Group items tagged

ARticle on the challenges that ICT brings to teacher PD and argues for a community of practice model of PD. Notes that PD shouldn't be 're-tooling' but should open pedagogical opportunities.

Over time the learner has been the explorer of knowledge, its accumulator and skilled 'access-or'. In the 21st century challenges and demands are expanding and changing again. Our new society's environment is one of rapid communication, action and change, of intricate social activity and a huge potential for new knowledge. What are the models of the learner for this brave new world? How can higher education create these models and support the learners who aspire to them? This paper postulates four models of the learner of the future: * the collaborator: for whom networks of knowledge, skills and ideas are the source of learning * the free agent: utilising flexible, continuous, open-ended and life-long styles and systems of learning to the full * the wise analyser: able to gather, scrutinise and use evidence of effective activity and apply conclusions to new problems * the creative synthesiser: able to connect across themes and disciplines, cross-fertilise ideas, integrate disparate concepts and create new vision and practice. The paper describes an example of these kinds of learning and considers what they might imply for the development of learning in higher education in the coming century

"From January 2011 Childnet along with the SWGfL and the IWF will be the UK Safer Internet Centre. One of our jobs as the UK Safer Internet Centre is to get as many people involved in Safer Internet Day as possible! We challenge you to think about the Safer Internet Day theme for 2011: Virtual Lives : It's more than a game, it's your life! It's important for all users of the internet to be aware of the consequences of their online actions - both good and bad! Taking care, being safe and responsible online and offline is an important part of child development. Childnet International is producing a Safer Internet Day resource pack to help educators participate in Safer Internet Day. Below is an outline of the target areas related to this year's theme. We hope this will help educators to get thinking and planning for Tuesday 8 February 2011. Alongside this content will be a short film and banners for VLEs from the European commission promoting Safer Internet Day."

"Social media and online games have the potential to convey 21st century skills that aren't necessarily part of school curricula - things like time management, leadership, teamwork and creative problem solving that will prepare teens for success in college and beyond. Making the transition between a highly structured environment in high school to a self-driven, unstructured environment in college can prove a huge challenge for many kids. Educators spend a lot of time thinking about how to fix this problem. The solution doesn't lie solely with games, but a lot of the psychology that motivates teens to play games holds potential. We need to figure out how to tap in."

"An innovative resource designed to cultivate 21st century fluencies,while fostering engagement and adventure in the learning experience. This resource is the collaborative effort of a group of experienced educators and entrepreneurs who have united to share their experience and ideas, and create a project geared toward making learning relevant to life in our new digital age. Our purpose is to develop exceptional resources to assist in transforming learning to be relevant to life in the 21st Century. At the core of this project are our Curriculum Integration Kits - engaging, challenge based learning modules designed to cultivate the essential 21st Century Fluencies within the context of the required curriculum."

JISC output to support thinking about learners needs, abilities, backgrounds in regard to ICT & digital literacy. "Think about the learners at your institution, or in the context for which you have a digital literacy role/responsibility. What do you know about their current access, skills and strategies for learning in a digital environment? What challenges do you think they face in becoming digitally literate?You can also use these questions with teaching staff to check their knowledge of their own students' ICT use, and to prompt thinking about how they support learners in a digital age."

The opportunities which can be provided by the Social Web are now widely acknowledged, ... We now need to address a range of concerns including those which have been raised at various workshops organised by UKOLN and delivered through MLA Regional Agencies and Renaissance Hubs. Such concerns include a lack of understanding (of what the Social Web is about); concerns over legal issues, technical challenges (such as interoperability, reliability issues), business challenges (such as sustainability) and related resourcing issues.

"A Radically Different World If you think our future will require better schools, you're wrong. The future of education calls for entirely new kinds of learning environments. If you think we will need better teachers, you're wrong. Tomorrow's learners will need guides who take on fundamentally different roles. As every dimension of our world evolves so rapidly, the education challenges of tomorrow will require solutions that go far beyond today's answers. Browse this website to explore the forces shaping our world. Work with us to explore your organization's role in creating the future of learning."

"Unfortunately, class sizes are increasing almost everywhere, and that means the number of faculty struggling with the challenges of large courses is growing, too... Let me highlight several good resources."

"Engaging busy healthcare providers in online continuing education interventions is challenging... We found that email reminders dramatically increased participation."

Powerful review of Kevin Carey's techno-determinist book 'The End Of College' - by Audrey Watters & Sara Goldrick-Rab

Guest editors Gail Boldt and Bill Ayers have asked 14 leading educators to address the politics of the teacher accountability movement in America. Who benefits and who is hurt? What is gained and what is lost? How can we move forward with a more hopeful and inclusive vision of our educational future? >>> All of the contributors are motivated by an abiding commitment to democratic ideals and respect for the complex work of teachers even as they encourage the reader to take back the conversation about school reform in America.

Chalmers, D. and O'Brien, M. Fraser, K. (ed) (2005) Education development units and the enhancement of university teaching. Education development and leadership in higher education: Developing an effective institutional strategy pp. 50-71. Routledge Falmer , Abingdon, UK

Diagram of data sources feeding into DBpedia. Goes with an article at http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/02/19/response-to-my-linked-data-challenge/

Press release by MS on Gates statements, including reference to Gen-I

Kyle's a student at San Jose State University who was threatened with a failing grade for posting the code he wrote for the course -- he wanted to make it available in the spirit of academic knowledge-sharing, and as code for potential future employers to review -- and when he refused, his prof flew into a fury and promised that in future, he would make a prohibition on posting your work (even after the course was finished) a condition of taking his course.