digital learning collaborative research

"The following are excerpts from from "Kids Closer Up: Playing, Learning, and Growing with Digital Media" by Lori Takeuchi, International Journal of Learning and Media, Spring 2011, Vol. 3, No. 2, Pages 37-59. To protect the children's identities, all names are pseudonyms, and location details have been altered."

Have you asked your students about their perceptions of the learning environment in your class? It may be time, suggests ASCD author Muriel Rand in a recent ASCD EDge blog post. Reflecting on a recent conference on assessment, Rand shares ideas from keynote speaker Ronald Ferguson's research on the seven Cs that make a difference in the learning environment -- "caring" and "challenging" among them. Rand also points to findings about the reliability of surveying students on teacher effectiveness

A new and comprehensive research report reviews the literature about young people in the digital environment in order to provide a framework for interacting with quality information. Information quality is important today because the traditional gatekeepers and intermediaries that provided mechanisms for quality content standards have been replaced by the internet and media convergence. The need to understand how young people interact with information and use it has never been more important because information access and online social communities affect their social and cognitive development.

research on information evaluation values and approaches by today's youth

"So the truth of the matter is that research studies that show positive effects of technology hardly matter. Occasional studies that do show promising results for new technologies are dragged in to cover the near nakedness of research, much like a fig leaf, to justify the high costs of these new devices in the face of little evidence. The fact remains that no one knows for sure whether the new hardware and software appearing in schools works. They are all beta versions with glitches that teachers and students end up discovering."

important perspective looking backwards and at the bureaucracy

The TED-Ed channel launched with about a dozen videos and the promise that more will be added weekly. Educators from anywhere in the world can upload lesson proposals at education.ted.com.

"Blumenfeld et al. (1991) identified six contributions that technology can make to the learning process: * enhancing interest and motivation; * providing access to information; * allowing active, manipulable representations; * structuring the process with tactical and strategic support; * diagnosing and correcting errors; * managing complexity and aiding production."

This week DERN reviews an outstanding study about teacher's views of school practices that reveals the powerful effects of professional collaboration among teachers, with support from the Principal. The study surveyed 2,404 educators in schools across the US. Most of the respondents were experienced classroom teachers and specialist staff in public schools at all levels (elementary, middle, high) of schooling. The findings are reported in a 37 page very readable and ground breaking report.

"The eighth big idea is we are entering a digital world where knowing about digital technology is as important as reading and writing. So learning about computers is essential for our students' futures BUT the most important purpose is using them NOW to learn about everything else."

A recent research report of the take-up of laptops in a Sydney region of 14 secondary schools is very informative. The research examined the take up and use of laptops by 47 science teachers and 1245 students. The DER provided the laptops for the students whereas the schools provided the laptops for the teachers. The research developed a misalignment index that indicated differences between the use of laptops by teachers and by students that had implications for learning.

How can you get the best out of your teachers and improve student learning? Edutopia's research analyst explains some of the best practices found by researchers to help ensure educator growth and success.

"The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning and creative inquiry within the environment of pre-college education. This article adapted from sections of the report. The report highlights six emerging technologies or practices that are likely to enter mainstream use within the next five years. Key trends and challenges that will affect current practice over the same period frame these discussi"

Cursive writing, once the backbone of the three Rs of schooling - reading, writing and arithmetic - has fallen into such disuse these days that many youngsters will grow up unable to read their own parents' handwriting.

The learning needs of today's students no longer fit the traditional model. Rather than simply learning facts and basic skills, they need to acquire more complex skills in conceptualisation and problem solving. They need affective and metacognitive skills, and the capacity to work collaboratively and to work across disciplines. They need the dispositions required to pursue such learning. They also need learning experiences of the kind of tasks that they may expect to meet in adult life. Such learning requires authentic assessment, designed to demonstrate their grasp of the skills and competencies needed to address real-life problems, and formative assessment, or assessment for learning, designed to provide learners with feedback on their progress to inform their development. The article discusses the application of higher-level questioning, marking and feedback strategies, the establishment of shared learning goals between teacher and student, and peer- and self-assessment.

"n this essay, Philip and Garcia argue that visions of mobile devices in the classroom often draw on assumptions about the inherent interests youth have in these devices, the capability of these interests to transfer from out-of-school contexts to the classroom, and the capacity for these new technologies to equalize the educational playing field."

What the research shows