Week 1 Curated Resources
Here is a curated list of articles from various CoP's (e.g. MindShift, EDUCAUSE, Inside Higher Ed, eLearningIndustry, OLC, and from posts on Twitter) this week. They are broken down by the theories and trends, including OER and Gamification (which I identified earlier this week as two of my trends and theories to pursue for the research component of this course).
Gamification:
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/04/07/how-games-can-be-used-to-teach-college-level-chinese/
This is a discussion with Lee Sheldon, whose career has taken him from screen-writing in Hollywood to game development and now Gamification in education. The article focuses on an immersive language program Sheldon developed that replicates the type of cultural and linguistic encounters students would experience if they study abroad--but makes that experience available to them wherever they are. The article also talks about how Sheldon utilizes Gamification to transform the grading system in courses, providing an overarching storyline and quests and tasks that encourage students to pursue mastery of the content.
https://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/greatbigstory/videos/1737147719920987/
Great Big Story does lots of excellent short documentary-style videos highlighting connections and people stories. In this video, they talk about Gamification (and relate it to the popular app Clash of Clans). Some important take-aways from the video are the idea that play is common in nature, and allows a safe place to practice knowledge and skills. Relating this to Constructivism, one of the theories for this week, they talk about how this type of play helps both children and adults make meaning of the world around us. Collaborative games, like Clash of Clans, reinforce notions of working together to achieve larger communal goals and even helps develop understandings for investments and incentivizing our actions (e.g. saving up resource to accomplish something more rewarding in the future).
https://elearningindustry.com/neuroscience-of-storytelling-will-make-rethink-way-create
This article from eLearningIndustry connects Gamification with the recent focus on Neuroscience and Learning Sciences in Instructional Design through the tool of storytelling. It explains how storytelling activates and engages more areas of the brain, helping to keep listeners engaged and giving them "tangible" case studies or examples that activate more regions of the brain through visual, auditory, or even olfactory sensations like smells and flavors. This creates a more vivid interaction that sticks with the learner for longer (leading to longer and deeper processing of the information that went with it).
OER:
https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/insights-from-the-field-the-future-of-oer/
This blog entry highlights one of the week-long workshops available through the OLC Institute and talks with the facilitator of that workshop Karen Gardner-Athey. The SUNY system has been a leader in developing OER resources, and supporting faculty across all their campuses to work collaboratively to develop OER materials. Here she talks about some important things for participants using OER materials to keep in mind, as well as important elements for faculty and administrators to remember as they build and deploy these resources in courses.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/09/robin-derosas-oer-pedagogical-endeavor#.WYsZS6pp4jN.twitter
I mentioned this link in a previous post, but include it here in an effort to have week one research from Communities of Practitioners in one location. The article speaks with OER author Robin DeRosa and explores her journey in creating and distributing OER materials.
http://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/8/oer-the-future-of-education-is-open
Beginning with a brief history of the origins of OER resources in MIT's OpenCourseWare, this article moves on to quantify the rising cost of textbooks (82% increase between 2002 and 2012, when inflation saw only a 28% rise), outline motivations for students and faculty to consider OER, and ends with a discussion of future possibilities of OER. What is clear to all parties involved in this debate, is that the textbook system is broken and educational resources will increasingly be digital.
Online Education:
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/09/20/survey-blended-learning-on-the-rise.aspx
Provides an overview of the second annual Teaching with Technology survey conducted by Campus Technology. The two most important take-aways are the continued rise in the use of hybrid and online course design as well as the flipped classroom model. Of faculty surveyed, 12 percent now teach fully online and 73 percent teach in a hybrid format. And when asked about using the flipped classroom model, 61 percent of faculty respondents were employing that design strategy and using face-to-face course time for hands-on and applied learning activities.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/20/blackboard-gaining-back-some-ground-observers-are-cautious
This article talks about Blackboard's attempts to innovate and remain responsive to higher education needs, even though it has lost market share in the last few years.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/09/22/teaching-online-takes-more-time-person
This quick research snippet on a study of 2,000 academics in Australia notes that it typically takes a faculty member 10 hours to develop one hour of online instruction compared to 8 hours to develop one hour for a face-to-face section. Anecdotally, in my experience it does take longer to develop and sequence online learning materials, and another critical difference to keep in mind is that development is completed prior to the start of the course.
Instructional Design (the field broadly construed, its role, or resources for ID's):
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/20/instructional-designers-think-conducting-research-would-improve
The article talks about how instructional designers are increasingly looking to conduct research and publish their work, in an effort to build credibility and expertise for the field among educators. It calls on universities to provide support for professional development and ongoing collaborative research efforts among instructional designers and faculty.
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2017/02/the-ultimate-edtech-chart-for-teachers.html
Although focused more on K12, this chart provides an excellent overview of apps and EdTech tools for educators and is broken down into discipline.
Gamification:
https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/04/07/how-games-can-be-used-to-teach-college-level-chinese/
This is a discussion with Lee Sheldon, whose career has taken him from screen-writing in Hollywood to game development and now Gamification in education. The article focuses on an immersive language program Sheldon developed that replicates the type of cultural and linguistic encounters students would experience if they study abroad--but makes that experience available to them wherever they are. The article also talks about how Sheldon utilizes Gamification to transform the grading system in courses, providing an overarching storyline and quests and tasks that encourage students to pursue mastery of the content.
https://gamingtheclassroom.wordpress.com/
This is the companion blog for one of Lee Sheldon's books, The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game (2012).
https://www.facebook.com/greatbigstory/videos/1737147719920987/
Great Big Story does lots of excellent short documentary-style videos highlighting connections and people stories. In this video, they talk about Gamification (and relate it to the popular app Clash of Clans). Some important take-aways from the video are the idea that play is common in nature, and allows a safe place to practice knowledge and skills. Relating this to Constructivism, one of the theories for this week, they talk about how this type of play helps both children and adults make meaning of the world around us. Collaborative games, like Clash of Clans, reinforce notions of working together to achieve larger communal goals and even helps develop understandings for investments and incentivizing our actions (e.g. saving up resource to accomplish something more rewarding in the future).
https://elearningindustry.com/neuroscience-of-storytelling-will-make-rethink-way-create
This article from eLearningIndustry connects Gamification with the recent focus on Neuroscience and Learning Sciences in Instructional Design through the tool of storytelling. It explains how storytelling activates and engages more areas of the brain, helping to keep listeners engaged and giving them "tangible" case studies or examples that activate more regions of the brain through visual, auditory, or even olfactory sensations like smells and flavors. This creates a more vivid interaction that sticks with the learner for longer (leading to longer and deeper processing of the information that went with it).
OER:
https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/insights-from-the-field-the-future-of-oer/
This blog entry highlights one of the week-long workshops available through the OLC Institute and talks with the facilitator of that workshop Karen Gardner-Athey. The SUNY system has been a leader in developing OER resources, and supporting faculty across all their campuses to work collaboratively to develop OER materials. Here she talks about some important things for participants using OER materials to keep in mind, as well as important elements for faculty and administrators to remember as they build and deploy these resources in courses.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/08/09/robin-derosas-oer-pedagogical-endeavor#.WYsZS6pp4jN.twitter
I mentioned this link in a previous post, but include it here in an effort to have week one research from Communities of Practitioners in one location. The article speaks with OER author Robin DeRosa and explores her journey in creating and distributing OER materials.
http://er.educause.edu/articles/2017/8/oer-the-future-of-education-is-open
Beginning with a brief history of the origins of OER resources in MIT's OpenCourseWare, this article moves on to quantify the rising cost of textbooks (82% increase between 2002 and 2012, when inflation saw only a 28% rise), outline motivations for students and faculty to consider OER, and ends with a discussion of future possibilities of OER. What is clear to all parties involved in this debate, is that the textbook system is broken and educational resources will increasingly be digital.
Online Education:
https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/09/20/survey-blended-learning-on-the-rise.aspx
Provides an overview of the second annual Teaching with Technology survey conducted by Campus Technology. The two most important take-aways are the continued rise in the use of hybrid and online course design as well as the flipped classroom model. Of faculty surveyed, 12 percent now teach fully online and 73 percent teach in a hybrid format. And when asked about using the flipped classroom model, 61 percent of faculty respondents were employing that design strategy and using face-to-face course time for hands-on and applied learning activities.
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/20/blackboard-gaining-back-some-ground-observers-are-cautious
This article talks about Blackboard's attempts to innovate and remain responsive to higher education needs, even though it has lost market share in the last few years.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2017/09/22/teaching-online-takes-more-time-person
This quick research snippet on a study of 2,000 academics in Australia notes that it typically takes a faculty member 10 hours to develop one hour of online instruction compared to 8 hours to develop one hour for a face-to-face section. Anecdotally, in my experience it does take longer to develop and sequence online learning materials, and another critical difference to keep in mind is that development is completed prior to the start of the course.
Instructional Design (the field broadly construed, its role, or resources for ID's):
https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2017/09/20/instructional-designers-think-conducting-research-would-improve
The article talks about how instructional designers are increasingly looking to conduct research and publish their work, in an effort to build credibility and expertise for the field among educators. It calls on universities to provide support for professional development and ongoing collaborative research efforts among instructional designers and faculty.
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2017/02/the-ultimate-edtech-chart-for-teachers.html
Although focused more on K12, this chart provides an excellent overview of apps and EdTech tools for educators and is broken down into discipline.
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this. I too am researching gamification and have found it interesting. The question I had was where is the line between 'engaging the learner' and being frivolous or silly with games and gimicy things - especially in graduate level work? What do you think?
Lee Sheldon's book (referenced above) gives case studies and examples of how game elements can be incorporated into classrooms from very basic feedback systems to full blown game activities. I think if you read/view some of his work on YouTube, as well as work done by James Paul Gee, Sebastian Deterding, Karl Kapp (also referenced above), and Jane McGonigal, you'll see there is a substantial literature on what particular elements of intrinsic motivation and game design are the ones folks should focus on building into classroom models, and why they work.
DeleteIn terms of graduate work, it should probably lean toward a constructivist or Connectivist/apprenticeship-based design to get students practicing professional skills and behaviors. In that realm, badging could be a basic design element to include to get students working towards mastery. Or, you could go further and develop computer simulations depending on the discipline and training needs that immerse the students in the environment they will be working in and give them safe places to experiment, fail, and learn. Done with aligned course materials, feedback systems, and assessments, this is "gamifying" the classroom is done in a research-based way that still leverages the unique opportunities that come with game theory.
But I'll let you discover those specific elements and how they can be applied in your own reading, since you're researching it for this class too. :)