JUST OFF THE NEW BOOKSHELF

Building online learning communities: effective strategies for the virtual classroom / Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt. 2nd ed. San Francisco, CA : Jossey-Bass, c2007. LC5805 .P35 2007

From the cover: “The second edition of the groundbreaking book Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace by Rena Palloff and Keith Pratt has been completely updated and expanded to include the most current information on effective online course development and delivery. Palloff and Pratt share insights designed to guide readers, offering illustrative case studies, vignettes, and examples from a wide variety of successful online courses.”

—————

OXFORD SCHOLARSHIP ONLINE

As I hope you already know, Ramsey Library has for a number of years offered a variety of online, electronic books. Some have we’ve paid for and have proven successful (e.g., SAFARI technical books online, http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com/). Some we’ve received access to for free via the state’s NC LIVE program (e.g., some 14,000 titles via NetLibrary, http://www.netlibrary.com/). These have tended to be less successful with display and printing being major issues.

Electronic books in general offer many attractions IF they’re used. On a per title basis they’re far less expensive than the print versions. They’re accessible via the web. They can be accessed by more than one person at a time (in some cases). And if it’s a user-friendly system, they can greatly facilitate note taking, locating information within the text.

The library continues to look at these products ~ one looks interesting for purchase later in the year IF we get some extra money. In order to be ready if we do, we’d like to ask you to take a look at Oxford Scholarship Online during a current 30-day trial. You will have access to all thirteen subject areas now available: Economics/Finance, Political Science, Religion, Philosophy, Literature, History, Classics, Psychology, Linguistics, Physics, Mathematics, Biology, and Business/Management. Complementing the 1,354 scholarly monographs already available in Economics/Finance, Political Science, Religion, and Philosophy, an additional 461 classic and newly published titles bring further depth and breadth of content to this cross-indexed, fully searchable database. When the trial ends, we’ll ask for your assessment in a brief web survey.

To begin using Oxford Scholarship Online, contact the Research Desk at 251-6111.

—————

Computer Literacy Doesn’t Mean Information Literacy, Report Says

In a January 16 note, the Chronicle shares “A new report from the Joint Information Systems Committee, a British higher-education research institute, says the “Google Generation” (those born after 1993, who can’t remember a time when the Internet wasn’t widely available) may be computer literate. But that doesn’t make them information literate.” Check it out.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/2670/computer-literacy-doesnt-mean-information-literacy-report-says?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Posted by Brandy on January 23, 2008 10:12 AM