CASE STUDY: "University of Delaware Responds to Classroom Clickers"

""Have you ever found yourself standing in front of your class in the middle of a lecture and wondering what in the world is going on in the minds of your students?"
--Douglas Duncan, University of Colorado, from the book, Clickers in the Classroom

By Linda L. Briggs

Any instructor who has had the experience Duncan describes can appreciate the idea of using clickers, or personal response devices, to gauge student participation and understanding. At the University of Delaware, with nearly 20,000 students, clickers are not only engaging students during class, they're starting to be used for homework assignments and as campus-wide polling devices...."

URL: http://campustechnology.com/articles/49681
Referred by: Campus Technology

"Second Life in Education: Dip, Cliff, or Cul-de-Sac?"

"New technologies seem to emerge daily and some of them are fascinating to use and may prove essential. But in education, we have to keep our eyes on the prize and ask what they could contribute to student learning. Then we find that not all the new stuff is great stuff after all. That's a good thing. It allows us to work with the best resources and not waste time on the others.

How do we know what's worthwhile and what's not? According to Existential Paine's blog Second Life in Education: Dip, Cliff, or Cul-de-Sac?, we have to evaluate and let go of things that may be fun but not truly educational. He says, "Successful people recognize what is worth the investment and what is worth quitting."

So the question is: Are we hyping new technologies beyond what's reasonable or are they really the best hope for teaching and learning in the 21st century? What do you think? Read this blog and write your opinion in the comment box."

URL: http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2007/07/second_life_in_education_dip_c.php
Referred by: techLEARNING News

"Students dive into research"

"By the time Options High School junior Calvin Smith has to do his culminating project next year to graduate, he’ll be a pro at large-scale research projects.

As part of a reinvention of the alternative high school’s curriculum, students were required this year to complete four self-designed in-depth research projects, similar to the culminating project.

But instead of seeing it as a chore or dreading it, Smith and other students have embraced the projects over the course of the year."

URL: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/102/story/107704.html

"Online Training for Online Faculty"

"A checklist of the best strategies for designing and delivering online courses to train online faculty"

URL: http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/49570
Referred by: Campus Technology

"Special Report IT: Web 3.0"

"New technologies are changing the infrastructure of the Web, turning fragmented data sources into searchable wholes. Computers will gain the intelligence to understand, organize, and draw conclusions from online data."

URL: http://www.technologyreview.com/special/web3

"Special Reports: 10 Emerging Technologies 2007"

"This year, as every year, we present the 10 technologies we find most exciting--and most likely to alter industries, fields of research, and even the way we live."

URL: http://www.technologyreview.com/special/emerging/index.aspx
Referred by: MIT Technology Review

Second Life Education Wiki

"Linden Lab's official resource for educators in Second Life"

URL: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki

"The School of Second Life: Creating new avenues of pedagogy in a virtual world"

"For those who grew up on computer and video games over the past thirty years, it's no surprise that games have become a full-fledged educational tool, merging play with learning in a way that speaks to the digital generation's technical literacy. Adding heft to this development, the Federation of American Scientists recently published the results of a year-long study suggesting that games have the power to teach analytical skills, team building, and problem solving on the fly."

URL: http://www.edutopia.org/virtual-school-second-life
Referred by: Edutopia

"THE ASSUMPTIONS WE MAKE ABOUT DIVERSITY IN SCHOOLS"

"Diversity in schools is not always visible, but it is always present. Just because your students appear relatively homogenous does not mean your class is not diverse. The latest issue of "Thriving in Academe" says that from gender and religion to social class and family background, all aspects of inclusion should be acknowledged and are integral to student learning. It’s all too easy to slip into the bad habit of making assumptions based on outward appearance. Students are diverse in more ways than we will probably ever know, but starting with the assumption of great diversity opens our classrooms up to exciting and constantly changing possibilities. One reason many teachers avoid talking about diversity is the idea that teaching "values" is not our job. But in reality, value-free teaching does not exist."

URL: http://www2.nea.org/he/advo-new/feature.html
Referred by: PEN Weekly NewsBlast

"Bringing A Human Rights Vision to Public Schools: A Training Manual for Organizers"

"Produced by NESRI and Community Asset Development Re-defining Education (CADRE), this manual is a resource for advocates, organizers, community members, parents and youth interested in using human rights as a tool for improving public education in the U.S. "

Download the manual: http://www.nesri.org/programs/EnglishManual.pdf
Referred by: PEN NewsBlast

"P21 issues new guidance on 21st-century skills"

"Looking for support in revising your curriculum to reflect the needs of 21st-century learners? A new online resource could help: On Aug. 2, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), a national coalition of business and education leaders, issued a revised plan to help students and educators achieve 21st-century learning goals."

Download PDF: Framework for 21st Century Learning (Published by P21)
News URL: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7299
Referred by: eSchool News