Group items tagged

Important initiative for enabling equity and reducing digital divide

Im downloading Knowledge Forum (formerly CSILE) to see how it compares to other digital learning communities

ePortfolio? What is that? What about your backpack with all of your books and notebooks?"

This story is speculating on the viability of online learning like MIT Opencourseware, and discusses models for creating economically sustainable online learning models.

Published Online: October 25, 2011 Published in Print: October 26, 2011, as 'Blended Learning' for the Little Ones By Jill Barshay, The Hechinger Report Los Angeles 1st grader Lena Barrett clicks through a series of icons and logs on to a laptop under the fluorescent lights of her classroom.

This is very "hot" in India at the moment. The president of India has given 200 of these to the university I work at and they are distributing it, for free, to loads if other institutes. It costs $25!! I haven't seen the quality of the device, but I have seen other low cost, about $150, tablets and I don't like them AT ALL. D you think e device quality and user experience will not be deterrent given the price point?

Mohit, I've heard a lot about the poor quality of the device and very little about HOW universities intend on using these tablets. It seems like another case of top-down intervention that's tech-driven rather than learning-driven, which is rather unfortunate. Also seems even more unfortunate that even though it's a tech-driven initiative, they haven't thought out the *quality* component of the tech. Oy... See this article for critiques of the tablet: http://www.techulator.com/resources/5523-Most-Annoying-Defects-Flows-Datawinds.aspx

Online textbooks containing multimedia that are easy to update. Appears to be a combination of an E-textbook and wikipedia. (Link contains example Flexbook.)

Comparing parent-child co-reading on print, basic, and enhanced e-book platforms...'Quick studies' by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center to address the problem of how fast technologies seem to be growing and the gap between their emergence and research to back up their effectiveness.

Lawrence Summers, former Harvard President, touts e-book and role to technology in education.

"The digital teaching platform is an innovative approach to personalizing student learning in a group classroom setting," said Chris Dede, Ed.D., the Timothy E. Wirth Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and a member of the Research Advisory Board.

I found this to be an Interesting approach/take on video based learning/lecturing , anyone has any information on where the MIT blossoms project is headed or its potential impact?

Hi Komal, I work for the PI of Blossoms, Prof Richard Larson (but not on Blossoms). Send me an e-mail if you have some specific questions and I can put you two in contact, or we can chat sometime about it. I know you are working on video-distribution for your research synthesis, sorry it never occured to me that Blossoms might be on your radar screen!

Hi Komal, sorry for the late response--the Diigo notification went to my Spam box so I didn't see that you had responded. Let me ask Prof. Larson those things and get back to you.

More and more, we see how technology is used as an enabler, in formative assessments and helping the teacher to help the student where it is most needed.

This article discusses ways to use mobile technology in a higher education setting, including uses to increase engagement among students and to provide safety and emergency information. The author fails to include any uses that actually involve learning or improved communication and transparency between students and teachers, which I believe is an oversight that many schools have when considering implementing mobile technology in their schools. 

Jeff Kirchick is Director of Universities at SCVNGR, the popular mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. He presents regularly about the future of mobile and location-based services in education. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyKirchick or e-mail him at jeff@scvngr.com.

Following up on the discussion we had in class today, do you think we are focusing too much of our attention on teacher training? If students have the ability to not only understand a certain technology but can also use that technology to self train, isn't the role of the teacher in that respect, highly reduced? Perhaps its easier and would prove fruitful if we redirected our strengths to developing software and devices that are intuitive and help children learn rather than spending the resources on helping a different generation of learners (i.e., the teachers) understand this technology? Also, if you think about it, we are probably only one generation away from the teachers who see the value of technology in teaching. This ideal generation is of course the current students who are using technology and find it extremely helpful. They wouldn't need any convincing or training to use technology in their classroom

Over 7,000 students in Miami-Dade County Public Schools are enrolled in virtual classrooms, or e-learning labs. Core subjects are taken on computers, and instead of a teacher, there is a "facilitator" in the room who makes sure the students are actually doing their work. The facilitator also gives tech help.

"New technologies have transformed the way students interact with the world, with information, and knowledge," said Dean of Harvard College Evelynn M. Hammonds.

Harvard Recieved $40 million from Rita E. and Gustave Hauser to support excellence and innovation in teaching and learning.

2 webinars of interest, including David Rose and Chris Dede doing tag-team on emerging technologies