[ED-TECH] Free or inexpensive textbooks - flatworldknowledge.com

Ed-Tech list members,

If you would like to reduce the cost of textbooks at UM, take a look at the http://www.flatworldknowledge.com site. The textbooks there are FREE to read online (when adopted for your class), $30 for a black & white printed copy, $60 for a color copy, and so on. The students can decide what they want. You can even customize the books if you want.

You can request a free desk copy to review the books that you might use in your classes so that you can evaluate the quality of the product. Access their catalog by going to http://www.flatworldknowledge.com/catalog/ and entering your discipline in the search box. (The LINKS to the disciplines don't seem to be working, but the search is working.) They mainly have Business and Economics books, with a few in other disciplines, right now. If there is a text that might work in one of your courses, please take a look at it. (If not, you might want to contact them about writing one!)

The University of Florida is one of the many schools with courses that are using this service. See if it might meet your needs for a quality textbook at a reduced (down to FREE) cost.

If you have other sites, services, or suggestions for reducing textbook costs while maintaining the high-quality educational experience that we provide at UM, please let me know so I can share them with everyone.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu<mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu>
786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

p.s. My son, John, hopes to start at UM next Fall, so please do what you can to reduce textbook costs by then. He won't care, but I will truly appreciate it.

p.p.s. Thanks to my sister-in-law for telling me about this site/service.

[ED-TECH] Textbook costs

Ed-Tech list members,

How different are the current versions of the textbooks in your courses different from the previous versions? If the answer is "not much" you mitt think about using the previous version for your assigned textbook. It could save your students LOTS of money, with almost no affect to their learning of the material. Rather than automatically going with the latest version, at least consider this and other ways to lower textbook costs for our students.

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2009 has a section that deals with textbook costs. Congress has taken notice. Please take a moment to think about what you can do.

Bill Vilberg - bill.vilberg@miami.edu, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Applications for FLC due Fri Oct 29

Ed-Tech list members,

UM is accepting applications for its third year of the Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs) on Information, communication, and technology (ICT) literacy concepts. This is a wonderful opportunity to work with other faculty, to modify your teaching to include ICT material.

The application is available at http://tinyurl.com/umflc2011
More information is available at http://tinyurl.com/umflc2011info

I am not part of the FLCs at UM. I am passing this on because I think you should consider applying for this opportunity. You will get to work with a small group of faculty from across the UM Gables campus, you will get $1,500 in development funds, and you will get a one course reduction in Fall 2011, if your application is accepted.

Bill Vilberg, bill.vilberg@miami.edu<mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu>, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Recordings from Educause online conference

Ed-Tech mailing list,

The largest conference in higher education information technology, EDUCAUSE, was held last week. Recordings of the sessions that were part of the Online conference are now available and can be accessed freely by everyone. Just go to [LINK REMOVED] for the list of sessions, with links to the recordings.

[All 51 of the recordings from the online session are not public, so I had to remove them from this blog of all the email sent to my Ed-Tech group. To view the 12 public recordings, please go to http://www.educause.edu/e10streaming and enjoy.]

These recordings are interesting both for the content and the lecture capture systems. Some recordings were made using Adobe Connect to record the screen and audio, while others were made using a MediaSite system to record the screen, audio, and a small "talking head" of the presenter. As you watch them, think about how either of these techniques might be used to allow your students to better learn the material in your courses.

Bill Vilberg, bill.vilberg@miami.edu<mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu>, 786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] UM Study Abroad Program

Ed-Tech list members,

If you have not noticed the impressive changes that have taken place at UM in the Study Abroad program, please go to the web site below and take a look.

http://www.miami.edu/index.php/study_abroad/programs/semester-on-location_programs/

Applications are due October 15, this Friday, for the UPrague and UGalapagos programs. UGalilee has a later due date. These programs offer some wonderful opportunities for our students. Please help make sure that our students are aware of the opportunity, know how to get more information, and don't miss the approaching deadline.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu<mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu>
786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Educause Online Conference - Wed-Fri, Oct. 13-15

Ed-Tech list members,

YOUR TASK:

1. Download the schedule of the Educause 2010 Online Sessions from the Educause 2010 events at http://iacevents.org and see if any of the sessions look interesting to you. The lists of sessions are in the Extras, Links section of the IAC event page. Each title in the list of sessions is a link to the details of that session.

2. Set alarms to remind you to come to the Richter Library, Faculty Exploratory (Room 305), on Wednesday, Thursday, and/or Friday, October 13-15, to watch the sessions.

3. Share these three steps with anyone else who might be interested in any of the sessions.

DETAILS

The Educause conference, next week, in Anaheim, CA, brings together many thousands of people from the higher education technology community. For the first time, they have set up an Online Conference for those of us who cannot affort the time or money to attend in person. I have registered for that option and will be showing the sessions in the Faculty Exploratory, Room 325 of the Richter Library. You are invited to come and watch all the sessions, or only those that interest you.

Bill Vilberg
Instructional Advancement
Richter Library, Room 325
bill.vilberg@miami.edu<mailto:bill.vilberg@miami.edu>
786-250-2255

http://vilberg.com - Spreading seeds of education, technology, and more

[ED-TECH] Mother Pelican ~ Vol. 6, No. 10, October 2010

FYI ... the pelican journal of sustainable development has been renamed
*Mother Pelican* in honor of the *Human Being* she represents.

The October 2010 issue has been posted:
http://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv06n10page1.html

Going Forward After the UN MDG Review Summit
1. Current Status of the Millennium Development Goals
2. Review of the "Keeping the Promise" Declaration
3. Timidity of National Governments and Global Citizens
4. Ms. Michelle Bachelet and the UN Women Entity
5. Sustainable Human Development and the MDGs
6. Links to Key UN and MDG Documents and Resources
7. Links to News and Reports about the MDG Summit
8. Current Research on Sustainable Human Development
9. A Meditation on Sustainable Human Development

Supplements:

Supplement 1: Advances in Sustainable Development
Supplement 2: Directory of Sustainable Development Resources
Supplement 3: Sustainable Development Simulation (SDSIM)

Articles:

Socioeconomic Democracy: A Psycho-Politico-Socio-Economic System,
by Robley George.

Composition and Trends of Homestead Agroforestry in Bangladesh,
by Sourovi Zaman et al.

Will Working Mothers' Brains Explode? The Popular New Genre of
Neurosexism, by Cordelia Fine.

A Paradise Built in Hell: Communities that Rise to the Challenge of
Disaster, by Rebecca Solnit.

We Need Millennium Development RIGHTS, Not Just Goals,
by Phyllis Bennis.

Feedback is cordially invited!

Sincerely,
Luis

Luis T. Gutierrez, Ph.D.
The Pelican Web
Editor, Mother Pelican: A Journal of Sustainable Development
http://pelicanweb.org
A monthly, CC license, free subscription, open access e-journal