process, including the spaces and structures of learning? If you have not yet realized it, smart phones and other intelligent mobile devices are invisibly becoming the prime just-in-time learning ... read more

How do you know whether the information you are searching for online has been verified and comes from reliable sources? Are you getting into the mass-media habit of taking for granted whatever you read online? Is your critical evaluation attitude miserably fading? George Siemens, MasterNewMedia official guide ... read more

Is virtual learning better than classroom face-to-face instruction? Are the benefits for learning at a distance as effective as those obtainable from a traditional in-class curriculum? Tough to say. Different researchers report different experiences and given sometimes the shallowness of their investigation or the limited numbers ... read more

Understanding the concept of "information funnels" is critical to anyone passionately dedicated to become a successful independent web publisher. This is it. I am indeed glad that George Siemens, who weekly authors these insightful digest, has himself chosen to point to the relevance of this very concept ... read more

"The growing complexity of technology and tools for designing learning leaves us at an interesting point: should educators/trainers become technologists? Or should the tools of design become so easy to use that technical skills are minimal? Or do we move the technology to specialized design teams ... read more

Are media and technology making you dumber? Do you feel socially distanced from what you really care about due to your increased use of technologies? We search Google and think we have acquired knowledge. We blog and think we have subjected our ideas to peer ... read more

What will look like education in the future? Are we going to see a revolution in the education system we have built in the last 100 years or a dissolution of the same as new approaches to education and learning slowly contaminate our fast changing society? ... read more

Google has just announced the public release of Google Ad Manager, a hosted platform for the full management and optimization of online advertising campaigns to improve your ROI (Return on Investment). To access it one needs only to have an existing AdSense account. Google Ad ... read more

How can the educational system we pay for via our taxes change and transform itself into a new way to prepare our young people for an even faster-changing future? Are there alternatives out there? As I have promised you last week, George Siemens has made himself ... read more

The more I proceed, the more I see how badly it is needed: media literacy. Understanding what information is, making sense of the different communication paradigms, from interpersonal to mass and social media, the creation of reality and consensus, the role and use of new technologies ... read more

"If you have mastered the blogging paradigm, have made your blog an authority and a reliable source of information, commentary or news in your selected field(/s) of interest, it is about time to "scale yourself up" - Work Less and Look More At The Bigger Picture ... read more

What is connectivism? If you were to ask Wikipedia without paying too much attention you would discover that this unfamiliar word originates right here in Italy. "...at the beginning of the 21st century in Italy, where is known as Connettivismo. It originated in Italian science fiction ... read more

To understand the times and changes we are going through, it is necessary to keep scanning the horizon for changes and new emerging patterns. Looking only at your close, surrounding community and environment doesn't help you see beyond your existing assumptions and prejudices. To ride them ... read more