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interesting comments about different types of transfer, and the role of MOOCs.

Inquiry based learning originates with John Dewey's philosophy that education begins with curiousity. It focuses on guiding students through a process of finding answers to questions. Inquiry based learning: Is driven by questions of interest rather than general topics.Emphasizes asking good researchable questions.Coaches students as they go.Provides research journal to help students monitor their progress.Draws on expertise of the instructor / teacher librarian to model effective inquiry.Assesses student progress in developing inquiry skills as well as understanding of content.

Find out more about yourself. Use these interactive self-assessments to discover what you're good at and where you may have room for improvement. Identify the things that interest you and get some ideas about careers to explore. Based on what you learn about yourself, you can pursue educational and career goals that bring long-term satisfaction.

The high volume of research on different programs, products, practices, and policies in education can make it difficult to interpret and apply the results. We review the research. Then, by focusing on the results from high-quality research, we try to answer the question "What works in education?"  Our goal is to provide educators with the information they need to make evidence-based decisions.

Though educators are finding smart ways to integrate technology and learning, the road has been and continues to be challenging on multiple fronts. The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition, a collaboration between the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education, takes the birds-eye view and encapsulates some of the significant challenges that must still be addressed and offers the following assessment.

Could some or all of this work online to build engagement? 1) close reading 2) engage with objects 3) attention through assessments

For schools in Australia and many parts of the world, we are heading towards the end of another school term and year. That means report writing season. For the next few weeks, teachers across the country will be huddled in front of computer screens, writing reflections on the progress their learners have made. Mark books will be opened, assessments consulted, work samples will be reviewed. All so that in the first week of the long Summer vacation students can sit and read their report and make plans for how they will enhance their learning in the coming year.

Learning Styles, Left Brain/Right Brain, and 10% are myths that we need to stop using to guide our teaching. They don't help, and they probably waste money and effort that could be used on things that actually help. You know, like good teaching (pre-assessment, goal-setting, differentiation, and keeping learners in their ZPD).

nice overview of learning competences for biological sciences.

"BadgeStack is an innovative system with a game-like approach that assesses skills, recognizes learner achievement, sparks community, and excites learners of all ages."

The book "Introduction to Rubrics: An Assessment Tool to Save Grading Time, Convey Effective Feedback and Promote Student Learning" by Dannelle Stevens and Antonia J. Levi gives a good, short (131 pages) overview of how to make marking for university assignments easier.

Transforming Learning through assessment.  

"In self-paced courses, many students appeared to cram most of the homework and chapter exams into the final week of the semester. Few of them bothered to do the ungraded practice problems offered by the online publisher." First, where is the teaching? It sounds more like a case of poorly designed instruction...or a complete lack of instruction. Of course these students are not learning...they are not being taught. Also, if they are in classes which are actively taught by a teacher, then where are the formative assessments by the instructors? That teacher should know long before the final exam if the students know the material or not. A good teacher and a well developed online course would have a number of ways to determine this which do not allow for "cut and paste" or cheating. Finally, does this department test a student's memorization of material or the mastery of the concepts and and understanding of how to apply those concepts? Perhaps, there is also a need to reevaluate the assessments. Good teaching is good teaching. If a student is not learning the material, who is really to blame?

Lots of resources for teachers.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a categorized list of sites useful for enhancing curriculum and professional growth. It is updated often to include the best sites for teaching and learning. (Very comprehensive!)

Learning is what our kids need to be doing in the classroom, not getting ready for assessment that were built for another time.(via Justin Reich) We pay so much attention to the measurable part of education that we miss the immeasurable part.creativity, perseverance, problem-solving are what are children need.

The buzz word around education is "blended learning," and how it can potentially transform the way instruction is being delivered, created, and assessed ... There are several technologies that are being developed to support this model. Unless you are building your own internal tools, below are the technologies and example companies who are developing in this area: