Brian Lamb, at the University of British Columbia, and his weblog on social learning, online learning, and open education

Innovation continues to occur on the internet at an extremely lively pace. What was once the realm of email, FTP, Gopher, and the Web is barely recognizable a mere 10 years later. Keeping up with the speed of innovation and maintaining a familiarity with the most recent tools and capabilities is handy in some professions and absolutely critical in others. This course is designed to help you understand and effectively use a variety of "web 2.0" technologies including blogs, RSS, wikis, social bookmarking tools, photo sharing tools, mapping tools, audio and video podcasts, and screencasts.

" This course examines representations of race, class, gender, and sexual identity in the media. We will be considering issues of authorship, spectatorship, (audience) and the ways in which various media content (film, television, print journalism, advertising) enables, facilitates, and challenges these social constructions in society. In addition, we will examine how gender and race affects the production of media, and discuss the impact of new media and digital media and how it has transformed access and participation, moving contemporary media users from a traditional position of "readers" to "writers" and/or commentators. Students will analyze gendered and racialized language and embodiment as it is produced online in blogs and vlogs, avatars, and in the construction of cyberidentities. The course provides an introduction to feminist approaches to media studies by drawing from work in feminist film theory, journalism, cultural studies, gender and politics, and cyberfeminism."

This workshop is designed to introduce students to different perspectives on politics and the state of the world through new visualization techniques and approaches to interactive political gaming (and selective 'edutainment.') Specifically, we shall explore applications of interactive tools (such as video and web-based games, blogs or simulations) to examine critical challenges in international politics of the 21C century focusing specifically on general insights and specific understandings generated by operational uses of core concepts in political science.

Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching. The MIC07 conference theme Jazzing IT up with MERLOT recognizes the collaborative efforts within disciplines and the education community around the World to enhance teaching and learning through the use of Instructional Technology. Conference attendees span all disciplines and the continuum from novice to expert in the development and use of online resources. The conference is designed to foster learning, innovation and practice in the use of information, instruction, and communications technologies in higher education. It is the venue for educators, administrators, and technologists who have interests and expertise in technology-enabled teaching and learning and who recognize the need to remain current in this rapidly advancing field of educational practice and theory.

Download the supporting PDF file for this episode http://bit.ly/bH53dD from the Learning to Teach Online project website.

This Learning to Teach Online http://bit.ly/d18ac5 case study features Tam Nguyen from The University of New South Wales, describing how a blog was used in one particular teaching context to promote peer-to-peer interaction, feedback and discussion. Tam's students also integrate YouTube and Flickr into their blogs, maximising the potential of both social media and a learning management system.

While the case study does examine one particular teaching application of a blog, the principles discussed can just as easily be applied to any teaching situation where the ability for individuals to chronologically record a learning process, collate different learning resources such as text, video and audio, and increased peer feedback or discussion between students is desired. This episode will examine the context, planning and teaching within the case study, and highlight any issues that were encountered, and benefits that make this type of online teaching worthwhile.