Journals [view: normal]

Ulrich Rauch, Marvin Cohodas, and Tim Wang describe the Arts Metaverse, a Croquet-based virtual learning environment under development at the University of British Columbia. The Arts Metaverse allows three-dimensional virtual reconstruction of important artifacts and sites of classical, ancient, and indigenous American art, thereby allowing students access to places and works they would not otherw...

Mary Anne Clark describes the organization and uses of Genome Island, a virtual laboratory complex constructed in Second Life. Genome Island was created for teaching genetics to university undergraduates but also provides a public space where anyone interested in genetics can spend a few minutes, or a few hours, interacting with genetic objects—from simple experiments with peas to the organization...

Anne M. Hewitt, Susan Spencer, Danielle Mirliss, and Riad Twal report on a collaborative team initiative to create a virtual world emergency preparedness simulation that focuses on crisis and emergency risk communication (CERC). CERC is a key competency for students enrolled in Seton Hall University’s (SHU) Master of Healthcare Administration (MHA) on-campus and on-line programs. Historically, sk...

Effective collaboration is necessary for corporation-wide learning, knowledge exchange, and innovation. However, it is difficult to create a corporate culture that encourages collaboration; the complexity of such collaboration is increased substantially by the diverse and distributed nature of knowledge sources and decision makers in the global economy. Albert A. Angehrn and Katrina Maxwell descri...

With the rapid growth of online programs and courses at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), the university has faced the challenge of supporting faculty members as they transition to online teaching. Hong Wang, Lawrence V. Gould, and Dennis King share the comprehensive approach the university has developed, an approach that depends on effective cooperation among administrative, professional, and ...

In 2003, faced with increasing growth in technology-based and large-enrollment courses, the College of Business Administration at the University of Central Florida opened a computer-based testing lab to facilitate administration of course examinations. Patrick Moskal, Richard Caldwell, and Taylor Ellis describe the development and evolution of the lab, detail the lessons learned from their experi...

In this edition of Innovate-Ideagora, Denise Easton and Alan McCord announce the consolidation of Innovate-Live, Innovate's venue for author webcasts, with Ideagora; webcasts will now be accessed from Ideagora, and archives will be made available through Ideagora. This change will simplify presentation and merge our multimedia presentations, hopefully fueling further growth for Ideagora, which now...

Multiuser virtual environments (MUVEs) like Second Life present unparalleled opportunities to help students connect knowledge by description to knowledge by experience; in a MUVE, students can experience phenomena rather than only reading about them. Baba Kofi Weusijana, Vanessa Svihla, Drue Gawel, and John Bransford describe their use of a maze constructed in Second Life to help students experien...

Catheryn Cheal describes student reactions to a course she and Vagner Whitehead taught in Second Life. The course required students to research a topic about virtual worlds, write a paper, and illustrate their findings by building an environment in Second Life. Negative student responses to the course coupled with the observation that students tended dismiss work in Second Life as "play" led Cheal...

Penny de Byl argues that one of the biggest challenges facing educators today is the integration of rich and immersive three-dimensional environments with existing teaching and learning materials. To empower educators with the ability to embrace emerging Web3D technologies, the Advanced Learning and Immersive Virtual Environment (ALIVE) research and development laboratory at the University of Sout...

Despite the growing use of virtual worlds in distance education, no studies have shown how self-representation in these environments impacts collaboration in multicultural learning groups. In this article, Paul Wallace and Jim Maryott report on a preliminary study in Micronesia designed to investigate the impact of negative social attitudes based on avatar appearance in multiethnic groups collabor...

Counseling students must learn and practice basic counseling skills, including attending, listening, empathizing, and demonstrating warmth and respect. For online educators, providing opportunities for students to develop these skills in realistic counseling situations can be difficult. Victoria L. Walker and Amanda Rockinson-Szapkiw describe how three-dimensional virtual learning environments ...

Innovate editor-in-chief James L. Morrison talks to Ralph Young, Microsoft’s vice president, worldwide communications sector, in an interview based on Young's keynote address at the Education Leaders Forum 2008, which met in Paris in July.  Each year, ELF, one result of Microsoft's partnership with UNESCO, assembles education ministers, senior officials, policy advisors, and leading researchers fr...

While there is some overlap in the uses and structures of virtual worlds, games, and simulations and the three often look similar, their differences are profound. Clark Aldrich presents a taxonomy of virtual environments that recognizes both the distinctions and the similarities among virtual environments for learning. All three, he suggests, are points along a continuum, all instances of highly i...

Pam Wright highlights the role of technology in providing situated learning opportunities for preservice teachers to explore the role commercial computer games may have in primary education. In a study designed to assess the effectiveness of an online unit on gaming incorporated into a course on learning technologies, Wright found that thoughtful instructional design, scaffolded activities, and f...

The affordances of today's digital technologies have significantly changed the way students learn. Arguing that current learning theories have failed to address this new reality, Marie Sontag proposes a new theory, social-connectedness and cognitive-connectedness schemata (SCCS) theory, that integrates key elements of other theories with gaming elements in a structure designed to facilitate engage...

Michael Russell, Thomas Hoffmann, and Jennifer Higgins describe how the principles of universal design were applied to the development of an innovative computer-based test delivery system, NimbleTools, to meet the accessibility and accommodation needs of students with a wide range of disabilities and special needs. Noting the movement to computer-based testing and the concerns facing assessmen...

What impact can Web 2.0 technologies, specifically social networking sites, have inside and outside the classroom? While participation within the Facebook community has grown exponentially across college campuses, participation in course-specific WebCT discussion forums has not necessarily followed suit. In response to this disparity, Jacob Schroeder and Thomas J. Greenbowe created a Facebook grou...

Mark Rabinovich describes the iPass system, an innovative online tutoring system for remedial writing students that has been in use at Queensborough Community College since 2006. The design of iPass was based on constructivist learning theories that conceptualize learning as a transactional and dynamic process that can occur anywhere at any time. This e-tutoring system helps students develo...

In this edition of Innovate-Ideagora, Al McCord and Denise Easton report on developments in this online community, which now boasts over 400 members. As members engaged in active discussions about ways to support sustainable, accessible technologies, discussion coalesced around rumors of a $10 laptop and what such a development might mean for education. In webcast interviews, Nibipedia founders Tr...

In this interview with Innovate Editor-in-Chief James L. Morrison, Phillip Long describes some of the outcomes of iCampus, a recently concluded seven-year, $25 million research collaboration between MIT and Microsoft Research that focused on building technologies that enabled more effective learning. Long describes two of the many projects arising from this effort: Technology Enhanced Active Learn...

In this article, Annick Janson and Robin Janson introduce research from the Microsoft New Zealand's Partners in Learning Programme by documenting the impact of digital learning objects (DLOs) on educational practice. Janson and Janson describe the impact of DLOs on the teaching practice of a primary school in New Zealand, tracing the effects of the project from individual teachers and classrooms t...

Current copyright law was formulated before the digital technology became widely available and well before Web 2.0 changed the way that information is created and shared. J. Patrick McGrail and Ewa McGrail argue that copyright law has failed to keep up with the social and legal changes that have accompanied the technological developments of the last 30 years, and as a result it has become both cum...

In this edition of Innovate-Ideagora, Al McCord and Denise Easton report on developments in this online community, which now boasts 330 members in 17 countries. In webcast interviews, Ed Gehringer described Expertiza, an online peer-review tool, and Tim DiScipio talked about ePals, an effort to connect students across cultural and national boundaries. McCord and Easton also hosted an informal live...

Neelu Sinha, Laila Khreisat, and Kiron Sharma describe how learner-interface interaction promotes active learning in computer science education. In a pilot study using technology that combines DyKnow software with a hardware platform of pen-enabled HP Tablet notebook computers, Sinha, Khreisat, and Sharma created dynamic learning environments by integrating classroom and computing environments. Re...