A Computer-based 21st Century Prototype

This paper describes a prototype computer-based reading comprehension program. It begins with a short description, at a general level, of theoretical issues relating to the learning of comprehension skills in a foreign/second language learning. These issues cover such areas as personal meaning-making on the basis of individual differences and the need for individualized intervention to maximize the comprehension process. Modern technology facilitates this process and enables simultaneous support of large numbers of students. Specifically, from a learning perspective, the program focuses on students' personal understandings while, from a reading perspective, the construction of meaning is based on an interactive model where both high-level (global, inferential) structures are elicited/studied as well as low-level structures (e.g. vocabulary, grammar). These principles are strengthened with research findings from studies in awareness and language processing based on eye-movement analysis. As part of its reading comprehensions focus, the system also has a strong commitment to the development of critical thinking skills, recognized as one of the most important 21st Century skills. The program is then described in detail, including its ability to store students' responses and to be administered through standard learning management systems. Finally, an outline of planned future developments and enhancements is presented

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS ON THE USE OF INTERNET AS LEARNING MEDIA IN READING CLASSROOM

This study investigated students’ perception of using the internet as learning media in reading comprehension skills. This study uses descriptive statistics. The objective of the research was to find out the students’ perception of using the internet as learning media in the reading comprehension skill of the English Education Study Program at Baturaja University. The population of this research was 79 students of English Study Program. The researcher only took 54 students as the sample by applying purposive sampling. The data was collected through the questionnaire that consisted of 20 statements. Then the researcher used five points of Likert scale for analyzing the data. The result of this research there agreed (4.03) students had a positive perception of using the internet as learning media in reading comprehension skills. It means that the internet is a facility to improve his proficiency in language skills. So the use internet for English learning makes language learning an easier process by being fun, interactive, and interesting

Program Comprehension: Identifying Learning Trajectories for Novice Programmers

This working group asserts that Program Comprehension (PC) plays a critical part in the writing process. For example, this abstract is written from a basic draft that we have edited and revised until it clearly presents our idea. Similarly, a program is written in an incremental manner, with each step being tested, debugged and extended until the program achieves its goal. Novice programmers should develop their program comprehen- sion as they learn to code, so that they are able to read and reason about code while they are writing it. To foster such competencies our group has identified two main goals: (1) to collect and define learning activities that explicitly cover key components of program comprehension and (2) to define possible learning trajectories that will guide teachers using those learning activities in their CS0/CS1 or K-12 courses. [...

Fostering Program Comprehension in Novice Programmers - Learning Activities and Learning Trajectories

This working group asserts that Program Comprehension (ProgComp) plays a critical part in the process of writing programs. For example, this paper is written from a basic draft that was edited and revised until it clearly presented our idea. Similarly, a program is written incrementally, with each step tested, debugged and extended until the program achieves its goal. Novice programmers should develop program comprehension skills as they learn to code so that they are able both to read and reason about code created by others, and to reflect on their code when writing, debugging or extending it. To foster such competencies our group identified two main goals: (g1) to collect and define learning activities that explicitly address key components of program comprehension and (g2) to define tentative theoretical learning trajectories that will guide teachers as they select and sequence those learning activities in their CS0/CS1/CS2 or K-12 courses. The WG has completed the first goal and laid down a strong foundation towards the second goal as presented in this report. After a thorough literature review, a detailed description of the Block Model is provided, as this model has been used with a dual purpose, to classify and present an extensive list of ProgComp tasks, and to describe a possible learning trajectory for a complex task, covering different cells of the Block Model matrix. The latter is intended to help instructors to decompose complex tasks and identify which aspects of ProgComp are being fostered

Building middle school teacher capacity to implement reading comprehension strategies for improved student academic performance

In the middle school setting, reading is a requirement if students are to access the curriculum and demonstrate content proficiency. By grade three, students are expected to read on grade level, but by middle grades (7-8), some students still struggle with reading for comprehension. In addition, some middle school teachers struggle to implement effective reading supports. There are several reasons teachers fail to implement reading during instruction: teachers view reading as the responsibility of the English/language arts teacher, and not an instructional expectation in other content areas, teachers see reading supports as content specific and not cross-curricular, or teachers simply do not have the capacity to implement reading strategies. This instructional deficit leads to lower student achievement in all content areas due to the students’ inability to read for comprehension, and therefore, access the content.To address the problem of a lack of student reading comprehension skills and to improve student reading performance, this improvement initiative provided on-going, embedded professional learning supports to teachers so as to build their capacity to implement a reading comprehension program into instructional practice. This disquisition examines one middle school’s efforts to improve student reading performance by building the capacity of all teachers to implement reading instruction. The Hawk 5 program, created by the NBMS leadership/design team, includes the school-wide implementation of the reading strategies toolkit following a prescribed instructional timeline and was modeled after a similar program used in the Anchorage School District (Goodman, A., 2005). Students learn and use the 5 individual reading strategies, with teacher support and instruction, to perform reading comprehension tasks over a 10-week timeline. At the end of 10 weeks of this immersion instruction, the students were able to independently select the strategy that best fits the assigned reading task. To build the capacity of every teacher, the initiative also provided targeted professional learning supports following the standards introduced by Learning Forward (https://learningforward.org). This improvement initiative provided 10 embedded teacher-learning supports that reflect the standards for professional learning (https://learningforward.org). Following 7 months of implementation, a mixed-methods evaluation of the improvement initiative was conducted using quantitative and qualitative analysis of teacher perceptions on the impact of the capacity-building program on their own professional growth. Data analysis revealed that the chosen process for embedded capacity development and support increased teacher capacity. Improved student academic performance as a result of increased capacity cannot be directly correlated amidst the large number of contributing variables

Beyond e-learning: from blended methodology to transmedia education

Nowadays, at the time of convergence culture, social network, and transmedia storytelling – when social interactions are constantly remediated – e-learning, especially in universities, should be conceived as a sharing educational activity. Different learning experiences should become smoother and able to fade out the closed learning environments (as software platform and classrooms (either virtual or not)). In this paper, we will show some experiences of the Communication Sciences degree program of the University of Cagliari, which is supplied through an e-learning method. In the ten years since its foundation, the approach has evolved from a blended learning with two kinds of traditional activity (online activities and face-to-face lessons) to a much more dynamic learning experience. Many new actors (communication companies, local government, public-service corporations, new media and social media) – indeed – have been involved in educational and teaching process. But also these processes changed: collaborative working, new media comprehension, self-guided problem solving are examples of the new literacies and approaches that can be reached as new learning objectives