FW: CILT Online Seminars

From: Cunningham, Donald (cunningh@indiana.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 05 2001 - 07:40:15 PDT


I don't know if I'm supposed to pass this on, but since we are a community,
what the heck.

djc

-----Original Message-----
From: Melissa Koch [mailto:melissa.koch@sri.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 9:02 PM
To: undisclosed-recipients
Subject: CILT Online Seminars

Dear CILT Member:

We are putting together an exciting set of five innovative online
seminars about various aspects of our work at the Center for Innovative
Learning Technologies. We see this new initiative as another way of
inviting participating in CILT. The seminars are valuable in themselves,
but they could also lead collaborative research and development projects
might grow out of the discussions in these seminars. In addition, you
are also free to use and modify the seminar designs for your own
teaching.

This first group of seminars are being offered FREE to you because of
your past involvement in CILT activities. If there is interest in these
seminars, we will offer them again, but we will have to charge tuition
to make them self-sufficient.

The seminars start April 25th, last six weeks and require 5-7 hours per
week. The titles of the five seminars are (see below for additional
information):

Uses of Technology for Teaching Spatial Visualization-Based Content.
Technology-Supported Assessments as Tools for Teaching and Learning.
Culture, Cognition and Technology.
Computer-Supported Group Work.
Supporting Student Inquiry.

We have considerable experience in designing and offering online courses
and we have learned that your active participation is critical. We use a
scheduled asynchronous design that fosters online collaboration among
participants. Therefore, it is important that everyone in the seminar
makes a serious commitment to spending the required time to be an
active, thoughtful, and regular participant. Please sign up only if you
can make this commitment.

You can register online at
http://cilt.concord.org/register2001/ciltindex.html Please note that
this free offer applies only to the CILT online seminars listed there,
the first five.

Bob Tinker
--------------------------------------

A catalog description of the five seminars follows

>From the Visualization and Modeling Strand headed by Prof. Marcia Linn:

1. Uses of Technology for Teaching Spatial Visualization-based Content.
Spatial visualization is an ability required in many scientific,
mathematical and technological domains. The ability to create and
manipulate mental images of three-dimensional entities (e.g. molecular
structures, biological bodies, engineering objects etc.), is often taken
for granted.

However, there is evidence that spatial visualization, which is one of
the abilities with the highest known gender difference, varies widely
between students! There is also evidence that technology has a great
potential in assisting students to develop their spatial skills!

During the course you will collaborate with a group of colleagues and
Yael Kali, whose expertise is in spatial visualization, in a variety of
activities including:
* Review and critique related studies and applications;
* Conduct a mini-research project about students' spatial
visualization difficulties in diverse topics;
* Explore the potential of technology for providing visual aids
(animation, three-dimensional models, etc.); and
* Design a scheme for a tool that would assist students in overcoming
these difficulties.
Developed and Moderated by Dr. Yael Kali

>From the Assessments for Learning Strand headed by Barbara Means and
John Bransford:
2. Technology Supported Assessments as Tools for Teaching and Learning
This course will address the range of possible uses of technology to
support ongoing and formative assessment of learning in the classroom.
With the wide variety of technology innovation taking place in schools,
assessment remains one of the most pressing challenges that teachers
face.

Based on years of research in this area, a team of instructors will
discuss how embedded ongoing assessments can support the teaching and
learning process and improve learning outcomes by providing valuable
feedback to teachers and students.

Participants will be given access to some exciting projects that
demonstrate the power of technology to support teaching and learning
through ongoing feedback and assessment.

Developed and Moderated by Dr. Jason Ravitz and Dr. Sean Brophy

>From the Community Tools Strand headed by Roy Pea and Mark Schlager:
3. Computer-supported Group Work

Can groups of people separated by time and distance work together as
effectively as those meeting face-to-face? This problem is of current
concern to many people, from managers of newly merged multi-national
corporations to distance-education teachers who want to support
project-based learning. Knowing how to select the right tools and the
right social practices can provide a basis for effective group work at a
distance.

Students of this netseminar will review some of the latest and greatest
tools for groupwork, learning what these tools do and how to use them
well. Key challenges addressed include building trust at a distance and
maintaining engagement at a distance. This matrix organizes the course:

* Different time, different place. Example tool: Blackboard.com
* Same time, different place. Example tools: NetMeeting, Instant
messaging
* Different time, same place. Example tool: Knowledge Forum
* Same time, same place. Example tool: Electronic whiteboard

Special attention is given to tools that are freely available to
educators!
Developed and Moderated by Dr. Nathan Bos

>From the Community Tools Strand headed by Roy Pea and Mark Schlager:
4. Culture, Cognition, and Technology
   (6 hrs. wk)
Culture, Cognition and Technology is a six-week investigation of how
technology use and sociocultural context shape student thinking and
learning. We will draw on research, theory, and our own experience to
investigate specific examples.

Participants will construct a framework with which to examine and
evaluate technology use in terms of individual, social, cultural and
technology aspects.
Developed and Moderated by Dr. Jim Gray

>From the Ubiquitous Computing Strand headed by Bob Tinker:
5. Supporting Student Inquiry

This netseminar engages participants in creating an inquiry based
science project and also focuses on the teaching strategies that can be
used to support students throughout an inquiry project. Participants
will use the project based science model for creating inquiry projects
and will create projects with driving questions, investigations and
artifacts in a meaningful content area. Finished projects within the
water quality content area will be used to elaborate ideas and
demonstrate key issues within the course.

Participants will also begin to build strategies into their projects
including setting clear expectations, modeling desired outcomes and
providing feedback. Research shows that when teachers use a variety of
teaching strategies to support inquiry, students' scientific
understanding is more robust.

   Some of the course questions include:
   *How do I start building an inquiry based project?
   *What are appropriate expectations or standards for inquiry projects
and
   student investigations?
   *How can teachers model desired components of successful inquiry?
   *What types of feedback do students need during inquiry projects?

Developed and moderated by Dr. Michele Spitulnik



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