HGSET545

Will great professors start defecting to interactive media, where they could become media stars? I wonder how truly interactive or engaging this type of delivery is.

Updating diary research to blogging. It seems blogging can be therapeutic for teens. More girls in the study than boys. Comments from readers seems to put some difficulties into perspective.

Children with autism spectrum disorders enjoy screen time, underscoring an opportunity to use interactive devices to encourage social learning. Despite how much children who have autism enjoy the stimulation of a computer or mobile device, few engage in social media pursuits, such as emailing or chatting, researchers found.

An interesting article that discusses the highlights of the Learning Without Frontiers conference, which took place in London last week. One such highlight--a professor of neuroscience at Bristol University addressing the neuroscience behind engagement with video and computer games.

This article talks about how play has become more structured / commercialized and that imagination is one of the components lost.They further state that this leads to diminishing executive function stated to be responsible for decreasing self control.Like the Marshmallow experiment, perhaps there is a need for more evidence ?

This article details how a charter school ("Rocketship education") is using computer games based on drill to improve test scores. Assessment procedures in place is obviously a very important driver for such initiatives.

By reading your linked article I came across this post about Carol Dweck's Brainology work and what it says about praise in schools: http://mindshift.kqed.org/2012/02/discovering-how-to-learn-smarter/#more-18821. Thanks, Pradeep!

Thanks for the link to the brainology article, Stephanie! So, instead of saying "You are so smart", can we point out to the students how they are getting 'smarter'? That way they will get the notion of growth.

Big state investment in online (old school) testing- new ways to test old models.

Seems like a good EMF design.

Another article on digital textbooks. The author describes how students in Joplin, MO, went digital after the tornado destroyed their schools. Mixed results.

With the Secretary calling for digital books, how does he envision teacher training programs to be transformed?

Learn about the gamification of the university experience at RIT's School of Interactive Games & Media. I learned about this at a MIT talk on Civic Games, which was written up here: http://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/event-writeup-civic-games. They only really touched on motivation, autonomy, and rewards, but the transcript is also worth checking out for the names of people, books, and sites mentioned.

I forgot to point out the interesting use of RFID in Just Press Play.

top educational wikis of 2011

This article is a bit snarky but it raises some worthwhile cautions around the buzz of tech in education, particularly Apple.

It is amazing to me that Apple and technology can take center stage in the education conversation without a word of professional development, best practices, learning outcomes... As I have stated before, I/we are an Apple family... but I am worried about the prospect that Apple's role in the textbook industry will eliminate other platforms and in-turn will limit access to many.

Here is an ethnographer's in-depth look into World of Warcraft. From this site you can read the full book online, read an interview with the author, or listen to a podcast. The author "introduces us to her research strategy and the history, structure, and culture of Warcraft; argues for applying activity theory and theories of aesthetic experience to the study of gaming and play; and educates us on issues of gender, culture, and addiction as part of the play experience."

The URL just takes you to wikipedia... but anyone interested in joining a listserv about teaching/learning with wikipedia should read on. I just received this email and share it with all of you: Greetings, You're invited to join a new listserv that's been created to discuss teaching with Wikipedia. Dr. Robert Cummings of the University of Mississippi is leading this email group. This is a list for teachers of higher education who are interested in teaching with Wikipedia or researching teaching with Wikipedia. The goal is that list members will find support with pedagogy issues and find potential collaborators for scholarly research around teaching with Wikipedia. It's a list for teachers, by teachers. At the moment, there is no web interface, so the best method of joining the list is to send an e-mail to: md@listserv.olemiss.edu with the body of the message being: subscribe teaching-with-wikipedia You don't need a subject line or to include your signature or anything else. If you're interested in Wikipedia pedagogy, we highly encourage you to join the list and collaborate with others who share similar interests. The Wikipedia Education Program Team

A prediction of the top 10 mobile learning trends for 2012, according to industry analysts.

This article argues for the benefit of using laptops in university classrooms.

A Youtube video on integrating glass with technology. There's a part on future vision of schools, starting at 4:43.

Gaming and Simulations for Training

Hi Kasturi - It will be interesting to watch the growth of companies like this. I am tempted to get a free quote to learn the ballpark $$ for having training simulations made. In reviewing some of the simulations, some seemed much more valuable than others (i.e. tour of USAFA with ability to earn points to change look of avitar seemed irrelevant because the points were earned after the tour was taken... who would take it again?)

A UK experiment - contrived, but might produce some epiphanies?