Penn LPS Commons

10/11/2010

Universities are turning to social networking to create online learning communities that mix serious academic work, and connections among working scholars, with Facebook-style fun.

08/30/2010

Open up courses with tiers of access? We've got that covered.

Wendy K. Drexler, a postdoctoral associate at the U. of Florida who says huge open classes have provided her with valuable learning experiences, is planning to help teach one on technology and learning.

08/27/2010

Supporting a student-centered learning design comes easy to us.

Our modern discussions of “student-centered learning” are moving into a more strategic realm.

08/18/2010

Clay Shirky from NYU argues that "a new set of norms is emerging about what it means to do mathematics, assuming coordinated participation". Our Calc 1 and 2 classes this summer used the Commons social collaborative tools. Are we paving the way for a second scientific revolution?

A claimed proof for one of the most vexing mathematical problems, P versus NP, set off shock waves online, demonstrating the potential of Web-based collaboration.

08/16/2010

Wrapping up summer activities: 10 courses, 800+ students. Whew!

08/12/2010

Gates says that college, except for parties, needs to be less place-based. Perhaps. We think it should always be social, inside the classroom and out.

'Place-based colleges' are good for parties, but are becoming less crucial for learning thanks to the Internet, said the Microsoft founder Bill Gates at a conference on Friday.

08/09/2010

Missing from this list: social learning platforms.

The 7/22 article in the NYTimes, "Windows Upgrade Helps Microsoft to a Record Quarter," got me thinking about enterprise vs. consumer platforms in our world of learning tech. Microsoft is making tons of money on enterprise licenses, but its stock price remains flat because their consumer brand conti...

08/06/2010

We've been in the future for the past two years! Penn LPS Commons team likes the way Marc Perry thinks.

Madison, Wis. — Educators from around the country are gathering here this week to trade ideas at the 26th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. One expert they'll hear from is George Veletsianos, an assistant professor of instructional technology at the University of Texas at Austin w...

08/04/2010

Could e-learning help mitigate the "crisis of creativity now affecting American schools and children"?

There are few more creative writers than the San Francisco-based Po Bronson . The author of four best-selling non-fiction books, two novels, a book of short stories and many articles for Newsweek, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, Bronson’s work has been translated into 19 different la...

07/30/2010

Mimi Ito talks about the importance of "social wrappers" to motivate
learning. If you've taken a course with us on Penn LPS
Commons, what do you think about our wrapper?
Does the social environment promote learning?

Mimi Ito provided the opening keynote address for the 2010 NMC Summer Conference on "Learning with Social Media: The Positive Potential of Peer Pressure and Messing Around Online."

07/29/2010

It is now legal to rip DVDs for educational purposes. The new law is a great step in enhancing online multimedia content.

[This is a guest post by Jason Mittell, Associate Professor of Film & Media Culture and American Studies at Middlebury College. Jason blogs at Just TV.]

05/25/2010

Summer One online courses on the Commons have begun. See what we're offering, at http://www.sas.upenn.edu/summer/locations/online

Already have plans for the summer? Heading to the beach or a great internship? Penn's Open Learning Commons online platform provides you with access to Penn classes wherever you are. Courses are offered ...