Educational Technology and Change Journal

By Tom Preskett

Connecting formal education to social media/web 2.0 tools is a relatively new area. Educational institutions hope that by purchasing a virtual learning environment (VLE) all of their learning technology needs will be met. However, the world moves fast, and some educators find that our suite of communication and collaboration tools doesn’t cater to our teaching and learning needs as well as they might. Interestingly, VLEs are usually more suited to managing rather than learning (but that’s for another day). So there is an argument for looking outside of the VLE to expand and enhance our options for engaging students in learning activities using technology.

When it comes to thinking about social media or web 2.0 tools, we are looking at tapping into the affordances such tools have towards communication and collaboration. There’s a creative process involved in this, and it takes time, space and a certain amount of risk. However, it’s worth exploring if you want to keep developing as an educator and are always looking to improve the learner experience.

Usually the stimulus for such a process comes from seeing or hearing about a particular tools used in a particular context. In these instances, the process is focused and relatively easy. However, what if you want to explore for yourself what’s out there and make informed decisions on what tool to use?

Firstly, it’s useful to have in mind a set of criteria like the Sloan Consortium’s:

• Access
• Usability
• Privacy & Intellectual Property
• Workload & Time Management
• Fun Factor

Visit the weblink above for details on this. Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

In Zhang Yimou’s 1999 film, Not One Less, Wei is a 13-year-old girl who is called upon to serve as a substitute teacher in a one-room primary school. The setting is a small rural village in Hebei province, in present day China. Her qualification is that she’s a primary school graduate, which places her a step ahead of the 27 students.

Technology is reduced to the bare minimum: the shabby schoolhouse, tables and chairs, chalkboard, chalk, teacher, a single textbook for the teacher, and a tablet and pencil for each student. Teaching is the copying of passages from the textbook to the chalkboard. Learning is the copying of passages from the chalkboard to the tablets.

By today’s standards in developed countries, this scene appears primitive. In contrast, the vast majority of students have access to many textbooks, and an increasing number have access to web-based learning resources. Teachers have access to a wide range of instructional resources, including the web. Continue reading →

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By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education

[Note: The following article originated as a comment (12.3.11) to Frank Withrow’s “The US Needs a Federal Learning Technology Program”  (12.2.11). -Editor]

If only we could have such a utopian society. Advocating government actions in the face of a government wherein many of its minions are set on dismantling the Department of Education seems a bit quixotic to me.

That said, I have specific issues with the initiatives proposed. R&D should not focus solely on social media content programs. That’s a limited perspective at best. There’s so much more to the potential for education technology. We can hardly claim that social media will not play a role, but we can discuss the magnitude of the role as well as its specific nature.

I’m all for broadband across all communities in the U.S. It’s not going to happen overnight however much we have to have it yesterday. Until it happens, online educational programs must be functional at lower bandwidths, and those communities with less bandwidth must be subsidized until they get the high speeds they deserve. This concept might possibly get past the political gridlock we’re seeing these days.

OK, how will you make the general public and “all elements” of the educational community aware of anything without spending lots of money on marketing? It’s just too easy to say these things. I’d be happy to see the money being spent on politically motivated nationwide competitions used in better ways. I just don’t believe that the will is there. That’s why I’ve written a book* on the subject of improving science education in the U.S.

Respecting assessment, it’s again easy to say “authentic,” but who decides on what is and is not authentic?

Overall, this prescription for fixing education relies too much on what’s been tried and failed. I see a pattern of attempts to fix education over the last three decades that uses all of these very well intentioned words and phrases but accomplishes little. It’s not because the ideas might work, it’s because the system won’t allow them to AND because some are just not viable here. Continue reading →

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By Frank B. Withrow

At a time when there are budget cuts in education at the local, state and federal levels, we need a well developed federal technology program headed and coordinated by an assistant secretary at the United State Department of Education. This secretary shall be a national leader capable of developing a vision and providing leadership to rebuild American education. Such a vision shall be built around a learner centric model of learning. There are today in place components of such a program, but they are loosely organized. A well-organized program will include:

1. Research, design and development programs.
2. Implementation and dispersion programs.
3. Staff development programs.
4. Assessment and evaluation programs.

Research and development programs: Funds should be available for the design, development and production of complex social media content programs that can reach learners in their homes and classrooms. These should be of sufficient size and scope to engage learners of all ages. They should include broadcast television and interactive Internet based social media. Grants should be made for no less than three years.

Implementation and dispersion programs: E rate shall ensure that all learners regardless of their location shall have the technological resources to receive and participate in these challenging new learning resources. This means the development and maintenance of a high band Internet system for every learner. Continue reading →

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Free Live Webinar from Education Week: “Deepening and Strengthening Teacher Education”
Thursday, Dec. 8, 12 to 1 p.m. ET
Also available “on demand” 24 hours after the event and up to six months after the original live-streaming date.
Free registration is now open.

University-based teacher education remains the engine of teacher preparation in the United States. Long criticized, it has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months—from outside reviewers, from the U.S. Department of Education, and even from accreditation bodies—all of whom are pushing for changes. This webinar will introduce participants to the approaches taken by two teacher education schools to make the student-teaching experience more relevant and to emphasize the specific teaching skills the teachers they produce are expected to acquire and demonstrate.

Guests:
Mari Koerner, dean, Mary Lou Fulton College of Education, Arizona State University
Deborah Loewenberg Ball, dean, School of Education, University of Michigan
This webinar will be moderated by Stephen Sawchuk, assistant editor, Education Week

Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Bonnie Bracey Sutton‘s coverage of the 2011 Supercomputing Conference (More on SC11 – “Broadening Engagement” and Conferences Are About People – “Broadening Engagement”) brings one of the most critical developments in technology to the rest of the world. With supercomputing, we may begin to see change as a line that curves upward, beginning slowly but gradually accelerating at an exponential rate. As the curve grows increasingly steep, we approach the singularity.

Frank Withrow has mentioned Ray Kurzweil in a number of articles in regard to the latter’s work as an inventor. I’ve been intrigued by Kurzweil’s ideas about the singularity, a point in time when computers become not only faster but smarter than humans. At this stage, human history is transcended by AI systems that are capable of improving themselves at exponential rates. (See Kurzweil’s The Law of Accelerating Returns*; it was published over a decade ago, but it clarifies some of his basic ideas.)

Supercomputing is a step toward not only faster and bigger but to “wider” as well for increased accessibility. The speed, size, and breadth will make it possible for computers to become increasingly intelligent and, eventually, reach a point where they can begin to recursively learn and reproduce on their own.

The notion of intelligent computers creating even more intelligent offspring, exponentially and ad infinitum, is the stuff of sci-fi for most people, but the possibility is more than fantasy. The coming years — Kurzweil suggests by mid-21st century — will no doubt bring us closer to the singularity, but I don’t think the outcome or process will pit computers against humans. We’ll still be in control, using computers that may be thousands if not millions of times smarter than we are. Despite their power, they’ll continue to be under our control as extensions of ourselves, tools that allow us to transcend the limits of our biological intelligence. Continue reading →

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The theme for the 2012 conference is “Emerging Technologies in Education: Trends & Issues.”

Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, have facilitated communication, sharing, collaboration and creativity among students and faculty.

Students and faculty have converged on the Internet to share their views and utilize Web 2.0 tools for teaching and learning. However, many issues and concerns have yet to be answered fully: How do faculty, staff, students and communities produce positive learning outcomes? Can students learn through virtual worlds, educational games, augmented realities, or the use of mobile devices? What technologies continue to reshape e-learning? How do we support our colleagues?

Conference dates: April 17-19, 2012
Pre-conference: April 5, 2012

Links: conference homepage; call for proposals.

UPDATE 1.12.12

TCC 2012, April 17-19: Call for Papers & Presentations, Extended Deadline

Best wishes for a prosperous 2012!

The deadline for submitting proposals for TCC 2012, held online from April 17-19, has been extended until January 24, 2012.

To submit a proposal for a general session or a paper:
http://tinyurl.com/tcc2012proposal

Info about preparing proposals:
http://tcchawaii.org/call-for-proposals/

Homepage:
TCCHawaii.org

Fees for presentations by graduate students will be waived.

TCCHawaii.org produces this event with LearningTimes and assistance from volunteer faculty worldwide.

Cheers,
– Bert Kimura for the TCC 2012 Conference Team

UPDATE 4.4.12

Aloha:

The 17th Annual TCC 2012 Worldwide Online Conference is open for registration. Join us for 100 live presentations over three days about emerging technologies, collaboration, online learning, and social media for teaching and learning.

Register by April 10 for $99. A special fee is available for students at $19.

Contact Sharon Fowler <fowlers@hawaii.edu> for group registration (unlimited participation).

Click here to access the secure online registration forms directly.

We look forward to your support and participation in TCC 2012.

Cheers,

– Bert Kimura for the TCC 2012 Conference Team

Continue reading →

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The amazing thing about the Supercomputing Conference is that it is still growing. I attended two parts of the conference and the exhibits, Education, and then Broadening Engagement (BE). Roscoe Giles chairs this part of the conference. The goal of broader engagement is to change the face of technology to be more inclusive. Remember I asked in my first take on the conference, “Where are the women?” Well, lots of women were involved in the Education and Broadening Engagement program.

Diane Baxter, Director of Education, San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD

We are mentored by these women — and the men. Diane Baxter, of the San Diego Supercomputing Center, is a friend and a mentor. She has been supportive through the years of my involvement, sharing, understanding and taking the pulse of K-12. Continue reading →

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By Melissa A. Venable

[Note: ETCJ’s Twitter editor, Jessica Knott, has been working with Melissa to develop this series. See Part 1: Getting Started, Part 3: Curating the Chaos, and Part 4: Participating in a Live Event. -Editor]

If you’ve set up your account and have had some initial experience tweeting, you may be wondering how you’ll sort through and keep up with the constant flow of information and resources brought to you via your Twitter account.

The main Twitter page can be frustrating to use since it presents long lists of incoming and outgoing tweets in non-sortable, chronological order, which can make data consumption a chore.

Ideally, Twitter will become a source of information when you need it, and not just another item on your already lengthy list of things to do. Dashboard applications offer one way to make the process not only more efficient in terms of your time and effort, but also more user friendly so you’ll want to return.

Try a Dashboard Application

Tools such as TweetDeck and Seesmic are popular options that take the main Twitter page to the next level by providing customizable screen layouts. You can choose what appears on screen: incoming tweets from those you follow, tweets in which you are mentioned, direct messages, specific hashtags, and more. You can also search for information by keyword and monitor multiple Twitter accounts simultaneously, which is helpful if you use multiple accounts for different purposes. These types of tools simplify how you receive information via Twitter, as well as how you share it. Continue reading →

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I should be in bed. I am tired. I am at the Seattle Supercomputing Conference, and in the few days I have been here my mind has been challenged to think, stretch, create and expand my ideas on education. It it not my first time at the conference. As I continue to attend, I gather friends with benefits who have the same mission of changing the world and sharing their expertise. I have learned so much, I had to think how to share. Look here at the conference site and examine communities.

I am part of a team of teachers. We are an affinity team, and we sit and talk after the sessions, to strategize what we will do during the year after the conference is over. Jesse Bemley has created the first Supercomputer Center in a neighborhood. Mano Talaiver is a great friend from Virginia; she works with a consortium out of Longwood University, educating the rural populace and sharing new technologies, gender education and such. Bob Plants is a learning science specialist who trained at Vanderbilt and who currently works at the University of Mississippi; we work together at SITE.org. And my husband, Vic Sutton, is a journalist-educator. That is the core of our group, but already this year we have found a few others to bring along on our journey. No one is in charge of the team.  Henry Neeman and Scott Lathrop are our main contacts within the SC community. Continue reading →

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I am in conference mode.

First was the SETDA 2011 Leadership Summit, Nov. 6-9, at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center On the Potomac in National Harbor, Maryland. U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, along with Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Laura Junor, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Readiness, and Richard Culatta, Education Fellow, Office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Washington, and Steve Midgley, Deputy Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education, announced the launch (Nov. 7) of The Learning Registry. “The Learning Registry is a new approach to capturing, sharing, and analyzing learning resource data to broaden the usefulness of digital content to benefit educators and learners” (Learning Registry).

The next conference was at FOSI.org: “The nature of evolving technology sees the emergence of new trends and behavior among young people and new efforts by government and industry to combat harmful behaviors. FOSI provides periodic information to keep you informed about these issues.” Here are some featured publications:

• State of Online Safety Report: 2011 Edition (14MB)
• Increasing Youth Safety and Responsible Behaviour Online: Putting in Place Programs that Work
• Cyberbullying
• Sexting
• Self harm in the digital age
• Broadband Responsibility: A Blueprint for Safe and Responsible Online Use

I am currently at the Supercomputing Conference (SC11)  in Seattle, Nov. 12-18: “Connecting Communities through HPC [High Performance Computing]. To build a larger, more diverse, knowledgeable and skilled community, SC11 is focusing on innovating HPC applications and advancing scientific discovery for the local, regional, national and global society.”

I will share more about these in an upcoming article.

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Games and education seem not to fit for those who are traditional educators. For some reason they don’t think learning is fun. In a recent article, I shared how interactive demonstrations at museums captivate the interest of children. The interactive modules often integrated a short game. Here’s the thing. Games don’t write red marks all over the paper if you make a mistake. Instead, they are engaging in that you can continue to play to improve your scores.

Games let you explore different ways of working with data. I had a game, something about warlords, and I took the role of each of the groups to learn techniques that would let me play well. In some games, when you get a top score, you receive some type of special recognition.

Unfortunately most educators and administrators do not wade into games to understand the fascination, the intricacies and the methods that games use to entice, enchant and involve students, teachers and players.

I have worked with MECC, a group that started games in education. The great thing about it was that you had license to replicate the games in the school system. So, as fast as the ed tech people could copy, you could use the games. They were originally quite simple, but complicated enough to interest children. Continue reading →

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My wife and I took a cruise around Italy, Spain and Portugal this fall. We were amazed at the number of iPads, Kindles and other devices being used. There was on the ship the usual room of computers and email connections, but WIFI was also available for those who brought their own devices.

There was a cruise ship reporter who had her four-year-old daughter with her. They had been on five cruises this year. The daughter told me how she read her books on her iPad and how she wrote things on it, meaning she spoke to it about the things she saw. She showed me how she could get her favorite stories to come up on the tablet.

Port at Lisbon

Suzy was our youngest fellow passenger, but not the only one with an iPad, Kindle or other mobile communications device. I was impressed by many of our senior ladies and their skills and knowledge about these devices. As far as I could tell they used them in two ways. Before shore visits they did searches on points of interest, the history of the place and other background information. On the shore visits they took pictures and posted notes on what they were seeing. When they got back to the ship at night they shared their shore visit photos with fellow passengers. Of course, the pictures and notes would be shared with family and friends via email and social media or in person when they returned home. Continue reading →

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By Michael Biocchi

[See Educational Games Part I: A Way to Make Even Math Fun and Educational Games Part III: Their ‘Educational’ Characteristics]

Classrooms in high schools and elementary schools are embracing technology more and more as time passes. That being said, some do not yet have whiteboards, projectors and video conferencing equipment. However, all the schools do have one thing — a computer. As of 2008, it is estimated that 100% “of [public] schools [in the United States] have instructional computers with Internet Access.” In fact, the “ratio of students to instructional computers with Internet access” is 3:1 (Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools: Fall 2008, USDE, April 2010, p. 4). With these statistics, it is safe to say that technology is in the classroom. Nevertheless, it is not just about getting the technology into the classroom. It’s about how it is being used.

When looking at combining education and new technologies, such as games, with younger students, it is good to know that most have used a computer to complete homework. Furthermore, 18% of gamers are under 18 years of age (2011 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry, Entertainment Software Association, 7 June 2011, p. 2). This means that, while there are a lot of adult gamers, there is still a large portion of players in elementary and high school.

Combining both the classroom and games is a perfect fit. Parents think so as well with 68% believing that “game play provides mental stimulation or education.” Also, 57% of parents “believe game play helps the family spend time together” and 54% “believe game play helps [children] connect with friends” (2011 Essential Facts, 5). Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Jack Grove’s article begins with the phrase “Standardized teacher training,” and it goes on to say that 70% of British academics have rejected this proposal by the Higher Education Academy. The issue isn’t with teacher training per se. It’s with the whole notion of standardization. Grove cites Julie Hall, co-chair of the Staff and Educational Development Association, who defends the rejection: “Universities have designed their own programs over the past 20 years in this area, so this sounded like the HEA was telling ­institutions what to do. We are glad it has listened to us – a one-size-fits-all approach will not work” (“British Academics Reject Training,” Times Higher Education, 11.3.11).

Hall’s comment makes sense, until we realize that this may just be a case of the pot calling the kettle black. She is a staff development leader, and we have to wonder if the one-size-doesn’t-fit-all argument also applies to her work at her own institution. I don’t know the answer and can only hope that it does. However, my personal experience tells me that the vast majority of staff development programs are guilty of the same kind of top-down siloing. Under the guise of “best practice,” they relentlessly champion one approach or another, usually a FOTM with a catchy title. Convinced that they have the one answer for all pedagogical questions, they gather the weary classroom warriors on their parade fields and cheerfully attempt to get them to march in unison to their one-size cadence.

The problem is that “best practice” isn’t an answer. If it were, it would be static and old from the get-go. In other words, yesterday’s best would be today’s worst as a natural correlate of exponential change. The only viable take on “best practice” is that it’s a question, or more accurately, a set of questions. And the set would have to be open since tomorrow’s questions will be based on advances and conditions that we can’t begin to imagine today. Continue reading →

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There was a time in the early days of mankind when life spans were less than twenty years. Today we are seriously finding ways to slow down or stop the aging process. The world just reached seven billion persons. With life spans being extended and more babies being born, we must ask: Are we getting too crowded?

There are researchers that believe we can extend life to 250 years. There are serious questions we need to ask with respect to population and whether or not we are headed to a standing room only Earth. We saw in the 20th Century life spans extend to 100 or more years in one century. We saw women in 1900 on average having seven children to today’s woman having only two. We have seen demographic shifts worldwide and in individual countries. For example, Japan has the oldest median age at about 53 whereas Afghanistan has the youngest median age at around 17.

Nations with younger median ages tend to be more violent and aggressive whereas older median aged nations are more passive and conservative. As life spans expand, there is more time for education and lifelong learning. In fact, older aged societies are more likely to have the senior population engaging in more informal and formal learning opportunities. Increased life spans are altering the stages of life. More and more people are shifting how they expand their life styles. Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Even if the difference in learning styles between boomers and millennials is often ignored by educators in schools and colleges, it hasn’t gone unnoticed in the world of business. Douglas Dell, in “Changing Times, Changing Education Strategies: Ways of Learning Have Changed, So Have the Students” (PropertyCasualty360, 10.31.11), says that by 2015 the millennials will overtake boomers as the majority in the workforce.

This shifting demographic has consequences for training programs. Dell says that “traditional” classroom methods that work with boomers “will not suffice for Millennials, who are eager to learn and are used to seeking knowledge on demand. They will not wait to be assigned to classes, as they are true proponents of real-time learning.” Learning programs must therefore have the following qualities:

• Immediate – offering access to knowledge nuggets at the point of application.
• Specific – targeted to needs and focused on practical application rather than theory.
• Validated – with user ratings and feedback to establish the value of learning.
• Multi-channel – providing content in multiple formats, accessible from multiple appliances.
• Collaborative – offering the ability to supplement information with additional feedback and observations.

Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

Microsoft’s Office 365 and Google’s Apps for Education are the latest in an endless line of gimmicks for supremacy in the cloudy learning management platform (CLMP) battle. They’re waving the “open” flag to attract the administrators who determine how our colleges and schools will spend their technology dollars. But the problem is that free is only one side of the open standard. The other is freedom.

Microsoft and Google — as well as Blackboard and Pearson, with its OpenClass — just aren’t getting it. Free for the enterprise doesn’t necessarily translate to free for the individual in the classroom who actually uses the CLMP — the teacher. For the overwhelming majority of enterprises, the primary concern is control, and that control is ultimately manifested in power over how teachers will use technology.

The result, from the teacher’s standpoint, is the same old restrictions that apply to closed systems. The CLMP may be free to the enterprise, but it doesn’t spell “freedom” for the teacher. Instructional technology administrators are attracted to CLMPs because they cut operating costs while maintaining their power and control in the technology chain of command. Continue reading →

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From: Education Week
Title: Training the Hybrid Educator
Date: Wednesday November 2, 2011
Time: 2:00PM EDT
Note: No special equipment other than Internet access is needed to participate in any of our text-based chats.

Hybrid learning, which blends face-to-face teaching techniques with online instructional aspects, is a rapidly growing sector of K-12 education. Although each hybrid, or blended, program varies on the spectrum of face-to-face vs. online elements, it is always important to properly train hybrid educators to meet student needs effectively. This chat will address what kinds of professional development are available to hybrid educators, as well as the key factors they need to know to be successful in the classroom. Our guests will share their experiences as hybrid and virtual instructors and talk about the role that hybrid education is playing in K-12 today.
Guests:
Erik Toman, middle school teacher, Chicago Virtual Charter School
Tracy Sheehan, manager of instructional development, Virtual High School Global Consortium
Katie Ash, staff writer, Education Week and Education Week Digital Directions, will moderate this chat.

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From the TLT Group
Please join us on October 28 – 2:00 – 3:00 pm ET for FridayLive!

Click here for more information.

This week: Interview with Steven Bell, Librarian/KeeperUpper Extraodinaire!

Steven Bell is currently the Associate University Librarian for Research and Instructional Services at Temple University and the Association of College and Research Libraries vice-president/president-elect. He will become the president of ACRL in July 2012 for a one-year term.   Steven has been in the middle of new ideas in Higher Education Librarianship – notably in collaborating with others – especially Instructional Technologists for many years.  He has also been very thoughtful and practical about “Keeping Up” which is an issue for all of us.

Some areas Steve and Steve will talk about:
1. What’s important, frightening, hopeful?  About eTextbooks,  Open <whatever>, Role of libraries and librarians…
2. How can we keep up without being overwhelmed?
3. Is Information Literacy still alive?
4. What can we all learn from reference librarians and browsing enthusiasts?
5. Top 5 things to help faculty help students become better researchers

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Sessions will take place in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days. The conference seeks to present ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. Through this event, it is our hope that attendees will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. Let us learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!

Click the image to go to the site.

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The Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference, November 2 – 4, 2011, is a unique chance to participate in a global conversation on the current and future state of libraries. Subject strands include the changing roles of libraries and librarians, the increasing impact of digital media and the e-book revolution, open educational resources, digital literacy, shifts from information consumption to production (Web 2.0), multimedia and gaming spaces, libraries as community centers, the growth of individualized and self-paced learning, the library as the center of new learning models, understanding users in the digital age, assessing service delivery, and defining leadership and information professional careers in a networked and changing world.

Click the image to log in to the site.

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[Note: This article was originally submitted as a reply to Harry Keller‘s comment (10.19.11) on Bonnie’s “Who Speaks for Teachers?” (10.16.11). -Editor]

Nice response. I read it while at a conference that is very different. I was sitting with a group of teachers at the time. We were at the Wireless Ed Tech Conference, Oct. 20-21 in Washington, DC. I cite it because this conference was sectioned into Business, Technology and Education, and allowed networking, but also allowed the people attending to go to other sessions. Click here to read their research document and to download Chris Dede and Marie Bjerede’s “Mobile Learning for the 21st Century: Insights from the 2010 Wireless EdTech Conference” (March 2011).

The fun of the conference — a conference is fun? — is that it was not a big box carnival of things to buy. It was ideas to think about and engaging in conversation with people who were educators, policy makers or researchers. And everyone was allowed to ask questions. We were not in carnival mode with so much going on that there was not time to think. Carefully crafted, this conference allowed networking time. It was assumed that we would network, and we did.

There were real teachers at this conference, and some of the content and activities met their needs. We were able to see the big ideas, to meet the mentors, to be involved in the dialogue that is so usually top-down. We heard Chris Dede, Elliot Soloway, and Shirley Malcom from Digital Promise and James Shelton from the Department of Education. Continue reading →

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By Jim Shimabukuro
Editor

One of the award winners for the 2011 Sloan-C Effective Practice Award is a paper written by six Seattle Pacific University professors, David Wicks, Andrew Lumpe, Henry Algera, Kris Gritter, Helen Barrett, and Janiess Sallee. The title is “bPortfolios: Blogging for Reflective Practice” (Sloan-C, 18 Oct. 2011), and the “b” in “bPortfolios” stands for “blogs.”

The use of blogs as eportfolios, in and of itself, is not especially new. Individual teachers in the field have been doing it for years. However, the fact that this move is being made by a large group of programs in a college of education – “undergraduate teacher education, Masters of Arts in Teaching, Masters of Teaching Mathematics and Science, and Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction” – and that the movement is outside the campus e-silo is definitely a radical departure from business as usual. In the last few years, blogs have been available in most LMSs (learning management systems), but the SPU group is emphatic about using WordPress, an “open” blog environment that’s freely available to everyone.

Here are some reasons they cite for their choice of an open blog service:

• “Basic WordPress accounts are free of charge.”
• The portfolios promote and support “autonomy,” i.e., “Students have ownership of their personal content management system.”
• Students can use the portfolios across an entire “degree program” for “numerous on-campus and online courses and/or during … field experiences.”
• The portfolios promote and support “social interaction,” i.e., “Students share their learning reflections in an open format.”
• Students can “continue to maintain their site upon completion of the program as their individual accounts are not registered on a university server.”
• The portfolio is “stored in the cloud (WordPress.com).”
• The portfolios are “highly cost effective” and sustainable: “The university can focus its time and efforts on improving instruction and student support for the bPortfolio rather than allocate funds and personnel to web-hosting, software upgrades, and software support, etc. in the bPortfolio project.”

SPU’s movement away from the confines of closed campus systems to the open web is a sign that colleges of education – or at least this college of education — are beginning to expand the role of 21^st century teachers to include independence and empowerment in making technology-related curricular and pedagogical decisions. In this scenario, teachers and students are firmly in charge, and IT staff and resources are clearly in a support position to facilitate rather than dictate. Continue reading →

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By Harry Keller
Editor, Science Education

[Note: The following article originated as a comment (10.19.11) to Bonnie Bracey Sutton’s “Who Speaks for Teachers?” (10.16.11). -Editor]

I don’t have your answer. So, don’t misinterpret my musings on this subject. That’s all they are.

Lots of people blame teachers for our problems because they’re an easy target. It’s not so simple. I see several sides to this discussion.

On one side, you have hard-working, capable teachers who just cannot cope with all that’s going on. Their class sizes have exploded, and their budgets have shrunk. Meaningful learning is hard to create under these circumstances except for the most talented and motivated (at the same time) teachers.

Another side shows us teachers who have chosen the wrong profession for whatever reason. Their personalities just don’t fit the necessities of teaching. Most of these will self-select themselves out of the profession, but some remain.

Some teachers have been assigned classes for which they were never trained. You see this problem in science where a life science teacher is given physical science classes or where the science teacher was trained in mathematics and not in science. Someone recently pointed out that only about 10% of K-12 STEM teachers have adequate training in their subject. Continue reading →

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