Knauff said self-publishing tools are an enticing way to get college students to develop original thoughts as opposed to simply repeating what they think professors want to hear. Students are collectively creating glossaries and repositories for academic articles, audio files and videos.

“They write for their peers as well and it creates a different motivation. They want to do well, don’t want to look phony and get excited about the projects with the media aspect,” said Knauff.

The multimedia or personal stuff that professors may think of as flashy filler is getting students to make an emotional investment in their education. “Sure, the content they offer is not as good as if a faculty member produced it. The content expert is always going to be better at creating the content, but that’s not the point,” said Knauff.

And it goes beyond blogs replacing reading journals for undergrad American lit classes. Dartmouth’s medical school students use wikis to author, share and critique case studies.

This feels difficult. I went to two different conferences in the last three weeks, and came away with more specific information for following up than ever. I heard about wonderful ideas, teaching practices, classroom strategies, new uses of technologies… new to me, anyway, but that’s why we go to these conferences.

So what’s difficult? Part of the difficulty is knowing I’ve been at this job for 10 years now, as of the 7th of July. It’s been a great ten years – I really like what we’ve created here in the ITC. I’ve seen what could be, though – some wonderful innovations that we could emulate at Emory’s Cox Hall, the FCIT at University of South Florida, and the University of Texas at Austin. Now I’m ready to try some of these new things, to plan and share these ideas and this energy, but the students and faculty are either involved in the end of summer semester or on vacation, and as I said, I’ve got other commitments to keep.

So, back to the work I left behind to go to the conferences… valuable work I mostly enjoy for people I like and respect for a purpose I support, but it’s not the exciting stuff I saw at these conferences! While I’m tempted by the new new things, I’ll dig in, and work to keep the energy from these fresh ideas while I do the not so new things. As Dave Winer always says, still diggin’.

I spent all yesterday with Ellen and Will at a workshop celebrating constructivism presented by a new group, the Constructivist Consortium. Six companies got together and invited NECC attendees to this all day, project-based work/play/learn/reflect series of activities. They provided full licensed copies of key software titles for people to install on their laptops and take with them, and lunch, for a paltrey fee of only $25. And they seemed surprised that it sold out in just days. Spending the day feeling like you’‘re playing, and on review, realize you learned a tremendous amount – an excellent educational model, if you ask me.

Will spent both project periods – morning and afternoon – programming interactive projects and games using MicroWorlds EX from LCSI. He has his sights set on a Computational Media major at Georgia Tech, so this was just practice for him.

Ellen networked, especially spending time with Peter Reynolds, author, artist, and a leader (with his twin, Paul) of FableVision.

I spoke with Lauren Elliott about PNN.com, the Personal News Network, a multimedia-rich network/blog site. Lauren is the guy who created Where In the World is Carmen Sandiego

Their mission is a constructivist manifesto for companies; check it out below the fold.

Members of the Constructivist Consortium believe in the following principles:

• The learner is at the center of the educational process and knowledge results from socially constructed experiences.
• Computers and communication technology create expanded opportunities for children to learn traditional concepts and additional opportunities to learn new things in new ways.
• Hardware and software are best used in ways that enhance each student’s creative and intellectual development in a flexible open-ended fashion.
• Students are empowered by abundant access to computers and while engaged in personally meaningful projects.
• Teachers are in the best position to know how to meet the needs of their students.
• Opportunities for student collaboration, communication and publishing are at least as important as access to information.

• 21st Century students are creative, thoughtful and capable of responsible leadership in their schools and communities. Student empowerment is a key to academic success.