Group items tagged

Published by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), March 2012. This paper argues that, based on two recent studies, "job-embedded PD can be highly effective, but only when there is a sufficient infrastructure in place to support it." NIET's own program, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement, is such a program. Cited studies: Biancarosa, G., Bryk, A.S., & Dexter, E.R. (2010, September). Assessing the value-added effects of Literacy Collaborative professional development on student learning. The Elementary School Journal, 111(1), 7-34. -- and -- Saunders, W.M., Goldenberg, C.N., & Gallimore, R. (2009, December). Increasing achievement by focusing grade-level teams on improving classroom learning: A prospective, quasi-experimental study of Title I schools. American Educational Research Journal, 46(4), 1006-1033

While this analysis seems somewhat biased (clearly written in support of NIET's own program), many of the characteristics of their program match work that KPI has done in PD.

MOOC and higher ed

By Ryan Tracey on the blog E-Learning Provocateur, May 14 2012. Tracey, a blogger and corporate e-learning manager, puts forth some in-depth thoughts on why digital influence might be more significant than "traditional" influence, and what one might do to garner digital influence. At the bottom of the post, he summarizes with three "determinants."

From the blog Connectivism by George Siemens, December 14 2011. Siemens argues the importance of artifacts to help students make sense of their experiences in MOOCs and other online learning experiences.

Thinking about the critical nature of artifacts to learners making sense of their e-experience makes me wonder how to encourage submission of such "sensemaking" artifacts to our Jams and e-communities.

By Aliya Holmes, Barbara Signer and Antoinette MacLeod, Journal of Digital Learning in Teacher Education, vol 27 (2) , n.d. This paper looks at a 5-week distance learning course offered for K-12 in-service teachers.

By Ellen Wagner and Phil Ice in Eduause Review Online, July 18 2012. A look at learning analytics and how they are being utilized in higher education.

On the same theme as the recently bookmarked article in The Chronicle.

By Ben Betts on his (corporate) blog, Ben Betts is stoatly different, July 23 2012. Tin Can is "the latest iteration of the SCORM family." [According to Wikipedia, "Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is a collection of standards and specifications for web-based e-learning."]. It appears to relate to learning analytics, and the blogger describes applications in the workplace (not merely for post-secondary education).

From Stephanie: This is a bit over my head, but might be of interest to the more technical among us.

A special feature in the Technology section of The Chronicle of Higher Education, Feb 26 2012. The 12 Innovators run the gamut and include an advocate for mobile learning, edu-Punk and digital storytelling (ds) 106 guru, ideas about open learning from Carnegie Mellon, and the director of Hathi Trust's digital library. None of these profiles is in-depth, but each might launch a more in-depth look at the individual or his/her project.

Related: Hacking the Academy. One of the innovators mentioned in this article, Dan Cohen, is at George Mason University, the institution behind Hacking the Academy.

By Dr. Geoff Elliott in Education News, WalesOnline, April 8 2010. An overview of Moodle. Elliott is the head of e-learning at Pembrokeshire College.

From About page, "EdTechTalk is a community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. We webcast several live shows each week." Webcast categories include 21st Century Learning, EdTech Weekly, EdTechTalk, and many others.

By Sarah Gooding, posted to WPMU.ORG (WordPress-Multisite-BuddyPress) on Feb 1st 2010. Gooding interviews Kyle Jones, a Knowledge and Learning Services Librarian at Darien Library (known to be "ahead of the curve" on technology). Jones has created several LMS course sites, with links provided.

By Garry Boulard in Community College Times, published May 4 2010. The article looks at the finding that, the more times a student takes a specific developmental math course, the less likely he or she is to pass it. Quotes Paul Nolting, learning specialist, enrollment services advisor, and author of Winning at Math: Your Guide to Learning Mathematics Through Successful Study Skills.

Posted by Gerry in Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, and Technologies (blog), June 17 2010. Cites Kelly Truong in Chronicle of Higher Ed (June 17 2010) on a study by Ball State University indicating smartphone use among college students has almost doubled in one year.

By Will Richardson, on his blog "weblogg-ed: learning from the read/write web," posted 22 June 2010. Richardson's main focus seems to be K-12 (as is the focus of many of the very interesting comments that this post has received), but the questions he asks are relevant to students of all ages and at all levels: how do we measure more esoteric qualities like the ability to follow "passion," how to "earn...a living solving problems and helping to make the world a better place." It's as much about the quality of education as of assessment.

Posted by Steve Midgley to the U.S. Department of Education's ED.gov blog on July 28 2010. In this post, Midgley announces the government's plan to "make its educational resources much easier to find and use through a new Learning Registry." This outline of the plan explores some of the technical issues that had to be addressed in order to build the database. Follow the learning_registry tag for a link to the registry itself.

This is the conference site for the Learning Forum London 2010 conference, held July 2010. This page provides links to the Program and Conference Tracks. As of Sept 2010, the 2010 conference proceedings were not yet available from this page.

This journal, published since January 2004, looks to address research and innovation in teaching and learning. The journal is refereed. All issues and articles from this journal are available for free download.

This wiki site is for shared ideas on affordances in learning environments.

By Andy Lapham, Faculty of the Arts, Thames Valley University, London, UK. This paper from the Proceedings of the 6th European Conference on e-Learning includes literature review and presents a cognitive analysis of tagging.

By Sara Lipka in the Students section of the Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov 11 2010. Reporting on the latest report from the Center for Community College Student Engagement, which states that "Increasing college completion is meaningless unless certificates and degrees represent real learning, which community colleges must work harder to ensure."