March 19, 2012
Free Project Based Learning resource available
David Andrade,
Educational Technology Guy, March 19, 2012.
I haven't had a chance to review this item beyond a quick skim, but it looks useful: "a new publication on project based learning, Work That Matters: The Teacher’s Guide to Project-based Learning, produced in partnership with San Diego’s High Tech High. This is available as a free PDF download and has great tips, ideas, resources, and information for helping teachers and schools implement project based learning in their schools and classrooms.
[Link] [Comment][Tags: Schools, Project Based Learning, Google]
No country for old ideas, this
Martin Weller,
The Ed Techie, March 19, 2012.
One of what will be a number of posts from different people following out #edgex2012 experience in New Delhi. One thing we all noticed, as Martin Weller notes, was the proliferation of universities selling their wares to the Indian market. A number of us cautioned the prospective buyers. "Beware the undead - there are a lot of US and UK universities hovering around India, trying to sell their model as a solution. With higher education on its knees in the west, this big market attracts the half-dead universities to suck on its new blood. Ok, I'm overplaying it. I think there are undoubtedly mutually beneficial collaborations that are being established, but as George exhorted, 'stay Indian'."
What is the real obstacle to the integration of ICT in the classroom?
Annick Arsenault Carter,
Weblog, March 19, 2012.
Changing times. "Two months ago, I would have thought the lack of access to computers was the major obstacle to the integration of ICT in the classroom. Today, I dare say it is rather the lack of training and motivation among teachers who are fairly major obstacles." Though I would say I have long found the intransegence of the school system (and not just teacxhers) to be the major obstacle to change in ecucation (of course, their intransegence is often reasonable, as education seems to be facing a proliferation of snake-oil 'reform' movements). Original in French. Via Jacques Cool.
The process of open educational practice, rather than the outcomes. Stuff badges!!
Rita Kop,
Weblog, March 19, 2012.
David Wiley is the latest to line up behind badges (though in his Wiley-ish way, he can said he was talking about the value of badges rather than actually endorsing them (I am finding Wiley's writing less and less direct these days - he must be moving up in the world). "Rather than being a token representing course-level achievement, each badge is a token representing the achievement of a learning outcome." Rita Kop offers the necessary criticism: "by awarding badges to open learning episodes, for instance, you actually change them into closed courses. We already have lots and lots of those. So, why are people suddenly so obsessed with accreditation of open courses?" Exactly. Good point.
3D Virtual Worlds are NOT Dead, Dying or Disappearing
Karl Kapp,
Kapp Notes, March 19, 2012.
In response to recent reports that 3D virtual worlds are dead, disappearing and dying we see this article from Kaplan asserting that they are not, in fact, dead, disappearing or dying. Perhaps the other reports should simply have written 'deserted' and left it at that. No matter. The article is uncoinvincing. Karl Kapp writes about the virtues of a virtual world ("there is a level of engagement that I have never experienced with 2D webinar software or even video conferencing") but aside from reporting on a class where he was a gues speaker,m he offers no evidence to support the assertion in his headline.
Markets, networks and management
Esko Kilpi,
Interactive Value Creation, March 19, 2012.
Some good reflections. One is that network science tells us we cannot understand the workings of a system by looking at the parts. I would add that this is one of the major differences between network theory and systems theory. "The suggested unit of analysis is now communication and emergence, not entities." Additionally, the same phenomena look different when viewed in this way. "Self-interest in the network economy looks different from self-interest in the market economy; Individual success is likely to take place through enriching relationships, being part of networked interaction aiming to enable both the individual and the collective effort."
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