App Inventor: “App Inventor for Android is a programming tool that makes it easy for anyone — programmers and non-programmers, adults and kids — to create mobile applications for the Android phone.”
Month: April 2012
How One Instructor Teaches 2,670 Students
The rise of e-reading | Pew Study
The rise of e-reading | Pew Study
“One-fifth of American adults (21%) report that they have read an e-book in the past year, and this number increased following a gift-giving season that saw a spike in the ownership of both tablet computers and e-book reading devices such as the original Kindles and Nooks.1 In mid-December 2011, 17% of American adults had reported they read an e-book in the previous year; by February, 2012, the share increased to 21%.”
At Yale, Online Lectures Become Lively Books
At Yale, Online Lectures Become Lively Books
“This month, Yale University Press released the first batch of paperbacks based on lecture courses featured in the online-learning program”
‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online
‘Free-Range Learners’: Study Opens Window Into How Students Hunt for Educational Content Online – ” The preliminary results of a multiyear study of undergraduates’ online study habits, presented by Ms. Morgan at a conference on blended learning here this week, show that most students shop around for digital texts and videos beyond the boundaries of what professors assign them in class.”
Introducing the Journal of Digital Humanities
Introducing the Journal of Digital Humanities
“Late last month saw the debut of the Journal of Digital Humanities, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that features ‘the best scholarship, tools, and conversations produced by the digital humanities community’ during the previous quarter. “
Education Innovators: Preaching (as Usual) to the Choir – Next – The Chronicle of Higher Education
Education Innovators: Preaching (as Usual) to the Choir – Next – The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Education Innovators: Preaching (as Usual) to the Choir”
Rethinking Language Learning: Virtual Worlds as a Catalyst for Change | IJLM
Rethinking Language Learning: Virtual Worlds as a Catalyst for Change | IJLM:
“Abstract: Research on educationally designed game-based virtual learning environments and virtual worlds has begun to explore the affordances of 3D metaverses for engaging learners in ways that contrast with formal schooling. Applying constructs from ecological psychology, distributed cognition, and sociocultural perspectives, design-based longitudinal studies have shown the quality of learning taking place in technology-supported collaborative environments. But what are the affordances of virtual environments for second language learning? How can we design for a nonlinear experience of action and interaction that exploits these affordances? We explored current language teaching practices in Second Life and found that many educators simply apply their classroom approaches in the virtual space, treating the environment merely as input. Designing for optimal learning opportunities in virtual worlds requires that we rethink second language acquisition by grounding it in the ecological psychology concepts of perception-action, values-realizing, coaction, and languaging. We call for a rethinking of pedagogies based on input/output models that imply a linear progression from an initial to a goal state. Instead cognition is embodied and distributed, and avatars in 3D worlds allow us to experience virtual environments in embodied, dialogical ways. Language learning in virtual worlds calls for design that prioritizes opportunities for distributed meaning-making and coaction in values-realizing activities that go beyond task-based learning, autonomy, and construction of a second language identity.”