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School / Work Affiliation: Professor

Blog: http://brainandlearning.blogspot.com

Website: http://infotechtools.ning.com

Twitter / Plurk / Other Account: jalam

About Me: I am a professor of Civil Engineering at Youngstown State University. I am interested in elearning.

My Information

Hi every one I am Javed. I am professor of Civil Engineering at Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio.

I am interested in Online teaching and learning and the use of Information communication technology(ICT) to enhance and augment the instructional process.

I am developing an online Master's program in Structural Engineering and currently working on developing online courses to support this program. I recently completed one online course in the area of Engineering Communications.

Information Technology Tools for Engineers

and currently I am porting an existing online course Engineering Computing to Ning at web address to add social aspects of learning to the course.

There are several other Engineering courses that are at various stages of development.

The course "Information Technology Tools for Engineers" is in the area of Information Communication Technology in which Engineering graduates learn to efficiently use the Internet for gathering, sharing and creating digital information. The course also covers topics related to social book marking,social media, and social networking along with the Internet tools for real time communication.

I started teaching the course with a class Yahoo group but moved it to the Ning in the middle of the semester because Yahoo group was becoming unreliable. So far Ning has worked well. There are few things I miss from Yahoo group such as a simple data base application where tabular information can be organized and I have compensated for it by using the MS Excel. Also, a quick poll/assessment set up. I have found few alternatives to compensate for that too. It is just that people have to leave Ning to use these two tools. It would have been nice if all the tools were available under the same interface.

I am practicing what I call "Open Professor" model. That is that the class is open to any interested visitors/guests. They can participate in the course discussion use all the course material. Only difference between them and the students who are enrolled for credit is that they decide their own level of participation and they will not receive any performance appraisal from me unless they request for it but they will not receive any course grade.

You are all welcomed to visit the course at

Information Technology Tools for Engineers

My Websites

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At 8:06am on June 6, 2008, Daniel Bassill said…: Hi Javed,

I lead the Tutor/Mentor Connection, based in Chicago. I am using maps to show where poverty is concentrated, and where kids need more help to finish school and reach jobs and careers. I've been reaching out via the Internet to find college partners who would use teaching to engage students in work that helps me visualize the ideas I'm expressing on my web site.

I feel engineers and archetects can do this best because they are spatial thinkers and understand the use of tools like autocad to express ideas and collaborate.

I encourage you to vew some of our concept maps and imagine how your students might turn them into blueprints. Here's an example of work done by a couple of students from the University of Indiana this spring.

I look forward to connecting with you.

At 9:14am on April 28, 2008, April Hayman said…: Hello Javed,

Thanks for the invite! I found your blog very interesting and enjoyed reading your posts.

Have a lovely day,
April