Personal Learning Environments and Digital Literacies

This is a version of a seminar/keynote talk I have given a few times. It argues that VLEs are no longer fit for purpose and that students should learn to take responsibility for their own toolsets.

The digital classroom : harnessing technology for the future of learning and teaching.

Basado en el Proyecto Interactivo de investigación, este libro examina e ilustra cómo las tecnologías digitales pueden transformar el aprendizaje a través del currículo. Al observar los distintos entornos educativos en los que se mueven los niños y jóvenes-la casa y la escuela en las etapas primaria y secundaria-los profesionales piensan en que las nuevas tecnologías (TIC) suponen una ayuda para planificar y apoyar un aprendizaje eficaz en las clases. También, se ofrece a los lectores, a través de ejercicios prácticos y temas para la reflexión, la oportunidad de examinar su propia práctica docente y su experiencia en relación con estas tecnologías y entender sus beneficios y limitaciones.

Learning and teaching using digital books : opportunities and constraints

Resumen basado en el de la publicaci??n

Comparison of learning between Digital gallery and Hands-on Laboratory

This thesis has been done in ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) located in Toronto Canada. It focuses on learning in two parts of the museum. It tries to find out how much each part is effective in terms of learning. Studies have been done in the Digital gallery, which has been equipped with digital video projector and workstation that allows visitors to interact with the collections in 2 or 3 dimensional spaces while they are watching the presenting film. The rest of the study was in Hands-on laboratory, which allows students to examine artifacts and discuss their findings .The method was used in this research is Concept mapping .In Digital gallery, 24 schools surveys in the form of pre-post- test by help of the concept mapping method has been done. In Hands-on laboratory, 12 schools have been studied by using the combination of interviewing and written pre post-test of concept mapping.

Looking for business models in digital media and content industries

International Conference on Dynamics of the Media and Content Industry. European Forum for Science and Industry.

Educating a New Cadre of Experts Specializing in Digital Collections and Digital Curation: Experiential Learning in Digital Library Curriculum

Integration of experiential learning into the library and information science (LIS) courses has been a theme in LIS education, but the topic deserves renewed attention with an increasing demand for professionals in the digital library field and in light of the new initiative announced by the Library of Congress (LC) and the Institution of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) for national residency program in digital curation. The balance between theory and practice in digital library curricula, the challenges of incorporating practical projects into LIS coursework, and the current practice of teaching with hands on activities represent the primary areas of this panel discussion.

Cooperative learning and its influences on the diminishing of the digital divide

Digital divide is an issue that concerns our technology dominated society. The parents of ubiquitous computing dreamt of a total proliferation of information technology. But the reality we live in is not yet prepared for this future. There is current a need to develop programs in order to diminish this difference between the digitally included and the excluded one. PROEJA-Transiarte is a project ran by Universidade de Brasília in the city of Ceilândia, Federal District of Brazil. It proposes a different approach on the issue of digital divide, by introducing the cooperative creation of cyberart, based on the life stories of each participant, into the regular curriculum of EJA (Educação de Jovens e Adultos) classes, thus implementing the concept of solidary education. This research project investigated the role played by the cooperative learning the students put in practice during the workshops of the project in the diminishing of the digital exclusion a great part of the students feel. It looked into their activities, analyzing the development of their cooperation, putting it next in the context of the digital and social inclusion. After a multi-dimensional research on the theme, in the context of PROEJA-Transiarte, the conclusion shows the impact cooperative learning has in the reduction of the digital divide, analyzing the perception of the currently involved students, the researchers active in the project, or the former students that had their lives improved because of the workshops they participated in.

Uses of YouTube : digital literacy and the growth of knowledge

I invented YouTube. Well, not YouTube exactly, but something close – something called YIRN; and not by myself exactly, but with a team. In 2003-5 I led a research project designed to link geographically dispersed young people, to allow them to post their own photos, videos and music, and to comment on the same from various points of view – peer to peer, author to public, or impresario to audience. We wanted to find a way to take the individual creative productivity that is associated with the Internet and combine it with the easy accessibility and openness to other people’s imagination that is associated with broadcasting; especially, in the context of young people, listening to the radio. So we called it the Youth Internet Radio Network, or YIRN.

Digital scholarship and pedagogy, the next step : cultural science.

There are two aspects to the problem of digital scholarship and pedagogy. One is to do with scholarship; the other with pedagogy. In scholarship, the association of knowledge with its printed form remains dominant. In pedagogy, the desire to abandon print for ‘new’ media is urgent, at least in some parts of the academy. Film and media studies are thus at the intersection of opposing forces – pulling the field ‘back’ to print and ‘forward’ to digital media. These tensions may be especially painful in a field whose own object of study is another form of communication, neither print nor digital but broadcast. Although print has been overtaken in the popular marketplace by audio-visual forms, this was never achieved in the domain of scholarship. Even when it is digitally distributed, the output of research is still a ‘paper.’ But meanwhile, in the realm of teaching, production- and practice-based pedagogy has become firmly established. Nevertheless a disjunction remains, between high-end scholarship in research universities and vocational training in teaching institutions; but neither is well equipped to deal with the digital challenge.

MILK : the Mobile Informal Learning Kit. Collaborating to design successful mobile learning applications

This paper suggests ways for educators and designers to understand and merge priorities in order to inform the development of mobile learning (m-learning) applications that maximise user experiences and hence learning opportunities. It outlines a User Experience Design (UXD) theory and development process that requires designers to conduct a thorough initial contextual inquiry into a particular domain in order to set project priorities and development guidelines. A matrix that identifies the key contextual considerations namely the social, cultural, spatial, technical and temporal constructs of any domain is presented as a vital tool for achieving successful UXD. The frame of reference provided by this matrix ensures that decisions made throughout the design process are attributable to a desired user experience. To illustrate how the proposed UXD theory and development process supports the creation of effective m-learning applications, this paper documents the development process of MILK (Mobile Informal Learning Kit). MILK is a support tool that allows teachers and students to develop event paths that consist of a series SMS question and answer messages that lead players through a series of checkpoints between point A and point B. These event paths can be designed to suit desired learning scenarios and can be used to explore a particular place or subject. They can also be designed to facilitate formal or informal learning experiences.

My media studies : the history and future of ideas

In the context of a multi-paper special issue of TVNM on the future of media studies, this paper traces the tradition of ‘active audience’ theory in TV scholarship, arguing that it has much to offer in the study of new digital media, especially an approach to user-created content and dynamics of change. The paper argues for a ‘cultural science’ approach to ‘active audiences’ in order to analyse and understand how non-professionals and consumers contribute to the growth of knowledge in complex open media systems.