Next Gen Learning Challenges

iNACOL is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost college readiness and college graduation rates. The project will “provide grants to innovators, build evidence of what works, and foster an engaged community of professionals committed to helping students and young adults prepare for college and successfully complete their postsecondary educations.”

The project will launch with a six-week Request for Comments period where people can share their knowledge and comments on the issues of helping students prepare and complete college. The conversations will discuss these challenges:

• Visit the Next Gen Learning Challenges website at www.nextgenlearning.com to learn about college readiness and completion in the United States
• Contribute research, resources, and perspectives on the four challenges
• Contribute ideas for future challenges, the next of which will focus on secondary education
• Engage in discussion forums targeting key questions
• Explore the challenges with your colleagues through workshops

Partners in the Next Gen Learning Challenges are:

• Gates Foundation
• EDUCAUSE
• League for Innovation in the Community College
• International Association for K-12 Online Learning
• Council of Chief State School Officers
• William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Later this summer the Next Gen Learning Challenges will solicit grant proposals for:

• Deploying open core courseware
• Deepening learner engagement through interactive, online technologies
• Scaling blended learning
• Mobilizing learning analytics

iNACOL and the Next Gen Learning Challenges believes that “technology can be a key tool for making learning more flexible, engaging, and affordable.”

To learn more about the Next Gen Learning Challenges go to:
http://www.nextgenlearning.com/

The UN's World Digital Library

Four years ago James Billlington, U.S. Librarian of Congress wanted to share cultural and educational data from the Library of Congress with anyone who had access to the Internet. On April 21, 2009, UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) and the Library of Congress unveiled the World Digital Library, a collection of 1,200 high-resolution digitized files that allows users to zoom in on ancient documents and archival photographs.

Resources may be searched by keywords, time period, place, type of item and the institution that contributed the data. Descriptions are given for the materials in seven languages while the documents are shown in their original languages. Currently there are books, journals, documents, photographs, audio and videos. There are currently 457 maps in the World Digital Library and I hope there are plans to continue adding cultural and educational data to this digital library.

Students and teachers can find interesting items like the first printed edition of a 16th-century Japanese novel called The Tale of Genji; a journal by Ferdinand Magellan kept from his voyage around the world; a panoramic view of Constantinople; to an early recording of Marseillaise, the national anthem of France.

To check out the new World Digital Library please click here or go to: http://www.wdl.org/en/

There are many ways that teachers and students could utilize this information to make learning more engaging and real world.

Article from Time Magazine April 22, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892916,00.html

Image from the World Digital Library

http://www.wdl.org/en/item/105/

Online Games for Learning

Online games have been described as casual games, serious games and advergames but to teachers and parents what do these labels mean?

Casual Games
Casual Games are designed for entertainment. Some casual games are preloaded on computers such as Solitaire while other casual games are downloaded. Learning can occur but mostly casual games are for fun.

Serious Games
Serious games are designed for learning. Simulations, military training, corporate education, health care are just a few ways games are designed for learning. It’s easy to find educational games on the internet from pre-school to university level. Serious games are categorized by genre, complexity, and platforms building maturity and learning.

Serious games focus on specific learning outcomes that can be measured. But do these serious games really promote learning? When the game design is focused on learning outcomes, then learning is possible. According to Mary Jo Dondlinger a game that motivates players to spend time on tasks mastering the skills of the game, is time spent stimulating learning outcomes. Even some casual games like EVE Online can produce real learning outcomes. One player from EVE Online stated that once he had managed a virtual corporation that spanned a universe he could easily manage a real corporation.

Computer games with 3D graphics are being used in the workplace, for recruitment, to improve communication and train employees at all levels. The military trains soldiers using “virtually real” environments where soldiers build teams and prepare personnel for specific missions. One of the most popular games online today is America’s Army.

Advergames
Advergames are a combination of casual and serious games and have been used as a form of marketing for movies and television shows. Advergames are sometimes the most visited section of brand websites promoting repeated traffic and reinforcing the brand.

But what does this mean for education in public schools?
A virtual learning environment needs to encourage content exploration, be learner-centered and individualized. Our digital native students prefer to:

• Receive information quickly
• Multitask
• View pictures and videos
• Interact and network with others
• Receive instant gratification and rewards
• Learn information that is relevant, useful and fun

Digital learners today need online learning that is stimulating and develops critical skills. Once successful program is DiDA Delivered, a diploma program in IT skills for secondary students in the UK. To check out the site please click here: http://www.dida-delivered.org/
The curriculum for this program includes 4,000 learning objects and 300 serious games and teachers can develop their own content to add to the learning environment. DiDA looks similar to Second Life and Active Worlds.

Considering that children ages 8-18 spend at least 50 minutes per day playing video games education needs to provide stimulating, learning environments where students acquire 21st century skills necessary for today’s workforce. To do this learning designers and game designers need to work together to provide a more engaging and effective learning environment for all students incorporating social networking, and other Web 2.0 technologies.

To learn more about online games for learning please read the entire article Serious Games: Online Games for Learning at: http://www.adobe.com/products/director/pdfs/serious_games_wp_1107.pdf

Technology Integration

In March of last year Edutopia published an article on technology integration. Several points were made from the article:

• Effective technology integration is achieved when its use supports curricular goals. It must support four key components of learning:
  o active engagement
  o participation in groups
  o frequent interaction and feedback
  o connection to real-world experts
• Technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine.
• Learning through projects while equipped with technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like.
• Through projects, students acquire and refine their analysis and problem-solving skills as they work individually and in teams to find, process, and synthesize information they've found online.

The goal is to effectively integrate technology into subject areas by allowing teachers to grow into roles as advisers, content experts, and coaches to the students. Technology should help to make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.

Fast forward to April 2009, how are we using technology in the schools today? Take a look at this video from one high school in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Video Source: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-overview-video

What is your school doing to integrate technology into your curriculum?

To read the entire article:
Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many
http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

To learn more about what works in public education please go to:
Edutopia - The George Lucas Educational Foundation
http://www.edutopia.org/harrison-central-high-school