Group items tagged

"Abstract Competency-based education (CBE) awards academic credit based on mastery of clearly defined competencies. CBE replaces the conventional model in which time is fixed and learning is variable with a model in which the time is variable and the learning is fixed. CBE is built around clearly defined competencies and measurable learning objectives that demonstrate mastery of those competencies. Measuring learning by competency is not new, but various challenges facing higher education, combined with new models and technologies, have brought a new focus on CBE. A growing number of competency-based programs have been developed at all levels of instruction. CBE capitalizes on the potential of online learning, enabling new models that can reduce both the cost and time needed to earn credentials while better preparing students for their professional lives. The 7 Things You Should Know About... series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues."

Stanford Teaching Commons "Modes of Teaching, Modes of Learning:  Created by CTL and VPOL, our course profiles describe Stanford examples of great teaching and learning in different modes, including candid reflections on lessons learned. The definitions give a wealth of information on learning activities, learning objectives, and assessments for these different teaching and learning environments."

The primary benefits of GBL [game-based learning] are that it is engaging, user-centered, authentic, inspires creativity, and promotes literacy in many different ways. When considering the Maker Movement and GBL the most natural alignment is to have students designing or making games. ...it has the potential to engage students in a wide variety of activities that can support the development of many valuable skills. Designing and developing a game requires planning and research, teamwork, technical skills, computer literacy, imagination, and creativity. A well-supported design project can help students develop all of these skills will simultaneously enhancing knowledge of any subject. The Maker Movement already supports interactions that would meet these objectives.

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."