section5

**Section 5:** Emerging technologies and approaches to evaluation and assessment
Section abstract:

This section will discuss the impact of emerging technologies on approaches to teaching and learning with regard to assessing and evaluating today’s learners - “digital natives” as opposed to "digital immigrants" (Prensky, 2001). It explores the demand for creating learning environments that are technology-driven, culturally diverse, virtually accessible, socially interconnected and intellectually accommodating the unique learning needs of today’s learners. In this section, chapters will explore various digital tools and their applications for evaluation and assessment. The discussion will stimulate readers’ thoughts on how and in what ways new learning environments can be designed to promote interaction and a sense of community while enabling formal and informal learning in relation to evaluation. It will also investigate issues of cognitive overload emerging when playing games or connecting through social media or collaborating with mobile technologies. Additionally, it will propose that new learning environments require assessment systems that address complex and "hard to measure" critical thinking, collaboration, and interpersonal skills and other 21st century skills (Partnership for 21st Century Skills, 2006).

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2006). Results that matter: 21st century skills and high school reform. Retrieved from http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/documents/RTM2006.pdf, March, 2009. Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. //On the Horizon//. MCB University Press (9) 5, October 2001

Chapter Title: Author(s): Abstract: Economics oftentimes dictate choices in technology. ‘Why pay for something that should be so cheap’ is what many non-techno savvy people may declare. There is a presumption that the development of technology is cheap for a company, after all iTunes was free for me to use right? If it cost money why would they give it to me for free? There is also the assumption that open-sourced technology is an easier alternative to purchasing technology from vendors. Why pay someone to do something that we can do ourselves? Organizations, especially educational organizations, are trying to save money by adapting technology alternatives. The truth is that what they “save” in money they have to spend in people, time, testing, maintenance, and quality. Larger organizations may be lucky and have the necessary resources to absorb the responsibility of developing and/or maintaining such technology. Smaller organizations, however, might not be able to go beyond the out-of-the box model, which may or may not truly meet their needs. This chapter reviews the hidden costs of open-sourced and homegrown technology development.
 * Can your organization afford open-sourced and homegrown technology? **
 * Jacquelyn Marie Erdman **

Chapter Title: Copyleft and Copyright: New Models for Accessing Media Author(s): David M. Marcovitz Abstract: When creating media-rich projects for education, copyright has always stood in the way. Educators are forced to live under the severe limitations of fair use, ask permission, or simply ignore copyright and hope they are not setting a bad example for their students. While new technologies have challenged the seemingly archaic limits of copyright, copyright is still the law, and educators are obligated to abide by it. While many believe that the law needs to change, new systems like Creative Commons have been created to allow for easy and legal sharing of material within the confines of current laws. As systems like Creative Commons gain in popularity and get built into popular software, a wide range of rich media libraries are opening up to educators for free use. Copyright is still important but less important if you can find most of what you need with a general and flexible license granting you virtually unlimited educational use. This chapter will review the basics of copyright for educators and explore how the expansion of Creative Commons simplifies the complexities of copyright and simplifies the jobs of educators needing access to rich media.

[I put this here because I thought it went well with Open Source article by Erdman, but feel free to put it any section you like.]

Chapter Title: Understanding "Doability" -- When Teachers Become Digital Movie Producers Author(s): Olga Werby Abstract: in schools across United States, teachers expand their roles from educators to producers, taking on digital storytelling projects. Unfortunately, current teacher education and experience does little to prepare teachers for this new role. The job of a producer is not only to understand the subject matter of the video project, but to also know the technologies necessary to execute the vision and the pitfalls likely to be encountered along the way. In short, teachers are asked to teach not only their subject matter (e.g. science, math, history, and language arts), but to also help students navigate a technically complicated environment of digital movie making, as well as help them translate their story ideas into an audio-visual-temporal format. Inadequate preparation creates situations where some students who are able to get outside technical support create far superior movies then their classmates without such resources. And teachers and students often have unreasonable expectations as to the necessary time and effort these projects require, as well as the quality of the output. This paper explores the difficulties teachers face when they become producers of digital stories and why it’s still worth it.



Chapter Title: An Attempt of an Integrated Assessment: Benefits and Challenges of Using Podcasting as an Educational Tool Author(s): Fatih Gursul Abstract: //Background:// The developments in information technologies brought various changes in many fields of our lives, one of which is education. The technology has increased the number of educational tools available to instructors and learners. Of these educational tools, one which is widely discussed in the last five years in literature is podcasting. However, the studies generally discuss benefits and challenges or effectiveness of using podcasting either focusing on learner-produced podcasts or instructor-produced podcasts. They do not reflect an integrated approach to the discussion of the educational use of podcasting. //Purpose of Study:// This study aims to explain the benefits and challenges of using podcasting as an educational tool with an integrated approach taking into account the different aspects of both learner-produced podcasts and instructor-produced podcasts. //Design and Method:// Three databases, Wiley Interscience, ERIC and ieeexplore were searched with the keywords 'education' and ‘podcasting’ to find peer-reviewed articles related to the use of podcasting in education published between the years 2000 and 2009 using CentralSearch interface which is also offered by Istanbul University, Turkey. Totally 15 articles were studied. Articles were grouped according to their subjects and investigated to discuss the benefits and challenges of using podcasting as an educational tool. //Conclusion:// Podcasting has various benefits in face-to-face and distance education. Since podcast files are portable, they are time and place independent and, thereby, establish a continuous learning flow. Both producing and using podcast files are cheap and easy. Due to its subscription-based nature, podcasting offers effective use of time. Instructor-produced podcasts are a preferred resource to revise classes for those attending the classes and to learn for those missing. The benefits of learner-produced podcasts outweigh the benefits of instructor-produced podcasts. The production of podcasts by learners leads them to develop a sense of ownership, spend time to make research and study in a planned and disciplined way. In addition, it allows for learner-learner and instructor-learner interaction requiring the active involvement of learners and collaboration among them. Podcasting helps learners to improve their oral skills and engage in knowledge creation. On the other hand, podcasting has some challenges such as requiring di gital competency, technical infrastructure and time. //Keywords:// Podcast, podcasting, education, educational tool

Chapter Title: The usefulness of open-source and web 2.0 applications in initial teacher education: Encouraging a breadth of experience Author(s): Philippa Butler, Jeremy Kilty and Lone Jorgensen Abstract: Universities have traditionally employed proprietary software to manage the learning of their students. Even when given the opportunity to use open-source software, such as Moodle, institutions still find ways to limit and control students' access. We argue that the exclusive use of proprietary software limits the learner, and has both ethical and educational implications. It is our duty as educators to expose learners to a variety of digital learning experiences: proprietary platforms, those developed in-house, as well as open-source. This variety enables them to apply the conceptual frameworks they have experienced in diverse learning environments and to continue to reflect on and evaluate their own learning experiences when they have left the course. Empirical research on our own teaching practices in a college of education clearly shows the importance of that diversity of experience. A separate but related issue concerns the level of comfort of uptake of such technology by both staff and students. Learners have been categorised as either 'digital natives' or 'digital immigrants' by Prensky (2001). Such a dichotomy can be a useful tool to describe people engaging in online teaching and learning tasks, but can quickly become a stereotype that misrepresents the reality of information technology use. Experience shows us that the overriding factor that contributes to people's engagement or otherwise with technology enhanced learning is fear. We cannot assume that this corresponds to the 'native/immigrant' dichotomy - some of those most comfortable with technology do not fit into Prensky's generational definitions. Institutions have traditionally positioned themselves as the immigrants in Prensky's terminology. The role of a college of education is to diffuse that fear and to encourage its students to engage with learning through diverse technologies, so these students can then pass on their knowledge to school students when they become teachers. Colleges of education must therefore overcome their own fear in order to successfully facilitate this process.

Chapter title: How emerging technologies increased learner diversity and how diverse student body affects teaching, learning and assessment activities. Authors: Candance Thomspon, Hengameh Kermani, & Mahnaz Moallem Abstract: This chapter will present the theoretical and conceptual framework of an understanding of intercultural learning. The question is how diversity affects teaching, learning and assessment activities and to what extent our curriculum can support diversity and an understanding of intercultural learning.  It will argue that in today’s learning environments in which learners with different backgrounds, experiences and cultural identities are coming together to learn and to share, we should not underestimate the role that cultural differences can play in promoting or hindering a learning process. While in any culture, there are some noticeable differences such as architecture, art, cloth, food, music, language, etc., the most important and powerful dimensions of cultural differences are less visible and hard to identify. These dimensions are often related to the social norms, value system, the basic assumptions about space and time, the relation with nature, the conception of equality and justice and of “self”, to name a few. In other words, the visible parts of the cultures are only the entrance to invisible parts (AFS, 1984). The main argument of this chapter will be that key transformations in the teaching and learning environments are linked with understanding of cultural difference and serving a diverse student body.

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** Submissions for Second Call short abstract deadline: September 10, 2009 **

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