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Carlos Quintero

Innovate: Future Learning Landscapes: Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software - 0 views

  • Web 2.0 has inspired intense and growing interest, particularly as wikis, weblogs (blogs), really simple syndication (RSS) feeds, social networking sites, tag-based folksonomies, and peer-to-peer media-sharing applications have gained traction in all sectors of the education industry (Allen 2004; Alexander 2006)
  • Web 2.0 allows customization, personalization, and rich opportunities for networking and collaboration, all of which offer considerable potential for addressing the needs of today's diverse student body (Bryant 2006).
  • In contrast to earlier e-learning approaches that simply replicated traditional models, the Web 2.0 movement with its associated array of social software tools offers opportunities to move away from the last century's highly centralized, industrial model of learning and toward individual learner empowerment through designs that focus on collaborative, networked interaction (Rogers et al. 2007; Sims 2006; Sheely 2006)
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  • learning management systems (Exhibit 1).
  • The reality, however, is that today's students demand greater control of their own learning and the inclusion of technologies in ways that meet their needs and preferences (Prensky 2005)
  • Tools like blogs, wikis, media-sharing applications, and social networking sites can support and encourage informal conversation, dialogue, collaborative content generation, and knowledge sharing, giving learners access to a wide range of ideas and representations. Used appropriately, they promise to make truly learner-centered education a reality by promoting learner agency, autonomy, and engagement in social networks that straddle multiple real and virtual communities by reaching across physical, geographic, institutional, and organizational boundaries.
  • "I have always imagined the information space as something to which everyone has immediate and intuitive access, and not just to browse, but to create” (2000, 216). Social software tools make it easy to contribute ideas and content, placing the power of media creation and distribution into the hands of "the people formerly known as the audience" (Rosen 2006).
  • the most promising settings for a pedagogy that capitalizes on the capabilities of these tools are fully online or blended so that students can engage with peers, instructors, and the community in creating and sharing ideas. In this model, some learners engage in creative authorship, producing and manipulating digital images and video clips, tagging them with chosen keywords, and making this content available to peers worldwide through Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube
  • Student-centered tasks designed by constructivist teachers reach toward this ideal, but they too often lack the dimension of real-world interactivity and community engagement that social software can contribute.
  • Pedagogy 2.0: Teaching and Learning for the Knowledge Age In striving to achieve these goals, educators need to revisit their conceptualization of teaching and learning (Exhibit 2).
  • Pedagogy 2.0: Teaching and Learning for the Knowledge Age In striving to achieve these goals, educators need to revisit their conceptualization of teaching and learning
  • Pedagogy 2.0 is defined by: Content: Microunits that augment thinking and cognition by offering diverse perspectives and representations to learners and learner-generated resources that accrue from students creating, sharing, and revising ideas; Curriculum: Syllabi that are not fixed but dynamic, open to negotiation and learner input, consisting of bite-sized modules that are interdisciplinary in focus and that blend formal and informal learning;Communication: Open, peer-to-peer, multifaceted communication using multiple media types to achieve relevance and clarity;Process: Situated, reflective, integrated thinking processes that are iterative, dynamic, and performance and inquiry based;Resources: Multiple informal and formal sources that are rich in media and global in reach;Scaffolds: Support for students from a network of peers, teachers, experts, and communities; andLearning tasks: Authentic, personalized, learner-driven and learner-designed, experiential tasks that enable learners to create content.
  • Instructors implementing Pedagogy 2.0 principles will need to work collaboratively with learners to review, edit, and apply quality assurance mechanisms to student work while also drawing on input from the wider community outside the classroom or institution (making use of the "wisdom of crowds” [Surowiecki 2004]).
  • A small portion of student performance content—if it is new knowledge—will be useful to keep. Most of the student performance content will be generated, then used, and will become stored in places that will never again see the light of day. Yet . . . it is still important to understand that the role of this student content in learning is critical.
  • This understanding of student-generated content is also consistent with the constructivist view that acknowledges the learner as the chief architect of knowledge building. From this perspective, learners build or negotiate meaning for a concept by being exposed to, analyzing, and critiquing multiple perspectives and by interpreting these perspectives in one or more observed or experienced contexts
  • This understanding of student-generated content is also consistent with the constructivist view that acknowledges the learner as the chief architect of knowledge building. From this perspective, learners build or negotiate meaning for a concept by being exposed to, analyzing, and critiquing multiple perspectives and by interpreting these perspectives in one or more observed or experienced contexts. In so doing, learners generate their own personal rules and knowledge structures, using them to make sense of their experiences and refining them through interaction and dialogue with others.
  • Other divides are evident. For example, the social networking site Facebook is now the most heavily trafficked Web site in the United States with over 8 million university students connected across academic communities and institutions worldwide. The majority of Facebook participants are students, and teachers may not feel welcome in these communities. Moreover, recent research has shown that many students perceive teaching staff who use Facebook as lacking credibility as they may present different self-images online than they do in face-to-face situations (Mazer, Murphy, and Simonds 2007). Further, students may perceive instructors' attempts to coopt such social technologies for educational purposes as intrusions into their space. Innovative teachers who wish to adopt social software tools must do so with these attitudes in mind.
  • "students want to be able to take content from other people. They want to mix it, in new creative ways—to produce it, to publish it, and to distribute it"
  • Furthermore, although the advent of Web 2.0 and the open-content movement significantly increase the volume of information available to students, many higher education students lack the competencies necessary to navigate and use the overabundance of information available, including the skills required to locate quality sources and assess them for objectivity, reliability, and currency
  • In combination with appropriate learning strategies, Pedagogy 2.0 can assist students in developing such critical thinking and metacognitive skills (Sener 2007; McLoughlin, Lee, and Chan 2006).
  • We envision that social technologies coupled with a paradigm of learning focused on knowledge creation and community participation offer the potential for radical and transformational shifts in teaching and learning practices, allowing learners to access peers, experts, and the wider community in ways that enable reflective, self-directed learning.
  • . By capitalizing on personalization, participation, and content creation, existing and future Pedagogy 2.0 practices can result in educational experiences that are productive, engaging, and community based and that extend the learning landscape far beyond the boundaries of classrooms and educational institutions.
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    About pedagogic 2.0
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    Future Learning Landscapes: Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software Catherine McLoughlin and Mark J. W. Lee
Fatima Anwar

The Integrated Learning Platform: Cardiff Univeristy - Cardiff is everything a good uni... - 0 views

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    Cardiff University is recognized in independent government tests as one of The British leading educating and analysis colleges. Established by Royal Charter in 1883, the University today brings together impressive modern facilities and a powerful approach to educating and analysis with its proud culture of service and accomplishment. Cardiff University is the biggest University of mature education and learning in Wales, with the Cardiff Center for Long term Studying offering several hundred programs in locations across Southern Eastern Wales. The University's lifelong learning actions also include the professional growth work performed by educational institutions for companies, and many of these is custom-made to match an individual business's needs. The Center also provides business terminology training at all levels. Founded: 1883. Structural features: Merged with University of Wales College of Medicine (UCWM) in 2004. Location: Close to Cardiff city center. Healthcare care learners also at hospital website, Heath Recreation area University, 1 mile away. Getting there: Cardiff Primary Place on the national train network; trainers to bus station (next to train station); M4 from London and M5 (west county and Midlands). For school, frequent teaches from Primary Place to Cathays station (on campus), regional vehicles from bus station (53, 79, 81 for main campus; 8 or 9 for hospital site). Academic features: 4-year incorporated food techniques, 5-year two-tier techniques in structure and town planning. 5-year medical and dental programs, plus foundation season for those without science backgrounds; medical teaching throughout Wales. Awarding body: Cardiff University; Wales University for some healthcare programs. Main undergrad awards: BA, BD, BDS, BMus, BN, BSc, BEng, BScEcon, LLB, BArch, MB BCh, MPhys, MChem, MEng, MPharm. Length of courses: 3 years; others 4 and 5 decades. Library & IT facilities: Integrated collection,
Ruth Howard

Students as 'Free Agent Learners' : April 2009 : THE Journal - 0 views

  • 51 percent of teachers are interested in learning how to integrate gaming into daily learning activities;
  • Sixty-five percent said it appeals to different learning styles; another 65 percent said it increases student engagement. Others said it allows for student-centered learning (47 percent), helps develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills (40 percent), helps develop creativity (39 percent), allows students to gain experience through trial and error (37 percent), and helps students visualize difficult concepts (35 percent).
  • Of those who have some interest in gaming, responses were varied as to its value in education. Sixty-five percent said it appeals to different learning styles; another 65 percent said it increases student engagement. Others said it allows for student-centered learning (47 percent), helps develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills (40 percent), helps develop creativity (39 percent), allows students to gain experience through trial and error (37 percent), and helps students visualize difficult concepts (35 percent).
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  • Of those who have some interest in gaming, responses were varied as to its value in education. Sixty-five percent said it appeals to different learning styles; another 65 percent said it increases student engagement. Others said it allows for student-centered learning (47 percent), helps develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills (40 percent), helps develop creativity (39 percent), allows students to gain experience through trial and error (37 percent), and helps students visualize difficult concepts (35 percent).
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    Students want more control over their own learning experiences through technology and want to define their own educational destinies and determine the direction of their learning. "This free agent learner is one that is technology-enabled, technology-empowered, and technology-engaged to be ... an important part of driving their own educational destiny. To some extent they feel ... it's a responsibility. They also feel it's a right to be able to do that. So technology has enabled this free agent learner. We have the opportunity in education to make sure they're on the right track and to be supportive of their learning experiences." Ive been waiting for this! This is exciting it points to the idea that students will co-create their curriculum. In my mind it will become imperitive that individuals choose their highest bliss-subjects and projects that reflect their passions. In the new collaborative work environments students will be more highly valued for their contributions to areas that they are most naturally motivated to explore. Their resulting contributions will result in inventiveness and cutting edge investigations via passion, self motivation and peer inspiration and direct access to thought leaders/mentors in the field. Teachers might become guides to ensuring students intentions are achieved- teachers as arbiters of human potential. Students will no longer be compared to each other. They will score according to their own self affirmed destinations-allowing of course for reviews and changes of destiny.Teachers might also need roles in law and ethics to ensure students are safe in their online world activities, monitoring students and their online peers, intercepting or prompting inside the conversations?
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    Of those who have some interest in gaming, responses were varied as to its value in education. Sixty-five percent said it appeals to different learning styles; another 65 percent said it increases student engagement. Others said it allows for student-centered learning (47 percent), helps develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills (40 percent), helps develop creativity (39 percent), allows students to gain experience through trial and error (37 percent), and helps students visualize difficult concepts (35 percent). But perhaps the most significant trend in education technology, Evans said, is the emergence of the student as a "free agent learner": Students want more control over their own learning experiences through technology and want to define their own educational destinies and determine the direction of their learning. "This free agent learner is one that is technology-enabled, technology-empowered, and technology-engaged to be ... an important part of driving their own educational destiny. To some extent they feel ... it's a responsibility. They also feel it's a right to be able to do that. So technology has enabled this free agent learner. We have the opportunity in education to make sure they're on the right track and to be supportive of their learning experiences."
Mike McIlveen

21centuryedtech - home - 0 views

  • First they promote "a new instructional approach that engages learners". New Tech incorporates project-based learning (PBL) as the center of the instructional approach. PBL is facilitated by technology and student inquiry to engage learners with issues and questions that are relevant. Teachers design rigorous projects tied to state standards and customized to local community and student interests. Students collaborate in teams to acquire and apply knowledge and skills to solve problems. Next, " New Tech builds "a culture that empowers students and teachers". It is trust, respect, and responsibility that become the center of the learning culture. Students are put in charge of their own learning, becoming self-directed learners, while teachers are given the administrative support and resources to assist students in this realization. Last, New Tech maintains that "integrated use of technology" is essential for 21st Century education.
    • Mike McIlveen
       
      Trust, respect, responsibility - putting Character Ed. into practice, with admin. support - that's a new paradigm in my district.
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    New Tech incoporates three key concepts. First they promote "a new instructional approach that engages learners". New Tech incorporates project-based learning (PBL) as the center of the instructional approach. PBL is facilitated by technology and student inquiry to engage learners with issues and questions that are relevant. Teachers design rigorous projects tied to state standards and customized to local community and student interests. Students collaborate in teams to acquire and apply knowledge and skills to solve problems. Next, " New Tech builds "a culture that empowers students and teachers". It is trust, respect, and responsibility that become the center of the learning culture. Students are put in charge of their own learning, becoming self-directed learners, while teachers are given the administrative support and resources to assist students in this realization. Last, New Tech maintains that "integrated use of technology" is essential for 21st Century education
Nigel Coutts

How might we develop self-regulated learners? - The Learner's Way - 3 views

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    A common question is how do we facilitate the development of independent, self-regulating learners. With an increased focus on the development of dispositional models for learning where the skills and mindset of the learner are crucial, how do we ensure that our learners move from requiring external regulation to a model of internal regulation?  
J Black

ed4wb » Blog Archive » The New Bottom-up Authority - 0 views

  • It appears that most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools.  Since this informal learning sometimes dubbed “hanging out”, “messing around” or “geeking out”  happens outside of the classroom and doesn’t look like traditional learning, it’s easy for educators to miss. The quality and quantity of learning, the process by which it occurs, and the way authority is established in these informal environments, should be something that teachers become familiar with. Will Richardson, who writes extensively on these matters, believes that, “One of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.” (see article)
  • It appears that most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools.  Since this informal learning sometimes dubbed “hanging out”, “messing around” or “geeking out”  happens outside of the classroom and doesn’t look like traditional learning, it’s easy for educators to miss. The quality and quantity of learning, the process by which it occurs, and the way authority is established in these informal environments, should be something that teachers become familiar with. Will Richardson, who writes extensively on these matters, believes that, “One of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.” (see article)
  • It appears that most teachers today underestimate the amount of learning that is happening among youth outside of schools.  Since this informal learning sometimes dubbed “hanging out”, “messing around” or “geeking out”  happens outside of the classroom and doesn’t look like traditional learning, it’s easy for educators to miss. The quality and quantity of learning, the process by which it occurs, and the way authority is established in these informal environments, should be something that teachers become familiar with. Will Richardson, who writes extensively on these matters, believes that, “One of the biggest challenges educators face right now is figuring out how to help students create, navigate, and grow the powerful, individualized networks of learning that bloom on the Web and helping them do this effectively, ethically, and safely.” (see article)
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  • Schools, in general, are not taking advantage of the power of peer-based learning or the benefits of a more decentralized type of expertise which lies outside of its ivory walls.
  • The same study later describes a writer’s heightened sense of authenticity that comes from peer feedback as opposed to school evaluations: “It’s something I can do in my spare time, be creative and write and not have to be graded,” because, “you know how in school you’re creative, but you’re doing it for a grade so it doesn’t really count?”
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    The top-down, authoritarian model found in most classrooms today looks very different from the model many students experience when they learn online. The classroom's hierarchical approach, with the sage on the stage, requires, (and, ultimately demands) passivity and deference on the part of the learner. Informal, interest-driven networked learning, with its access to large stores of information and variety of opinion, on the other hand, takes a much different view of authority. It's usually peer based, largely democratic, meritocratic, often creates dissonance due to variety and demands evaluation. Knowing what we do about active learning, one would seem clearly superior to the other.
Bill Graziadei, Ph.D. (aka Dr. G)

YouTube - No More "Learners" - 1 views

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    The instructor/learner relationship needs re-thinking. We've got to be learning from one another, not shoveling learning at "learners." We are all learners, all the time, and we can get b...
Nigel Coutts

Becoming Learners: Making time for OUR Learning - The Learner's Way - 4 views

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    At the heart of all that we do as teachers lies the act of learning. Our hope is that our actions inspire our students to engage in a process that results in their acquisition of new knowledge, mastery of new skills and the development of capacities and dispositions which will prepare them for life beyond our classrooms. Increasingly our focus is on developing the skills and dispositions our students require to become life-long learners. We recognise that in a rapidly changing world, the capacity to take charge of your personal learning journey, to become self-navigating learners is essential. 
lawagner

Writing Center Staff | Wilk - 0 views

  • delightful
  • gut-wrenching descent
    • lawagner
       
      Thesis: understanding the differences and cultural factors will help with some guidelines for communicating with ESL students/tutees, thus leading to more beneficial tutoring sessions.
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    • lawagner
       
      Introduction
  • severe
  • ittle headway
  • communications gap.
  • made in the paper.
  • struggled
  • in my explanations
    • lawagner
       
      Since the first paragraph identified the problem and stated the solution, the reader needs to understand what is causing the probelm
  • cultural factors plague important aspects of ESL communications in the writing center.
  • ack of a shared linguistic knowledge base,
  • ifferences in the educational, rhetorical, and cultural contexts of their language
  • acquisition
  • learning
  • subconsciously incorporating of linguistic forms through reading and listening.
  • consciously assimilating rules and forms through study and instruction.
    • lawagner
       
      What causes the communication gap/ differences between what the ESL learner wrote and what the tutor is trying communicate as errors
  • Understanding those differences helps in formulating beneficial principles of communication
  • rhetorical models are quite diverse
  • In some cultures, one would be considered rude or abrupt to announce one's point immediately.
    • lawagner
       
      Socratic dialogue vs didactic context (lecture and passive learning)
  • Socratic dialogue
    • lawagner
       
      The tutor takes on the role of collaborator and is an authoritative figure based on didactic tutoring. Tutors don't need to know all the answers, but it seems this paragraph is saying start by using didactic tutoring and move towards Socratic dialogue.
  • didactic context
    • lawagner
       
      So we have a communications gap, how do we begin to communicate with the ESL learner. What tutoring style should we use? Didactic context and communicate collaboratively, but realize that tutor is more of an authoritative figure, telling/informing the tutee of what he/she must do.
  • shared assumptions and patterns of language
  • apply a principle they have learned to a grammar error.
  • communicate collaboratively
  • ole as cultural/rhetorical informants as well as collaborators.
  • Cultural differences in body language
  • attitudes and preferences
  • The acceptability of degrees of physical proximity and eye contact differ between cultures.
    • lawagner
       
      Cultural differences in body language (speaking without speaking), attitudes and preferences need to be known so that the tutor and tutee may communicate effectively. Examples of these cultural differences are given: Latin American, Arabic, Asian, and Chinese.
    • lawagner
       
      When I have gone to a new country, such as Zambia and Mexico, I looked up the ways in which to communicate with folks there, forbidden hand gesture, is shaking hands okay. In some culture they kiss each other on the cheek as a greeting. Ignorance towards body language, attitudes, and preferences may drive an eternal wedge between the tutor and tutee. This is a huge part of understanding cultural differences.
  • it down first and allow the student to establish comfortable body positioning
  • ake body language cues from the writer
  • encouraging the student to speak up or ask questions
    • lawagner
       
      This paragraph answers a question Writing Centers, directors and tutors may wonder: Do I have to know everything about every culture in order to communicate effectively? When writing essays it's important to keep in mind questions that may arise from the intended audience.
    • lawagner
       
      The tutor does not need to know everything about every culture, rather keenly observe the tutee, and modify behavior when appropriate.
  • utor can foster discourse through slightly modified behavior.
  • temptation to address too many issues in one session
    • lawagner
       
      Another issue with tutoring ESL learners: trying to fix everything at once. They are not the same as a native English speaker and cannot be expected to eat, chew and digest everything put in front of them. You need to pick up the steak knife and cut up the steak into manageable pieces. 
    • lawagner
       
      Native English speaker vs ESL learner; don't tutor them the same Although this paragraph seems slightly out of place and doesn't move the argument forward, it is a reminder that ESL students are tackling the foreign language and cannot be expected to handle the same workload as native speakers.
  • effective communications is best achieved by limiting the topics covered within the session
  • English is not the primary language.
    • lawagner
       
      Going back to ESL learners, a part of understanding cultural differences is understanding that they are coming to me for help with their writing-writing which is in a foreign language to them. Understanding prioritizing is part of the solution when tutoring ESL learner, and all learners consequently.
  • The driving force behind limiting is prioritizing.
  • the primary cultural barrier to communication
    • lawagner
       
      Explaining the differences in mechanics seen in varying languages spoken by other cultures. Patience is key nevertheless.
    • lawagner
       
      So how do tutors not overwhelm the tutees? By prioritizing-what is causing the most issues and go from there.
    • lawagner
       
      Communication barriers lie in the language itself and its attached conversational dialect, transcending into how the ESL learner communicates in their native tongue. * I think this paragraph could be two.
  • ack of fluency in conversational dialect
  • Close observation is a key to interpreting and dispelling cultural interference.
    • lawagner
       
      Summarizing the last several paragraphs; close observation is the key as well as other possible modifications.
    • lawagner
       
      Summarizing the main points is like the Therefore since we know all of this we can understand  the cultural differences between the tutor and ESL tutee and thus eliminate or at least reduce the cultural barriers.
    • lawagner
       
      Conclusion
    • lawagner
       
      A continuance of the last paragraph. All of this information presented  may help or it may not.
Nigel Coutts

Moving beyond linear plans for learning - The Learner's Way - 9 views

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    An important part of the role of any educator is that of planning learning sequences. Perhaps you are tasked with designing curriculum or more likely you are translating a mandatory curriculum into workable units of learning. The task is complex and there are multiple arrangements. The goal is to design units that connect students with learning in ways that are meaningful and relevant. A well-designed unit of learning fits seamlessly alongside other learning opportunities and the overall sequence of learning should match the learners developing expertise. As we plan units of learning we must consider a great variety of factors which impact the learning we design. Our knowledge of our students and where they are with their learning is crucial and a strong place to start. We also need to know what it is we are required to teach and have a grab bag of pedagogical moves that bring this content alive.
David Peter

MIT Press Journals - International Journal of Learning and Media - Full Text - 0 views

  • Now, with study becoming a lifelong enterprise, and with the advent of a galaxy of new media, “learning” seems once again poised to become all things to all people, be they lay or scholarly.
    • David Peter
       
      So, since we are all lifelong learners with access to transparent, pervasive and ubiquitous technology ... not sure NEW media is all that NEW.
  • learning that do not occur automatically, readily, naturally, or by dint of simply living in a certain place at a certain time
    • David Peter
       
      Almost seems to be speaking of PROGRAMMED learning, and not the new learning environment/commons. Isn't all learning contextual?
  • we may well have reached a set of tipping points: Going forward, learning may be far more individualized, far more in the hands (and the minds) of the learner, and far more interactive than ever before
    • David Peter
       
      Barr and Tagg mentioned this SHIFT earlier.
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  • advent of a galaxy of new media
    • David Peter
       
      What NEW media are they speaking of? The NEW media is always changing and may be difficult to specifically link to lifelong learners. Prensky speaks of digital natives and digital immigrants. Does all media work for all readers/users?
  • we may well have reached a set of tipping points
    • David Peter
       
      We are BEYOND the tipping point. More likely to be a GROUNDSWELL and it's up to us to ride the wave or not.
  • learning may be at once more individual
    • David Peter
       
      Thanks to technology, or inspite of technology?
  • Both the demands of the workplace and the demands of education have changed profoundly and promise to do so for the foreseeable future.
    • David Peter
       
      And, in addition, the focus has shifted to global learning, and not localized learning. The advent of 21st century skills, the reemergence of liberal education ... all are continuing to change and demand change.
  • technology is often cited as a primary driver of cultural change
    • David Peter
       
      Interesting thought. Is this an anthropological conclusion? A social conclusion? Who has cited this?
  • One could argue that a strictly formal learning experience is characterized by classroom-based instruction featuring an explicit curriculum and traditional pedagogical goals, and scaffolding implemented by a single educator; a pure informal learning experience lacks all of these characteristics
    • David Peter
       
      This would imply that informal learnnig, without structure, is somehow inferior. Isn't the tone of learning set by the classroom, the teacher and other variables?
  • A successful informal learning practice depends upon an independent, constructivistically oriented learner who can identify, locate, process, and synthesize the information he or she is lacking
    • David Peter
       
      Hard to imagine that this can ONLY occur with a constructivist paradigm?
Tero Toivanen

eLearn: Feature Article - 0 views

  • The goal of the Semantic Web is to provide the capacity for computers to understand Web content that exists on systems and servers across the Internet, ultimately adding value to the content and opening rich new data, information, and knowledge frontiers.
  • In essence, the Semantic Web is a collection of standards, data structures, and software that make the online experience more detailed, intelligent, and in some cases, more intense.
  • In addition to the standards that govern the data and its structure, semantic technologies seek to define the framework and method of communication between systems.
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  • This is a key component of the Semantic Web because IPAs will make the intelligent connections between content, mapping relationships, and alerting users and systems to content that previously would not have been identified, or if recognized, would have been discovered accidentally by searching or user recommendation. The Web will essentially be building correlations between defend types of learning interaction regardless of whether the user is online.
  • The potential of the Semantic Web could actually revolutionize the learning experience. Roger Schank, who helped found the Learning Center at Carnegie Mellon University, designed a new methodology that eliminates classes, tests, lectures, and even programs themselves.
  • Schank argues the most effective way to teach new skills is to put learners in the kinds of situations in which they need to use those skills, and to provide mentors who help learners as and when they need it. Effective learners come to understand when, why, and how they should use skills and knowledge. They receive key just-in-time lessons, in such a way that learners will most likely remember the information later when they need it. In a Semantic Web context, learning would be continuously invigorated with the obvious benefits being an increase in the quality of content and the sophistication of student interactions.
  • The prospect of applying semantic concepts to learning administration as well as direct pedagogy could offer benefits to the institution and the learner.
  • educational organizations should keep data secure while addressing issues around open access, though in principle the way would be clear to integrate systems across intranets and extranets.
  • Government agencies and lawmakers need to engender the broad necessity and the vision as well as provide adequate support and development mechanisms for those institutions and innovators wishing to further semantic applications within e-learning. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the learners and tutors must embrace the new opportunities and pedagogical frontiers that a web of meaning could ultimately deliver.
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    The goal of the Semantic Web is to provide the capacity for computers to understand Web content that exists on systems and servers across the Internet, ultimately adding value to the content and opening rich new data, information, and knowledge frontiers.
Kathleen Porter

Educational Leadership:Technology-Rich Learning:Students First, Not Stuff - 1 views

  • What Do We Mean by Learning?
  • allowing students to pursue their interests in the context of the curriculum
  • Teachers must be colearners with kids, expert at asking great, open-ended questions and modeling the learning process required to answer those questions. Teachers should be master learners in the classroom
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  • What Does It Mean to Be Literate?
  • What Does It Mean to Be Educated?
  • What Do Students Need to Know?
  • developing the skills and dispositions necessary for them to learn whatever they need to learn whenever they need to learn it? That means rethinking classrooms to focus on individual passions, inquiry, creation, sharing, patient problem solving, and innovation
  • start with the questions that focus on our students
  • Instead of helping our students become "college ready," we might be better off making them "learning ready," prepared for any opportunity that might present itself down the road
  • With access, and with a full set of skills and literacies to use this access well, we now have the power to create our own education in any number of ways
  • manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
  • Some, like Stanford professor Howard Rheingold, believe that technology now requires an attention literacy—the ability to exert some degree of mental control over our use of technology rather than simply being distracted by it—for users to be productive. Professor Henry Jenkins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) advocates for transmedia literacy, which includes networking and performance skills that take advantage of this connected, audience-rich moment.
  • it's about addressing the new needs of modern learners in entirely new ways. And once we understand that it's about learning, our questions reframe themselves in terms of the ecological shifts we need to make: What do we mean by learning? What does it mean to be literate in a networked, connected world? What does it mean to be educated? What do students need to know and be able to do to be successful in their futures? Educators must lead inclusive conversations in their communities around such questions to better inform decisions about technology and change
  • Right now, we should be asking ourselves not just how to do school better, but how to do it decidedly differently
  • Learning is now truly participatory in real-world contexts. The transformation occurs in that participation, that connection with other learners outside school walls with whom we can converse, create, and publish authentic, meaningful, beautiful work
  • what do we do as schools become just one of many places in both the real and virtual world where our students can get an education? Welcome to what portends to be the messiest, most upheaval-filled 10 years in education that any of us has ever seen. Resistance, as they say, is futile
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    "Putting technology first-simply adding a layer of expensive tools on top of the traditional curriculum-does nothing to address the new needs of modern learners."
Dennis OConnor

News: The Evidence on Online Education - Inside Higher Ed - 0 views

  • WASHINGTON -- Online learning has definite advantages over face-to-face instruction when it comes to teaching and learning, according to a new meta-analysis released Friday by the U.S. Department of Education.The study found that students who took all or part of their instruction online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course through face-to-face instruction. Further, those who took "blended" courses -- those that combine elements of online learning and face-to-face instruction -- appeared to do best of all. That finding could be significant as many colleges report that blended instruction is among the fastest-growing types of enrollment.
  • the positive results appeared consistent (and statistically significant) for all types of higher education, undergraduate and graduate, across a range of disciplines, the study said.
  • On the topic of online learning, there is a steady stream of studies, but many of them focus on limited issues or lack control groups. The Education Department report said that it had identified more than 1,000 empirical studies of online learning that were published from 1996 through July 2008. For its conclusions, however, the Education Department considered only a small number (51) of independent studies that met strict criteria. They had to contrast an online teaching experience to a face-to-face situation, measure student learning outcomes, use a "rigorous research design," and provide adequate information to calculate the differences.
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  • Using technology to give students "control of their interactions" has a positive effect on student learning, however. "Studies indicate that manipulations that trigger learner activity or learner reflection and self-monitoring of understanding are effective when students pursue online learning as individuals," the report says.
  • n noting caveats about the findings, the study returns to the issue of time."Despite what appears to be strong support for online learning applications, the studies in this meta-analysis do not demonstrate that online learning is superior as a medium," the report says. "In many of the studies showing an advantage for online learning, the online and classroom conditions differed in terms of time spent, curriculum and pedagogy. It was the combination of elements in the treatment conditions (which was likely to have included additional learning time and materials as well as additional opportunities for collaboration) that produced the observed learning advantages. At the same time, one should note that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of learning time than is face-to-face instruction."
  • " What the study demonstrates, she said, is that colleges need to think broadly about using online education, and not be "artificially limited" to face-to-face instruction.
  • Successful education has always been about engaging students whether it is in an online environment, face to face or in a blended setting. And fundamental to that is having faculty who are fully supported and engaged in that process as well."
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    Timely information for our group! The learning time issue in particular is an important finding that points to a cost effective way to increase student learning time without tackling the issue of a longer school day head on. We know that more time on meaningful tasks is crucial, but the physical cost of attending a bricks and mortar classrooms is prohibitive.
Roland Gesthuizen

http://labspace.open.ac.uk/file.php/6925/activity_2_extract.pdf - 0 views

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    "What does the research tell us about what works well in online learning? Coomey and Stephenson reviewed current research to find out. Designers of online learning, the review reveals, should pay considerable attention to  learner control, dialogue, learner support and opportunities for direct learner involvement."
Dennis OConnor

The Essential Role of Information Fluency in E-Learning and Online Teaching | The Sloan... - 0 views

  • Curiously, most educators think they are competent searchers and evaluators, when they are really just beginners. Their disposition is to ask for help rather than search for answers. With simple instruction many radically improve their ability to search, and evaluate. This is empowering and greatly increases learner satisfaction. Instruction in copyright and fair use is also part of the program.
  • As online teachers and learners we work in a computer where information is just a few keystrokes away.
  • I've been researching and writing about Information Fluency since the turn of the century. My work is published on the 21st Century Information Fluency Portal: http://21cif.imsa.edu You'll find modular online learning content including games, micromodules and assessments on the portal. (Free for all educators.) I include information fluency training in all of my online classes. I introduce power searching and website investigation to the graduate students studying in the E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate Program at UW-Stout ( http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html ) because I believe that Information Fluency is a foundation skill for all online teachers and learners.
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    I've been researching and writing about Information Fluency since the turn of the century. My work is published on the 21st Century Information Fluency Portal: http://21cif.imsa.edu You'll find modular online learning content including games, micromodules and assessments on the portal. (Free for all educators.) I include information fluency training in all of my online classes. I introduce power searching and website investigation to the graduate students studying in the E-Learning and Online Teaching Certificate Program at UW-Stout ( http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/elearningcertificate.html ) because I believe that Information Fluency is a foundation skill for all online teachers and learners.
Nigel Coutts

The learner's role in their search for learning - The Learner's Way - 3 views

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    Rather than expecting to be immersed in learning that shines a light on the path forward the notion of searching for driftwood that suits the learner's needs is very empowering. It requires an imagining of learning as a very active process where the learner is aware of their context, their current understanding and what they might need to move forward. It demands a conscious practice of reflection and a disposition towards taking charge of one's learning. It is a very agentic view where learning is something that you do, not something that happens to you. 
J Black

The End in Mind » A Post-LMS Manifesto - 0 views

    • J Black
       
      This is a very profound statement that we should closely look at. Do LMS do nothing more than perpetuate the traditional classroom model?
  • Technology has and always will be an integral part of what we do to help our students “become.” But helping someone improve, to become a better, more skilled, more knowledgeable, more confident person is not fundamentally a technology problem. It’s a people problem. Or rather, it’s a people opportunity.
  • The problem with one-to-one instruction is that is simply doesn’t scale. Historically, there simply haven’t been enough tutors to go around if our goal is to educate the masses, to help every learner “become.”
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  • Through experimental investigation, Bloom found that “the average student under tutoring was about two standard deviations above the average” of students who studied in a traditional classroom setting with 30 other students
  • here is, at its very core, a problem with the LMS paradigm. The “M” in “LMS” stands for “management.” This is not insignificant. The word heavily implies that the provider of the LMS, the educational institution, is “managing” student learning. Since the dawn of public education and the praiseworthy societal undertaking “educate the masses,” management has become an integral part of the learning. And this is exactly what we have designed and used LMSs to do—to manage the flow of students through traditional, semester-based courses more efficiently than ever before. The LMS has done exactly what we hired it to do: it has reinforced, facilitated, and perpetuated the traditional classroom model, the same model that Bloom found woefully less effective than one-on-one learning.
  • Because the LMS is primarily a traditional classroom support tool, it is ill-suited to bridge the 2-sigma gap between classroom instruction and personal tutoring.
  • undamentally human endeavor that requires personal interaction and communication, person to person.
  • We can extend, expand, enhance, magnify, and amplify the reach and effectiveness of human interaction with technology and communication tools, but the underlying reality is that real people must converse with each other in the process of “becoming.”
  • n the post-LMS world, we need to worry less about “managing” learners and focus more on helping them connect with other like-minded learners both inside and outside of our institutions.
  • We need to foster in them greater personal accountability, responsibility and autonomy in their pursuit of learning in the broader community of learners. We need to use the communication tools available to us today and the tools that will be invented tomorrow to enable anytime, anywhere, any-scale learning conversations between our students and other learners
  • However, instead of that tutor appearing in the form of an individual human being or in the form of a virtual AI tutor, the tutor will be the crowd.
  • The paradigm—not the technology—is the problem.
  • Building a better, more feature-rich LMS won’t close the 2-sigma gap. We need to utilize technology to better connect people, content, and learning communities to facilitate authentic, personal, individualized learning. What are we waiting for?
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    A very insightful look into LMS use and student achievment. Highly recommended read for users of BB or Moodle.
Nigel Coutts

Towards a pedagogy for life-worthy learning - The Learner's Way - 2 views

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    In the contemporary classroom, there is much greater consideration of what the learner does in partnership with their teacher so that they develop the capacity to learn. Classroom routines and structures are designed to engage the learner in a rich process of dialogical learning. 
Cassie Banka

Vocabulix - Learn Spanish, German, and English - 0 views

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    Vocabulix provides numerous free tools for learning Spanish, German, or English. On Vocabulix can be used to create quizzes or take quizzes online. Vocabulix provides dozens of drills and activities designed to help students learn Spanish, German, or English. The verb conjugation chart can be used on the Vocabulix website. The verb conjugator code is freely available for use in third party blogs, wikis, or websites. As most new language learning websites do, Vocabulix has a social networking option that helps match native speakers with learners. Applications for Education Vocabulix is a great tool for independent study or practice of a foreign language. The activities are short and sweet and give students instant feedback. The pre-made Vocabulix exercises are flexible enough for use with a wide range of students from beginners to advanced language learners. Students can select the type of response, multiple choice or written response, the level of difficulty, and choice of having or not having visual clues. The verb conjugator widget is a nice tool to include on your class blog, wiki, or website to support student learning outside of the classroom.
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