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 Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education.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

Exploring children's perspectives: Multiple ways of seeing and knowing the child.

This article focuses on human development in the early years, and the challenges for teachers and researchers in seeking to explore young children's perspectives. The current interest in listening to children's voices sits within competing developmental discourses about infants, toddlers and young children, which emphasise both their capability and confidence as well as their immaturity, especially with regard to oral language. Their "voice" can be heard and seen differently by teachers, researchers and families, who filter it according to their own perspectives and their image of the child. Drawing on a range of contemporary New Zealand studies, we discuss some key issues such as whether children need speech to have a voice? And in what ways can we gather children's perspectives in research and education? To explore children's perspectives and hear their voices requires skilled and flexible researchers and teachers, who watch and listen carefully whilst being mindful of their filtering/interpretive gazes. This takes time and patience and requires multiple ways of gathering data in order that the child is heard authentically

Reaching Out: Board Ambassadors for Growth in Community Foundations

Outlines how community foundations can maximize trustees' roles in building relationships, visibility, and credibility in the community by providing clear expectations, continuous education, equipment, positive experiences, and a supportive environment

Somatic, Auditory, Visual, Intellectual (Savi): Its Effectiveness to Teach Writing From the Perspective of Students' Critical Thinking

SAVI is a method used in teaching and learning process which has four main aspects, they are Somatic, it is learning by moving and doing; Auditory, it is learning by talking and hearing; Visual, it is learning by observing and seeing; Intellectual, it is learning by problem solving and reflecting. This article refers to an experimental study on the effectiveness of SAVI to teach writing at one of senior high school in Metro, Lampung. The samples were two classes namely experimental class which was taugh using SAVI and control class which was taught by TSTS. Each class consisted of two groups based on the level of critical thinking (high and low). To gain the data, two instruments were used namely writing test and critical thinking test. The data were, then, analysed by using Multifactor Analysis of Variance ANOVA 2X2 and Tukey test. Before conducting the ANOVA test, pre-requisite test namley normality and homogeneity test were conducted. The findings of this research are: (1) SAVI is more effective than TSTS (2) The students with high critical thinking have better writing skill than those having low critical thinking; and (3) There is an interaction between teaching methods and students' critical thinking in teaching writing. Therefore, it is recommended for English teachers to implement SAVI in teaching writing activities because this method gives positive contribution in improving the students writing skill and facilitating the students' critical thinking to produce a good text

Methodological development

Book description: Human-Computer Interaction draws on the fields of computer science, psychology, cognitive science, and organisational and social sciences in order to understand how people use and experience interactive technology. Until now, researchers have been forced to return to the individual subjects to learn about research methods and how to adapt them to the particular challenges of HCI. This is the first book to provide a single resource through which a range of commonly used research methods in HCI are introduced. Chapters are authored by internationally leading HCI researchers who use examples from their own work to illustrate how the methods apply in an HCI context. Each chapter also contains key references to help researchers find out more about each method as it has been used in HCI. Topics covered include experimental design, use of eyetracking, qualitative research methods, cognitive modelling, how to develop new methodologies and writing up your research

Social media: a guide for researchers

This guide has been produced by the International Centre for Guidance Studies, and aims to provide the information needed to make an informed decision about using social media and select from the vast range of tools that are available. One of the most important things that researchers do is to find, use and disseminate information, and social media offers a range of tools which can facilitate this. The guide discusses the use of social media for research and academic purposes and will not be examining the many other uses that social media is put to across society. Social media can change the way in which you undertake research, and can also open up new forms of communication and dissemination. It has the power to enable researchers to engage in a wide range of dissemination in a highly efficient way.Research Information Networ