Promoting Critical Reading using Google Tools – a Community of Inquiry Approach

Creating a community of learning can enhance critical reading in a classroom environment. Task design plays a critical role in the effectiveness of this process. This paper presents a case study of a face-to-face literature course that used a host of Google tools to create such a community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) principles of teacher presence, cognitive presence, and social presence have been applied to analyze the task design using Google tools. Data collected from coursework, surveys, and interviews provide evidence that tasks using Google tools can promote community building and critical reading

Promoting Critical Reading using Google Tools – a Community of Inquiry Approach

Creating a community of learning can enhance critical reading in a classroom environment. Task design plays a critical role in the effectiveness of this process. This paper presents a case study of a face-to-face literature course that used a host of Google tools to create such a community. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) principles of teacher presence, cognitive presence, and social presence have been applied to analyze the task design using Google tools. Data collected from coursework, surveys, and interviews provide evidence that tasks using Google tools can promote community building and critical reading

The OER Project @SHU: 5 Factors Driving Institutional Change

Sacred Heart University’s OER initiative has seen positive results in its first stage of planning and implementation. Five factors have been driving change – tactical planning, collaborative networking, awareness building, impact measurement, and pedagogy focus. Using evidence-based examples, we share strategies for cost-savings, increased access, and enhanced pedagogical practices

Blended Learning in Anesthesia Education: Current State and Future Model

Purpose of review: Educators in anesthesia residency programs across the country are facing a number of challenges as they attempt to integrate blended learning techniques in their curriculum. Compared with the rest of higher education, which has made advances to varying degrees in the adoption of online learning anesthesiology education has been sporadic in the active integration of blended learning. The purpose of this review is to discuss the challenges in anesthesiology education and relevance of the Universal Design for Learning framework in addressing them. Recent findings: There is a wide chasm between student demand for online education and the availability of trained faculty to teach. The design of the learning interface is important and will significantly affect the learning experience for the student. Summary: This review examines recent literature pertaining to this field, both in the realm of higher education in general and medical education in particular, and proposes the application of a comprehensive learning model that is new to anesthesiology education and relevant to its goals of promoting self-directed learning

New Trends in Second Language Learning and Teaching through the lens of ICT, Networked Learning, and Artificial Intelligence

In the last few decades, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) applications have been shaping the field of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) paved the way for ubiquitous learning. The advent of new technologies in the early 21st century also added a social dimension to ICT that allowed for Networked Learning (NL). Given that language learning is fundamentally a socio-cultural experience, networked learning capabilities have provided the potential for language learning in community settings. This has revitalized the earlier frameworks provided by CALL. NL has empowered language learners today to connect globally, to access Open Educational Resources, and to self-regulate their learning processes beyond the scope of traditional curricula. In parallel, the rising pervasiveness of Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications and their relevance to language learning has led CALL to branch out into Intelligent CALL (ICALL). The first section of this article provides a brief historical overview of CALL, examines it through the lens of ICT, networked learning, and open access. The second section focuses on the implications of AI for creating new trends in second language education, the challenge for providing customization at scale, and raises important issues related to transparency and privacy for future research

The Positive Role of Negative Emotions: Fear, Anxiety, Conflict and Resistance as Productive Experiences in Academic Study and in the Emergence of Learner Autonomy

Although affect is widely recognized as a powerful force in determining students’ academic success,researchers and practitioners have paid little attention to emotional barriers that often impede college success or how instructors may respond constructively when such barriers arise. The purpose of this paper is to initiate discussion of this important problem by offering a model of how an initially resistant, fearful, and/or anxious student can use emotionally unpleasant experiences to transform himself or herself into a more autonomous and successful learner. We offer prima facie support for this model by presenting the results of two cases of first year students. Although this model may not apply to all anxious first year students, it nevertheless has value (a) as a resource for instructors working with students who fit this pattern and (b) as an example of how the role of emotions in learning can profitably be studied

OER Awareness, Advocacy, and Adoption: An Institutional Approach

Sacred Heart University’s Open Educational Resources (OER) Task Force, an entity composed of the Office of the Provost, the Office of Digital Learning (ODL), Sacred Heart University Library, and faculty from across campus, has worked for the past two years to integrate OER into the educational culture of the university. To accomplish this we’ve employed a process that focuses on building awareness, identifying campus units for building strategic partnerships, assisting faculty in locating relevant resources, and, through pilot programs, onboarding OER into courses for trial

DYNAMICS OF AN UMBILICAL CABLE FOR UNDERGROUND BORE-WELL APPLICATIONS

A general model for an umbilical cable for underground bore-well applications is considered. The response of one-degree-of-freedom, nonlinear system under external excitation forces and the effect of the parameters 2, β and f on the excited system are investigated. Variation of the parameter 2 leads to multi-valued amplitudes and hence to jump phenomena. The simulation results are achieved using MATLAB 7.12.0 (R2011a) Simulink

Using Learning Goals to Promote Self-Directedness: How Problems in Research led to Solutions in Teaching

In promoting self-directedness, our process at MCNY’s Learning Enhancement Center begins by having the student construct learning goals. A qualitative analysis of these student learning goals was conducted based on the premise that a student’s ability to articulate a goal in a clear, specific, complex, and measurable manner will improve over time. Although our findings did not support our hypothesis, the complex exercise of creating a customized rubric to measure the goals helped us arrive at a standardized evaluation method and build a transparent self-assessment tool to foster independent learning. This attempt to quantify student learning goals created successful iterative loops, which married research discussion with the refinement of pedagogical practices aimed at raising the quality of student learning goals

Integrating Interactive Technology to Promote Learner Autonomy: Challenges and Rewards

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, students and faculty must understand and harness the power of technology to synthesize, analyze, and communicate ideas and information. A multi-modal, multidisciplinary approach of teaching and learning is critical. This presentation will examine how to best leverage the technological strengths of 21st century learners in an interdisciplinary networked community, utilizing on-line tools such as Twitter and e-portfolios. This will be anchored within a context of a larger discussion of current education theories, including cognitive, social constructivism, and connectivism. Four presenters will address recent research on the impact of technology tools on teaching and learning . Section one will describe the dynamic process in which pedagogy, content, and technologies influence each other when designing online experiences. Section two we will discuss the pedagogical benefits of the University\u27s new on-line, interdisciplinary networked community of learners, the Virtual Public Square project. Section three will show how Twitter has been used in a foreign language course to promote learner autonomy. The final section will discuss the high-impact practice of utilizing e-portfolios for both faculty and student assessment in a freshman course. Each of the four sections will address the wide range of student responses in terms of habits of mind and the gap between faculty and student perceptions in defining the characteristics of 21st century digital illiteracies