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The article totally reflects my opinions about blended learning. Technology integration is necessary but to what extent?

I agree with you Sermin, use of technology is considered as a must for effective instruction by most of the teachers nowadays. However, in some cases using traditional methods and techniques can be more feasible, cost-effective and practical.

Hello Everybody, I am writing from the NTLS meeting that I am attending at Washington D.C. This meeting aims to shape some of the future ed tech initiatives. I will share things that I come across at this leadership meeting. It seems like STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is one of the hot topics here. Another topic is TPACK and Rich Media Teaching Cases.

After I read this I become more worried about our students especially in secondary schools. There were SBS (exam for entering high schools) and they were taking 3 different exams at each grade, 6,7,8 but now with the new regulations they will have 36 exams. Apart from that in 10 years the system has changed for 5 times. what can be more devastating their chilhood than that?

I agree with you about the testing system in Turkey but it is only the top of the iceberg. For me, childhood ends for children who start the formal education in Turkey. Our system is so demanding and competitive that children cannot endure the difficulties they encounter. First of all, we have very overloaded curricula and students always need to be alert and hardworking to keep up with the required activities. While trying to make use of constructivist understanding curriculum developers missed some points: the opportunities and facilities the schools and students have, the difficulty level of activities, background of the learner and student and parent profile in Turkey, teacher characteristics in our schools and so on. The curricula cannot be implemeted in most of the schools so teachers invented their own methods and techniques which do not match to any of the instructional theories properly. Parents started to find out ways to protect their children and they made lots of mistakes. For example, some parents do projects of their children and smarter children started to sell ready-made projects at schools. Although teachers know the truth, he grade these projects because the system makes it nearly impossible to fail. In short, our system is working but not in the way writen in the curricula. The changes, negativities and difficulties in the system is damaging the childhood and future of the students. Somebody should change it, not the curricula:)

World is getting more populated, and each individual wants to have a better life. And a better life is significantly related to education. So, exams still appear to be a "must" in this racing system. Actually, I am a supporter of the exams if we want to have a more "fair race". I remember the terrible old days when successful people couldn't get what they deserved because of the bribery system in Turkey. On the other hand, I agree about the side effects of the overtesting. And as an individual who has been exposed to overtesting, the question I ask to myself is "How has the overtesting affected my mental health?" The truth is I have been stressed, depressed and sad because of the tests :(

Famous article by Nicolas Carr. What do you think?

I like these sentences from the text: "Once I was a scuba diver in the sea of words. Now I zip along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski.". Because the way we read has changed with new strategies(scanning and scimming quickly) and a great deal of information. That's why we rather google it then reading hundreds of pages.(Or ctrl-f works pretty good in some cases:)) However, I do not think that we are getting more stupid. Our brain has been evolving with new technologies and habits and probably will keep doing that. So we are not so much eager to keep some information in our minds since we are sure that we can reach them anywhere anytime. For instance, children no longer memorize multiplying tables but it does not tell us that they can not solve multiplication problems.They have another instruments to save time and energy :)

I agree with the ideas of Afra and Sinem. Sometimes I experience this while reading articles for my thesis and I have to write the key points for myself. However, I believe that we are not getting stupid, because we are now in technology era. We cannot abstain from appyling google for any information. It is really cost-effective in terms of time and money. I think that we will have to face with more new technologies in future, but this cannot mean that we will get more stupid. It is the requirement of our era we live in and we have to adapt ourselves.

Recent findings in Cognitive Neuroscience are likely to have important implications for educational theory and practice.It is critical to determine whether these research findings sufficient,in and of themselves, to have a veridical impact on curriculum and policy.The ways in which neuroscience research will impact the field of education is discussed and Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences is examined as a case study of the impact of neuroscience on educational practice. It is concluded that experts who are well versed in both neuroscience and educational research and theory are needed and that the development of an indepe ndent discipline, Educational Neuroscience, will best bridge the gap between the two fields.

This is an article by Chris Dede (Harvard Graduate School of Education August, 2004). It focuses on the importance and difficulties of DBR. You can get help from this article, while trying to answer the questions on LMS.

There was a case in one of the articles, the researchers were asked to provide an example of their research findings which helped them to solve a problem in practice and they were silent. It is a really good example of the gap between research and practice.When I think that research findings will not help to solve problems in the field, I start to question the things I am doing because being a part of the solution, not the problem" was the starting point of my academic life...

I really like the idea offered by DBR that is against the highly controlled laboratory settings are settings that research settings resembling that. But I still can not grasp how multi number of variables can healthly or in a valid sense can be studied all together in DBR. Maybe the local issue gains importance at this point.

This is the webpage from the design based research conference 2012. You can find there some good ideas. You also can download the presentations and work-shop descriptions

I didn't know about this event. Hope they organize the next one. We can check some of the cases in class. I am particularly interested in how DBR is used in teacher education research context.

The article talks about the probable challenges of educational neuroscience and underlines the difference between designing children and raising children with some example cases.

The first robot teacher was tested in Tokyo in 2009 to sixth and seventh graders. The robot teacher can express six basic emotions - happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, sadness and anger. As I know a French company has developed a robot teacher, too.

To admit, yes it is an impressive way. However, I got stuck when it was said that robots could replace teachers in case of teacher shortage. It can be used as a tool for teaching-learning but it can not be treated as a teacher in real terms.

I think this is too much technological, where is the interaction? I totally agree with Yelda and Sinem in that a robot teacher cannot provide the effective class environment and fulfill teaching. The communication is really important in learning process, with a robot teacher this is impossible.

SJTs have long history of being used for measuring situated cognition; they have been used from 1920's(McDaniel, et. al., 2001). Although SJT has been originated from the conception of measuring dimensions, it has been viewed as a measurement method(e.g., McDaniel, et. al., 2001; Weekly & Jones, 1999) because it has been difficult to delineate the dimensions and situations. The situations represented by scenarios in SJTs are viewed as method from psychometric sense, meaning that situation effect, scenario effect, or method effect are all interchangeable.

This source brings a focus to our readings I think; the assessment part. The example was partly hard for me to follow I have to say,I kinda got lost :) But I found the idea of the togetherness of knowledge dimensions and situational scenarios as methods. Thank you sharing

Canan, you are completely right about the sample SJT for situated cognition. I still try to figure out..But I can share a very easy form of SJT.

the page briefly and clearly defines what situated learning is, and shows how to create authentic learning contexts by using digital media. There are very short videos showing situated learning genres and some handouts which can be helpful in the class.

While I was reading about interactive case scenarios, I remembered some of my friends playing a game on the Internet called "fantasy role play". I am sure most of us have already heard about it because it is very popular among METU students. Actually the major aim of the game is to have some fun, but it can also be organized as a learning tool.

Thanks for sharing the examples. I already started thinking about how to integrate these into teacher training programs.

I think it is a useful tool for creating blended learning environment, as situated learning requires us to do so :)

I can only see Shanghai and HK from China. Why? Why they do not have any results from the rural regions. These 2 cities have special administration and have significantly high GDP. I am not stuck with the idea of "money is everything". But it talks in many cases.

I am now convinced of the opportunities of learning that can be provided by games after reading the following quote: "While commercial video games often offer worlds in which players prepare for the actions of soldiers or thieves, the question arises as to whether other types of games could let players prepare for action from different perspectives or identities such as a particular type of scientist, political activist, or global citizen, for instance. "

Yelda, honestly, I also used to question the contribution of video games to learning and nowadays, as seeing more examples like the one you shared, I guess yes perspective are changing:) I believe as we also discussed in the forum, the most critical thing is how the material, video or something else is presented to the learners and used, not the material itself.

The same material in two differnt hands may serve to two differnt ideologies , beliefs, subject areas hence I do definitely agree with Canan the mentality of the minds who are using those plays the important role.

Research finding on Flipped Classrooms. Connected to some of the reading reflections this week on technology.

This classes can have no effect on students learning, in a short term. For me, a study should measure the long term effect of the flipped classroom. This point can be missed. there is need for not only summative but also confirmative evaluation.

As a language teacher, I've felt really interested in such a change in the instructional process. I always need more time for activities and hands-on experiences; however, I fail to have. I think if the initial preparations are well-organized and students are provided with effective support, flipped classrooms idea may work better than the traditional classes. Therefore, I disagree with the researchers who have found no significant difference in learning. One research may not set a good example for a generalization.

This web page is provided by University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the page, there is an emphasis on the technological applications of situated learning theory since the page is allocated for 'transforming teaching and learning through technology'. I've found the page interesting to share because there are very good examples of situated learning through some tools like interactive case scenarios, augmented reality and situated documentary. The page is useful both for discovering those tools and finding some particular examples of situated learning.

Sammamish High School in the US decided to change from traditional teaching to an entirely problem-based curriculum. Since Kolodner et al. (2009) married Case-Based Reasoning to Problem-Based Learning, I thought it would be useful to see PBL in practice.

This article reports on a case of a research study that investigates the possibility of expanding Egyptian pre-service EFL student teachers' language-related literacy practices by integrating some web-based new literacies into their education programme.

This is a nice little newsletter that mentions some characteristics of situated learning. Some resources on situated learning and its usage in learning environments are offered !

Firstly, it was a nice source to read, thanks for sharing it. I agree with you time concerns, teacher and student charateristics are prominent to implement the principles of situated learning in practice. It is really difficult to create authentic learning environment in our classes under the stess of keeping up with the curriculum which is based on traditional theories of learning. Thus, it is the work of the curriculum specialists to revise the curricula to be more in line with the improvements in the field of learning sciences.

There is a case study which I really advise you to look at it. It is about a political course in which they took a government's problem about content and design of websites. He says "given all the considerations at work in municipal government, the students will decide how the power of the web can best be brought to bear on making government work better."

You can find examples for the adoption of CSCL and its benefits like enhanced course content knowledge, increased confidence in applying course knowledge and skills, stronger collaboration skills (arguing ideas, making decisions, providing solutions), greater ability to create instead of simply consume knowledge and added benefits of leadership and presentation skills

The outcomes: enhanced course content knowledge, increased confidence in applying course knowledge and skills, stronger collaboration skills (arguing ideas, making decisions, providing solutions), greater ability to create instead of simply consume knowledge, and added benefits of leadership and presentation skills, can also be applicable to our case. I think our course equips us with similar skills and outcomes.

Good example of DBR and CSCL.