Want to know what's happening with Social Media?

Checkout Mashable.com. Mashable is a big blog site, a place to read about social media stuff, like how celebrities and news outlets are using Twitter lists or a list of the best apps on Facebook.

You can find things to use in the classroom as well. Look at this list Nonfiction Tweets: 70+ Authors to Follow on Twitter This list focuses on authors that use Twitter often to engage their readers in discussions and to offer information that is useful and interesting. Come on, all you English professors, can't you find a way to use this in your course?

Take a look at all the topics on Mashable, I am sure you can find something that you can use to make your course a little more engaging!

(Please let me know if you do use something you found here, and how you are using it in your course...we love to share these things!)

Using Discussion Boards within and between Classes

Here's a Webinar that might be of interest to anyone teaching online.

If you are interested, let me know and I will make the arrangements. You do need to be at a computer for this session, we could set it up in a smart classroom if several of you want to participate.

Using Discussion Boards within and between Classes
Elluminate
Nov. 10, 2009 - 2:00pm-3:00pm Eastern Time
Presenter: Margaret Anderson, Associate Professor, Psychology Department, SUNY Cortland

Margaret Anderson will describe how and why Live Journal blogs were used to maintain private student journals and provide a mechanism for group interaction within and between courses. Live Journals were also used to coordinate communication across six different courses which included two groups of students who were enrolled in three parallel courses, four instructors and four teaching assistants. Since Live Journal is a stand-alone program, it can be integrated into course delivery systems and used in a distance or blended formats. Live Journal allows for private, semi private and open communication and is particularly useful to facilitate communication among students who are not enrolled in the same course.