Learning & Technology News

While Plagiarism can be intentional, it is more often caused by misunderstanding. Avoiding it means understanding the role of intellectual property and what makes plagiarism wrong.

So rather than viewing the problem as something that has to be blocked, teachers can view the ‘over-sharing’ by students as something that needs to be acknowledged. The first step is to identify boundaries that should be set.

These new tools engage us all in various contemporary projects of shareable knowledge, hyper-connected communication and collective cognition. Our own constantly connected mobile device puts nearly infinite information at our fingertips in a dematerialized, timeless and placeless context. Strangely though, the fruits of this placeless and timeless mobility shift yield a seemingly tactile media (e.g., multi-touch) for chronological (e.g., blog) and geo-locative (e.g., check-in) tendencies.

The students I teach use collaborative blogs, social bookmarking, mailing lists, version control systems (for code), Wikis, slide sharing, video sharing, podcasts, graphics software, mapping tools, and sometimes they are even required to use pencil and paper. This multiplicity of tools has a contradictory effect. On one hand, students are continually challenged by technology. On the other hand, they are never constrained to a single tool. Learning does not have a “killer app,” that one necessary tool everyone just has to use. Moreover, those attempting to develop such “killer apps” end up often killing learning itself.

Technology can facilitate this learning process; it can open up new avenues for learning; it can provide teachers with useful information about their students, and it can point children to lessons geared toward their particular needs. It can do all of this in ways that are clearly superior to other resources or methods of instruction.

Influential Second Language Acquistion Theorist, Stephen Krashen, speaks with Grace Wang at the 2011 KOTESOL International Conference in Seoul Korea October 16, 2011.

Standard document management methods have been shown to fail over the years, as most workers do not personally adopt them. Developing good network learning skills, on the other hand, can aid in observing, thinking and using information and knowledge. Learning in networks also prepares the mind to be open to new ideas and can result in “enhanced serendipity.”

There is a case to be made that now is the greatest time in history to be a journalist. There is more access to all media, meaning a larger section of the populace has the chance to stay informed. In places where people have lived under oppressive regimes — like Egypt — the democratization of media has given hope for a freer society. Digital tools now exist that encourage reporting with greater depth. Journalism can be undertaken by crowds working in unison, allowing vast amounts of information to be pored over in ways never before possible. Mistakes can be corrected in real-time and stories can be updated as they unfold.

Gamification should be connected to some meaningful goal that the user brings to the platform. This can be accomplished via offering customizable, or user-defined goals

The Web was meant to be Everything. As the Internet as a whole assumes an increasingly commanding role as the technology of global commerce and communication, the World Wide Web from its very inception was designed to be a free and open medium through which human knowledge is created, accessed and exchanged. But, that Web is in danger of coming to a close. This book shows what is happening and how you can play an important role in keeping the web open.

If you work in a computer lab or wireless environment and you want to encourage your students to bring along laptops and mobile devices and participate in your lessons, then SimpleMeet.Me is a really useful tool. Personally, I have found that using a back channel in this way has transformed the way I teach and enabled me to completely do away with using any kind of paper handouts in class - so no more photocopying. It's also reduced the amount of wasted time struggling with students misspelling URLs and increased engagement during the classes

This course introduces the main concepts and technologies behind Responsive Open Learning Environments (ROLE). The ROLE project provides tools and services that enable learners to build their own technology-enhanced learning environment based on their needs and preferences.

Dr Jan Herrington, explores the use of mobile phones as powerful ‘cognitive tools', where students’ phones can be used to research, produce and publish polished products of learning. Jan is Professor of Education at Murdoch University, and she discusses here some strategies for the design of innovative learning activities and tasks for mobile devices, using authentic learning principles, where whole units of study or projects can be designed around complex and engaging tasks.

Gee, a linguist and professor of literacy studies at Arizona State University, thinks we should expand the traditional definition of literacy beyond reading and writing because language isn’t the only communication system available in today’s world. And there is no better example of a new form of media that communicates distinctive types of meaning than video games.