Instructional Technologies and E-Learning

The National Science Foundation defines "cyberlearning" as "the use of networked computing and communications technologies to support learning." The report of the NSF Task Force on Cyberlearning, Fostering Learning in the Networked World: The Cyberlearning Opportunity and Challenge, A 21st Century Agenda for the National Science Foundation, identifies cyberlearning as having "…the potential to transform education throughout a lifetime, enabling customized interaction with diverse learning materials on any topic..."

The task force report identifies potential ways in which advanced computing and communications technologies might be leveraged to support learning, highlighting opportunities for further research. In it, the task force offers 5 recommendations for the NSF to pursue:

'Emerging technologies for learning' aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.

The presentation will give a development perspective to incorporating a virtual field trip into a newly created online entomology course. The field trip in the traditional course took students to a local farm to uncover the varying species of bugs at the farm, as well as where they lived and what they ate. As the course went online, the 3D virtual environment enabled virtual students to share experiences similar to those of the traditional students while learning the same content.

An online virtual case-based management system was developed to provide an interactive learning portal using simulated case scenarios, collaborative learning, decision support, and real-time assessment of student motivation and decision skills. Learn how to dynamically create and implement online case scenarios using virtual characters, speech, and other media-rich content.

MERLOT can help you find and use interactive resources to augment all of your classes: face-to-face, hybrid, and online. Find out how to use MERLOT resources in your classes, and how the MERLOT community can help in your professional development.

Digital storytelling assignments involve students in firsthand multimedia authorship. But what does the story-making experience feel like from the learner's perspective? What can students tell us about the impact of these types of assignments on their learning? Student interviews about their story-making experiences provide insight into the gestalt of digital storytelling.

This session will cover lessons learned and best practices for creating highly interactive, student-centered, rich-media online courses with customizable and mobile learning using Mediasite video streaming and video and audio podcasting. It will include a tour of a course Web site, 10 principles for good practice for innovative online education, and a course design toolkit.

We discuss a methodology for abstracting enterprise services and the policies that dictate them through the use of a Web-based user interface. This establishes a unified tool for publication, storage, and recovery of files that streamlines training and support costs, facilitates innovation, and promotes the continued evolution of enterprise-level solutions.