By Juliana Raffaghelli. The new conceptions of teachers’ professional development (TPD) are based on personalized professional learning activities to be implemented in different moments of professional life cycle, in response to contextualized learning needs. As a result, it is expected that TPD yields creative processes that end up in transforming pedagogical practices through reflection and self-awareness on the new professional skills.
However, creating and controlling TPD environments for teachers’ creativity is still a matter of discussion, since such environments are to be connected to the professional life-cycle, and this requires very fluid learning experiences. In this paper, the use of Open Educational Resources as dimension of teachers’ professional development environments, within and beyond the school is explored, attempting to understand if the participation to OER-cycle (as the cycle of using, remixing, creating and sharing OERs) can effectively contribute to creative practices linked to professional learning.

From-field_36_3.pdf

By Heidi M. Agustin. MOOC provider Coursera announced a new program to help online students gain mastery in a specific subject.
According to a Coursera blog post, the online education startup launched "Specializations", a program that will allow students to take a series of online courses for certification. Venture Beat reported that there is no formal application process -- anyone interested in developing mastery in one of the offered subject areas can sign up. Students will have to complete all classes in the series and will also be required to complete a practical capstone project, which can be included in a portfolio or presented to potential employers. According to Inc., unlike most of Coursera's individual online courses, Specializations will cost students about $200 to $500. See more...

Tapio Koskinen, Director of the Editorial Board of eLearning Papers, has announced the research topics that will be covered by the online journal in the coming year. 
“We just completed a very successful year for eLearning Papers. We have very big audiences; some of the articles had close to 150.000 hits,” said Koskinen.
eLearning Papers is an online journal that enables the timely exchange of information on open education, open educational resources (OER), and ICT in education in Europe. More...

By Jason Hardy. Traditional higher education possesses systemic problems. Online learning may see tremendous growth and help to reverse some of the most decried trends in higher education in 2014.
A new report in Forbes argues that 2014 will be a big year for higher education. The article by Todd Hixon argues that its current business model is largely outdated, and that innovation will be critical for students and future employers alike. In fact, online education is starting to create virtual boom towns across the nation as a means of addressing tuition hikes, student loans, graduation rates, and other troubling trends. Read more...

La construction, la mise en place, l'animation et la régulation d'un dispositif de type FOAD reposent sur une somme d'ingénieries complémentaires dont celle portant sur l'intégration de ressources numériques.
La question de la veille sur les ressources disponibles selon les objectifs, les activités et le type de publics visés est, et sera, de plus en plus stratégique. Il s'agit d'aider les équipes pédagogiques à repérer, à sélectionner, les ressources formatives proposées aux apprenants, pour mieux les intégrer.
Exceptionnellement, cette web-conférence est ouverte gratuitement à tous sur inscription en ligne. Voir l'article entier...

By Gráinne Conole. Digital technologies have moved from being a peripheral innovation to being part of the core services we offer learners. Today’s learners have grown up in a world of computers and the Internet and see such technologies as a key part of their learning toolset (Sharpe and Beetham 2010). Digital technologies enable learners to engage with rich multimedia, and social and participatory media enable learners to communicate and collaborate in a variety of different ways. Smart phones and tablets mean that mobile learning, anywhere, anytime is now a reality. Virtual worlds and gamification facilitate authentic learning and role play (Wills, Leight et al. 2010; Childs and Peachey 2011; Childs and Peachey 2013). This chapter will provide an overview of the key technological developments over the past thirty years and will critique their impact on formal and informal learning. It will conclude with a projection of future scenarios for education and emergent technological trends. More...