21st Century Scholar

In my last blog post, I shared a major milestone for the Collegeology project: we launched the beta version of Mission:Admission—the Facebook game we have been working on for the past three years. My invitation extended still stands—please log on and play. It has been such fun over the last week hearing back from students [...]

I have been mulling over a question posed to me at this past AERA meeting. A well-respected scholar, after hearing about the college access games we are developing, expressed doubt over the positive effects of a game where players role play the college preparation process. “What you are saying,” he shared, “is like me saying [...]

I dedicate this blog entry to my fellow educators working with high school seniors, and those who are conducting research to understand college readiness. Thank you! The arrival of spring usually brings about an interesting phenomenon in high schools, which many have referenced, experienced, or coached students out of—senioritis. Educators and school leaders often struggle [...]

Today’s leading scholars believe that higher education may need to change. “[E]ducation has been seen as a process of transferring information from a higher authority to the student. This model, however, just can’t keep up with the rapid rate of change [today],” write John Seely Brown and Douglas Thomas in their 2011 book A New [...]

The Digital Media and Learning Conference offered a chance to hear so many interesting perspectives. Though I often get to speak to people with different roles in education, research, and technology, I rarely get a chance to experience them all together. Having so many positions and opinions voiced at once—discussing the same panel or short [...]

I am not completely ignorant of the concept of “vidding,” as described by Francesca Coppa as “a form of grassroots filmmaking in which clips from television shows and movies are set to music.” In college, I had some second-hand exposure to AMVs (anime music videos), and I am aware of video-making as part of modern [...]

A month to reflect on the Digital Media and Learning (DML) Conference, and my mind is still buzzing with the ideas and innovative shifts in educational learning I was able to engage with during the three-day conference. As with the two prior conferences, I left the conference with a strong sense of optimism for the [...]

The organizers of 2012’s Digital Media & Learning (DML) conference handed out thumb drives and showcased real-time Twitter feeds. Their panelists presented cutting-edge software and repurposed hardware. Their contest applicants imagined new ways to conceptualize digital proficiencies and to showcase them online. Yet the high-tech faltered at times. The conference hotel’s WiFi network was painfully [...]

“I should not have to learn how to type on my T-Mobile Sidekick,” a high school student proclaimed in front of a large screen projecting a PowerPoint presentation he and his peers had created. The presentation was part of a 2012 Digital Media and Learning (DML) Conference panel designed to share critical research conducted by [...]

Hold onto your Power Points, Prezis, and Silde Rockets, there’s a new presentation resource in town. It’s called Projeqt, and last month it won a SXSW Interactive Award in the category of Educational Resource. What is it? Reuters claims, “Projeqt allows users to pull real-time content into a presentation, including feeds from Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Instagram, Flickr, Pinterest, [...]