Posts tagged ‘Innovation’
21st Century Teaching and Learning, Part 1
Ruth Reynard discusses emergent skill sets for teachers, looking at different ways to engage digital native students and make teaching more effective:
“while we do not know enough about long-term affects on thinking and perception, we can make sure of the technical capabilities and work hard to develop in ourselves the instructional skills we need to meet students where they are in terms of expectations and familiarity. We can also become more critical ourselves in how we perceive our own disciplines and more mobile in how we distribute content and intentional in how we stimulate student response. While mobile technology is coming at us via communication demands, we can monopolize these technological advances and think through how we can use them for instructional benefit and effectiveness.”
Author: Ruth Reynard, T.H.E. Journal, 27th April 2008
Full article available here.
Meet the Sims
“The students were in a UW classroom laboratory using life-size — and fairly lifelike — computerized simulators, the latest technology trend used by universities to train students about real-world emergencies before setting foot in a hospital room.
The human patient simulators — SimMan, SimBaby and Noelle, a pregnant simulator for labor and delivery — each cost about $30,000. They can talk, breathe and can be programmed to simulate a host of illnesses, disorders or symptoms (or genders, for that matter — Mrs. Jones was actually SimMan), and can change symptoms in real time in reaction to a student’s interaction with them. ”
Author: Cherie Black, Seattlepi.com, 12th April 2008
Full article available here.
More Events Posted By FutureLab – b.TWEEN & mLearn 2008
b.TWEEN
18-20 June 2008
Museum of Science & Industry, Manchester
“b.TWEEN08 features a huge host of industry experts from advertising, creative technology, film, games, mobile, TV and web. Nowhere else will you find such a diverse mix of ideas-rich indies and ideas-hungry big industry players meeting on a level playing field to explore and exploit the creative and commercial potential of digital technologies.”
See post here.
mLearn 2008
7-10 October 2008
Ironbridge, Shropshire
“mLearn was the first conference on mobile learning and is widely recognised as one of the most prestigious international conferences in the field. The aims of the conference are to bring together the world’s leading mobile learning researchers, developers and activists in an environment that will stimulate dramatically increased deployment of mobile learning and catalyse dramatically enhanced innovation.”
See post here.
Digital Vaults: National Archive Social networking for primary sources
Glenn Wiebe and Dave Warlick have both recently posted on Digital Vaults, a new website by the US National Archive that brings elements of social networking to primary history and social science resources.
Digital Vaults is an interesting concept and one I think works well with it’s logical tag organisational structure. The digitisation of sources and Web2.0 twist makes the wealth of knowledge highly accessible and even allows the user to create their own collections.
Read Glenn Wiebe’s post and Dave Warlick’s post for more information.
doof.com – integrating gaming with social networks
Gaming innovation – doof is an Interesting gaming concept, combining casual online gaming with social networking. Find out more below:
doof.com – Games, Friends & Fun!
doof is exactly what it says, the home of social gaming. A very impressive concept: a social network built around casual gamers all wrapped up in a slick interface.
It’s not the gaming you expect; doof is not centered around PC games, handhelds, or the three major consoles. doof is all about casual gaming and specifically revolves around its own online games and doof has plenty. From brain-caning puzzle games (Cascade, Roobix), to fast and frenzied action games (Columns, Titris) , to plain hilarious time-wasters (Golden Arrow, Tribe), doof.com is pretty much the only place you need to be for your daily fix of brain candy. Riveting and compelling, our online games exists simply to have fun with!
In addition to games, doof mixes up a variety of community features. Most notably each member gets their own profile page which tracks game achievements, play history, and can let you pull in your photos from Facebook. As you play games, you earn credits, which may be used in tournaments with other players, or to purchase “gifts” for your friends. The gifts are basically avatars of items such as frogs, jewelry, crowns and various other items for showing your “like” in a humorous manner.
But doof offers not just games and web pages. You cab also watch online videos, keep track of news, tournaments, and a rating system for players and content and much more. Its also offers Instant messenger and email features, letting you know when your favorite game partners are available and giving you the ability to contact them. Just click on the person’s username and you can chat while playing games.
Channel 4 sponsors Dare to Be Digital… Introduces education as a theme
Channel 4 has announced sponsorshop of the Dare to Be Digital summer game development competition. Announced here.
As part of their sponsorship (which apparently is for a significant sum of money to support the competition), a brief to develop games with an educational or serious ‘twist’ has also been provided.
Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 4th April 2008
Full article available here.
Canadian university faces off with digital generation
A Canadian university has instilled a culture of fear by threatening to expel a student for cheating because he set up an online study group on Facebook, critics said this week. Toronto’s Ryerson University threatened to expel first-year computer engineering student Chris Avenir last week, arguing that his study group on the Facebook networking site might encourage cheating.
Ryerson decided to lift the expulsion threat on Tuesday, but Avenir will get zero credits for the course work discussed on the Facebook forum last autumn, and the university has put a disciplinary notice on his record.
Canadian media analyst Jesse Hirsh said Ryerson’s actions send the wrong message to students, most of whom spend a lot of their time on the Internet.
Author: Reuters, cnet news.com, 20th March 2008
Full article available here.
Award-Winning Teacher Utilizes a Wealth of Classroom Technology
In his classroom, Mr. Thompson has been using blogs to communicate class activities to parents and SMARTboard technology to have students create powerpoint presentations. In addition, Mr. Thompson utilizes movie technology for both classroom lessons and student products. This caring and dedicated teacher even provides “Podcasts” on his web page that give verbally recorded instructions for parents on how to help children with their math and reading instruction.
Below we present our interview Mr. Thompson in question and answer format. We have included numerous links to his classroom materials including “The Morning Work Show,” “The Literacy Fastbreak,” and his classroom web page.
Author: Tom Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 27th March 2008
Full article available here.
Interactives – The Rock Cycle
How much do you know about rocks? Well, if you are a bit unsure about distinguishing an igneous rock from a sedimentary rock you’ll certainly be on solid ground after taking a tour through this feature created by Annenberg Media. Visitors can make their way through graphically-enhanced sections that include “Types of Rocks”, “How Rocks Change”, and “The Rock Cycle Diagram”. In the “Types of Rocks” area visitors will learn about the basic types of rocks and they can even check out a handy chart that will give them some of the finer points of rock identification. The “How Rocks Change” area provides a basic overview of the processes involved with rock creation and transformation through a heady blend of Flash animations and straight-forward prose. Finally, the “Rock Cycle Diagram” provides an illustration of rock transformation over time. This site will be quite useful to educators and anyone who has peered at a rock and wondered: “How did you come to be?”
From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2008. http://scout.wisc.edu
Author: Ray Schroeder, Educational Technology Blog, 18th March 2008
Annenberg Media – some other great interactive learning pieces are available on their site too.
4th Annual Innovations in e-Learning Symposium (June 3,4,5)
to be held on June 3, 4 & 5, 2008 in the Johnson Center on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.The topics for this year’s symposium are:
* Mobile Learning and Gaming
* Web 2.0 and Cyber-infrastructure
* Innovation Design and Research Partnerships
* Collaboration in a Virtual World
Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings Blog, 18th March 2008
Full article available here.
Gaming & Learning 