Graham Attwell just posted this video and I thought it was interesting to share it [ ... also for my own sake, as note taking kind of a  thing] because it stresses some very important points regarding the facilitation of learning.
If we believe that learning is anchored in engagement, then we really need to design for engagement. I think this is where creating learning contexts becomes key. I think that the role of the teacher is to create challenges that encourage learners to take responsibility for their learning because that activity becomes enjoyable, appeals to them, they can identify themselves with. Hence, it becomes fun. It is not a hahaha fun, but rather a I am hooked to it kind of fun!
The video also resonates to some of the discussions Professor Gráinne Conole has started around presence and deeper sense of connection online environments are able to convey. Read more...

Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, was one of the first universities worldwide to offer distance education courses, in 1888. It has recently released an 84 page report on online learning, developed by its Senate Academic Planning Task Force.
The SAPTF was mandated to study virtualization and online learning within the Queen’s context after the university’s academic plan was adopted, and to put forward recommendations for Senate. “The task force began its work by considering the wealth of commentary and debate generated around online learning during the academic planning process,” said SAPTF Chair Christopher Moyes, who is also a professor in the Department of Biology. The SAPTF met with individuals and groups over the course of preparing its draft report, in addition to using surveys to gather information about current ‘virtualization’ and online learning practices at Queen’s. The report, which was released March 21, proposes 18 specific recommendations aimed at informing Queen’s policy and planning around virtualization and online learning in the broader context of the overall student experience. Read more...

Interesting arguments from the CEO of LiveCode. These two points are particularly interesting. The first is: What sits between Scratch, or Alice, or App Inventor, and professional-class languages like JavaScript or C++? I would put Python in there, but I still see that the Scratch->Python gap is a big one.  The second paragraph is really striking, and I’d like to see more evidence. Does Israel’s great CS ed system lead to the strong startup culture, or is it because Israelis value technology that they have both a great startup culture and a great CS Ed system?
Up to about age 13 there are some excellent tools in widespread use, most notable among them being the free and popular Scratch from MIT and MIT App Investor  However students outgrow Scratch by around age 13 and schools often don’t make a good choice of language for the next phase in a child’s education.  Many traditional programing languages such as JavaScript or C++ are completely inappropriate for this age group. Read more...

By Gregory Ferenstein. Howard University sneaks in a $100 “globalization fee” to fund international travel, regardless of whether students study abroad. Another school charges $185 for an “undergraduate entering fee”, reports ProPublica. “It’s all smoke and mirrors in some ways, the issue of tuition and fees,” admits Terry Meyers to, an English professor at the College of William and Mary. It’s these insanely high costs of college that are driving higher education online at a crazy fast pace. College tuition has increased a mind-boggling 1,210% in 30 years. According to the College Board, the average debt of college graduates is a whopping $13,600, growing at 2.1% beyond inflation since 2005. Compounding the problem is a mountain of hidden fees. In the Oregon university system, fees added as much as 40% to tuition costs, as of 2007. Read more...

By Olivia Moore. University administrators have announced plans to merge Class2Go, Stanford’s online course platform, with edX, a nonprofit online learning enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), producing a joint open source online learning platform that will first be available in June. The merger represents an emerging collaboration between the University and edX with the goal of developing a “massive free open source online learning platform for any university in the world,” according to a statement by University spokesperson Lisa Lapin. Anant Agarwal, president of edX, expressed excitement about working with Stanford. Read more...

e-virtuoses: Les chercheurs passent au crible le jeu vidéo destiné à soigner, communiquer et former
Les chercheurs de la scène internationale viennent aux e-virtuoses pour montrer leurs derniers résultats et travaux autour de l’impact du jeu vidéo, du Serious Game et de la Gamification.
Dans un contexte économique en panne, le marché du jeu vidéo maintient une santé insolente. Cette industrie ne se contente plus de divertir et investit les marchés de la santé, de la formation, de l’éducation, de la publicité, de la défense, de la sécurité, de la politique, de la culture… Le jeu vidéo et par extension le game design, constituent des vecteurs d’innovations. Preuve en est, la CCI Grand Hainaut ouvre depuis début janvier une cellule R&D dédiée à la ludologie (étude scientifique des jeux et de leurs usages). En parallèle, elle organise les 4 et 5 juin prochains, pour la 2ème année consécutive, le colloque scientifique international e-virtuoses qui regroupe tous les experts et chercheurs du domaine pour faire progresser les théories et les innovations dans ce domaine.
Les e-virtuoses se focalisent sur la question de l’évaluation du jeu et par le jeu
« Le jeu peut-il être évalué? Peut-on évaluer par le jeu? Pour qui souhaiterait se lancer dans une telle partie, la prudence est de mise: les règles établies pourront être appelées à changer pour espérer gagner. Quant à ceux qui préfèrent rester hors jeu, sont-ils nécessairement perdants? Pour trouver des éléments de réponses à ces questions, il convient encore de découvrir et d’avancer moult pions sur l’échiquier sans fin de la découverte scientifique. C’est dans cet esprit que se lance la 2ème manche du colloque international des e-virtuoses dédiés à la ludologie et ses usages instrumentalisés » détaille, Julian Alvarez, responsable de la cellule R&D Ludologie de la CCI Grand Hainaut et enseignant-chercheur au laboratoire CIREL de Lille 1.
Listes des principaux chercheurs internationaux qui soutiennent le colloque scientifique des e-virtuoses
Serge Agostinelli (Université d'Aix-Marseille, France)
Julian Alvarez (Cellule R&D Ludologie - CCI Grand Hainaut / Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Sylvester Arnab (Université de Coventry, UK)
Per Backlund (Université de Skövde, Suède)
Raquel Becerril Ortega (Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Philippe Bonfils (Université du Sud Toulon-Var, France)
Gilles Brougère (Université Paris 13 – Sorbonne Paris Cité, France)
Pierre-André Caron (Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Christophe Chaillou (Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Yann Coello (Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Damien Djaouti (Université de Montpellier II, France)
Pascal Estraillier (Université de La Rochelle, France)
Patrick Felicia (Waterford Institute of Technology, Irlande)
Maurizio Forte (Université de Californie, USA)
Sara de Freitas (Université de Coventry, UK)
Abdelkader Gouaich (Université de Montpellier, France)
Sylvain Haudegond (Cellule R&D Ludologie - CCI Grand Hainaut)
Jean Heutte (Université de Lille Nord de France, France)
Pamela Kato (Medical Center university de Utrecht, Pays-Bas)
Catherine Kellner (Université de Lorraine, France)
Christophe Kolski (Université de Lille Nord de France - UVHC, France)
Michel Lavigne (Université de Castres, France)
Sandy Louchart (Université Heriot-Watt, Ecosse)
Hélène Michel (École de Management de Grenoble, France)
Denis Mottet (Université de Montpellier, France)
Louise Sauvé (Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada)
Gilson Schwartz (Université de São Paulo, Brésil)
Pascal Staccini (Université Nice-Sophia Antipolis, Segamed, UMVF-UNF3S, France)
Franck Tarpin-Bernard (Université de Grenoble, France)
André Tricot (Université de Toulouse, France)
Philippe Useille (Université de Lille Nord de France - UVHC, France)
Plus d’informations à cette adresse: http://www.e-virtuoses.net/fr/awards.html.

Students' attitudes towards ICT learning uses: a comparison betweeen digital learners in blended and virtual universities.
This study focuses on the analysis of students’ ICT uses and perceptions in academic contexts comparing two groups of students: those attending to an online university versus students at traditional universities that provide access to a virtual campus and offer some blended courses. The paper aims to clarify issues relating to the types of activities that technologies support in everyday and academic life. The initial hypothesis is that the use of technology to support learning is related with the type of actions and tasks being carried out on a daily basis and therefore it is also influenced by the academic learning context, in this case the university model (online or face-to-face/blended).
Additional documents: BlendedLearningGarciaEscofetGros.

The EFQUEL Innovation Forum is the leading conference for practitioners in international quality and innovation in e-learning, training and development. The 8th EIF takes place at the Open University Catalunya in Barcelona.
EFQUEL welcomes different types of contributions to the EIF2013. Read more about the topic to be addressed and find submission information via this page on the EIF2013 website.
The financial crisis and a regime of austerity pose a great challenge to innovation in education, training and learning in Europe, both in the public and the private sector. The question where and how e-learning can add value to providing a high quality education is put into the center every more. After a decade of quality assurance and development in e-learning, the field today has broadened significantly. Two facts have become apparent: on the one hand, quality has become a synonym for continuous improvement, innovation and organizational development and has moved beyond assuring conformity and standardization. On the other hand it is evident that quality development has become mainstream practice in every educational institution and is important for all learning provision. Both developments are a sign that the quality debate in e-learning has moved from early stages of development and try-out to a more professionalized practice.
With a new wave of e-learning emerging through new and fascinating developments like Open educational resources, MOOCs and social media in learning and a decade of intense development of quality criteria, methods and management approaches it is time to extract the scientific essence: Where do we stand today in quality development in e-learning? What has proved working well? What is the orientation for the future? Which new and emerging fields and technologies are posing new challenges to quality development?  While the past years have seen a lot of adoption of traditional quality approaches to new fields, as well as the developments of new quality approaches today we invite the contributions to the following themes:Quality in e-learning: Criteria, processes, methodologies

• Quality for new emerging technologies and pedagogies (e.g.MOOCs)
• Quality, E-Assessment and testing with e-learning.

"There is no limit to the amount of good you can do if you don't care who gets the credit."
While the original author of this quote isn't known, it has been attributed to all sorts of prominent people: a 19th century Jesuit priest, a longtime CEO of Coca Cola, U.S. Presidents Harry S. Truman, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush and many others. They all liked it and used it, and it is worth remembering.
Despite the quote, though, getting credit has been the economic fulcrum of modern higher education. The cost of education is measured in credit hours as are graduation and degree requirements. And for both the academic supply side and the demand side -- employers and society in general -- it appears that what a student actually learns matters less than the credit, in the form of a diploma or degree, that they obtained. Read more...