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They say "No one else does what we do" while mentioning their interdisciplinary approach. They say that "The learning sciences field emerged more than two decades ago after researchers found that what worked in a laboratory simply did not hold up with real children, teachers, classrooms and workplaces. They saw that learning technologies, which held great promise for solving education's problems, were not being transferred to classrooms and schools. Cognitive scientists, educational and instructional psychologists, and computer scientists worked together to put their ideas and knowledge to use to improve the learning outcomes for a diverse group." The institute basically do two things: 1 - They identify the critical challenges in education, literacy, mathematics, science and the social sciences. 2- They work to find solutions. Their main aim is to create learning systems for 21st century classrooms thanks to interdisciplinary research in teaching and learning. They believe that learning is a complex process and so they get benefit from different disciplines (e.g. anthropology, computer science, education, linguistics, psychology and sociology) to share knowledge and best practices on education. At their another webpage, they define learning science as a science which "focuses on how to create new, improved and equitable learning environments for 21st century learners.". In order accomplish this, they focus on four questions: 1- How do people learn? 2- What do we want them to know and be able to do? 3- How can we design learning environments that help them learn? 4- How can we monitor what they are learning? They offer a Ph.D. program to raise future learning scientists.

This article contrasts and compares analytic approaches to common problems at two comparable institutions. In keeping with this intent, it features complementary sets of issues focusing on recruitment and related issues at UMES and retention at BSU. UMES does extend its efforts into student retention, though the details are not explicated in the article. Additionally, UMES is implementing the retention-focused aspects of Starfish Early Alert as BSU has done. Still, there are differences in approach: UMES relies primarily on the flag-centered model, while BSU relies on the student-centered model for interventions. Both institutions have integrated commercial products for data collection, analysis, and response, but BSU has invested in a locally developed analytic engine, while UMES has repurposed an investment in Microsoft's Performance Point to support collection and analysis. Use of analytics in support of student retention and success is increasingly strategic to UMES and BSU. In an effort to improve access to higher education for minority and economically disadvantaged students, who often have educational deficiencies, both universities have reached out to many at-risk students. The institutions feel an obligation to assure that these students succeed. Analytics provides an important, and previously underutilized, tool set for the institutions to achieve this. These issues are increasingly common in higher education, and the approaches taken should be broadly applicable.

Do you think village institutes in Turkey can be some examples of implementation of situated learning examples? I am sure most of you have watched the documentary on them :)

Canan, this is a very good example, and I believe will spark a good discussion on situated learning.

Today Filiz and I had a chance to the attend the Mendeley meeting of library. I am really glad to meet with Mendeley :) I think it will be very helpful for my future studies. Also I have a message for you from library. Until January we have the oppotunity of using institutional version of Mendeley which is more functional than the standard one. If the number of users is sufficient our library may consider prolonging the subscription. In order to use the institutional version of Mendeley you should subscribe with your metu mail adress and when you sign up you have to find the METU group and join it.

Great!!! We will have two library specialists this week in class to talk about library resources and software. We can explore Mendeley together as a group. As far as I remember we can create an online shared resource repository in Mendeley.

I'm really cruious about Mendeley. Please help me to be familiar with it.

Today's guest post is written by Zachary Walker, a faculty member at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore. Who works hardest in your classroom? ......... waiting for you to really think about it........ still waiting patiently.............. If a visitor walked into your class unannounced and watched what was happening for 30 minutes, who would they say worked hardest? Do you agree the idea emerging from this article that when teachers let student be more active in their learning process, teachers work less?

Based on Evrim Hoca's questions, while googling I came across this. While considering the motivation we disregard one important point I guess. What about the social and economic status of learners and its influence on motivation? Here the news tell us about the accesibility problem. If some are not able to access can we talk about the motivation?

I am studying on learning environments in socioeconomically disadvantaged schools Yelda, :) May be I can provide some information during the course. Thanks for sharing this :)

Yelda, I have no idea about the target population of MOOCs when they first broke out..But I know they have many pros like no-cost for students (mostly), quality (some Ivy League universities are leading), opportunity for who has no chance to enroll a famous university, no presequities like diplom and chance of discussing things through an online platform (diversity)..So motivation is not one of the pros but cons. Because those MOOC institutions does not offer any college credit but a certificate which does not help you for employment and they are free, nothing forces you to complete..Anyway I have already enrolled a 6 weeks Cryptography Course (I am a Courseran now) offered by a Stanford Professor.

I've watched the video twice and in the end I've felt some concerns about the results of the studies. In the "how people learn" part, researchers were testing the storage and connection system of the brain through some high-tech tools. However, does neuropsychology provide enough evidence on the functioning of the brains? Can we generalize the results to all people from all cultures? I am not the one who is against neuropsychology, but for me one discipline may not give an appropriate answer to such a deep question. My second concern is about the integration of computer programs into the curriculum as a major learning tool. We see a program where "Betty" is speaking and giving feedback on the video. The program seems user friendly, but what about the negative aspects and limitations of the integration of technology into learning? Ok, I agree that we have to adapt to the rapid technological changes in the society. However, is technology the key to all learning processes? Plus, the program is designed on the mapping of the concepts. Does concept mapping make a curriculum compelling all the time? I am not sure about all characteristics of the program, but if it hasn't been designed in a challenging style and if all students come up with the same products, then how will they develop their knowledge and reasoning abilities? I couldn't find an answer to that. As for the part "effective teaching", I am in the same opinion with the researchers that there should be a connection between the real world and the subject taught. Moreover, I think the integration of the disciplines is difficult but a very good way of giving meaning to life. Besides, in the video we see teachers as a guide, as a facilitator and there is no doubt that providing individual support to the students helps students feel more involved.

Firstly, even if it is designed by utilizing modern technology and different understanding, which makes it a more developed and complicated one, the program used in the video reminded me the teaching machines of old times. It gives the priority to the cognitive aspect of learning. This seems to be a one-dimensional approach which underestimates the social aspect of learning. I think the value of classroom interaction for effective learning cannot be replaced by any kind of computer programs. Research on brain is really important and it provides very useful insights for learning and instructional activities. However, it should be supported by the findings of research by social psychologists as well. The very same individual may perform at varying levels when he is taught with the same methods in different environments. I personally experienced many times that even the absence of one individual in my classes affected the teaching an learning processes in a negative or positive way depending upon the classroom dinamics.

The professor made a distinction between learning and deeper learning and he says deeper learning differs as it does not suggest superficial comprehension. Actually, deeper learning is not something specific to science learning; it is learning with understanding (as far as I understood). Deeper learning is what we mean by learning, is not it?

Deeper learning is what we are supposed to teach our students. Not superficial but deep and comprehensive knowledge. I don't think that the professor limits it to science learning since he doesn't focus on one subject area "science". What he says is that no matter what students learn, they should be guided and provided help in order to let them get comprehensive and permanent knowledge. Superficial knowledge which is gathered through memorization is more likely to be forgotton soon.

He directs the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the Media Laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His group develops new technologies to engage people (particularly children) in creative learning experiences. He received the McGraw Prize in Education for 2011.

Here I share a report on informal science learning. The report synthesizes research on science learning across three primary venues--everyday/family life, designed experiences in informal institutions, and out-of-school programs. The evidence presented suggests that learners' informal experiences with science, from museum visits to television shows to observations in nature, contribute strongly scientific knowledge and engagement. I agree with the fact that such informal experiences boost learning, especially science and additionally language learning.

Hey everyone! Here is a video on the role digital media plays in young people's lives. Social networks, online games and media production are seen as significant tool of the 21st century. There are other videos you can view on learning as well from this New Learning Institute.

This video presents a review of James Paul Gee's book: Situated language and learning: A critique of traditional schooling. James Paul Gee. "James Gee is a researcher who has worked in psycholinguistics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, and literacy. Gee is currently the Mary Lou Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University, appointed there in the Mary Lou Fulton Institute and Graduate School of Education. Gee is a faculty affiliate of the Games, Learning, and Society group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a member of the National Academy of Education."

Thank you for the source; as also Burcu provided an example of his work, he is important for this topic. He is mainly concerned with linguistics and has many studies of discourse analysis. The effect of video games on learning is one of his main concerns.

Ken Koedinger is a professor at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University. In this interview with ELI Director Malcolm Brown, Ken discusses intelligent tutoring.

One to one interaction is missing in intelligent tutoring, which Ken Koedinger accepts :)

Burcu, that does not mean ITS will never have the features for one to one interaction. This is a matter of time and technology. If u can read the article "Multimodal Affect Recognition in Intelligent Tutoring Systems" below ITSs have very rapid progress for interaction.

this was a good post that involves answers to the questions about analytics such as What are analytics? Why are analytics important? What are the benefits of analysing your data? How do students feel about it? How can I use it in my institution? and What does the future hold for analytics?