HGSET545

Students at the Center Project Explores How Students Learn Best--Reports on Enhancing Literacy and on Math Instruction for Minorities also Released New educational technologies offer exciting ways to help teachers adapt classrooms to the interests, needs, and strengths of individual students, but they cannot replace the crucial creative and emotional work of teachers, according to a new research paper from the ambitious interdisciplinary project, Students at the Center: Teaching and Learning in the Era of the Common Core.

This article talks about how studios making MMOs for children are providing free usage but capitalizing on its engagement potential to take advantage of children's purchasing power.

I found the recaps of these seminars (and the handbook linked from this page) very interesting. Seminar 2 specifically focuses on the role of narrative--at what point it should enter the design process, how it can increase motivation and enjoyment or serve as a distraction, issues with traditional narrative in an interactive medium, etc. This quote from the Seminar 2 overview reminded me of relatedness from SDT Theory: "It was agreed that a quality necessary for engagement with narrative was that of identification with characters or a situation (an example was given from a mine disaster simulation with junior children, where the degree of engagement with the narrative content due to the identification with the victims drove the experience forward). Authenticity could also contribute to engagement. Whilst hard to pin down, it could mean authenticity for the children in cultural terms or in terms of being a 'human' story, one of a kind which resonates for them."

Thanks for posting this, Marium! I've been reading and enjoying his book What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (http://amzn.to/H0Eqi8); I look forward to watching this now as well.

The expansion of virtual education puts companies that provide e-learning services under the microscope As researchers, politicians, and the general public have begun to question the results of fully online virtual schooling, private providers-particularly for-profit companies-that supply curriculum, content, and sometimes instruction and school management for online education are facing the most scrutiny.

Very good segment about Khan Academy

San Jose, CA (PRWEB) March 26, 2012 Henley-Putnam University's next free webinar takes an in-depth look at best practices for completing online courses. Key fundamentals of learning, including communication, self- motivation, time management, and prioritization will be discussed in depth (https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/930185490).

An interesting article on "fun failure" and how failure can be powerful motivator for learning.

An article about what we can learn from the Finish education reform - we need to raise the standards for entry into the teaching profession, and future teachers should have intensive professional and academic preparation. Finnish teachers are driven by a sense of intrinsic motivation, not by the hope of a bonus or the fear of being fired. Intrinsic motivation is also what they seek to instill in their students.

This is probably the definitive online source on learning objects. I recommend you download each chapter, as it hasn't been updated in a while (a sign that it may go away). An extremely dry read, but if you take it in small doses you'll be well grounded in the concept. Key ideas are embedded in SCORM..

Gee comments on video games and project-based learning.

This is a PBS documentary on Steve Jobs that I watched yesterday. Very interesting! There are segments in which the engaging features of Apple products are mentioned.

As schools mix online instruction and face-to-face learning, educators are identifying promising hybrid approaches As blended learning models, which mix face-to-face and online instruction, become more common in schools, classroom educators and administrators alike are navigating the changing role of teachers-and how schools can best support them in that new role.