Using an interactive whiteboard and a computer-programming tool to support the development of the key competencies in the New Zealand curriculum

Does children’s use of the software Scratch provide potential for the enhancement of key competencies as they work in pairs at the interactive whiteboard (IWB)? This article looks at how children using Scratch collaborated and managed their projects as they set about designing, constructing, testing and evaluating a game for others to play, a task that provided a sustained challenge over six weeks and beyond. The findings showed that the key competencies of participating, contributing, and relating to others were enhanced by the collaborative use of Scratch at the IWB, and that creative and conceptual thinking processes were sustained. Children became increasingly adept at using Scratch, and some children, previously thought to have poor social skills, began to articulate their understandings to others. While a guiding and scaffolding role was evident in teachers’ actions, close monitoring of group progress and direct input from teachers is required to keep the challenge high but achievable, and to extend children’s knowledge and thinking as they use Scratch at the IWB

Conceptual Framework for the Use of Building Information Modeling in Engineering Education

The objective of this paper is to present a critical literature review of the Building Information Modelling (BIM) methodologyandtoanalyzewhetherBIMcanbeconsideredaVirtualLearningEnvironment.Aconceptualframeworkis proposed for using BIM in a university context. A search of documents was carried out in the Core Collection of Web of Science; it was restricted to the last five years (2013–2017). A total of 95 documents were analyzed; all documents were written in English and peer reviewed. BIM meets all the characteristics of Virtual Learning Environments. The proposed framework has three dimensions (competencies, pedagogical approach and level of integration).It allows for the planning and analysis of future experiences of teaching BIM in a university context.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness of Spain and AEI/FEDER, UE Projects EDU2016-77007-RRegional Government of Extremadura (Spain) IB 16068Regional Government of Extremadura (Spain) GR1800

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation

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

Aligning operational and corporate goals: a case study in cultivating a whole-of-business approach using a supply chain simulation game

This paper outlines the development and use of an interactive computer-based supply chain game to facilitate the alignment of disconnected operational and corporate goals. A multi-enterprise internal cattle supply chain was simulated targeting the operational property managers and the overall impacts of their decision making on corporate goals A three stage multidisciplinary approach was used. A case study based financial analysis was undertaken across the internal cattle supply chain, a participative action research component (developing the game to simulate the flow of product and associated decisions and financial transactions through the internal supply chain of the company for different operational scenarios using measurable and familiar operational and financial criteria as tracking tools), and a qualitative analysis of organisational learning through player debriefing following playing the game. Evaluation of the managers' learning around the need for a change in general practice to address goal incongruence was positive evidenced by changes in practice and the game regarded by the users as a useful form of organisational training. The game provided property managers with practical insights into the strategic implications of their enterprise level decisions on the internal supply chain and on overall corporate performance. The game is unique and is a tool that can be used to help address an endemic problem across multi-enterprise industries in the agrifood sector in Australia

Digital and Media Literacy: A Plan of Action

Outlines a community education movement to implement Knight's 2009 recommendation to enhance digital and media literacy. Suggests local, regional, state, and national initiatives such as teacher education and parent outreach and discusses challenges

The Road Ahead for State Assessments

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards offers an opportunity to make significant improvements to the large-scale statewide student assessments that exist today, and the two US DOE-funded assessment consortia -- the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) -- are making big strides forward. But to take full advantage of this opportunity the states must focus squarely on making assessments both fair and accurate.A new report commissioned by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy and Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), The Road Ahead for State Assessments, offers a blueprint for strengthening assessment policy, pointing out how new technologies are opening up new possibilities for fairer, more accurate evaluations of what students know and are able to do. Not all of the promises can yet be delivered, but the report provides a clear set of assessment-policy recommendations. The Road Ahead for State Assessments includes three papers on assessment policy.The first, by Mark Reckase of Michigan State University, provides an overview of computer adaptive assessment. Computer adaptive assessment is an established technology that offers detailed information on where students are on a learning continuum rather than a summary judgment about whether or not they have reached an arbitrary standard of "proficiency" or "readiness." Computer adaptivity will support the fair and accurate assessment of English learners (ELs) and lead to a serious engagement with the multiple dimensions of "readiness" for college and careers.The second and third papers give specific attention to two areas in which we know that current assessments are inadequate: assessments in science and assessments for English learners.In science, paper-and-pencil, multiple choice tests provide only weak and superficial information about students' knowledge and skills -- most specifically about their abilities to think scientifically and actually do science. In their paper, Chris Dede and Jody Clarke-Midura of Harvard University illustrate the potential for richer, more authentic assessments of students' scientific understanding with a case study of a virtual performance assessment now under development at Harvard. With regard to English learners, administering tests in English to students who are learning the language, or to speakers of non-standard dialects, inevitably confounds students' content knowledge with their fluency in Standard English, to the detriment of many students. In his paper, Robert Linquanti of WestEd reviews key problems in the assessment of ELs, and identifies the essential features of an assessment system equipped to provide fair and accurate measures of their academic performance.The report's contributors offer deeply informed recommendations for assessment policy, but three are especially urgent.Build a system that ensures continued development and increased reliance on computer adaptive testing. Computer adaptive assessment provides the essential foundation for a system that can produce fair and accurate measurement of English learners' knowledge and of all students' knowledge and skills in science and other subjects. Developing computer adaptive assessments is a necessary intermediate step toward a system that makes assessment more authentic by tightly linking its tasks and instructional activities and ultimately embedding assessment in instruction. It is vital for both consortia to keep these goals in mind, even in light of current technological and resource constraints.Integrate the development of new assessments with assessments of English language proficiency (ELP). The next generation of ELP assessments should take into consideration an English learners' specific level of proficiency in English. They will need to be based on ELP standards that sufficiently specify the target academic language competencies that English learners need to progress in and gain mastery of the Common Core Standards. One of the report's authors, Robert Linquanti, states: "Acknowledging and overcoming the challenges involved in fairly and accurately assessing ELs is integral and not peripheral to the task of developing an assessment system that serves all students well. Treating the assessment of ELs as a separate problem -- or, worse yet, as one that can be left for later -- calls into question the basic legitimacy of assessment systems that drive high-stakes decisions about students, teachers, and schools." Include virtual performance assessments as part of comprehensive state assessment systems. Virtual performance assessments have considerable promise for measuring students' inquiry and problem-solving skills in science and in other subject areas, because authentic assessment can be closely tied to or even embedded in instruction. The simulation of authentic practices in settings similar to the real world opens the way to assessment of students' deeper learning and their mastery of 21st century skills across the curriculum. We are just setting out on the road toward assessments that ensure fair and accurate measurement of performance for all students, and support for sustained improvements in teaching and learning. Developing assessments that realize these goals will take time, resources and long-term policy commitment. PARCC and SBAC are taking the essential first steps down a long road, and new technologies have begun to illuminate what's possible. This report seeks to keep policymakers' attention focused on the road ahead, to ensure that the choices they make now move us further toward the goal of college and career success for all students. This publication was released at an event on May 16, 2011

Assessing Business Learning by Analysing ERP Simulation Log Files

Business education is facing increasing pressures to equip graduates with both practical competencies and functional knowledge. In addition to developing authentic learning environments where one can learn those competencies, we need to develop authentic assessment methods. Computer-assisted learning environments, such as business games and simulations, assist in achieving the intricate learning goals, and at the same time, provide copious quantities of data. In this paper, we present an authentic assessment approach to measure the students’ practical hands-on activities rather than their theoretical knowledge. We analysed the log file data of an ERP-supported simulation to assess learning in a full year case study with first year BBA students. The analysis firstly demonstrates how and when log files can be used, and secondly indicated positive learning results on the cognitive and psychomotor domains of Bloom’s taxonomy. The log file analysis holds potential particularly for formative assessment to guide the student’s learning process during the simulation. These findings and our lessons learned can be applied to assessing learning in computer-supported learning environments, particularly in business simulations

Career Development Program for Refugee and Migrant Youth

The Career Guidance for Refugee and Migrant Young People project is an initiative of the South Metropolitan Migrant Resource Centre funded by the Department of Education and Training. It aims to develop, pilot and evaluate a career development and planning program that specifically meets the learning levels and needs of refugee youth with low levels of education, cultural life skills and English language ability