A Learning Theory for 21st-Century Students
Marie Sontag

The affordances of today’s digital technologies have significantly changed the way students learn. Arguing that current learning theories have failed to address this new reality, Marie Sontag proposes a new theory, social-connectedness and cognitive-connectedness schemata (SCCS) theory, that integrates key elements of other theories with gaming elements in a structure designed to facilitate engagement of students’ social- and cognitive-connectedness schemata. The results of a pilot study using an instructional design model based on SCCS theory showed that students learning in an environment shaped according to these principles developed higher levels of expertise and greater learning transfer.

Link: http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=524&action=article
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The people at Academic Commons seek to form a community of faculty, academic technologists, librarians, administrators, and other academic professionals who will help create a comprehensive web resource focused on liberal arts education. Academic Commons aims to share knowledge, develop collaborations, and evaluate and disseminate digital tools and innovative practices for teaching and learning with technology. If successful, this site will advance opportunities for collaborative design, open development, and rigorous peer critique of such resources.

Feel free to join them at the link below!

Link: http://www.academiccommons.org/

3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction
Ruth Reynard

How can the instructional uses of a wiki be maximized to ensure this higher level of engagement with students?

1. Creating Meaningful Assignments: Motivation
   • The Assignments Is Moving and Not Closed (Dynamic, Not Static)
   • The Assignment Requires Participation
   • The Assignment Uses the Participation To Move Forward
2. Grade Value for Constructed Input: Affirmation
   • Working with and Building on Existing Information
   • Inputting new information
   • Synthesis of Ideas and Relevant Use
3. Collective Knowledge Use: Learning
   • Complex Problems
   • Non-Preset Solutions
   • Adequate Time Allowed for Process

Read more at the link below!

Link: http://campustechnology.com/Articles/2009/02/11/3-Challenges-to-Wiki-Use-in-Instruction.aspx

Wiki as a Teaching Tool
Kevin R. Parker and Joseph T. Chao

Wikis are one of many Web 2.0 components that can be used to enhance the learning process. A wiki is a web communication and collaboration tool that can be used to engage students in learning with others within a collaborative environment. This paper explains wiki usage, investigates its contribution to various learning paradigms, examines the current literature on wiki use in education, and suggests additional uses in teaching software engineering.

Link: http://www.educause.edu/node/154604

The Institutional Path for Change in This Age: Andragogy, not Pedagogy
Trent Batson

In pedagogy, which is associated with teaching children, the primary focus is to transmit content. In andragogy, which is associated with teaching adults, the concern is instead with facilitating the acquisition of the content. In his article, Mr. Batson makes the case that the traditional model of teaching through pedagogy has been outdated and should be replaced by a more effective combination of andragogy and evidence-based learning. For those who are interested, here are some principles of the prescribed method:

1. Letting learners know why something is important to learn
2. Showing learners how to direct themselves through information
3. Relating the topic to the learners’ experiences
4. People will not learn until they are ready and motivated to learn
5. Requires helping them overcome inhibitions, behaviors, and beliefs about learning

Link: http://www.campustechnology.com/articles/68283/

The Ubiquitous Learning Conference investigates the uses of technologies in learning, including devices with sophisticated computing and networking capacities which are now pervasively part of our everyday lives – from laptops to mobile phones, games, digital music players, personal digital assistants and cameras. The Conference explores the possibilities of new forms of learning using these devices not only in the classroom, but in a wider range places and times than was conventionally the case for education. Ubiquitous Learning is made possible in part by the affordances of the new, digital media. What’s new about it? What’s not-so-new? What are the main challenges of access to these new learning opportunities? These are the key themes and concerns of the Conference.

The UL Conference will be held at the University of Illinois’ Illini Centre, 17-19 November 2008, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Visit its website (see the link below) for more information.

Link: http://q08.cgpublisher.com

Short and Sweet: Technology Shrinks the Lecture
Jeffrey Young

An article from The Chronicle of Higher Education discusses how to optimize the effectiveness of online (and in-class) lectures by fragmenting them into smaller sections.

Link: http://chronicle.com/free/v54/i41/41a00901.htm

The threat of global pandemics. The instability of the world’s resources. The question of privacy and security in a digital age.

Meeting these 21st-century challenges will test our political, environmental, and scientific ingenuity. It will require creative solutions and innovative new discoveries. And, as institutions, it will mean that the walls erected around our campuses, our disciplines, and our geographic borders will have less relevance in a world linked by the pursuit of common solutions.

But what does it mean to effectively work together in the process of discovery or the pursuit of change? How do we teach cooperation and collaboration, while modeling the practice in our own offices and corridors? How do we break down the walls that divide our departments, our institutions, and our regions? And how can technologies facilitate the process?

Join us at the 2009 EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative Annual Meeting, Participation and Collaboration: Social Learning for the 21st Century, to explore processes and practices focused on social learning and student success. Sessions will highlight:

• How to facilitate inquiry and innovation using Web 2.0 technologies, cyberinfrastructure, and social networks
• The importance of learning how to collaborate—connecting with others and content, in and outside the classroom
• Strategies to develop communities built on engagement, participation, and co-creation
• Cultivating institutional cultures of collaboration, openness, and sharing
• The ways in which collaboration skills can help us build relationships across disciplines—both within and across institutions

In the ELI tradition, the annual meeting is a setting for interactive, hands-on learning and networking, with a variety of presentations, discussions, and workshops. Sessions will fall into one of three interest areas: learners, learning principles and practices, and learning technologies.

Link: http://net.educause.edu/eli091

Why Use Technology in Education?
Charles Thacker

Why students should be using technology in their education can be a complex issue, and there are many small points to be made here about the value of learning, understanding and using technology. It can be compared to science in general. Science is responsible for almost all of our advances around the world. It is difficult to think of any current tools, information and discoveries that are not the direct result of science. From the paint used in any art or commercial product to the increasing understanding of the origins of the cosmos and ourselves; science is at the root of it all. Similarly, technology is becoming the foundation upon which nearly everything is being built.

Link: http://www.macinstruct.com/node/7

Just call her Wikipedia wonk: UWB prof in spotlight for guiding students through online editing process
Peter Kelley / University Week

Maybe you’ve read about Martha Groom. An associate professor of Interdisciplinary Arts at UW Bothell, she won some media attention recently for involving her students with Wikipedia, the publicly edited online encyclopedia. Get to know this interesting teacher.

Link: http://uwnews.org/uweek/uweekarticle.asp?articleID=38236

Using Wikipedia to Reenvision the Term Paper
Martha Groom and Andreas Brockhaus

The structure of the traditional term paper can limit its educational value. To make the assignment more meaningful, students published their papers in Wikipedia. This session will examine how publishing for a large online community motivated students to do better work and deal with issues of voice, knowledge, and community.

Link: http://www.educause.edu/node/162770