Electronic Quills

Electronic Quills
Author: Bertram C. Bruce
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2013-11-05
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1136690557

This volume centers on the words and experiences of teachers and students who used QUILL -- a software package developed by the authors to aid in writing instruction. It looks in detail at the stories of these early users and considers questions relevant for other teachers, students, researchers, and developers of educational innovations. Questions posed include: * What does it mean to develop an environment for literacy in an actual classroom? * How can a teacher create an environment in which students work together toward meaningful goals? * How can a teacher promote the rich communication so necessary for developing language? * What is the role of technology in the practice and development of literacy? The examination of the QUILL experiences provides a fuller and more revealing account of what it meant to use QUILL than would have been possible through standard evaluation techniques. At the same time, the focus on the particulars also finds analogues in analyses of similar pieces of open-ended software or educational innovations in general.

Handbook of Research on New Literacies

Handbook of Research on New Literacies
Author: Julie Coiro
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 1427
Release: 2014-04-04
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136650857

Situated at the intersection of two of the most important areas in educational research today — literacy and technology — this handbook draws on the potential of each while carving out important new territory. It provides leadership for this newly emerging field, directing scholars to the major issues, theoretical perspectives, and interdisciplinary research pertaining to new literacies. Reviews of research are organized into six sections: Methodologies Knowledge and Inquiry Communication Popular Culture, Community, and Citizenship: Everyday Literacies Instructional Practices and Assessment Multiple Perspectives on New Literacies Research FEATURES Brings together a diverse international team of editors and chapter authors Provides an extensive collection of research reviews in a critical area of educational research Makes visible the multiple perspectives and theoretical frames that currently drive work in new literacies Establishes important space for the emerging field of new literacies research Includes a unique Commentary section: The final section of the Handbook reprints five central research studies. Each is reviewed by two prominent researchers from their individual, and different, theoretical position. This provides the field with a sense of how diverse lenses can be brought to bear on research as well as the benefits that accrue from doing so. It also provides models of critical review for new scholars and demonstrates how one might bring multiple perspectives to the study of an area as complex as new literacies research. The Handbook of Research on New Literacies is intended for the literacy research community, broadly conceived, including scholars and students from the traditional reading and writing research communities in education and educational psychology as well as those from information science, cognitive science, psychology, sociolinguistics, computer mediated communication, and other related areas that find literacy to be an important area of investigation.

Handbook of Literacy and Technology

Handbook of Literacy and Technology
Author: David Reinking
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 569
Release: 1998-04-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135684618

The major shift going on today in the technologies of reading and writing raises important questions about conventional conceptions of literacy and its role in education, society, and culture. What are the important characteristics of electronic forms of reading and writing distinguishing them from printed forms? To what extent and in what ways is literacy being transformed by new technologies? This central question is addressed in this volume from diverse, multidisciplinary perspectives. The contributing authors focus on a guiding question in one of the following areas, which correspond to the major sections of the book: *Transforming Texts. What are the new differences between printed and electronic texts, and what are the implications of new textual forms for defining literacy, especially in regard to teaching and learning in schools? *Transforming Readers and Writers. How do electronic reading and writing change conceptualizations of literacy development from childhood through adulthood? *Transforming Classrooms and Schools. What are the effects of introducing new reading and writing technologies into schools and classrooms? *Transforming Instruction. How can instruction be adapted in response to the changing literacy landscape, and how can teachers and students exploit forms of reading and writing to enhance teaching and learning? *Transforming Society. What are the broad societal implications of the increasing prevalence of electronic forms of reading and writing? *Transforming Literacy Research. What are the questions that must be addressed as digital reading and writing become more common, and what approaches to research will be most useful in addressing those questions? This volume is the result of an interactive process. The contributors met as a group to discuss drafts of their chapters at a one-day meeting convened and sponsored by the National Reading Research Center, and had read each others' chapters prior to this gathering. That meeting was followed by a two-day conference attended by approximately 180 researchers, educators, and policymakers who responded to an open invitation to present papers and to attend sessions focusing on the six major themes of the book. Contributors then revised their chapters based on interactions with fellow contributors, conference participants, and volume editors. Thus, this work is more than just a compilation of the individual authors' views. Rather, it represents a synthesis of a broad range of current thinking about how literacy is being and may be transformed by technology.

Teaching and Evaluating Writing in the Age of Computers and High-Stakes Testing

Teaching and Evaluating Writing in the Age of Computers and High-Stakes Testing
Author: Carl Whithaus
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 203
Release: 2005-04-27
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317441435

Teaching and Evaluating Writing in the Age of Computers and High-Stakes Testing offers a theoretical framework, case studies and methods for evaluating student writing. By examining issues in writing assessment the book discovers four situated techniques of authentic assessment that are already in use at a number of locales throughout the US.

Network Science, A Decade Later

Network Science, A Decade Later
Author: Alan Feldman
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 211
Release: 2000-01-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1135663769

Network Science, A Decade Later--the result of NSF-funded research that looked at the experiences of a set of science projects which use the Internet--offers an understanding of how the Internet can be used effectively by science teachers and students to support inquiry-based teaching and learning. The book emphasizes theoretical and critical perspectives and is intended to raise questions about the goals of education and the ways that technology helps reach those goals and ways that it cannot. The theoretical perspective of inquiry-based teaching and learning in which the book is grounded is consistent with the current discipline-based curriculum standards and frameworks. The chapters in Part I, "State of the Art," describe the history and current practice of network science. Those in Part II, "Looking Deeply," extend the inquiry into network science by examining discourse and data in depth, using both empirical data and theoretical perspectives. In Part III, "Looking Forward," the authors step back from the issues of network science to take a broader view, focusing on the question: How should the Internet be used--and not used--to support student learning? The book concludes with a reminder that technology will not replace teachers. Rather, the power of new technologies to give students both an overwhelming access to resources--experts, peers, teachers, texts, images, and data--and the opportunity to pursue questions of their own design, increases the need for highly skilled teachers and forward-looking administrators. This is a book for them, and for all educators, policymakers, students involved in science and technology education. For more information about the authors, an archived discussions space, a few chapters that can be downloaded as PDF files, and ordering information, visit teaparty.terc.edu/book/

The Power of CALL

The Power of CALL
Author: Martha C. Pennington
Publisher: Athelstan
Total Pages: 238
Release: 1996
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780940753037

A reference on Computer Assisted Language Learning for administrators, teachers, and researchers. Includes methodology and concordancing, etc. Suitable for self-study, and developing teaching methods.

Computers As Cognitive Tools

Computers As Cognitive Tools
Author: Susanne P. Lajoie
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 413
Release: 2013-05-13
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136475478

Highlighting and illustrating several important and interesting theoretical trends that have emerged in the continuing development of instructional technology, this book's organizational framework is based on the notion of two opposing camps. One evolves out of the intelligent tutoring movement, which employs artificial-intelligence technologies in the service of student modeling and precision diagnosis, and the other emerges from a constructivist/developmental perspective that promotes exploration and social interaction, but tends to reject the methods and goals of the student modelers. While the notion of opposing camps tends to create an artificial rift between groups of researchers, it represents a conceptual distinction that is inherently more interesting and informative than the relatively meaningless divide often drawn between "intelligent" and "unintelligent" instructional systems. An evident trend is that researchers in both "camps" view their computer learning environments as "cognitive tools" that can enhance learning, performance, and understanding. Cognitive tools are objects provided by the instructional environment that allow students to incorporate new auxiliary methods or symbols into their social problem solving which otherwise would be unavailable. A final section of the book represents researchers who are assimilating and accommodating the wisdom and creativity of their neighbors from both camps, perhaps forming the look of technology for the future. When the idea of model tracing in a computer-based environment is combined with appreciation for creative mind-extension cognitive tools and for how a community of learners can facilitate learning, a camp is created where AI technologists and social constructivist learning theorists can feel equally at home.

Constructionism in Practice

Constructionism in Practice
Author: Yasmin B. Kafai
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2012-11-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136491422

The digital revolution necessitates, but also makes possible, radical changes in how and what we learn. This book describes a set of innovative educational research projects at the MIT Media Laboratory, illustrating how new computational technologies can transform our conceptions of learning, education, and knowledge. The book draws on real-world education experiments conducted in formal and informal contexts: from inner-city schools and university labs to neighborhoods and after-school clubhouses. The papers in this book are divided in four interrelated sections as follows: * Perspectives in Constructionism further develops the intellectual underpinnings of constructionist theory. This section looks closely at the role of perspective-taking in learning and discusses how both cognitive and affective processes play a central role in building connections between old and new knowledge. * Learning through Design analyzes the relationship between designing and learning, and discusses ways that design activities can provide personally meaningful contexts for learning. This section investigates how and why children can learn through the processes of constructing artifacts such as games, textile patterns, robots and interactive devices. * Learning in Communities focuses on the social aspects of constructionist learning, recognizing that how people learn is deeply influenced by the communities and cultures with which they interact. It examines the nature of learning in classroom, inner-city, and virtual communities. * Learning about Systems examines how students make sense of biological, technological, and mathematical systems. This section explores the conceptual and epistemological barriers to learning about feedback, self-organization, and probability, and it discusses new technological tools and activities that can help people develop new ways of thinking about these phenomena.