A Pedagogy for Original Synners

Part of the Volume on Digital Young, Innovation, and the UnexpectedThis essay begins by speculating about the learning environment of the class of 2020. It takes place entirely in a virtual world, populated by simulated avatars, managed through the pedagogy of gaming. Based on this projected version of a future-now-in-formation, the authors consider the implications of the current paradigm shift that is happening at the edges of institutions of higher education. From the development of programs in multimedia literacy to the focus on the creation of hybrid learning spaces (that combine the use of virtual worlds, social networking applications, and classroom activities), the scene of learning as well as the subjects of education are changing. The figure of the Original Synner is a projection of the student-of-the-future whose foundational literacy is grounded in their ability to synthesize information from multiple information streams

Evaluating Tactical Combat Casualty Care Training Treatments Effects On Combat Medic Trainees In Light Of Select Human Descripti

The use of military forces in urban operations has increased considerably over the past years. As illustrated by the current conflict in Iraq, the Army finds itself fighting its toughest battles in urban areas facing unconventional forces. Soldiers face many threats in hostile fire environments, whether conducting large-scale mechanized warfare, low-intensity conflicts, or operations other than war. Through 1970, there has been no demonstrable reduction in battlefield mortality rate as a percentage of all casualties since data was kept since before the Civil War. For that period of time, nearly all the reduction in overall mortality rate occurred through reduced mortality in Hospital Chain. As of 1970, about 90 percent of all combat deaths occur before a casualty reaches a definitive care facility. Tactical Combat Casualty Care (TCCC), also known as TC3, is the pre-hospital care rendered to a casualty in a combat environment. The application of TCCC principles during a tactical combat environment has proven highly effective and is a major reason why combat deaths in latest conflicts (Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom) are lower than in any other conflict in the history of the United States. The Army continues to emphasize reducing battlefield mortality rate. Current tools and methods used for initial skills and sustainment training of combat medics throughout the Army are insufficient. New technologies are needed to provide medics with greater opportunities to develop and test their decision making and technical medical skills in multiple, COE-relevant, training scenarios. In order to address some of these requirements, the U.S. Army Research Development and Engineering Command, Simulation and Training Technology Center (RDECOM-STTC) is developing the 68W - Tactical Combat Casualty Care Simulation (TC3 Sim) for the US Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Center & School at Fort Sam Houston. The Army is considering the use of the TC3 Sim game as a tool to improve the training of individual Soldiers as well as improve the readiness of combat medics. It is the intent of this research to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional games in general and the use of the TC3 game in particular for teaching the concepts of tactical combat casualty care. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the training effectiveness of this tool in supporting the 68W10 Healthcare Specialist Course program of instruction (POI). The goal of this research is to address important questions such as: Is this game an effective tool to train Soldiers the aspects of TC3? Can knowledge gain through the use of the simulation be transferred into task related situations? How can this tool be incorporated in the current POI in order to increase training effectiveness

Block-Based Development of Mobile Learning Experiences for the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things enables experts of given domains to create smart user experiences for interacting with the environment. However, development of such experiences requires strong programming skills, which are challenging to develop for non-technical users. This paper presents several extensions to the block-based programming language used in App Inventor to make the creation of mobile apps for smart learning experiences less challenging. Such apps are used to process and graphically represent data streams from sensors by applying map-reduce operations. A workshop with students without previous experience with Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile app programming was conducted to evaluate the propositions. As a result, students were able to create small IoT apps that ingest, process and visually represent data in a simpler form as using App Inventor's standard features. Besides, an experimental study was carried out in a mobile app development course with academics of diverse disciplines. Results showed it was faster and easier for novice programmers to develop the proposed app using new stream processing blocks.Spanish National Research Agency (AEI) - ERDF fund

Putting the learning back into e-learning

The design of web-based learning environments is primarily focused on the production and delivery of content to a learner. The principles of constructionism are intended to guide the development of learning environments where the learner has more control. In this paper, we describe characteristics of constructionist and learning environments that can foster the learning of mathematics. Our experiences are drawn from the development of microworlds for an e-museum. Reflecting on this process turns out to provide some fresh insights into how e-learning environments might be re-conceptualised in the future

A system for control of use of didactic material at the distance

The increases checked in the processing capacity and in the power of communication of the nets they allow to propose didactic systems with the integration of new technologies to the education, such as audio and video. Today, it can observe an expressive increase of digital information published through the Internet. This research emphasizes the use of the computer and of the Internet as parts of the teaching atmosphere at the distance. The implemented system allows to establish (i) measures of control of use of the available didactic material in the Internet, as well as the application of (ii) evaluation techniques for, finally, (iii) to specify concrete approaches to compose the evaluation process of the learning at the distance. For so much, it was projected and implemented a software for this atmosphere type with the objective of checking that the ideas proposals are viable. A direct consequence of the use of this atmosphere type is the need of a larger training so much of teachers as of students, for demanding a change of the habitual teaching-learning process, such as (i) the operation of the atmosphere of computerized teaching, (ii) the softwares involved for sailing and responsibility, (iii) notions of nets of computers and (iv) the introduction of evaluation approaches in the system.Eje: Tecnología informática aplicada en la EducaciónRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

APPLICATION OF ELECTRONIC SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN DIGITAL AGE: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

The significant technological infrastructure which are now beginning to offer services to prestigious large and smaller publishers, including some of the more trade-minded university presses on online and electronic means. Scholarship Online has demonstrated to the university press community that a large aggregation of quality monograph content, optimized for online scholarly use, generates strong usage and holds sufficient appeal to librarians to support a profitable business. Therefore, this paper highlighted general introduction f electronic scholarly publishing, from digital books to digital publishing, potential benefit of electronic scholarly publishing, ebook/electronic publishing as the future of scholarly communications system, open access and electronic scholarly commutation in Nigeria, the role of library in electronic scholarly publishing, archiving and preserving of electronic scholarly publishing, important of electronic scholarly publishing, and some of the challenges of electronic scholarly publishing in Nigeria. Recommendations for functional adoption of electronic scholarly publishing in Nigeria have also been give

APPLICATION OF ELECTRONIC SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING IN DIGITAL AGE: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

The significant technological infrastructure which are now beginning to offer services to prestigious large and smaller publishers, including some of the more trade-minded university presses on online and electronic means. Scholarship Online has demonstrated to the university press community that a large aggregation of quality monograph content, optimized for online scholarly use, generates strong usage and holds sufficient appeal to librarians to support a profitable business. Therefore, this paper highlighted general introduction f electronic scholarly publishing, from digital books to digital publishing, potential benefit of electronic scholarly publishing, ebook/electronic publishing as the future of scholarly communications system, open access and electronic scholarly commutation in Nigeria, the role of library in electronic scholarly publishing, archiving and preserving of electronic scholarly publishing, important of electronic scholarly publishing, and some of the challenges of electronic scholarly publishing in Nigeria. Recommendations for functional adoption of electronic scholarly publishing in Nigeria have also been give

The Disembodied Classroom: Adapting a Multimodal Business Communication Course for Distance Education

Distance education pedagogies and methods are of critical importance to contemporary university-level composition education. However, the current literature regarding distance education applications in communication courses underscores several limitations: these distance technologies are envisioned in terms of writing courses, which avoids or marginalizes multimodal communication pedagogies; the majority of research and discussion in the discipline centers on foundational (or first-year) composition courses, rather than advanced or professional communication courses; and the majority of research and discussion addresses distance education technologies as situated within traditional classroom-based courses, rather than in place of traditional classrooms. This study extends the discussion of hybrid courses and their technological and pedagogical implications by comparing the outcomes of two advanced communication courses (one delivered as a traditional classroom course with hybrid features, and one delivered entirely through distance education technologies), designed around a broad multimodal focus on written, spoken, visual, and electronic communication. This comparison involves three data collection methods (a quantitative comparison of student pre- and post-instruction performance, a qualitative investigation of student perceptions and experiences, and a quantitative comparison of instructor time commitment), which drive a set of best practices recommendations for employing distance education pedagogies in an advanced communication course, and embedding distance education courses into an existing communication curriculum

Developing web-based learning resources in school education: a user-centered approach

Web-based learning resources (WBLRs) are potentially powerful tools for enhancing teachingand learning processes in school education. They can provide teachers and learners with a widerange of new and exciting experiences that are not possible in a traditional classroom. However,WBLRs are still the domain of technical and software experts rather than teachers and learners.As a result, much of the development of WBLRs is carried out without a true understanding ofissues pertinent to learning and pedagogy. Also lacking is user involvement in the developmentprocess of WBLRs. The aim of this work is to propose a user-centered approach to the developmentof WBLRs to translate pedagogical issues into a software tool that supports effective learning.The article also reports on the application of the approach in school education