Group items tagged

The Book Oven: helps teams of people turn manuscripts into finished books and then publish them. Built for writers, editors, proofreaders, designers, and small presses -- invite colleagues, editors, or friends to work on a private or public project

National Writing Project - look! -

John Seely Brown: "Even when children are high achievers and facile with new technology, many seem gradually to lose their sense of wonder and curiosity, notes John Seely Brown. Traditional educational methods may be smothering their innate drive to explore the world. Brown and like-minded colleagues are developing the underpinnings for a new 21st century pedagogy that broadens rather than narrows horizons. John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox, has morphed in recent years into the "Chief of Confusion," seeking "the right questions" in a range of fields, including education. He finds unusual sources for his questions: basketball and opera coaches, surfing and video game champions. He's gathered insights from unorthodox venues, and from more traditional classrooms, to paint quite a different picture of what learning might look like. The typical college lecture class frequently gathers many students together in a large room to be 'fed' knowledge, believes Brown. But studies show that "learning itself is socially constructed," and is most effective when students interact with and teach each other in manageable groups. Brown wants to open up "niche learning experiences" that draw on classic course material, but deepen it to be maximally enriching. In basketball and opera master classes, and in architecture labs, he has seen how individuals become acculturated in a "community of practice," learning to "be" rather than simply to "do." Whether performing, creating, or experimenting, students are critiqued, respond, offer their own criticism, and glean rich wisdom from a cyclical group experience. Brown says something "mysterious" may be taking place: "In deeply collective engagement in processes...you start to marinate in a problem space." Through communities of practice, students' minds "begin to gel up," even in the face of abstraction and unfamiliarity, and "all of a sudden, (the subject) starts to make se

emerging tech blog: Lisa Dawley, chair of EdTech at Boise State

emerging tech blog: Lisa Dawley, chair of EdTech at Boise State

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"

Ulad's chemistry course online

Grants & Awards (international): Leverhulme - for partners in the U.K.

Grants & Awards (international): Leverhulme - for partners in the U.K.

CRSTE 2010 Cyberconference, Feb 21 - March 5: Call for presenters - CATE colleagues can present from home! (easy way to get a line on a vita).