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Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning POGIL originated in college chemistry departments in 1994; there are now well over 1,000 implementers in a wide range of disciplines in high schools and colleges around the country.POGIL uses guided inquiry - a learning cycle of exploration, concept invention and application is the basis for many of the carefully designed materials that students use to guide them to construct new knowledge. POGIL is a student-centered strategy; students work in small groups with individual roles to ensure that all students are fully engaged in the learning process.POGIL activities focus on core concepts and encourage a deep understanding of the course material while developing higher-order thinking skills. POGIL develops process skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, and communication through cooperation and reflection, helping students become lifelong learners and preparing them to be more competitive in a global market.POGIL is a classroom and laboratory technique that seeks to simultaneously teach content and key process skills such as the ability to think analytically and work effectively as part of a collaborative team. A POGIL classroom or lab consists of any number of students working in small groups on specially designed guided inquiry materials. These materials supply students with data or information followed by leading questions designed to guide them toward formulation of their own valid conclusions-essentially a recapitulation of the scientific method. The instructor serves as facilitator, observing and periodically addressing individual and classroom-wide needs.POGIL is based on research indicating that a) teaching by telling does not work for most students, b) students who are part of an interactive community are more likely to be successful, and c) knowledge is personal; students enjoy themselves more and develop greater ownership over the material when they are given an opportunity to construct their own und

Game Design Tool Kit http://education.mit.edu/blogs/carole/2014/11/05 The Learning Games Network (LGN) and FableVision have partnered to create the Game Design Tool Kit (GDTK), a free online resource designed to help teachers use game design more extensively in their curriculum. Offered as a series of resources, the GDTK is available for download by teachers at no cost as a comprehensive handbook. Features of the Game Design Toolkit include: - A lesson plan guide - Research and design prompts - Step-by-step instructions - Discussion guides Implementation of the GDTK can be condensed into as brief of a span of time as a few days or can be spread out over a quarter or a semester.

The Game Design Tool Kit goo.gl/JB7suY Download Game Design Tool Kit: http://goo.gl/IvOtYB The Learning Games Network (LGN) and FableVision have partnered to create the Game Design Tool Kit (GDTK), a free online resource designed to help teachers use game design more extensively in their curriculum. Offered as a series of resources, the GDTK is available for download by teachers at no cost as a comprehensive handbook. Features of the Game Design Toolkit include: - A lesson plan guide - Research and design prompts - Step-by-step instructions - Discussion guides Implementation of the GDTK can be condensed into as brief of a span of time as a few days or can be spread out over a quarter or a semester.

"Published March 21, 2013 Kelly A. Lack As online courses continue to gain in popularity at colleges and universities throughout the country, knowledge about the effectiveness of this mode of instruction, relative to that of traditional, face-to-face courses, becomes increasingly important. A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Education provides a meta-analysis of studies published up to 2008, examining the relative effectiveness of the different delivery formats in helping various populations of students learn different types of course content. This Ithaka S+R literature review complements that effort. It examines several studies that are not included in the DOE report, focusing on research that compares online or hybrid learning to face-to-face instruction in the context of semester-length, undergraduate-level, credit-bearing courses. The review yields little evidence to support broad claims that online or hybrid learning is significantly more effective or significantly less effective than courses taught in a face-to-face format, while also highlighting the need for further studies on this topic. The value of research of this kind will only grow as even more sophisticated, interactive online systems continue to be developed, and as the current budgetary constraints and enrollment pressures on postsecondary institutions strengthen the case for improving productivity."

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A new business landscape is emerging wherein a multitude of small entities will bring products and services to market using the infrastructure and platforms of large, concentrated players. The forces driving this are putting new and mounting pressures on organizations and individuals while also opening up new opportunities. But traditional postsecondary educational institutions are not supporting individuals in successfully navigating this not-too-distant future, nor are the educational institutions immune to these forces. Perhaps more than any other sector, postsecondary education is being affected by changing demand as the learning needs and preferences of the individual consumer rapidly evolve. Increasingly, individuals need both lifelong learning and accelerated, on-demand learning, largely as a response to the pressures of the broader evolving economic landscape. Rarely seen amid gross national statistics on the skills gap, employability, completion rates, and tuition hikes is a serious discussion of the unmet, and increasingly disparate, needs and expectations of individual learners. The costs to the individual are increasing, and the payoff is less certain. Students of all ages are more comfortable with technology and are less tied to traditional notions of the academy as fewer American adults between the ages of 18 and 22 achieve a four-year, full-time, campus-based degree.1 At the same time, technological advances reduce the lifespan of specific skills, and an increasingly globalized and automated workforce needs to continuously learn and retrain."

"Khan Academy founder Sal Khan, former Chancellor of New York Public Schools and an EVP at News Corp., as well as Udacity co-founder Sebastian Thrun. The panel talked about the future of education and how the intersection of technology and learning will change the space. "

"A multi-disciplinary group designing and researching new technologies for education. We understand new technologies not only as a way to optimize the existing educational system, but as a transformative force that can generate radically new ways of knowing and learning."

"Everyone is tentatively venturing into a new landscape here. Most projects focus on the ability of Google Glass to capture first-person perspective and hands-free video, such as recording with Glass within and outside of the classroom. The same goes for the Narrative Clip, which works great for capturing images during field trips or lab experiments. I think that the most common applications will be students or faculty capturing video and, for the brave, some applications that can work for online teaching, videoconferencing and one-on-one sessions, such as connecting with experts and mentors to provide coaching and feedback. In addition, we are starting to see some interesting applications for students with disabilities, in which Google Glass or other wearables can provide visual, auditory and physical assistance."

"To paraphrase artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky, there is no such thing as a typical student because each brain contains many different kinds and combinations of resources. Neuroscience research suggests that the brain is not one general learning system but consists of many specialized modules developed over eons of evolution. While those modules vary, their network connections differ even more depending on genetics and experience. Thus every student brings to the classroom wiring, experiences, assumptions, and hidden semi-autonomous processes that we call euphemistically "prior knowledge.""

"Paulo Blikstein http://paulo.blikstein.com is Assistant Professor at Stanford University School of Education http://tltl.stanford.edu. Blikstein's research focus on how new technologies can deeply transform the learning of science, engineering, and mathematics. He creates and researches cutting-edge technologies for use in inner-city schools, such as computer modeling, robotics, and rapid prototyping, creating constructionist learning environments in which children learn science and mathematics by building sophisticated projects and devices. A recipient of the prestigious NSF Early Career Award, Blikstein holds a PhD. from Northwestern University, an MSc. from the MIT Media Lab, and a B.S. in Metallurgical Engineering from the University of São Paulo."

"Join a live hangout with Salman Khan of Khan Academy (khanacademy.org), as he takes your questions about his new book The One World Schoolhouse: Education Reimagined. For a chance to join the live hangout on air with Salman, submit a video of yourself (no more than 30 seconds) asking your best question for Salman, upload it to YouTube with the hashtag #khanhangout, and make sure to fill out this form: goo.gl/lEJ1l."

Gamification Kevin Werbach University of Pennsylvania (on Coursera) Gamification is the application of game elements and digital game design techniques to non-game problems, such as business and social impact challenges. This course will teach you the mechanisms of gamification, why it has such tremendous potential, and how to use it effectively."

"An intelligent tutoring system is computer software designed to simulate a human tutor's behavior and guidance. Because these systems are able to interpret complex student responses and can learn as they operate, they are able to discern where and why a student's understanding has gone astray and to offer hints to help the student understand the material at hand. Intelligent tutors provide many of the benefits of a human tutor to very large numbers of students. Intelligent tutoring systems can also provide real-time data to instructors and developers looking to refine teaching methods."

"The theories behind communities of practice The design of teaching often integrates different theories of learning. Communities of practice are one of the ways in which experiential learning, social constructivism, and connectivism can be combined, illustrating the limitations of trying to rigidly classify learning theories. Practice tends to be more complex. What are communities of practice? Definition:  Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. Wenger, 2014"

Designing Technology and Pedagogy to Promote 21st Century Literacies in the Humanities A talk by Brian Johnsrud (Stanford) and Emily Schneider (Stanford) at the Digital Humanities Focal Group "We've been told time and again: the information landscape is shifting, creating new ways of interacting with multimedia, sprawling archives, and digital, participatory cultures. These changes are (slowly) being echoed in the humanities classroom, as reading digitally, communicating online, and analyzing interactive, multimedia artifacts are being integrated into existing practices traditionally valued in the humanities. In this talk, Brian Johnsrud and Emily Schneider will share their research on how traditional humanistic practices can be enlivened and extended with new digital tools and objects of analysis. The key questions inherent to this research include: What kinds of "21 st century literacies" are required for productive engagement with new media and learning practices,both in and outside of classrooms? And how might courses in the humanities support students in developing these literacies? Lacuna Stories, a digital reading and writing platform currently being developed in the Poetic Media Lab, takes on this challengeby merging academic texts and media with the interactive affordances of the Web. This talk will give an overview of"21 st century literacies," discuss their connection to the overall learning goals of the humanities, and showcase several "old"and "new" literacies that Lacuna Stories is designed to support."

"We discuss our implementation of targeted pre-reading assignments with an associated online quiz in two science classes, one physics and one biology. Our goal was to create a pre-class assignment that helped students recognize the benefits of reading before class. Students were asked to take part in a survey about how and why they completed the pre-reading assignments. We found that 80% of students read the textbook on a regular basis, which is much higher than reported in previous studies. Also nearly 3/4 of students reported using productive strategies for completing the reading assignment and cited reading prior to class as being helpful to their learning. Student self-reports were checked against electronic logs and were found to be highly accurate. Moreover, these results were nearly identical between the physics and biology courses."