digital learning
The HASTAC-MacArthur Digital Media and Learning Competition was announced publicly on August 15, 2007. The Competition closed October 15, 2007, with an overwhelming number of applicants. We had planned for approximately 300 applications, and received more than triple the prediction. The range and diversity were extraordinary, as we have conveyed in earlier blogs in this series. Each application was read by two initial judges, scored, and ranked. The finalist pool of 80 proposals was scrutinized and discussed in detail by 10 experts. We ended up awarding 17 stellar projects. We hail all the applicants, and heartily congratulate the winners.
IT is great and important. Is it "digital learning"? Sometiimes. Not often. Usually it is top-down learning, facilitated by technology. What we mean by "digital media and learning" is more collaborative, customized, bidirectional thinking and learning that uses digital means to enhance those interactions and, where possible, to think about technology too.
The History Department at Middlebury College recently voted not to allow students to cite Wikipedia in essays. Senators and others are saying Wikipedia should be banned from schools. But Wikipedia is the single most remarkable global, non-profit collaboratively created research tool the world has ever known. It dwarfs even the OED in its range and complexity. Instead of banning it, why not teach its use and its shortcomings as an example of learning in a digital age?









