Learning Online Info

Free: Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:57:11 +0000

Recently, I’ve discovered the excellent Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning from George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger, Learning Technologies Centre (LTC), University of Manitoba. This handbook is freely available in two formats: wiki and PDF. The number, diversity and quality of the bibliographic references are worth mentioning. A must read!

Conclusion excerpt: The use of technology for learning is influenced by developments in numerous fields: technology itself, global trends (market economy growth, changing immigration patterns, intellectual shifts to emerging economies), societal trends and trends within educational research.

Much of the change in education over the last several decades has been defined by discussion of content. Should we teach more math? Science? What about ethics? How should we teach? Lecture? Problem-based learning? It seems that much of educational reform has been concerned with determining the content of education, rather than the model and process of learning design and delivery in a technology infused world.

For individual faculty members and departments, greater use of emerging technology can serve as an important bridging process between the traditional role of education and the not yet clearly defined future. Active participation in the ecology of perpetual change provides organizations with the capacity to sense, recognize, and respond to emerging patterns.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Free: Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

Innovate: Virtual Worlds, Simulations and Games for Education

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:48:22 +0000

The Innovate – Journal of Online Education, June/July 2009 issue is dedicated to virtual worlds, simulation and games in Education. Editors’ note excerpt: Virtual worlds and simulations are a source of both excitement and anxiety for educators. Alongside the seemingly limitless opportunities for enhancing learning, educators must also grapple with the challenges that arise with novel ways of communicating, connecting, sharing, and knowing. This special issue of Innovate presents a collection of frameworks, design experiences, research results, and informed opinions that seek to bridge this divide and advance our understanding of effective teaching and learning in these new environments.

Highlights:

Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View. Synopsis: While there is some overlap in the uses and structures of virtual worlds, games, and simulations and the three often look similar, their differences are profound. Clark Aldrich presents a taxonomy of virtual environments that recognizes both the distinctions and the similarities among virtual environments for learning. All three, he suggests, are points along a continuum, all instances of highly interactive virtual environments (HIVEs). The HIVE framework recognizes the various relationships among virtual worlds, games, and simulations that can help educators, researchers, and builders of virtual environments think more clearly about the usefulness of virtual environments.

MUVEs and Experiential Learning: Some Examples. Synopsis: Multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) like Second Life present unparalleled opportunities to help students connect knowledge by description to knowledge by experience; in a MUVE, students can experience phenomena rather than only reading about them. Baba Kofi Weusijana, Vanessa Svihla, Drue Gawel, and John Bransford describe their use of a maze constructed in Second Life to help students experience firsthand the phenomena described in their educational psychology course. Their use of Second Life is particularly notable in its use of MUVE-based movies and other strategies to leverage Second Life’s interactive powers for exploration despite restricted access to technology.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Innovate: Virtual Worlds, Simulations and Games for Education

Study: Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:25:30 +0000

U.S. Department of Education Study Finds that Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology – Analysis of Controlled Studies Shows Online Learning Enhances Classroom Instruction.

Press Release: Providing further evidence of the tremendous opportunity to use technology to improve teaching and learning, the U.S. Department of Education today released an analysis of controlled studies comparing online and face-to-face instruction.

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified over 1,000 empirical studies of online learning. Of these, 46 met the high bar for quality that was required for the studies to be included in the analysis. The meta analysis showed that “blended” instruction – combining elements of online and face-to-face instruction – had a larger advantage relative to purely face to face instruction or instruction conducted wholly online. The analysis also showed that the instruction conducted wholly on line was more effective in improving student achievement than the purely face to face instruction. In addition, the report noted that the blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions.

“This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We must take advantage of this historic opportunity to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to bring broadband access and online learning to more communities.

“To avoid being caught short when stimulus money runs out, school officials should use the short-term federal funding to make immediate upgrades to technology to enhance classroom instruction and to improve the tracking of student data,” Duncan added. “Technology presents a huge opportunity that can be leveraged in rural communities and inner-city urban settings, particularly in subjects where there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers. At the same time, good teachers can utilize new technology to accelerate learning and provide extended learning opportunities for students.”

The study was conducted by the Center for Technology in Learning – SRI International, under contract to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Policy and Program Studies Service, which commissioned the study.

Download PDF version of the final report: Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Study: Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology

University of the People (UoPeople): The First Tuition-Free Online University

Jorge Goncalves — Thu, 21 May 2009 14:49:09 +0000

University of the People (UoPeople) is the world’s first tuition-free, online academic institution dedicated to the global advancement and democratization of higher education. The high-quality, low-cost and global pedagogical model embraces the worldwide presence of the Internet and dropping technology costs to bring collegiate level studies to even the poorest and most remote places on earth. With the support of respected academics, humanitarians and other visionaries, the UoPeople student body represents a new wave in global education.

How it works: The student community will be divided into sub-groups of 15-20 students, all participating in the same online course. Students will be expected to review the assigned study materials, mark down questions or issues which weren’t clear and note any difficult exercises. Each student will be assigned a “study buddy” with whom to confer and clarify issues which seemed unclear.
Each student will maintain an online portfolio containing a photograph, a short biography, and all the exercises, papers, projects, and quizzes given as assignments for the course. Students will be expected to devote at least eight hours per week to studying, reading lectures, writing exercises and assignments and posting to their online open forums.

University of the People Programs: Presently only Business Administration and Computer Science.

Other Frequently Asked Questions about University of the People: FAQ.

In the news:
Haaretz: Israeli founds world’s first tuition-free online university.

UPI: U.N. announces first free e-university.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

University of the People (UoPeople): The First Tuition-Free Online University

JISC Report: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

Jorge Goncalves — Sat, 16 May 2009 19:41:59 +0000

Report of an independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of students’ widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World.

From the Conclusions: Web 2.0, the Social Web, has had a profound effect on behaviours, particularly those of young people whose medium and metier it is. They inhabit it with ease and it has led them to a strong sense of communities of interest linked in their own web spaces, and to a disposition to share and participate. It has also led them to impatience – a preference for quick answers – and to a casual approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to copyright and legal constraints. (…)

Higher education has a key role in helping students refine, extend and articulate the diverse range of skills they have developed through their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should, fulfil this role, and it should do so through a partnership with students to develop approaches to learning and teaching. This does not necessarily mean wholesale incorporation of ICT into teaching and learning. Rather it means adapting to and capitalising on evolving and intensifying behaviours that are being shaped by the experience of the newest technologies. In practice it means building on and steering the positive aspects of those behaviours such as experimentation, collaboration and teamwork, while addressing the negatives such as a casual and insufficiently critical attitude to information. The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job, whatever they may be. The role of institutions of higher education is to enable informed choice in the matter of those tools, and to support them and their effective deployment.

Download this Report (PDF, 2 MB)

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

JISC Report: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 11 May 2009 23:41:19 +0000

The Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview Registration is now open. Enter to see the movie…

Visit also the The Microsoft Office 2010 IT Blog and discuss the Office 2010 Technical Preview program and other related matters on the Office 2010 Forum.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

New Version of Microsoft LCDS

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 10 May 2009 21:08:27 +0000

Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS): The Microsoft Learning Content Development System (LCDS) is a free tool that enables the Microsoft Learning community to create high-quality, interactive, online courses. The LCDS allows anyone in the Microsoft Learning community to publish e-learning courses by completing the easy-to-use LCDS forms that seamlessly generate highly customized content, interactive activities, quizzes, games, assessments, animations, demos, and other multimedia.

The latest version of LCDS is available to download (free registration needed). This new release has been updated to be compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft Silverlight 2.0. You will find new features such as spell check, the ability to output courses to a Microsoft Office Word document, indexing to enable search functionality, and new templates.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

New Version of Microsoft LCDS

Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 08 May 2009 16:38:40 +0000

Sclipo is a social learning network. Sclipo offers a revolutionary way to learn online by integrating rich educational applications – such as video and webcam – into a true social network platform. Sclipo helps you to teach and learn just about everything, from technology to languages or cooking, and connects you with people of common interests.

Sclipo Document Library and Video Library contain educational materials, such as lectures or tutorials added by Sclipo Academies.

Sclipo Blog.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition

Jorge Goncalves — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:22:56 +0000

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition. From the Executive Summary: The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth annual report in the series. The report is produced again in 2009 as a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program.

The 2009 Horizon Report is also available as PDF.

See also: 2009 NMC Summer Conference. The NMC Summer Conference is a one-of-a-kind event, attracting an audience of highly skilled professionals who are very knowledgeable about and interested in the integration of emerging technologies into teaching, learning, and creative expression.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition

World Digital Library (WDL)

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 18:28:15 +0000

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

The principal objectives of the WDL are to promote international and intercultural understanding; expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet; provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences and build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.

Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

World Digital Library: Frequently Asked Questions.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

World Digital Library (WDL)

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:32:34 +0000

KnowledgeWorks and IFTF Present 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning. ‘Over the next decade, the most vibrant innovations in education will take place outside traditional institutions. This 2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning presents a critical dilemma facing these institutions: how to reconcile bottom-up developments in education with the traditional top-down hierarchy that is currently in place. Such peripheral innovation will redefine how learning is organized, who comprises the broad “school community,” and what the actual experiences of learners will be like in the future. The validity and role of formal institutions of education will be challenged by key forces of change and will be reconsidered by an expanding group of stakeholders. Together, the pressures of change and new stakeholder demands will create a new future for learning.

The 2020 Forecast is a tool for thinking about, preparing for, and shaping the future. It outlines key forces of change that will shape the landscape of learning over the next decade. The forecast does not predict what will happen, but rather serves as a guide to the as-yet-unwritten future. It is designed to help you see connections among things that once seemed unrelated and to help you consider the changes and challenges that you are facing today within the context of wider patterns of change.’

The Forecast: From Participation to Creation.

KnowledgeWorks Foundation Blog: The Future of Education is Here.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

DEOL 2009: The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning

Jorge Goncalves — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:27:12 +0000

DEOL 2009. ‘The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning (DEOL 2009) will be held in Singapore during October 9-11, 2009. The aim objective of DEOL 2009 is to provide a platform for researchers, engineers, academicians as well as industrial professionals from all over the world to present their research results and development activities in Distance Education and Open Learning. This conference provides opportunities for the delegates to exchange new ideas and application experiences face to face, to establish business or research relations and to find global partners for future collaboration.’

DEOL 2009 proceeding will be published by World Academic Press, and all papers in the proceeding will be indexed by Thomson ISI (ISTP), IACSIT Database, British Library and Nielsen. Submission Deadline: 25 May 2009.

IACSIT: International Association of Computer Science and Information Technology. ‘IACSIT is a registered international scientific association of distinguished scholars engaged in Computer Science and Information Technology. IACSIT plays an influential role and promotes developments in Computer Science and Information Technology in a wide range of ways. The mission of IACSIT is to foster and conduct collaborative interdisciplinary research in state-of-the-art methodologies and technologies within its areas of expertise.
IACSIT organizes conferences, workshop, and provides sponsor or technical support to conferences and workshops, it also publish high quality academic international journals in Computer Science and Information Technology.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

DEOL 2009: The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning

Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars

Jorge Goncalves — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:48:36 +0000

Academic Earth: Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars. ‘Academic Earth is an organization founded with the goal of giving everyone on earth access to a world-class education.

As more and more high quality educational content becomes available online for free, we ask ourselves, what are the real barriers to achieving a world class education? Academic Earth is working to identify these barriers and find innovative ways to use technology to increase the ease of learning.

Academic Earth is building a user-friendly educational ecosystem that will give internet users around the world the ability to easily find, interact with, and learn from full video courses and lectures from the world’s leading scholars.’

Update: More great video lectures at YouTube EDU.

From YouTube blog: Higher Education for All. ‘Earlier this week, we announced the launch of YouTube EDU (youtube.com/edu), a hub for videos from over 100 of our leading university and college partners. Think campus tours, news about cutting-edge research, and lectures by professors and world-renowned thought leaders. There are also 200 full (and free!) courses, in a range of subjects, from some of the world’s most prestigious universities, including IIT/IISc, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and Yale. There are over 20,000 videos on YouTube EDU and growing.’

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars

Google Apps Education Edition

Jorge Goncalves — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 12:13:07 +0000

Google Apps Education Edition. ‘Google Apps Education Edition is a free suite of hosted communication and collaboration applications designed for schools and universities. Google Apps included: Gmail (with voice and video chat and mobile access), Google Calendar, Google Talk (free calling VoIP/voicemail box, file transfer, group chat), Google Sites (website creation), Google Labs, Google Docs (word processing, spreadsheets, forms, presentations, mobile access) and Google Video.

This is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog with quick links to the world of e-learning and educational technology.

Google Apps Education Edition

Edmodo: Twitter for Teachers and Studentes

Jorge Goncalves — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 00:23:41 +0000

Edmodo – Free Private Microblogging For Education. From the FAQs:

Edmodo is a private microblogging platform that teachers and students can use to send notes, links, files, alerts, assignments, and events to each other.

Teachers sign up for accounts, and then create groups. Each group has a unique code which is distributed by the teacher to the class. Students then sign up (no email address required) and join the group using the code.

Learning Online Info

Free: Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

Related posts

Innovate: Virtual Worlds, Simulations and Games for Education

Related posts

Study: Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology

Related posts

University of the People (UoPeople): The First Tuition-Free Online University

Related posts

JISC Report: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World

Related posts

Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Preview

Related posts

New Version of Microsoft LCDS

Related posts

Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution

Related posts

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition

Related posts

World Digital Library (WDL)

Related posts

2020 Forecast: Creating the Future of Learning

Related posts

DEOL 2009: The 2009 International Conference on Distance Education and Open Learning

Related posts

Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars

Related posts

Google Apps Education Edition

Related posts

Edmodo: Twitter for Teachers and Studentes

Related posts