Panel Title: McGraw-Hill and The Born Digital Student – Going Beyond Publishing

Click here to vote

You must be registered in order to vote but it only takes 30 seconds. Your support would be much appreciated. If you’d like, you can help us get the word out by:

1. Emailing the link to your friends with instructions on how to vote

2. Posting the link on you Facebook and Twitter (e.g. vote for @gradeguru panel on SXSW “McGraw-Hill & the born digital student” http://bit.ly/ZkcQP)
3. Blog about it

The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals

SXSW Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer.
Link: http://sxsw.com/about

Yes, it’s that time again… While your mind still asks “where did the summer go?” Fall semester is getting into full gear. It’s time to say Good Bye to Summer and start focusing on making the most of the school year.

Our friends over at Unigo.com have created a helpful Back to School College Guide that will help you stay on track whether you are new to the whole college scene or an upperclassmen looking to make the most of your semester. They’ve covered everything from choosing classes to managing your budget and have even posted advice from students like What I Wish I’d Known About College Dorm Life . In addition to all the tips, Unigo is offering a chance to Win a Dell Studio 14z Laptop to anyone who registers or logs in to Unigo before August 31^st!!! For more details see Unigo.com

Also make sure to check out Make Easy Cash on Your Time which offers more college tips on how to earn money without drastically altering your schedule (GradeGuru is featured!)

“Taking Notes Beyond the Classroom”

Below are a few highlights of the article:

Despite mixed reactions, note sharing has continued to grow in popularity. “Broadly, what we’re seeing is a trend in the increase of recognition that learning is collaborative. We’ve often treated what students do as private segments, they just go back to their dorms and study, when in fact they study together a lot,” said David Parry, assistant professor of emerging media and communications at the University of Texas-Dallas. Parry is also part of McGraw-Hill’s Academic Advisory Committee. “We’ve seen Facebook and MySpace collaboration to share information. There are opportunities for [the note sharing] Web sites to play that role for students.”

“From our perspective, we see note sharing as evolving into a more collaborative community of notes, more real time discussion, students helping each other in more real time,” Sawtell said. “If other social networks should be taken as an example, that is what may ultimately play out.”

Another concern about online note sharing is the fear that it is essentially spoon-feeding material to students and propagating a culture of laziness. However, supporters of the sites say they attract ambitious students, rather than class skippers. Keith Hampson, director of digital education strategies at Toronto’s Ryerson University, who is also part of McGraw-Hill’s Academic Advisory Committee, said that his original sense of skepticism has dissipated. “The more I’ve looked into this, the more I realized that the people who are using [note sharing sites] are proactive students. They want to have their notes in their hands before they enter class, they may want two or three copies of those notes when studying for an exam.”

The article ends with the following statement from Dr. Keith Hampson:

“I think there’s a real divide in higher education as to how we ought to be teaching, how students ought to be learning,” Hampson said. However, he acknowledged that whichever direction education moves in, change is inevitable. “We are obviously moving towards a more active and collaborative style of learning. These social technologies and practices enable to us to do this on a much grander scale.”

We’ve assembled a group of education technology and new media experts to help shape the GradeGuru community and build out our value proposition for college students. The GradeGuru Academic Advisory Committee will help us determine what students need most out of a collaborative learning platform and advise us on key development decisions. Tune-in to our blog throughout the semester for guest posts from our advisory committee members on issues regarding open access learning, the academic social web, digital publishing, and various perspectives surrounding emerging media trends.

Jonathan Becker, J.D., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at the Educational Leadership Department at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Prof. Becker teaches courses in school law and educational research methods. His research agenda includes continued study of digital equity in education, legal issues in education, and the intersection between educational technology and educational leadership. Prior to beginning his professorial career, he served as Research Director at Interactive, Inc., an educational research and consulting company based in Huntington, New York.

Keith Hampson, Ph.D is the Director of Digital Education Strategies at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. He is co-author of Mastering Digital Research: A Guide for Students and founder of LinkedIn’s “Higher Education Management Group” with more than four thousand members. Dr. Hampson is an experienced higher education consultant who has worked with companies such as Flat World Knowledge, Eduventures, Pearson Education, WebCT, Ninthhouse Communications, Digital Learning Interactive, Nelson Education, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Convergence Management Consultants, Canadian International Development Agency, NEXTMove Communications and has served on the advisory boards of Flat World Knowledge Inc and EdTek Services Inc. He is a regular speaker at higher education conferences on topics including content development models, productivity strategies and competition between institutions.

Paul Levinson, Ph.D is a Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City. His eight nonfiction books, including The Soft Edge (1997), Digital McLuhan (1999), Realspace (2003), and Cellphone (2004), have been the subject of major articles in the New York Times, Wired, the Christian Science Monitor, and have been translated into ten languages. New New Media, exploring blogging, Twitter, YouTube and other “new new” modes of communication, will be published by Penguin Academics in the summer of 2009. His science fiction novels include The Silk Code (1999, winner of the Locus Award for Best First Novel), Borrowed Tides (2001), The Consciousness Plague (2002), The Pixel Eye (2003), and The Plot To Save Socrates (2006). His short stories have been nominated for Nebula, Hugo, Edgar, and Sturgeon Awards. Paul Levinson appears on “The O’Reilly Factor” (Fox News), “The CBS Evening News,” “NewsHour with Jim Lehrer” (PBS), “Nightline” (ABC), and numerous national and international TV and radio programs. He reviews the best of television in his InfiniteRegress.tv blog, and was listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” in 2009.

David Parry, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor of Emerging Media and Communications at the University of Texas at Dallas. His research focuses around digital literacy and networked culture within universities. He has taught classes at The University at Albany and Simon’s Rock College in philosophy, literature and new media.

Chris Penny, Ph.D is a Professor of Educational Technology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. Pr. Penny is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified teacher. His research focuses on technology integration into education. In his most recent research project, Pr. Penny embarked on an e-reader pilot program using the Kindle DX electronic reader. The goal of the pilot was to determine if the convenience and features of an e-reader are more useful than the physical qualities of a print book.

The Open Access movement, ushered in by MIT OpenCourseWare, marked a significant shift in the way academics leverage the web to spread knowledge. We believe this trend is set to grow and perhaps reach a tipping point among college students in the next academic year.

Last semester, as thousands of students at hundreds of universities across the US started using GradeGuru, we quickly realized the potential for building a leading community to share class notes, improve their study skills and build their academic portfolios. GradeGuru is attracting Facebook and YouTube users who want to leverage social media to built their academic reputation.

We are very excited about the new designs and functions that we’ll be rolling out in the Fall and can’t wait to hear your thoughts. From full Facebook integration, to school specific pages, we think GradeGuru will be of value to hundreds of thousands of college students (fingers crossed). We truly believe today’s born digital college students are leading a revolution in learning and we want GradeGuru to be a vehicle for that change.

Best,

Emily Sawtell – GradeGuru Founder