1st Global Conference Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds (Call for Papers), 20th–22nd March 2011, Prague, Czech Republic. The aim of this conference will be to examine formal and informal learning in virtual worlds in an attempt to critique both its essential characteristics and its future possibilities. Teachers of all levels, university faculty, virtual world players, researchers, and others interested in what happens in virtual worlds and what it means for us as humans are invited to participate.

Being such a broad topic, Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds defies a definitive list of sub-topics. The following list is indicative of some of the topics covered:

• Skill development in MMORPGs
• Online communities, formal and informal
• Case studies of experimental projects
• Art of building a virtual persona
• Emerging technologies within Higher Education
• International technology challenges
• Blended Learning approaches
• Metrics and assessment in virtual worlds
• New forms of testing in virtual worlds
• Organizational issues/strategies in Virtual education

300 word abstracts should be submitted by 1st October 2010.

Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds Conference is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

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This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online college courses.  She welcomes your comments here or at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.

Online students are connected to their homework, campus services, professors and classmates via their distance learning university, but there are other tools that can enrich their learning experience and make them feel even more included and engaged in their education. Twitter is an easy, remote-access tool that facilitates research, directs students to primary resources and interviews, and can even act as a project management system, all while allowing students free, independent access to self-directed exploration. While some students may use Twitter and other social networking sites as an extracurricular – or purely social – outlet, others can restrict their use and their friends or followers list to include only the people and organizations that are relevant to their education. English majors may wish to follow other professors on Twitter, as well as journals, newspapers, authors, word or reference sites, and other literature or language enthusiasts. Every time that student logs on to Twitter, then, he or she will be invited to all sorts of conversations, debates and collaborations that bring classroom-learned concepts into the real world. This sort of experiential education is catching on rapidly in distance learning and vocational schools, and is even gaining more traction on traditional campuses. And while Twitter is an Internet tool, it’s hardly passive: you could even call it hands-on training for participating in the workplace and valuable practice for formulating arguments and figuring out solutions to real problems.

There are lots of Twitter apps and tools that have been developed to streamline the experience, but if you overload on these, you’ll just clutter up your Twitter feed and make it more complicated. Use one tool – either a desktop client or an e-mail integration tool to keep Twitter close at hand without distracting you. Another useful tool you should start with is a directory for finding the people you want to connect with via Twitter. A popular, effective directory is WeFollow, which lets you search by keyword so that your follow list only includes users who will be of value to you and your research.

As an online student, Twitter can be an extremely significant partner, helping you with research for specific projects or to just learn more about the field you’re studying in general. With a tool like Tweetree, you can even display conversations in context, creating an automatic mind map or brainstorming illustration to organize your thoughts and papers. You can also collaborate with study partners in your own class if you want to share Twitter links and resources with them. Tools like Hoot Suite help groups keep track of messages and group members, track assignments, add notes, and organize outlines, quotes, links, and more.

If you’re already on Twitter for social networking, create a new account just for academics and career building. Limit your followers and follow list to people who won’t distract you from your work but who will educate you on the field and welcome your opinions and discussion. Share links and ideas, and be respectful, remembering that Twitter can be another extension of your online learning experience.

Twitter for Online Students is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

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• WiZiQ – Connecting Teachers and Students
• Why e-Learning Programs are Better Than the Traditional Ones?
• Education 2.0
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• Two Interesting Reports from CDW-G: 21st-Century Campus Report and 21st-Century Classroom Report
• The Best of Online Learning: Free Video Lectures

TeachersFirst Wiki Walkthrough: The path starts with the basic What in the world is a wiki? and continues with Who uses wikis? and What is the difference between a wiki and a blog? For teachers is important to know So how do I use wikis with my class(es)? or What benefits are there from student wiki participation? Some examples can be seen on the wiki walk through some sample wikis. We can even play with some wiki tools on the Which wiki tool will you use? section. A visit to the TeachersFirst wiki is also recommended. Here we can find more ideas on how to use a wiki as a learning tool.

TeachersFirst is offering two free meetings at OK2Ask Guided Wiki Walk, today and July 29 at either 3 pm or 6 pm Eastern time both days (with a little homework in between).

Wiki Walkthrough: Wikis FAQs answered by TeachersFirst (with examples) is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

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Students as Web 2.0 authors: Implications for assessment design and conduct by Kathleen Gray, Celia Thompson, Judithe Sheard, Rosemary Clerehan, Margaret Hamilton, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 26, 105-122 (2010). Abstract: Students now have at their disposal a range of Web 2.0 authoring forms such as audio and video podcasting, blogging, social bookmarking, social networking, virtual world activities and wiki writing. Many university educators are interested in enabling students to demonstrate their learning by creating content in these forms. However, the design and conduct of assessment for such student-created content is not straightforward. Based upon a review of current literature and examples in the public domain, this paper identifies key challenges for academic assessment that arise from students’ use of Web 2.0 authoring forms. We describe and analyse selected cases where academics have set assessable student Web 2.0 activities in a range of fields of study, noting especially the inter-relationship of learning objectives, assessment tasks and marking criteria. We make recommendations for practice, research and understanding to strengthen educational quality and academic integrity in the use of Web 2.0 authoring forms for assessable student learning.

From the conclusion: Advancing the assessment of student Web 2.0 authoring requires a degree of collegial consensus and a level of academic peer review that are not yet in place. Attempts at assessing student Web 2.0 authoring in higher education may founder if they merely replicate existing practices in new forms. Suggestions for using specific Web 2.0 authoring forms innovatively for assessment purposes are scattered too widely across refereed and ephemeral literature, and may be tied too closely to an individual educator’s style or experience, to be helpful to an academic community or institution trying to achieve system-wide improvements. A project currently in progress aims to address this situation by sharing academics’ approaches to educational effectiveness and principled conduct in this area of assessment. Continue reading this interesting article.

Assessment of Students Web 2.0 Authoring is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

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EDGE 2010 Conference E-Learning: The Horizon and Beyond. The EDGE 2010 conference will bring together researchers, university and college educators, cooperating teachers and teacher mentors, school district and ministry of education professionals, teacher association leaders, and graduate students to share research and innovative practices in the field of new and emerging technologies in education.

The conference program is intended to be broad, encompassing K-12 and post-secondary education and aims to provide a constructive forum for the presentation and discussion of new ideas, research and best practices relating to use of new and emerging technologies in education. Sessions will focus on the application of technologies in teaching, learning, research, and educational leadership. Themes will include such topics as Web 2.0 and 3.0, assistive technologies, fine arts and culture, skills training and trades education, second language, professional development, leadership, and aboriginal education.

EDGE 2010 Conference will take place between October 12-15, 2010 at the Delta Hotel, St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, Canada.

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EDGE 2010 Conference – E-Learning: The Horizon and Beyond is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

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2010 Horizon Report. From the Executive Summary: In each edition of the Horizon Report, six emerging technologies or practices are described that are likely to enter mainstream use on campuses within three adoption horizons spread over the next one to five years. Each report also presents critical trends and challenges that will affect teaching and learning over the same time frame. In the seven years that the Horizon Project has been underway, more than 400 leaders in the fields of business, industry, technology, and education have contributed to this long-running primary research effort.

The report’s format is consistent from year to year, opening with a discussion of the trends and challenges identified by the Advisory Board as most critical for the next five years. The format of the main section closely reflects the focus of the Horizon Project itself, centering on the applications of emerging technologies to teaching, learning, and creative inquiry.

Technologies to Watch: On the near-term horizon — that is, within the next 12 months — are mobile computing and open content.

You may also want to browse the Horizon Report Wiki, the workplace for the members of the Horizon Project Advisory Board to manage the process of selecting the topics for the 2010 Horizon Report or download the PDF version of the report (available in four languages).

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

2010 Horizon Report Highlights Mobile Computing and Open Content is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

You might also like:

• NMC: The Horizon Report
• 2009 Horizon Report Web Edition
• Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars
• Top-Ten Technology-Related Teaching and Learning Issues According to EDUCAUSE
• Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution
• Schools + Web 2.0 + Open Technologies = Education 2.0

Recently, I’ve discovered the excellent Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning from George Siemens and Peter Tittenberger, Learning Technologies Centre (LTC), University of Manitoba. This handbook is freely available in two formats: wiki and PDF. The number, diversity and quality of the bibliographic references are worth mentioning. A must read!

Conclusion excerpt: The use of technology for learning is influenced by developments in numerous fields: technology itself, global trends (market economy growth, changing immigration patterns, intellectual shifts to emerging economies), societal trends and trends within educational research.

Much of the change in education over the last several decades has been defined by discussion of content. Should we teach more math? Science? What about ethics? How should we teach? Lecture? Problem-based learning? It seems that much of educational reform has been concerned with determining the content of education, rather than the model and process of learning design and delivery in a technology infused world.

For individual faculty members and departments, greater use of emerging technology can serve as an important bridging process between the traditional role of education and the not yet clearly defined future. Active participation in the ecology of perpetual change provides organizations with the capacity to sense, recognize, and respond to emerging patterns.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

Free: Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

You might also like:

• Wiki Walkthrough: Wikis FAQs answered by TeachersFirst (with examples)
• Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution
• NMC: The Horizon Report
• My View on EduLearn 2010
• Microsoft Teacher Guides: Developing Critical Thinking Through Web Research Skills
• Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds Conference

Report of an independent Committee of Inquiry into the impact on higher education of students’ widespread use of Web 2.0 technologies: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World.

From the Conclusions: Web 2.0, the Social Web, has had a profound effect on behaviours, particularly those of young people whose medium and metier it is. They inhabit it with ease and it has led them to a strong sense of communities of interest linked in their own web spaces, and to a disposition to share and participate. It has also led them to impatience – a preference for quick answers – and to a casual approach to evaluating information and attributing it and also to copyright and legal constraints. (…)

Higher education has a key role in helping students refine, extend and articulate the diverse range of skills they have developed through their experience of Web 2.0 technologies. It not only can, but should, fulfil this role, and it should do so through a partnership with students to develop approaches to learning and teaching. This does not necessarily mean wholesale incorporation of ICT into teaching and learning. Rather it means adapting to and capitalising on evolving and intensifying behaviours that are being shaped by the experience of the newest technologies. In practice it means building on and steering the positive aspects of those behaviours such as experimentation, collaboration and teamwork, while addressing the negatives such as a casual and insufficiently critical attitude to information. The means to these ends should be the best tools for the job, whatever they may be. The role of institutions of higher education is to enable informed choice in the matter of those tools, and to support them and their effective deployment.

Download this Report (PDF, 2 MB)

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JISC Report: Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

You might also like:

• More on Web 2.0 in Education
• WiZiQ – Connecting Teachers and Students
• Two Interesting Reports from CDW-G: 21st-Century Campus Report and 21st-Century Classroom Report
• Twitter for Online Students
• To Have the Skills or Not: A New Digital Divide?
• Scriblink: A Free Digital Whiteboard

Sclipo is a social learning network. Sclipo offers a revolutionary way to learn online by integrating rich educational applications – such as video and webcam – into a true social network platform. Sclipo helps you to teach and learn just about everything, from technology to languages or cooking, and connects you with people of common interests.

Sclipo Document Library and Video Library contain educational materials, such as lectures or tutorials added by Sclipo Academies.

Sclipo Blog.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

Sclipo: Social Learning Revolution is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

You might also like:

• Article: Pedagogical Affordances of Syndication, Aggregation and Mash-Up of Content on the Web
• Academic Earth (& YouTube EDU): Thousands of Video Lectures from the World’s Top Scholars
• TeacherTube: Educational Videos Sharing
• SlideShare – A Place to Share Slideshows and Presentations
• More on Web 2.0 in Education
• Free: Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition. From the Executive Summary: The annual Horizon Report describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium (NMC)’s Horizon Project, a long-running qualitative research project that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations. The 2009 Horizon Report is the sixth annual report in the series. The report is produced again in 2009 as a collaboration between the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE program.

The 2009 Horizon Report is also available as PDF.

See also: 2009 NMC Summer Conference. The NMC Summer Conference is a one-of-a-kind event, attracting an audience of highly skilled professionals who are very knowledgeable about and interested in the integration of emerging technologies into teaching, learning, and creative expression.

Recommended: Selected Science News and Resources

2009 Horizon Report Web Edition is a post from Learning Online Info, a blog dedicated to the world of e-learning and the new learning technologies.

You might also like:

• NMC: The Horizon Report
• 2010 Horizon Report Highlights Mobile Computing and Open Content
• My View on EduLearn 2010
• Experiential Learning in Virtual Worlds Conference
• EDGE 2010 Conference – E-Learning: The Horizon and Beyond
• Schools + Web 2.0 + Open Technologies = Education 2.0