Group items tagged

Space, whether physical or virtual, can have a significant impact on learning. Learning Spaces focuses on how learner expectations influence such spaces, the principles and activities that facilitate learning, and the role of technology from the perspective of those who create learning environments: faculty, learning technologists, librarians, and administrators. Information technology has brought unique capabilities to learning spaces, whether stimulating greater interaction through the use of collaborative tools, videoconferencing with international experts, or opening virtual worlds for exploration. This e-book represents an ongoing exploration as we bring together space, technology, and pedagogy to ensure learner success. Please note: In addition to the e-book's core chapters on learning space design principles (chapters 1?13) , this site also offers case studies illustrating those principles (chapters 15?43), including links to examples of innovative learning spaces. The entire collection is complete and available for printing as individual chapters or the entire book.

In this paper, we describe how Tablet PCs are being used at Georgia Tech Savannah (GTS) to improve student learning in a distributed classroom environment. The Tablet PC is an attractive technology for use in synchronous distributed learning environments because of its mobility, and its ability to not only serve as an effective note taking device but also as a high-resolution course content viewing device and a tool for interactive assessments. The research questions addressed here are: 1) "What impact does the Tablet PC have on student perceptions of their engagement in a distributed learning environment?" and 2) "Can the Tablet PC be used to improve student learning in a distributed learning environment?" In this project, the instructor and students were given a Tablet PC to use during the semester, and surveys were administered to evaluate student attitudes about the use of Tablet PC technology as a means of receiving, processing, and learning course material. The significance of this work is that it serves as a case study on the use of Tablet PCs as an effective technology for implementing established educational practices in distributed education environments.

The International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments (official publication of Information Resource Management Association) provides readers with comprehensive coverage of developments in learning technologies for an international readership of educators, technologists and trainers. The journal is a primary source for academics, professionals, corporate trainers and policy makers in information and communication technologies. The journal publishes high quality contributions (papers, book reviews) on a range of fields associated with Course Management Systems (CMS), Learning Management Systems (LMS), Virtual Learning Environments (VLE), Social Networking Sites (SNS), Personalized Learning Environments (PLE), and 3D virtual worlds, including for example Second Life (SL).

italki.com is where you can find everything you need to learn a language. italki is a social network and an online resource for learning foreign languages. Find a Language Partner: Get a language partner, find a tutor, or just make friends around the world! Answers: Ask your questions here and get answers from the italki community. Shared Files: Download files like free textbooks, handouts, and learning guides. Language Resources Check this directory for other online and offline language learning resources. Knowledge: Free community-created wiki. Contribute your knowledge and create a wiki page. Groups: Join and create groups to discuss and learn from each other.

"Does listening to something, perhaps once, perhaps more than once, perhaps over and over again, mean that it is learned in a way that is useful to the student and that they can retrieve and re-use in an appropriate context at a later date? It is a proposition that seems to conflict with the situated learning theories of researchers like Brown, Collins and Duguid (1989), which assert that learning always lies in the interactions between people rather than in the content itself or in the minds of the individual learners. The general premise that listening is often more engaging than the written word and that diction, intonation and inflection add meaning might be acceptable at face value, but as Hargis and Wilson (2005: 6) point out, 'there are currently no examples which clearly indicate proven foundational pedagogical uses and outcomes for podcasts.'. Though the technology is quite recent, it may tend to lead teachers towards outmoded, didactic approaches to delivery rather than the constructivist, collaborative activities recommended by more recent learning theorists."

SACODEYL presents an innovative ICT-based solution for the compilation and pedagogical, language learning-oriented exploitation of linguistic teen talk oral corpora. SACODEYL is an integration initiative that takes into account areas as: 1. multilingual corpus compilation and innovation support, 2. pedagogical adaptation of existing ICT tools for the integration of corpora and corpus-based methods of Data Driven Learning (DDL) into mainstream language teaching, and 3. know-how building which will contribute to the future drafting of specifications that can take both DDL and the use of oral corpora in language education a step forward. SACODEYL sees itself as a pedagogical mediator in the language learning process of young European, exploiting ICT resources to deliver learning experiences based on data driven, constructivist approaches to language acquisition. SACODEYL will demand young learners of languages across Europe to personally explore, and engage in learning tasks of different nature.

SACODEYL is a web based system for the assisted compilation and open distribution of European teen talk in the context of language education. The project includes the collection and distribution of English, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Romanian, and Spanish teen talk. SACODEYL sees itself as a pedagogical mediator in the language learning process of young Europeans, exploiting web multimedia resources to deliver learning experiences based on data driven, constructivist approaches to language acquisition.

"The Index of Learning Styles is an on-line instrument used to assess preferences on four dimensions (active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal, and sequential/global) of a learning style model formulated by Richard M. Felder and Linda K. Silverman. The instrument was developed by Richard M. Felder and Barbara A. Soloman of North Carolina State University. The ILS may be used at no cost for non-commercial purposes by individuals who wish to determine their own learning style profile and by educators who wish to use it for teaching, advising, or research. Consultants and companies who wish to use the ILS in their work may license it from North Carolina State University. (Click below on "Frequently Asked Questions" for details.) "

With their ideas as a guide, the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative is embarking on a collaborative project to create a blueprint for the "classroom" of the future -- realizing, of course, that it may not be a classroom at all. With wikis as our workplace, we're asking the EDUCAUSE community to share their ideas and expertise to help us, as a community, a vision of what the ideal learning environment might look like. Comments will be used to construct simulated course environments, starting with easy-to-implement solutions for rethinking the traditional lecture format and scaling to "blue sky" initiatives that include global collaboration and opportunities to "learn by doing." We hope you'll also take this opportunity to share the unique and innovative ways that your campus is already transforming learning in the classroom, on campus, and in virtual worlds.

The Student Assessment of their Learning Gains (SALG) website allows instructors to gather learning-focused feedback from students. The SALG survey asks students to rate how each component of a course (e.g., textbook, collaborative work, labs) helped them to learn, and to rate their gains toward achieving the course goals. The SALG survey can be customized to fit any college-level course, and can be administered multiple times per course. A baseline instrument allows faculty to compare gains relative to incoming student characteristics. Once registered on the SALG site, you can: * customize the SALG survey to fit your course goals and methods; * search for an existing SALG survey in your discipline; * have students complete the survey on-line; and, * download and review analyses of the students' responses.

"Learn Japanese the fun way! * Learn hiragana and katakana in two weeks * Improve your kana IME reading speed * Review JLPT kanji and vocabulary in context * Learn to correctly use particles and counters" (Software)

the Association for Authentic, Experiential and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL, pronounced "able") is a membership organization for the world e-portfolio community that now has established affiliations and collaborations with nearly all world-wide portfolio initiatives, projects and organizations. Members and affiliates help continue the work of educational transformation by focusing on new designs in learning and assessment, on increasing connections among the portfolio community, and on moving toward a more authentic assessment of actual student achievement and progress based on evidence of learning over time.

We are using open source teleconferencing technology to conduct 1-on-1 and group classes via video, voice, flash technology for displaying Chinese characters and shared whiteboard where the teacher & student can observe each other's Chinese writing capabilities. In addition, we offer video clips of Chinese culture events also. As student learn the language, and they will be able to learn the Chinese culture as well.

What Is Faculty Inquiry? Faculty inquiry is a form of professional development by which teachers identify and investigate questions about their students' learning. The inquiry process is ongoing, informed by evidence of student learning, and undertaken in a collaborative setting. Findings from the process come back in the form of new curricula, new assessments, and new pedagogies, which in turn become subjects for further inquiry. When faculty pursue such inquiry in the company of colleagues and students, they create a "teaching commons" on their campus-a set of interconnected forums where conversations about learning take place, where innovations in curriculum and pedagogy get tried out, and where questions and answers about education are exchanged, critiqued and built upon.

This Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning (HETL) has been designed as a resource for educators planning to incorporate technologies in their teaching and learning activities.

Welcome to The Golden Notebook Project. Start reading the book online → Here are answers to some common questions: What is this? It's an experiment in close-reading in which seven women are reading the book and conducting a conversation in the margins. The project went live on Monday 10 November 2008. Why are you doing it? It's part of a long-term effort to encourage and enable a culture of collaborative learning. What do you hope to learn? We don't yet understand how to model a complex conversation in the web's two-dimensional environment and we're hoping this experiment will help us learn some of what we need to do to make this sort of collaboration as successful as possible.

LLU was started in 2005 as a place for people interested in language learning and technology to come together and discuss, ponder, or complain about teaching and learning languages in the 21st century… On any given K-16 campus there may be one (and just one) person who supports the teaching and learning of languages. While our fellow language faculty know and appreciate and respect our work, quite often our colleagues throughout the rest of the campus have absolutely no idea what we do, or how we do it. As a result, we often labor alone at our schools, and yet we crave the ability to connect with others who are in similar jobs, facing similar concerns.

This site explains Japanese grammar in a systematic step-by-step process and is released under the Creative Commons License. It was created as a resource for those who want to learn Japanese grammar in a rational, intuitive way that makes sense in Japanese. The explanations are focused on how to make sense of the grammar not from English but from a Japanese point of view. To learn more about this guide, go to the introduction page and start learning this intriguing and unique language!

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing curricula that enable all individuals to gain knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm for learning. UDL provides rich supports for learning and reduces barriers to the curriculum while maintaining high achievement standards for all.

Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning (VITAL) is a Web-based video analysis and communication system created by the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning and Professor Herbert Ginsburg of Teachers College, Columbia University. VITAL comprises tools for video editing and annotation and for the creation of multimedia reports, embedded in the context of an course syllabus with topics, videos, and activities, all housed within an online community space. Students who use VITAL learn to observe closely, interpret, and develop arguments using cited video content as evidence.

Welcome to Tonguetide, the language-learning social network. Like Facebook and Twitter, Tonguetide is a place to connect with people, except that here you'll be meeting people who want to learn languages too. Chat: You can practise your language skills with real native speakers by messenger (like Facebook Chat), video chat (like Skype), or our internal mailing system (email). Use our Match feature to find a native speaker fluent in the language you want to improve (ideally one who wants to learn your mother tongue), read their information to find someone you fancy talking to and invite them to chat by adding them as a friend, sending them a private message, commenting on their profile or "sticking your tongue out" (like "poking" on Facebook). Match: Our system will automatically alert you of new users who fit the profile you specified when signing up and will tell you the Match percentage. Our Members Map even allows you to pinpoint users' locations on a Google Map - so you could meet them face-to-face to chat the old fashioned way! Tonguetide classes: Take classes with one of our language teachers trained in the Tonguetide method. Our online classes offer speaking practise in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and German combined with our self-study courses - perfect for those with a busy schedule. All you need is an internet connection, a microphone and a set of speakers or headphones. Take a Tonguetide self-study course: Our self-study language courses are packed with fun exercises, videos of native speakers and audio tracks for listening practice. An annual subscription for any of our courses is just 14,95€, or 500 Tonguetide points. Teach online: Tonguetide is packed with useful resources for teachers. Our Virtual Classroom feature is an online teaching tool which makes the classroom whiteboard a thing of the past, allowing you to teach as if you were in the same room!"