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Reshaping Schools toward evidence-based cultures: Learning through design (opening & closing remarks) AERA symposium 2007

Research shows that students have difficulty achieving deep understanding of many fundamental science concepts, for instance, the nature of matter, pressure, density, and electrical circuits to name but a few. After students have presumably learned the scientific explanations, they often revert back to their initial explanations. The Understandings of Consequence Project has demonstrated that part of the problem arises from differences in how students and scientists think about cause and effect. Scientific explanations often require students to structure knowledge in ways that contradict their expectations about the nature of how causes and effects behave. Such explanations can involve: causal mechanisms that are inferred or abstract; causal patterns that extend beyond linear and unidirectional to cyclic, reciprocal, and non-sequential; correspondences between causes and effects that are in various respects probabilistic; and causal agents that are decentralized and involve aspects of emergence. These are ways of thinking that students typically are not familiar with. Thus students attempt to assimilate information about complex concepts into simplistic causal structures which ultimately distort the information. In order to achieve deep understanding of scientific explanations, students need to learn the levels of these dimensions that fit the level of explanation needed. We have developed a taxonomy of causal models to guide these teaching and learning efforts. We have also developed a taxonomy of epistemological "moves", such as comparing more than one model and being alert to possible gaps in one's explanation, that serve scientific inquiry and lead to more complex conceptions.

from the University of Missouri - "eThemes is your source for content-rich, kid-safe online resources that will help enhance your teaching and save you time. eThemes provides free, fast access to over 2,500 collections of websites, on topics ranging from Aerodynamics to Zebras and everything in between! By researching and creating these resources for you, eThemes will save you the time that you used to spend wading through millions of hits on Google, trying to find a few websites that meet your teaching needs. We do the searching for you, giving you more time to improve your lesson plans and actual teach!"

Advanced Distributed Learning: The Power of Global Collaboration... funded by the Department of Defense to research and develop better ways for training and teaching armed forces all over the world at anytime. Developers of SCORM standards for learning objects (accessible, reusable, durable)

this wristphone has text-to-speech capability! Research grant: give one of THESE to each kid and see what they can do!

this wristphone has text-to-speech capability! Research Grant: give one of THESE to each kid and see what they can do!

virtual worlds researchers group in Second Life

Digital Research Tools Wiki

The Association of Pacific Rim Universities: Education and Research Technology Forum - an annual conference encouraging collaboration amongst Pacific Rim universities.

mobile / augmented reality learning: ARIS research at UWisconsin in Games, Learning, & Society

mobile / augmented reality learning: ARIS research at UWisconsin in Games, Learning, & Society

Kzero: a consulting company that does market and strategy research on virtual worlds, augmented reality and 3D gaming

Design Based Research: database for designers - principles, vocabulary, etc.

futurity: news from leading research universities in the U.S., U.K., & Canada

Joanna Goode's research on the digital divide - published in New Media and Society - that "high school opportunities around technology really shape students' abilities to engage fully in university academic life"

IES Research News: highlighting the latest activities and accomplishments of IES and its Centers

a leading research, training, and consulting firm specializing in web site and product usability.

The Gartner Reports are the best place to find forecasts for technology in a variety of sectors - including education

Digitial Research Tools wiki: many tools for creative and efficient resesarch

CARET: Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (housed at ISTE)

CARET: Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (housed at ISTE)