Web2.0: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

Web2.0: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

This is the second short course that i will be offering on the use of Web2.0 Applications in the workplace, especially in higher education. The first was conducted on 17th to 18 September, 2014 for a small number of lecturers and administrative staff on campus. The aim of the two day training was using Web2.0 applications for teaching, learning, and related work. Topics covered included Blogging and cloud storage services such as My Drive,and Dropbox.

The two-day short course on Web2.0: Teaching and Learning in Higher Education will be offered through the Teaching and Learning Methods Unit from 2nd to 3rd September 2015. This is an in-house program for the Lecturers and Technical staff at the Papua New Guinea University of Technology.

Aim and Objectives

The aim is keeping up with current trends in Web2.0 Applications (Social Media) and higher education and practically adapting these to our local situations. It is not only because these are new applications, but it also to follow the students who are an engaged audience in the social media.

At the end of the two day short course participants should be able to create their own blogs which they will use for teaching and learning actvities.

Blogging skills will add to the Google Classroom skills that currently is being taught to staff here at the university thereby widening the grasp of Web2 Applications for the academic staff. Comparatively Blogger has been around longer than Google Classroom which was released only in August 2014.

Academic databases

What is an academic database?

The purpose of this post is to start the search off for academic databases in the right direction and not to list every database.
In answer to the question above, an academic database is a database on the internet, or elsewhere that contains information relevant to the student, teacher, research, and study purposes. Simple, but how does one begin a search for the academic database?

Suggested search terms that you may type into your browser are Academic Database, Free
Academic Database, and Free Academic Journal Database. You may not have free access to all the academic database available. While some are free, others are accessible by paid subscription. If you are a subscriber, then you have no limitation, but most students are not members by paid subscription. That is the reason i suggest you use the term Free Academic Database. It maximizes your chance of finding some free academic databases for you to finally locate the information required. Research and learning activities require the student to explore and collect required data and information from a variety of sources. This includes journal articles. It is the reason i have included the search term Free Academic Journal Database.

Example Academic Databases

When I typed in academic database in the Google Chrome browser the resultant figure showed

about 306, 000, 000. I looked at a number of them including "List of academic databases and 

search engines" listed in Wikipedia. I clicked on it and here are a few example databases.

AGRIS: Agricultural database

AGRIS is produced by the Food and Agriculture Organization and its web address is http://agris.fao.org

 

BioOne   www.bioone.org

If you need current research in Biodiversity Conservation, Biology, Ecology, Environmental Science,

Entomology, Ornithology, Plant Science, and Zoology, try searching in BioOne.

AGRICOLA - Agricultural Online Access

AGRICOLA was created by the United States National Agricultural Library

Apart from Wikipedia's list, there are many others provided such as these.

Public Library of Science   http://.www.plos.org

PLoS was produced by non-profit organization of scientists. Its purpose is to make available the 

world's scientific and medical literature freely accessible to scientists, students and to the public.

Directory of open Access Journals (DOAJ)   http://.www.doaj.org

DOAJ lists and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals.

Matheson Library

The British Library and Infotrieve are accessible through Matheson Library. If you do not find

information sources in the Matheson Library collections, please ask the library staff at the 

Document Access Section to help you access the British Library and Infotrieve.

TEEAL (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library) is available through the library system n 

the Matheson Library. It is available university wide on this link:

http://www.unitech.ac.pg/InformationAbout/Services/MathesonLibrary/TheEssentialElectro

nicAgriculturalLibrary    TEEAL dates from 1993 to 2012 available in full text and abstracts are

included.

Reminder

Please Bookmark relevant databases on the net that you may consult again later. It will save you

time searching all over again in future.