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.

We’re counting down to the announcement of the Competition winners on February 21. Now we offer a few insights into what the field of Digital Learning looks like from the vantage point of 1010 applications.

Last week, we blogged about the selection process for the Digital Media and Learning Competition. This week we pass along some of what we have learned from the Competition about what it means to build a new field.

As many of you know, Cathy Davidson and David Theo Goldberg have been working on a project entitled ‘The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age’ that explores the possibilities (and challenges) that have arisen as new technologies change the way we learn.

Microkids

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.

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We took photographs today in the DiV virtual reality space and then in the FCIEMAS atrium outside of it. It was . . . real!

Online gaming and learning expert Constance Steinkuehler will be the featured speaker at the NCSU Libraries' I. T. Littleton Seminar on Tuesday, May 1, 2007.

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?