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Although the foreign-language profession routinely stresses the importance of technology for the curriculum, many teachers still harbor deep-seated doubts as to whether or not a hybrid course, much less a completely distance-learning class, could provide L2 learners with a way to reach linguistic proficiency, especially with respect to oral language skills. In this study, we examine the case of Spanish Without Walls (SWW), a first-year language course offered at the University of California - Davis in both hybrid and distance-learning formats. Read the Full Article

A story has a beginning, a middle, and a cleanly wrapped-up ending. Whether told around a campfire, read from a book, or played on a DVD, a story goes from point A to B and then C. It follows a trajectory, a Freytag Pyramid—perhaps the line of a human life or the stages of the hero's journey. A story is told by one person or by a creative team to an audience that is usually quiet, even receptive. Or at least that’s what a story used to be, and that’s how a story used to be told. Today, with digital networks and social media, this pattern is changing. Stories now are open-ended, branching, hyperlinked, cross-media, participatory, exploratory, and unpredictable. And they are told in new ways: Web 2.0 storytelling picks up these new types of stories and runs with them, accelerating the pace of creation and participation while revealing new directions for narratives to flow.Read the Full Article

This study investigated the perception of students and instructors in online technology courses relative to the use of seven principles that demonstrate good practices in undergraduate education. The principles were originally developed for face-to-face instruction, but are applicable in a variety of instructional delivery methods.Read the Full Article

His pick for Education secretary, Chicago's Arne Duncan, faces a divide among Democrats.Read the Full Article

BAGHDAD -- It makes for a strange college campus: Cement blast walls, helicopters roaring overhead, packs of wild dogs howling, the risk of mortar and rocket attacks. Faculty keep Kevlar flak jackets at the ready. Students bring their rifles to class and leave them on the floor with the barrel pointing toward the front of the room. Read the Full Article

CHICAGO, Dec 18, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- McGraw-Hill Contemporary has introduced Pre-GED Online to provide interactive instruction in reading, writing, math, science, and social studies for students who lack the reading ability to work with GED-level materials. Read the Full Article

Money-saving measure would use distance-learning technologyRead the Full Article

Professors, librarians and others have proposed that the U.S. Copyright Office significantly expand its list of when, and by whom, DVDs and other audiovisual materials should be exempted from technological measures that control access to copyrighted works. The list came in a Federal Register notice of proposed rule making that is one early step in a yearlong process that is likely to culminate next fall.Read the Full Article

Delivering broadband Internet service to rural and low-income Tennessee residents has its challenges, but a recent report by a group tasked with promoting that delivery shows progress is being made.Read the Full Article

This study was conducted with data mining (DM) techniques to analyze various patterns of online learning behaviors, and to make predictions on learning outcomes . Statistical models and machine learning DM techniques were conducted to analyze 17,934 server logs to investigate 98 undergraduate students’ learning behaviors in an online business course in Taiwan. Read the Full Article

The study investigated whether two different versions of an online professional development course produced different impacts on the intended outcomes of the course. Variations of an online course for middle school algebra teachers were created for two experimental conditions. One was an actively facilitated course with asynchronous peer interactions among participants. The second was a self-paced condition, in which neither active facilitation or peer interactions were available. Both conditions showed significant impact on teachers’ mathematical understanding, pedagogical beliefs, and instructional practices. Surprisingly, the positive outcomes were comparable both conditions. Further research is needed to determine whether this finding is limited to self-selected teachers, the specifics of this online course, or other factors that limit generalizability.Read the Full Article

Using video games, virtual simulations, and other digital spaces for learning can be a time-consuming process; aside from technical issues that may absorb class time, students take longer to achieve gains in learning in virtual environments.Read the Full Article

A unified approach to the presentation of information for online learning can inform the creation of pedagogically effective web pagesRead the Full Article

John Kuglin's background is as eclectic as the 21st century learning skillset he advocates. He's been an educator since 1971. He's worked with NASA by way of the Earth Observing System project at the University of Montana. He's been a vice president at a digital media authoring and production studio (ComChoice, now known as Scope Seven). And now, as CIO of Eagle County Schools in Colorado, he's at the forefront of developing technology-infused learning environments that will help prepare today's kids for the new realities of the 21st century.Read the Full Article

The opportunities of cyberinfrastructure have been both heralded and hyped. The express purpose of cyberinfrastructure is to enable e-scholarship: new forms of scholarship that are more information-intensive, data-intensive, distributed, collaborative, and multidisciplinary.1 But what does that mean for scholars, for academic libraries, and for campus information technology? What cyberinfrastructure strategies should colleges and universities implement to support the “scholarship” in e-scholarship?Read the Full Article

This action research study describes a course redesign using scholarly research in two ways. Traditional disciplinary research was used to inform the design of the curriculum, and SoTL was used to measure the success of the course design in achieving its objectives for student learning. The objective of the course redesign was to better engage students in applying the authentic disciplinary practices of the field. Research was then conducted on the pedagogical process to determine the success of the new course design in achieving its objectives. The research project documented: how the authentic disciplinary practices were taught to students; student attitudes toward the knowledge gained; and how the students subsequently put this knowledge into practice. The success of the course design in engaging student with authentic disciplinary practices was documented. Conclusions and implications for evidence-based research into the improvement of teaching effectiveness applied to other disciplines are discussed.Read the Full Article

As digital technology thrusts complexity upon copyright law, conflict has escalated between copyright holders desperate to institute a vigorous enforcement mechanism against copying in order to protect their ownership and others who underscore the importance of public interests in accessing and using copyrighted works. This study explores whether Creative Commons (CC) licenses are a viable solution for copyright protection in the digital era. Through a mixed-methods approach involving a web-based survey of CC licensors, a content analysis of CC-licensed works, and interviews, the study characterizes CC licensors, the ways that CC licensors produce creative works, the private interests that CC licenses serve, and the public interests that CC licenses serve. The findings suggest that the Creative Commons can alleviate some of the problems caused by the copyright conflict.Read the Full Article

What happens when the read-write web gets smart enough to help us organize and evaluate the information it provides?Read the Full Article

Chris Dede knows a thing or two about emerging interactive media, immersive interfaces and the impact that both concepts are having on the educational field. Dede, who is presenting his views on both topics at the upcoming FETC 2009 conference in Florida, gives a preview of what attendees can expect from the sessions.Read the Full Article