XplanaZine

Updates on: Curriki.org’s wiki approach to teacher education, Japanese university’s mobile phone course, a Biology teacher’s tale of implementing online materials into classes, Bloomsburg University’s online course for deaf and hard of hearing students

Curriki.org, a nonprofit group originally part of Sun Microsystems that likewise takes content contributions from the public at large, teaches educators themselves how to teach. Is this wiki-approach academically credible? Will its free content hurt textbook publishers? — International Herald Tribune

Cyber University in Japan has begun offering a mobile class on the “mysteries of the pyramids,” but instead of a typical PC’s display of text, images, sound, and video, the mobile version offers a streaming Power Point presentation on the topic. The university – 71 percent of which is owned by Softbank, a mobile service provider — has 1,850 students, and offers almost 100 courses, though only one is available for phones. — Engadget

High school students are hooked on a Biology teacher’s video lectures and notes available online. He talks about how easy it is to record and upload them – and he admits he is not even a tech-savvy person. His web site received some 38,000 hits last year, indicating that his students are using the lectures repeatedly after class, as well as sharing the site with other students. — T.H.E. Journal

Last semester, Bloomsburg University began using Wimba’s Live Classroom, a Web-based learning tool, to offer deaf and hard of hearing students an online course that includes a sign-language interpreter and closed-caption text to accompany the standard slide presentation and instructor’s voice. — Campus Technology