Dr. Paul Levinson is a Professor of Communication & Media Studies at Fordham University in New York City. He was recently listed in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s “Top 10 Academic Twitterers” and is part of the GradeGuru Academic Advisory Committee.

My latest book, New New Media , was published by Penguin Academics on September 5, 2009.  As I point out on the first page, the book is about media so new that some of them – such as Twitter and YouTube – did not even exist five years ago.   I wrote the book as close to the bone of current events as possible.   The use of Twitter by protestors in Iran in June 2009, for example, is prominently included in the book’s Twitter chapter.

But I turned the book’s final revisions into the publisher in July, and the pace of important developments in the world of media has of course not slackened in the slightest.   This blog post is the first of a running series I will be posting here, there, and everywhere about these newest of new developments.

One of the most significant of such developments occurred in mid-July, when Amazon abruptly reached into the Kindles of every Kindle owner and removed George Orwell’s 1984, which Amazon discovered it did not have the legal right to sell.   Kindle owners and the online world at large were furious, especially because annotations which Kindle owners had made on their purchased copies of 1984 were removed with the book.   If Amazon had wanted to demonstrate that the Big Brother information control in 1984 was alive and kicking in our digital age, it could not have put forth a better example.

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos soon apologized , calling its solution to the copyright problem “stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles.”  Amazon offered to either refund the $30 which the Kindle edition cost, or re-deliver the copy of 1984, along with any absconded annotations.

But this series of events provides an instructive example of the difference between new media and new new media, which I discuss throughout the book.  “New” media exist on the Web, alongside of new new media.   But “new” media often operate in accordance with older, top-down principles of information control.   In the case of a newspaper online, such as The New York Times, the older approach is manifest in the selection of stories by editors.   In true new new media, stories are selected and even written by readers – that is the case in any personal blog.   In the case of iTunes and Amazon, consumers are charged for the content.  In new new media such as Twitter and YouTube, the content is free.

Amazon took a huge step into the past by not only charging for its Kindle books, but removing one of them after it had been purchased.   Its apology was certainly welcome.   But the lesson endures that there is a very big difference between older ways of doing business on the web, and the newer more liberated ways of new new media.

Disclaimer: This post does not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of GradeGuru or McGraw-Hill Higher Education. It is solely the opinion of the author.

“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.

Noelle M. Stout is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at New York University. Previously, Professor Stout taught courses at Harvard University in Cultural Anthropology, Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, and Film and Media. We had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Stout to discuss her experience with education technology and the importance of collaborative learning in today’s universities.

What types of online and/ or social tools have you used in your classes thus far?

At Harvard, I created course websites where students would post weekly response papers and share ideas for class discussions. In my gender studies courses, I directed students to important online communities that often defined the cutting edge of social movements and theory.

What are your thoughts on the use of educational technology for higher education?

I think it makes important information seem more contemporary and relevant for students, who tend to spend a lot of time online. I’ve found that it also encourages new forms of collaboration, as discussions that start on course websites bleed into course meetings and students can build on one another’s arguments.

There is also an important gender dynamic, because female students often need more time to formulate their opinions whereas male students feel more comfortable shouting out answers. By giving students some time to decide what they think and participate in discussions in advance of class, when they arrive they’re ready to debate more confidently. Especially in the social sciences, learning to formulate an argument or opinion, to engage in dialogue, is a fundamental component of critical thinking.

What is your opinion on note sharing, student-to-student collaboration and group learning?

I think note sharing creates critical bonds between students and allows them to build on each other’s strengths in ways that raise the performance level of the entire class. It’s an incredible resource that allows students to learn from one another.

Do you see a role for collaborative learning platforms in supplementing your students’ research and in helping them understand the concepts you teach?

Definitely, by working together and recognizing different perspectives on the same material, students can better internalize the debates and theories presented in the course. As a professor, it’s much more fun to teach a class where students have a stake in the material and can contribute to building dialogue.

Do you think GradeGuru will have an impact on the learning experience and over all academic performance of your students?

I’m confident that GradeGuru will engage students in the learning process by building on their own current interests in social networking and group learning, which will make the course more relevant. It uses modern technology to bring century old theories and ideas into contemporary life. It also gives students new opportunities to excel as note takers, and offers them a public platform to demonstrate their skills. From my end, it cuts down on the work I have to do in terms of posting notes and frees me up to facilitate learning.

Would you consider using GradeGuru as a resource in your classroom?

Most definitely!

More About Noelle M. Stout

Professor Stout is currently working on a book manuscript that explores the rise of queer tolerance discourse in post-Soviet Cuba, based on nearly two years of field research in Havana. Her documentary film, Luchando, which chronicles the lives of gay sex workers in Havana, is also on the festival circuit. She recently published an article in the Journal of Latin American Studies that tries to bridge the gap between U.S. and Cuban women’s advocates’ perspectives regarding the rise of the tourist sex trade in Cuba.

During an interview about GradeGuru, Dr. Keith Hampson, founder of the Higher Education Management group, asked Emily Sawtell the following questions:

1. As I suggested in a previous post, your business model requires that much of the curriculum being taught at universities be common. Otherwise, the number of other students that can use the uploaded notes is highly limited. Is this an accurate assumption?
2. In a recent news story, an academic suggested that note-sharing is ethically questionable. Another wondered if it violated intellectual property standards. How does GradeGuru address these potential problems?
3. Trust is a major factor when deciding to share notes. When I borrowed notes in college (often), I didn’t ask ‘just anyone”: I selected someone I knew to be a good student (invariably a women). How can GradeGuru facilitate trust amongst its users?
4. What led you to this current role with GradeGuru?

To read the responses to the interview questions, click the link below…

LINK: Higher Education Management Blog – Interview responses

Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance featured GradeGuru on her blog, Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day. Jane’s blog features daily posts regarding e-learning technologies and is a wonderful resource for staying informed with the latest developments in the world of web 2.0 and education. Below is an excerpt from her post about GradeGuru:

“GradeGuru.com is a note sharing platform for college students to share notes, give each other feedback and engage in collaborative learning. We’re also providing students with cash and rewards for their notes because we believe students should earn for sharing their knowledge. Our vision is to create a community of students who can rely on each other for academic support – whether through the feedback they receive on the notes that they contribute, or the ability to download their peers’ notes for free. We are setting out to build a network where students can learn online in a way that is specific to their course at their university – the web 2.0 version of a study group. GradeGuru is a McGraw-Hill Education start-up that was developed based on extensive ethnographic research with students across the UK and US.”

Thanks Jane for your support in advancing open access learning!

In his post, Business Model: P2P Class Note, Dr. Keith Hampson, higher education director and founder of Higher Education Management blog/LinkedIn Group, discussed how GradeGuru stands to leverage the web to help students manage the traditional process of note sharing. Dr. Hampson provides a brief analysis of the higher education market and how note-sharing platforms might fit into the equation of standardized education.

“From a business perspective, the degree to which content in higher education is common across schools is of fundamental importance. If much of the content is generic (and/or students believe it is generic), then it is possible to offer content-based commercial services to the higher education market. It’s scalable, in other words.

The textbook industry has long relied on the significant degree of commonality in higher education curriculum. It is the basis of their business model. The first large textbook providers emerged in the 19th century when governments sought to standardize education; who can teach, what they teach, and so forth.”

 

About The Higher Education Management Group

Higher Education Management Group is a LinkedIn Group. Initiated in the summer of 2008, the group is for management professionals working in the higher education industry. HEM Group focuses on the people, organizations, and issues that operate at the intersection of business and higher education. The group offers opportunities for networking and information sharing. Members include consultants, industry research/analysts, vendors and managers in textbook publishing, technology, recruiting, colleges/universities, and development (fundraising) professionals.

Picture Credit: Erin Sunderland 

The Learning Technologies team at The National University of Ireland- Galway wrote about GradeGuru as a social network that is taking academic collaboration to the next level:

“Back in second year of my undergraduate Science degree (back in the Dark Ages), one of my friends instructed me to write my Physics notes in black pen so that they could be more easily photocopied. I complied, because that’s what you do for your friends, right?

GradeGuru seems to take this to a new level. This is a McGraw-Hill Education start-up which appears to combine social networking with note-taking (see GradeGuru – Facebook for Learning). Students submit their notes, which can then be searched and rated. There is a reward system in place, so that high ratings earn extra points, which can be traded in for rewards.”

LINK: http://learntechgalway.blogspot.com/2008/05/gradeguru-notes-sharing-by-students-for.html

In his blog, www.learninggames.wordpress.com, Daniel Livingstone described GradeGuru as the “Facebook for learning” and draws a parallel between the popular social network and the need for a academically focused platform.

“While Facebook started off as a social networking platform for students only, it never really had much of a focus on supporting learning – and has had relatively limited take up as a collaborative learning tool.

Courtesy of Shona Mullen of McGraw-Hill I had a peek at ‘GradeGuru‘ yesterday – a new social networking app focussed on note sharing and collaborative learning.

The idea is that students can submit their own notes of classes for other students taking the same/similar classes to use. Notes can be rated by readers, and points are awarded to the highest rating notes. Then (the incentive part here) points can be traded in for a fair variety of rewards… including paypal credit.”

LINK: http://learninggames.wordpress.com/2008/05/07/grade-guru-facebook-for-learning/