The Promise of Open Educational Resources

This whitepaper defines OER, discusses what underlies the open educational resources movement and the current status of open educational resources, presents MIT's OpenCourseware project as a case-study, and concludes with future visions for teaching and learning, challenges, and observations

Staging Transformations for Multimodal Web Interaction Management

Multimodal interfaces are becoming increasingly ubiquitous with the advent of mobile devices, accessibility considerations, and novel software technologies that combine diverse interaction media. In addition to improving access and delivery capabilities, such interfaces enable flexible and personalized dialogs with websites, much like a conversation between humans. In this paper, we present a software framework for multimodal web interaction management that supports mixed-initiative dialogs between users and websites. A mixed-initiative dialog is one where the user and the website take turns changing the flow of interaction. The framework supports the functional specification and realization of such dialogs using staging transformations -- a theory for representing and reasoning about dialogs based on partial input. It supports multiple interaction interfaces, and offers sessioning, caching, and co-ordination functions through the use of an interaction manager. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the promise of this approach.Comment: Describes framework and software architecture for multimodal web interaction managemen

The Industry and Policy Context for Digital Games for Empowerment and Inclusion:Market Analysis, Future Prospects and Key Challenges in Videogames, Serious Games and Gamification

The effective use of digital games for empowerment and social inclusion (DGEI) of people and communities at risk of exclusion will be shaped by, and may influence the development of a range of sectors that supply products, services, technology and research. The principal industries that would appear to be implicated are the 'videogames' industry, and an emerging 'serious games' industry. The videogames industry is an ecosystem of developers, publishers and other service providers drawn from the interactive media, software and broader ICT industry that services the mainstream leisure market in games, The 'serious games' industry is a rather fragmented and growing network of firms, users, research and policy makers from a variety of sectors. This emerging industry is are trying to develop knowledge, products, services and a market for the use of digital games, and products inspired by digital games, for a range of non-leisure applications. This report provides a summary of the state of play of these industries, their trajectories and the challenges they face. It also analyses the contribution they could make to exploiting digital games for empowerment and social inclusion. Finally, it explores existing policy towards activities in these industries and markets, and draws conclusions as to the future policy relevance of engaging with them to support innovation and uptake of effective digital game-based approaches to empowerment and social inclusion.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

A Review of the Open Educational Resources (OER) Movement: Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities

Examines the state of the foundation's efforts to improve educational opportunities worldwide through universal access to and use of high-quality academic content

Slide to Unlock: Creating a Technology-Integrated Environment for Our Students

The focus of this study is to explore how to support teachers in capitalizing on students’ technology skills, experiences, and preferences to offer enhanced teaching and learning experiences in school. Using a framework developed by Wagner et al. (2006), technology integration is systemically examined in terms of “4 Cs:” context, culture, conditions, and competencies to construct an “As-Is” picture of a school district based upon current realities. Next, a series of changes are proposed and the 4 Cs are used to describe the “To-Be” picture of the organization at the end of the proposed change journey. The three teachers who participated in this study used a protocol developed by the researcher with over 150 students that allowed the teachers to learn about their students’ technology skills, experiences, and preferences both in and outside of school. Information from the survey data was used by the researcher and participating teachers to co-plan technology-integrated projects that matched the students’ technology skills, experiences, and preferences. An analysis of the student projects and teacher interview data resulted in a set of eight strategies for educators, Creating a Technology-Integrated Environment for Our Students, presented in two themes. Theme one offers, Provide Technology-Integrated Student Learning Opportunities: (1) engage students by allowing choices; (2) share learning experiences (student-to-student; student-to-teacher); (3) create with digital tools, learn outside of school, and simplify learning experiences; and (4) practice student-centered assessment. Theme two offers, Provide a Technology- Integrated Environment: (5) seek student opinions and match tools with student interests; (6) build capacity in the classroom; (7) provide models for all teachers; and (8) allow students to take the lead

Integrating Technology With Student-Centered Learning

Reviews research on technology's role in personalizing learning, its integration into curriculum-based and school- or district-wide initiatives, and the potential of emerging digital technologies to expand student-centered learning. Outlines implications

A Study of West Virginia Teachers: Using 21st Century Tools to Teach in a 21st Century Context

Technology integration is reinforced not only by the National Educational Technology Standards but also the West Virginia Technology Standards, making teachers more accountable to use technology in their daily teaching practice. Because West Virginia has established a partnership with the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, West Virginia teachers are being encouraged to change instruction to meet the needs of 21st century learners. This includes being more student-centered by integrating instructional technologies to more actively engage students. By determining the frequency of integration of 21st century technology tools to create a 21st century context for learning and the factors that influence them, West Virginia has valuable information for promoting systemic change. This study found that West Virginia teachers frequently use few 21st century technology tools, seldom use 21st century technology tools to create a 21st century context for learning, and identified supports and barriers that enable or prohibit their use of technology. In addition, the teachers provided examples of technology activities in which they frequently engage their students. The results provide the foundation on which to build professional development that will lead transformational change in technology integration in West Virginia schools

Developments in information technology, networks and services

A review of policy issues facing Scotland as it faces changing from an industrial society to a knowledge led economy. Identifies the key developments, external trends and internal pressures which library policy makers face. Identifies content creation, metadata, preservation, user support as the four key areas