Allison Kipta's Public Library

"To students of instructional design the introduction and subsequent "sorting out" of the various learning theories and associated instructional design strategies can be somewhat confusing. It was out of this feeling of cognitive dissonance that this site was born."

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"This article defines 'community' for educators and proceed to examine fundamental issues around new theories and practice for constructing learning communities. Our concept of community asks the reader not to consider the shape of institutions or "schools" that exist today, but to ponder some possible shapes for (virtual) learning communities that could exist tomorrow. Second, we discuss some foundational considerations from theoreticians preparing us to build these communities with technological support. Practical issues around building new communities are illustrated with examples of virtual community types - including examples of technologically supported learning strategies that fall far short of our definition of virtual learning communities. Finally, some tactics for building robust learning communities are offered."

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communities elearning

Illustration of 50 years of space exploration.

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space nasa exploration astronomy

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Called University of the People, the non-profit, California-based endeavor comes from Israeli entrepreneur Shai Reshef who says he founded the school to provide higher education to those who might otherwise never have access to it.

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I decided to avoid the obligatory “What-I-Learned-at-NECC” post, primarily because I did learn so much, and one post would not do justice. Instead, I would like to share my thoughts on a conversation I had with a colleague I met via twitter. He asked me: “With all of these Web 2.0 tools, and everything else out there, what does a teacher absolutely need to be “wired.” Great question. So I decided to put together a list of absolute essentials for today’s teachers.

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learning-environments tips

Google’s Book Search program will help the blind and wheelchair-bound read more, a disability group told a federal judge Wednesday, giving Google some much needed support in its attempt to create the online library and bookstore of the future.

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disability access accessibility google

Sometimes, information is hard to understand just because it’s presented in a manner that just doesn’t quite appeal to the way we like to learn best. While it isn’t always possible to take every class or complete every project in a way that fits into your individual style, there are ways that you can help to ensure that you’re making the most of the material at hand. Here are a few tips to help you start improving your learning experience by helping make it work a little better with your needs, whether you’re a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner.

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teaching education learning-styles

This article details the use of an assessment tool entitled, the parent journal. The parent journal is a response to a reading writing exercise in which the students respond in school then bring the journal home for their parents to either respond to the student's writing or craft their own response to the topic. I would then respond to each of the journals, creating a circle of communication. Over the four years the parent journal has been in place, parents have been much more involved with their child's education and subsequently almost all of the students' academic performances dramatically increased.

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tcrecord assessment blogging

Educational technology advocates claim today’s students are technologically savvy content creators and consumers whose mindset differs from previous generations. The digital native–digital immigrant metaphor has been used to make a distinction between those with technology skills and those without. Metaphors such as this one are useful when having initial conversations about an emerging phenomenon, but over time, they become inaccurate and dangerous. Thus, this paper proposes a new metaphor, the digital melting pot, which supports the idea of integrating rather than segregating the natives and the immigrants.

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first-monday digital-divide

Pulitzer-prize winning professor Jonathan Weiner, author of "Beak of the Finch", among other books will deliver the second lecture in our 150th anniversary "Origin of Species" series. Attendees should read chapters 1 and 2 on variation in Darwin's great book.

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literature history science

Wednesday, September 9, at 8pm eastern time, at Harvard University and live via teleconference, Harvard Professor of the History of Science, Everett Mendelsohn, will deliver the inaugural lecture of the 150th anniversary "Origin of Species" lecture series hosted by The Reading Odyssey and the Darwin Facebook project. Sponsors include Citrix Online and Constant Contact. Professor Mendelsohn will speak on "The World Before Darwin" drawing from his popular undergraduate course, "The Darwinian Revolution" and his many decades of experience studying the history of science and the impact of Darwin.

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teleconference lecture science history literature

Buffalo Public Schools (NY) recently selected DimensionM™ education video games to supplement their math curriculum for 12,000 students in 45 schools. The district will begin using the games during the upcoming summer school session and continue in the fall.

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games educational-technology

"The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind are suing Arizona State University for its use of the Amazon Kindle to distribute electronic textbooks to students, saying the device cannot be used by blind students. The groups say the Kindle has text-to-speech technology that reads books aloud to blind students, but that the device’s menus do not offer a way for blind students to purchase books, select a book to read, or even to activate the text-to-speech feature, according to a joint statement by the two groups."

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e-books edtech disability

"One of the main reasons I started using Blogs with students was so their work had permanence, and wasn't just shoved in a box in the back of an attic, but published in an authentic venue, where people could continue to interact with it. For years to come.

I still have people leaving comments on the first Blog that I set up for students over 5 years ago. It remains a living, breathing organism. The students can still go back and see their previous work."

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blogging edtech

At a time when tech-savvy educators are touting the power of technology to transform teaching and learning, thousands of attendees at the National Educational Computing Conference gathered here this week to discuss and debate how to make the best use of those resources and extend their use to more of the nation’s classrooms.

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necc edtech

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iphone

In a much-debated 1983 essay on distance learning, Richard E. Clark, a professor of educational psychology at the University of Southern California, argued that it was beside the point to ask whether distance education is better or worse than the traditional classroom. The medium isn’t the crucial variable, Mr. Clark wrote. What is important is to look at the effectiveness of specific instructional strategies, regardless of how those strategies are delivered.
Last week, more than 25 years after Mr. Clark’s provocation, the U.S. Department of Education released a report that, at least at first glance, carries a strong message about the medium: Students learn more effectively in online settings. Most powerful of all appear to be “blended” courses that offer both face-to-face and online elements. Previous research has generally found that online and offline courses are equally effective.

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blended-learning online-learning