EDUCAUSE Review Articles and Learning

Virtual worlds can become an important tool in an educator’s arsenal. But using this tool requires a shift in thinking and an adjustment in pedagogical methods that will embrace the community, the fluid identity, and the participation—indeed, the increased conversation—that virtual spaces can provide.

The building blocks provided by the Open Educational Resources movement, along with e-Science and e-Humanities and the resources of the Web 2.0, are creating the conditions for the emergence of new kinds of open participatory learning ecosystems that will support active, passion-based learning: Learning 2.0.

Transformational faculty-development efforts must involve systematic, goal-directed, sustained activities that are integral to the daily work of academic community members.

As faculty members confront the expanding impact that technology is having on their scholarship, research, teaching, and students, IT organizations must assess their role in shaping, implementing, and supporting the assimilation of IT into the teaching and learning process.

Leadership in IT requires a focus on current technology innovation, adoption, and impact on learning, but most important, leadership in IT requires understanding the alignment of external factors—access, affordability, perceived quality—to the core mission and integrity of the institution.

With directed effort, some ingenuity, and a future-focused vision, colleges and universities should be able to identify and leverage existing technologies with which to build aspects of "future" campus learning spaces—today.

From Diana G. Oblinger, ed., Learning Spaces
As we build the classrooms of the future that facilitate usability, engagement, collaboration, and learning, we would do well to remember what it was about learning environments that enchanted us and commit ourselves to preserving, restoring, and creating those experiences for our own students.

Faust discusses the use of images, moving images and sound in learning and project based learning.

The 14 year old author discusses the pros and cons of taking an online course.

The author discusses how higher education needs to transform from it's current state of lecture based learning, to an individual based learning system.