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Innovate ( http://innovateonline.info ) is published bimonthly as a public
service by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova
Southeastern University. In the October/November issue we provide readers
with a survey of technology-enhanced proposals and initiatives in a diverse
range of contexts--within the academy, beyond the academy, and across the
globe.

In the midst of rising printing costs and reduced university support,
academic publishers now face serious challenges in meeting the needs of the
professional communities they serve. To address these challenges,
university presses in the near future are likely find new technologies and
new business models indispensable for fulfilling their mission. In an
interview with Chad Trevitte, Charles Henry of Rice University Press
discusses how digital publishing has allowed his organization to re-emerge
as a pioneer in innovative practice. Henry’s description of this
initiative--its origins, its rationale, its strategies, and its plans for
further development--outlines a potential precedent for more widespread
revitalization of university presses across the nation.

The following four articles explore and assess the role that technology can
play in K-12 environments, higher education, and teacher training programs
in remote settings. Thomas Chandler and Heejung An address how digital
mapping technologies can allow new ways for K-12 educators to promote
learning in the social studies curriculum, particularly through projects
that bridge the gap between classroom learning and civic engagement.
Heejung An in turn introduces readers to the Virtual Lab, a multi-tiered
interactive module she designed to foster HTML coding skills in a
university computer science course. Edward Berger illustrates how
podcasting technology allowed him to provide focused models of complex
calculations in a college engineering course, thereby allowing his students
a valuable resource for their continued study outside the classroom. Kavita
Rao then provides an account of how a teacher training program in
Micronesia employed a blend of online and face-to-face learning in order to
accommodate the distinctive cultural preferences and technological
constraints of indigenous populations. While noting the obstacles faced by
instructors and students, Rao’s study suggests that foresight,
flexibility, and sheer persistence can make all the difference when
employing technology in a challenging environment.

The value of technology in a global learning context also informs our next
article, but with a shift in focus towards social benefit entrepreneurs.
Pedro Hernandez-Ramos, James L. Koch, Albert Bruno, and Eric Carlson
describe how the Global Social Benefit Incubator—a residential
workshop that promotes sustainable business models for humanitarian
ventures—has designed a new technological platform that will not only
support program participants during their residency, but also help ensure
their sustained contact, consultation, and collaborative learning long
after they return home. In describing the evolution of this platform from
prior systems, the authors show how technological innovation can support
lifelong learning while fostering progressive social change in the world.

Finally, Stephen Downes returns with another Places to Go column. In this
issue Downes reviews Facebook, the popular social networking site. Downes
notes that just as the traditional academy has a social function in its
educational mission, Facebook conversely has its own relevance as an
educational tool—and that it provides an alternative model to the
course management systems that currently characterize most online and
hybrid courses. Downes also sheds light on the current dilemma of Facebook
designers as they seek to ensure both freedom and security in the unique
space they provide for their users.
We hope that you enjoy this issue of Innovate. Please use the discussion
board within each article to raise questions or provide additional
commentary; your comments will be sent to authors for their response, which
will become part of the record for their article. Also, please ask your
organizational librarian to include Innovate in their section for
open-access journals. Finally, please forward this announcement to
colleagues who wish to enhance their effectiveness as educators via
innovative use of information technology.

Thanks!

Jim
----
James L Morrison
Editor-in-Chief, Innovate
http://www.innovateonline.info
Fischler School of Education and Human Services
Nova Southeastern University
http://www.schoolofed.nova.edu/home.htm

Innovate (www.innovateonline.info) is published bimonthly as a public
service by the Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova
Southeastern University and is sponsored, in part, by Microsoft.

The October/November 2008 issue includes a landmark interview
describing important developments in technology-enhanced learning,
plus two articles on e-learning, experiential learning, and reflective
participation. Our remaining articles report on a study on the use of
student response systems to increase classroom engagement and describe
an analysis of student assessments of important elements in department
Web sites.

In the opening interview, Vijay Kumar describes network-enabled open
education, a fusion of distance education with open courseware and
other freely available resources that catalyzes new opportunities in
endlessly customizable education. With the number, quality, and
variety of freely available educational resources growing
exponentially, Kumar argues that the combination of open education
with the technological tools of distance learning can produce an
educational experience at least as good as, and in some ways better
than, traditional classroom education.(See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=657&action=article)
The webcast is scheduled for November 6, 2008, at 11:00 AM EDT.

The second article explores the notion of participation and its role
in creating rich, engaging experiential learning experiences. Sandra
B. Schneider and Michael A. Evans suggest that a sociocultural
understanding of the concept of participation could help instructional
designers and instructors to combine experience and technology more
meaningfully. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=511&action=article)
Their webcast is scheduled for November 14, 2008, at 12:00 PM EDT.

In our next article, Margaret Farren takes a related approach,
discussing how a reflective action research process can engage
students meaningfully in their professional communities as they learn
and help them define a learning process that reflects their values.
(See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=543&action=article)
Her webcast is scheduled for October 21, 2008, at 11:00 AM EDT.

Next, David J. Radosevich, Roger Salomon, Deirdre M. Radosevich, and
Patricia Kahn describe a way to engage students in the traditional
classroom setting, using student response systems (also known as
"clickers") to allow students to provide feedback during the lecture.
This kind of instant input helps reinforce key concepts and gives
instructors an opportunity to gauge understanding while the lecture is
in process, leading to more-targeted teaching. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=449&action=article)

Finally, Trevor Hall, Ryan Jensen, and Daniel McLean assess students'
feelings about department Web sites, producing a hierarchy of
information that most students want to see and suggesting more complex
organizational structures to meet the needs of different students.
(See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=416&action=article)
Their webcast is scheduled for October 21, 2008, at 12:00 PM EDT.

We have two columns this month. In Places to Go, Stephen Downes
describes an intriguing experiment in open education: Connectivism &
Connective Knowledge, a massive open online course offered by Downes
and George Siemens through the University of Manitoba. Practicing what
it preaches, Connectivism & Connective Knowledge engages 35 enrolled
and over 2,000 auditing students through the networks and virtual
communities that it studies. It is truly an innovation that
illustrates the potential of open education and Web 2.0 social
applications for learning. (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=668&action=article)

And we introduce a new column, Innovate-Ideagora, based on Innovate's
new Ning network. As a "marketplace for ideas," Innovate-Ideagora lets
readers participate directly in conversations about education and
information technology 24/7, thereby representing an important step in
our ongoing mission to inform the educational community about
innovative uses of educational technology to enhance the educational
process. Membership is open to all and registration is easy and free.
Read this month's inaugural column for more information, then head to
http://innovate-ideagora.ning.com, create your profile, and join the
conversation! (See
http://innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=653&action=article)

If you are considering submitting a manuscript describing how you use
Microsoft technology to enhance the educational experience for
publication consideration in the From our Sponsors section, please
make sure that it conforms to the publication guidelines described at
the Contribute link on Innovate's navigation bar. The senior authors
of the top three papers published on the Microsoft site at
http://www.microsoft.com/education/highered/innovate.aspx will be
invited to attend the Microsoft Global Exchange summit in July 2009 to
make a brief presentation of their paper. All related expenses will be
paid by Microsoft.

We hope that you enjoy this issue of Innovate. Please use the
discussion board within each article to raise questions or provide
additional commentary. Your comments will be sent to authors for their
response, which will become part of the record for their article.
Also, please ask your organizational librarian to include Innovate in
their section for open-access journals.

Thanks!

Jim
----
James L Morrison
Editor-in-Chief, Innovate
http://www.innovateonline.info
Fischler School of Education and Human Services
Nova Southeastern University
http://www.schoolofed.nova.edu/home.htm