breve: a 3d Simulation Environment for Multi-Agent Simulations and Artificial Life

Breve is a free, open-source software package which makes it easy to build 3D simulations of multi-agent systems and artificial life.

The Trainer's Application of Vygotsky's "Zone of Proximal Development" to Asynchronous Online Training of Faculty Facilitators

Lev Vygotsky was a Russian psychologist and educator who researched that children improve their learning when they were in the company of those who were more skilled or knowledgeable about the topic, known as "Zone of Proximal Development"(ZDP). This paper by Dorette Sugg Welk, PhD, RN, identify factors that influence the ZPD relationship and strategies that the online trainer can use to mediate this relationship in an asynchronous online environment consistent with Vygotsky's basic tenets.

Development of an E-Education Framework

By “John” Jin H. Im.Internet technologies blur the distinction between distance learning and traditional learning by enabling the convergence of these two, thus causing confusion in widely-accepted definitions, terminologies, concepts, and theories on distance learning. This paper introduces an e-education framework with three reference models in order to reduce the confusion.

The Role of Tutors as an Integral Part of Online Learning Support

The changing roles of tutors when engaging with e-learning and understanding the importance of these roles and identifying necessary tutoring skills is paramount for the success of e-learning solutions.

Things You Really Need to Learn

From Steven Downes Blog: Guy Kawasaki last week wrote an item describing 'ten things you should learn this school year' in which readers were advised to learn how to write five sentence emails, create powerpoint slides, and survive boring meetings.

About role-playing simulations

A scenario may present students with decisions to make or tasks to accomplish. The instructor introduces the scenario and ground rules for the simulation, and acts as a facilitator and mediator.

The Online Disinhibition Effect

What causes this online disinhibition? What is it about cyberspace that loosens the psychological barriers that block the release of these inner feelings and needs? Several factors are at play. For some people, one or two of them produces the lion's share of the disinhibition effect. In most cases, though, these factors interact with each causes this other, supplement each other, resulting in a more complex, amplified effect.

ISD Knowledge Base / Instructional Design & Development

ISD Models are visualized representations of an instructional design process, showing the main elements or phases, and their relationships. The names are used interchangeably in the literature and teaching within the field.

Flexible Delivery - What is it and ...

To some educators flexible delivery is a term which signifies the desirable social goals To some educators flexible delivery is a term which signifies the desirable social goals

Conversion Theory: A Constructionalist, Dialogical Approach to Educational Technology

Pask and Scott (1972) had shown that in a "free learning" situation, with no imposed teaching strategy, students typically exhibited preferred style or approach to their learning. Two main strategies for accessing and using learning materials were observed.

Application of Bloom's Taxonomy to the design of MCQs

A great exercise in testing yourself on designs of Bloom's Taxonomy using multiple-choice questions (MCQs) .

9 Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning

These principles were developed under the auspices of the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) Assessment Forum with support from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education with additional support for publication and dissemination

Groupthink?

Groupthink is a consensus-seeking tendency in groups. The goal of this theory is to recognize the dangers of groupthink in decision-making.

CRITICAL THINKING FOR THE GOOGLE GENERATION

Stuckley say, "unlikely, definitely, and absolutely." Your answers? I'm more interested in the reasoning behind them than the multiple-choice options, even if it's more challenging to grade.

PCs in the Classroom & Open Book Exams...

In his article, Evan Golub (University of Maryland)asks, "What are the motivations behind giving an open-book/open-notes exam? Does giving free access to all of the resources of the Internet conflict with these motivations?" Read his article for his answers to these though provoking questions.

Can a Hypermedia Cooperative e-Learning Environment Stimulate Constructive Collaboration?

A study indicated that the growing use of the Internet in learning environments has led to creating new models for addressing specific learning domains, as well as more general educational goals. In particular, in recent years considerable attention has been paid to collaborative learning supported by technology, because this mode can enhance peer interaction and group work. Read more interesting research on this interesting study...

Bankruptcy-Proof Your E-Learning Project

In 2001, Darin Hartley wrote an article for the ASTD about how "Most people complain about working with suppliers. Indeed, some folks think that suppliers are out to get them--and a fast buck. However, most suppliers are scrupulous. They will do whatever they are told to do by the client, and they often will make suggestions when clients don’t know what to do. That’s where they do get you, but it's also where you can make a difference." True today as it was back then...

Proctor 2.0?

Human oversight, in the form of proctors who administer exams from a variety of places, has long been the solution. But for some of the larger distance education programs finding willing proctors and centralized testing locations has become cumbersome. Is Proctor 2 the solution they have been looking for? Comments welcome.

Repurposing a learning activity on academic integrity: the experience of three universities

There is currently great interest in reuse of digital learning resources, from single items to multi-task activities, to whole units or programmes of study. Associated with this interest is the ongoing development of tools to enable such resources to be placed in or recovered from repositories, to facilitate searching for them and their instantiation on different learning platforms. Check out this well documented and discussed study...

MAINTAINING THE TIES BETWEEN LEARNING THEORY AND INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN

This paper was prompted by recent discussion among instructional designers suggesting that instructional design (ID) may be able to stand quite independent of its learning-theory foundations. Two conference papers deserve mention.

Concepts of ICT Literacy in Higher Education

Almost from its first appearance in the 1940s, the computer has been perceived as something whose impact upon the world and its inhabitants will be profound. This is paper by Allan Martin, 2002.

Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer

Seymore Papert's contention that we placed more of an emphasis on teaching rather than on learning. He proposed we use the word "mathetics" to describe the art of learning (Papert, 1993). (However, rarely is it used.) This critique by Elizabeth Murphy, 1996, from Papert's book, 'Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer', 1993, suggests that rethinking our concept of learning is one way to reform our schools and our roles as educators.

Context Aware Ubiquitous Learning Environments for Peer-to-Peer Collaborative Learning

A ubiquitous learning environment provides an interoperable, pervasive, and seamless learning architecture to connect, integrate, and share three major dimensions of learning resources: learning collaborators, learning contents, and learning services.

BARRIERS TO DISTANCE EDUCATION AND TRAINING: SURVEY RESULTS

This study supplies evidence of not only what barriers there are in distance education, but the priority given to them by various stakeholders and at different stages of organizational maturity regarding distance education and training.

Schema Theory: An Introduction

Information that does not fit into these schema target="_blank"may not be comprehended, or may not be comprehended correctly. This is the reason why readers have a difficult time comprehending a text on a subject they are not familiar with even if the person comprehends the meaning of the individual words in the passage.

Reference Guide for Instructional Design and Development

This is a Reference Guide for Instructional Design and Development. The document was developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE) and serves as a valuable reference for designers and developers.

Online and Face-to-Face Group Interaction Processes

Previous, pioneering studies of small-group interaction, conducted in face-to-face environments, have generated a body of literature; however, the usefulness of this knowledge for online groups has not been systematically examined. This paper reports the use of Bales' influential Interation Process Analysis model...

Scientists Discover How to Pass Exams

Scientists from Washington University in St Louis made a discovery that could have profound implications for our understanding of human learning mechanisms - and immediate significance for students revising for examinations.

6th Annual Symposium on Intellectual Property

6th Annual Symposium on Intellectual Property, June 14-16, 2006, Hosted by The Center for Intellectual Property at University of Maryland: The debate over the mass digitization and global availability of information has raged anew ever since late 2004 when Google publicly launched its ambitious plans to digitize and index the massive library
collections of Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan, the University of Oxford, and the New York Public Library.

Assessment ...A new way of thinking about grades

Assessment is the process that teachers use to determine how instruction is going, and the process that is used to make corrections to that instruction.

Grading is the process of evaluating students, ...

Comparing Three Approaches for Hands-on Science on Teaching

This revised site (4/8/06) implyed knowledge and skill have traditionally been the mainstays of American education. They want students to be knowledgeable about history, science, geography, and so on. They want students to be skillful in the routines of arithmetic, the craft of writing, the use of foreign languages. This new site presents three interesting applied approaches "hands-on" approaches on teaching for understanding.

Integrating Web-Based Technology into Education

This concept paper includes how the political pressures associated with putting education online are real and considerable, but there are justifiable reasons to take the Internet seriously for education that take full advantage of the Internet's educational capabilities without compromising what we know about learning and teaching.

Multimedia Learning in Games, Simulations, and Microworlds

This timely article reviews and critiques the scientific evidence and research methods studying the use of games, simulations, and microworlds as multimedia learning tools. It also focuses on interactive educational multimedia, which is distinguished from scripted forms of educational multimedia by the degree to which users participate in and control the multimedia software.

An Introduction to Connective Knowledge

This paper provides an overview of connective knowledge. It is intended to be an introduction, expressed as non-technically as possible, with embedded bibliography.

2nd Annual Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange

Distance Education at Utah Valley State College is pleased to announce the 2nd Annual Teaching with Technology Idea Exchange, June 1-2 on the UVSC campus in Orem, Utah.

Instructional Objectives Writing Assistant Tool

Welcome to Instructional Objectives Writing Assistant (IOWA), a research project is intended to help instructors write better educational objectives. The "Assistant" imbedded application can help an instructor write better objectives by pointing out what levels of cognition should be focused on in the objectives. If this is your first time using this site, it is recommended that you proceed through the pages listed in the table of contents sequentially. If you have been here before and would like to proceed directly to the Assistant, click on that link.

Development of a Multi-Scaled Virtual Field Trip for the Teaching & Learning of Geospatial Science

There has been considerable research and development into the use of multimedia in teaching and learning geospatial science. Geospatial science professions like cartography, geomatics and surveying are practiced-based and therefore are heavily reliant upon the application of knowledge to practical situations in the field. Action learning and action research establishes a learning environment in which students are actively engaged in building, testing and refining mental models.

Introduction to The Classroom Assessment Techniques

The Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs) are succint, self-contained, self-instructional, web-based modules that introduce a broadly applicable technique for use in college or university Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Technology (SMET) course instructors. Each CAT has been written by a college or university instructor who currently uses the technique, and has been reviewed by the FLAG Editorial Board for accuracy and consistency with current professional standards of assessment. In most cases, the technique has an extensive history of research to support claims of reliability and validity. The CATs are linked to a set of discipline-specific "tools" that can be downloaded for immediate use.

Digital Learning Events

The digital classroom is in session. At Apple they are inspired by the learning they see taking place in digital classrooms across the globe. And are excited about the open sharing from Learning Interchange authors who regularly contribute their successes to empower other teachers to advance learning in powerful ways too. On these pages, you'll find ways to make your lessons come alive and learn from your peers as they share how digital learning is transforming their classrooms. Enjoy the broad range of content offered below which ranges from engaging lesson plans, lesson "starter" ideas, student projects, virtual field trips, videos, interviews and more. They offer educators may "How To" options to enhance course development.

Check out their Lewis and Clark Series Page Content in this series that will grow over a three-year period as part of the National Bicentennial Commemoration of the original expedition of the Lewis & Clark Corps of Discovery. Students can join interactive videoconferences with content experts and watch live webcast from the field as this cross-country reenactment takes place.

Learner-developed Scenarios to Enhance and Evaluate a Learning Experience

Learner-developed scenarios were used to enhance a learning experience and to evaluate a workshop activity. Scenarios built relevance for learners into an exercise by engaging them in a process drawing on their experience. The process allowed learners to address practical problems defined at a level of complexity with which they were comfortable.

The Power Point Resource Page + Articulate

Listed at The Power Point Resource Page are resources that will provide information and technical assistance for developing Power Point slide presentations, as well as information on designing computer-based presentations, and mounting PowerPoint files on the Web.

This site offers a great platform in preparing files for the popular Rapid e-Learning Authoring Development Tool, "ARTICULATE." This tool lets learning professionals and subject-matter experts easily create e-learning courses, presentations, quizzes, and surveys. Their FAQ site is a >Blog.

Scoring Rubrics: What, When and How?

Scoring rubrics have become a common method for evaluating student work in both the K-12 and the college classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to describe the different types of scoring rubrics, explain why scoring rubrics are useful and provide a process for developing scoring rubrics.

Six Criteria of an Educational Simulation by Clark Aldrich

Clark Aldrich identifies six criteria that are emerging as critical, and ultimately not just to simulations but all educational experiances. Three criteria, linear, systems, and cyclical, describe "content." And, three criteria, simulation, game, and pedagogy, describe "delivery." Read on for more...

LMS and LCMS: What's the Difference?

If you’re confused about the differences between a learning management system (LMS) and a learning content management system (LCMS), you’re not alone. Not only are the names similar, some suppliers are positioning LCMSs as the new wave of LMSs. In fact, an LMS and an LCMS are complementary but very different systems that serve different masters and address unique business challenges. Leonard Greenberg offers clarity for ASTD viewers.

Experience-Enabling Design: An approach to elearning design

Every time we use a product or a service, we essentially consume the experience it enables, the Enabling Design approach. The product is not a thing. The service is not an act. They are vehicles for the experience that their designer intends to bring about. Thus, when a designer creates a sharp, safe, and well balanced cutting knife, she is not only putting metal, plastic and rubber together, but also setting the stage for an experience of pleasure of using a good tool effectively, and a feeling of skilled accomplishment, on the part of the user.

LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs]

LCMS = LMS + CMS [RLOs]?

Going by the current buzz in the industry, a pattern seems to be emerging that follows the above equation. Before we discuss what this means to the learner, or the instructional designer, let us first try to understand this equation.

Developing WBT with the 'ADDIE-M' ISD Model

The Task Based Training approach is used by all Services and Industry on the Instructional Systems Development Systems Approach to Training (ISD/SAT) process and the development of instructional materials. ISD/SAT process phases include:

Analysis
Design
Development
Implementation
Evaluation
Maintenance

Once the development team has been established, they should work through the process outlined here to refine their plans. Planning for the WBT (web-based training) application is crucial to its success.

Assessment and Rubric Information + by Kathleen Schrock

Now that we are using the Internet in the classroom to support instruction, it is important the area of assessment be addressed. One usable method for teachers is to provide a rubric for student use and for both formative and summative assessment purposes. Another is to provide some type of graphic organizer. You will find a collection of assessment rubrics and graphic organizers that may be helpful to you as you design your own.

The Learner's Charter

The Learner’s Charter for a Personalised Learning Environment

It is a simple one-pager of bullet points of what they think learners will be (or are already) requiring. You can tell that they're still having trouble separating learning and education (this week's topic, it seems), but much of it is still thought-provoking and worth digging into. An interesting document from the NESTA Futurelab 10 more pages explaining and expanding on the ideas in the charter.

Instructional Design and Learning Objects

Learning objects are not yet an established technology, but rather a philosophy of how content can be created and deployed. A widely adopted industry standard, developed by ADL called the SCORM, defines a "SCO" (sharable content object), and provides a common method that makes content interoperable among Learning Management Systems (LMS). However, Learning Object methodology is still evolving toward more comprehensive and effective technology capabilities and standards

The Sharp Edge of the Cube: Pedagogically Driven Instructional Design for Online Education

Pedagogically Driven Instructional Design Article
This article addresses three issues central to the development of pedagogically driven instructional design for online education: learning style-based instructional design, design parameters, and the design and development procedure.

Vaughan Waller Explains Why We Need Good Instructional Design

Many think that instructional design (a term without one clear definition but in the context of this paper describing the entire process of designing and delivering a learning programme) is how the multimedia programme on the computer will actually look like and yet this is only a very small (although very important) element in the jigsaw. It is important at this stage to grasp that instructional design is a process of many separate but inter-linked stages.

Humor - Schools Using Technology.

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting the right staff member, please listen to all your options before making a selection:

"To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1
"To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2
"To complain about what we do - Press 3
"To swear at staff members - Press 4
"To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5
"If you want us to raise your child - Press 6
"If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7
"To request another teacher for the third time this year- Press 8
"To complain about bus transportation - Press 9
"To complain about school lunches - Press 0

"If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework, and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!"

If you can read this thank a teacher.
If you are reading it in English thank a veteran.

Online Educational Terms...

This article presents, defines, and discusses the most pivotal online education terms that are used. The definitions are presented and discussed in relation to each other, rather than in their alphebetical order.

The Concord Consortium

Looking for something Fun??? The Concord Consortium is a nonprofit educational research and development organization based in Concord, Massachusetts. They create interactive materials that exploit the power of information technologies. Their primary goal in all their work is digital equity — improving learning opportunities for all students. Take a look...

The Older Language Learner

by Mary Schleppegrell

The greatest obstacle to older adult language learning is the doubt--in the minds of both learner and teacher--that older adults can learn a new language. Most people assume that "the younger the better" applies in language learning. However, many studies have shown that this is not true.

Technology and Constructivism

A Capstone Project - Learning and Technology - using the "Constructivism" approach, explores two types of technologies that are working their way into university classrooms . With student participation and cooperation in mind, designing curriculum using these tools may result in huge payoffs in terms of investments in time and money.