Principles of networked learning, constructivism, and connectivism inform the design of a test case through which secondary students construct personal learning environments for the purpose of independent inquiry. Emerging web applications and open educational resources are integrated to support a "Networked Student Model" that promotes…

The future of higher education in the sciences will be marked by programs that link skilled educators and research scientists from around the world with teachers for professional development and with students for high-impact learning--either virtually or physically in the field. These programs will use technology where possible to build new and…

Educational achievement in rural America is one of the country's great overlooked challenges. Rural students achieve below the U.S. average on national tests, and high school dropout rates are higher and college attendance lower than they are in cities and suburbs. When the U.S. Department of Education asks low-achieving schools to be turned…

With the strong emphasis of social constructivism, many educators are finding new ways to stimulate and enhance social activities within the classroom. One such method is the use of cooperative learning. A cohort of students worked in small teams cooperatively to complete an assignment while using blogs to document and reflect their work.…

This paper discusses findings of a study investigating how students, in four online courses, engaged in inquiry-based learning with and without support from a facilitator. The investigation was conducted by analyzing discussions of the online courses using the community of inquiry model. The results of the study imply that students in online…

The learner-centered paradigm departs from traditional teaching models by focusing on students more than teachers and learning more than teaching. Thus, classes are more egalitarian; they emphasize critical thinking, active learning, and real-world assignments. Graduate students in learner-centered classrooms were surveyed about perceptions of…

Research intensive universities have important roles in society and cannot be valued solely on the basis of their contribution to economic growth. Their activities are only part of the diverse spectrum of the higher education system which advanced societies need. League tables of universities discourage diversity, distort the goals of higher…

When a person walks into any library media center, he or she will, no doubt, see lots of students busily working on classroom assignments. While these students may be focused and industrious, the real question is what drives their work, and are they learning? Student learning comes from active efforts to construct knowledge that requires them to…

Because the goals of games and the object of school-based learning are fundamentally mismatched, efforts to integrate games into the curriculum have largely fallen flat despite the best intentions of teachers and the gaming industry. Arguing that educational game designers should be investigating ways to get education into games rather than…

Project-based learning is a pedagogy that involves students in applying and developing theories, skills, and techniques to solve real world problems. Three faculty members used project-based learning to involve graduate students in an interdisciplinary seminar on sustainable development in Appalachian Ohio, which was convened under the auspices of…

This account of practice discusses the learning of a set that met for five years as part of undertaking a research degree. It focuses on questions relating to the role of the facilitator that emerge from the experience of an action learning set that was first helped by an external facilitator and that, after 18 months, became self-facilitating.…

Teachers in Expeditionary Learning schools have discovered that finding an authentic audience for a genuine product is the key to getting students to take responsibility for their own work. The author, a school designer for Expeditionary Learning Schools Outward Bound, describes three examples of projects in which students worked on curriculum…

Thanks to the emergence of techno-savvy universities, online degrees can offer the same benefits as those taught on campus. A number of traditional universities now offer online options, which can make sifting through the long list of offerings intimidating. This article highlights some of the top programs offered by various universities.

Innovation and entrepreneurship are vital for economic growth, as was already asserted by Schumpeter in 1934. In a recent survey carried out by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2006) a picture emerges of The Netherlands as lagging behind when it comes to starting a company, whereby start-ups of students coming…

This article which is largely conceptual in nature, explores the possibilities provided by embracing complexity thinking that are attentive to, but not confined by, externally imposed curriculum mandates while simultaneously honoring the interests and needs of individual students and the classroom collective. From this perspective, the ideas of…