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BloX: A Tangible Media Tool for Learning Place Value |
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by April Alexander, Larissa Co |
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Tangible objects, known as “manipulatives” by educators, can facilitate student understanding of mathematics because they provide rich stimuli for engaging a concept. However, existing manipulatives neglect to make an explicit connection between students’ physical discoveries and the abstractions they are meant to demonstrate. BloX is a tool for early elementary students which connects their interaction with tangible blocks to a digital display that reinforces the link between physical and symbolic representations of place value-- a math concept that is fundamental to understanding our counting system. |
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Show Me The Money: An interactive game for empowering youth with financial knowledge |
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by Ann Charng, Irina Gonzalez, Mela Sogono, Vridhi Tuli |
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There is currently a lack of systemic support for financial education in America. This results in financial illiteracy and leads people to make poor financial decisions. Using a theoretical framework based on the ideas of behavioral change models, motivational learning, situational-based learning, and instructional design, we propose to develop an engaging online simulation and board game for high school youth in low-income communities. We will teach kids the essential concepts of personal financial management including the difference between wants and needs, budgeting, and savings. Our goal is to empower kids and help them make strategic financial decisions in their lives. |
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BitWisdom: A Microjournaling Website for Self-Reflection and Learning |
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by Jacquelin Clark, Erika Dauber |
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Self reflection has been proven by educational psych scholars to improve the likelihood of lifelong learning and increase well being. However, the general population does not self-reflect on a regular basis due to a lack of time, perception of high commitment level, and a lack of knowledge that reflection promotes self-insight. BitWisdom is a microjournaling website that facilitates online engagement through social modeling, and provides a low barrier to entry through short format reflections. BitWisdom provides users with a two-part cognitive structure for self-reflection that affords lifelong learning, catharsis, and personal insight through reflection. |
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AC Theory, Step By Step |
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by Eric Coates |
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An instructional website to help adult students of vocational electronics overcome a common learning problem when moving from a basic knowledge of components and simple circuits, to applying complex electronics theory. This project bridges the gap between a basic knowledge of DC circuits, and the application of complex AC theory, by chunking essential principles into interactive modules, helping the user understand the technology. Each module sets a clear learning goal, and explains a single topic using concise text, diagrams and animations. Interactive quizzes at each step help build confidence and understanding. |
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Grasping Programming: A Mechanical Programming Language |
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by Rodolphe Courtier |
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When novices begin learning how to program, they often develop mental models that hinder their ability to think about programming and debugging beyond the basics. They see the computer as a "hidden mind" that can interpret the intentions of the programs and do things beyond what is specified in the code, and get frustrated when it doesn't. Grasping Programming is a project to create a programming language for learners designed to help novices establish a more mechanistic mental model of programming. To this end, Grasping Programming employs a mechanistic and very visual syntax to convey this model. |
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WordSiftPLUS |
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by Mitra FathollahPour, Christine Funahashi |
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WordSift PLUS is a web-based formative assessment tool customized to help English Language Learners develop and demonstrate comprehension. The user drags images, adds captions and, sorts them on a visual organizer. The goal of WordSift PLUS is to expose student comprehension of target reading materials and academic content by providing visual means of organizing information and scaffolding academic writing activity. This tool adds the capability to guide comprehension and the reflection process necessary in academic content learning to WordSift, an existing web-based tool for visualizing content. |
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Endovascular Skills |
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by Joanna Law |
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Endovascular surgery, a form of minimally invasive surgery, is a new and emerging field in the realm of procedurally-based medicine. Physician training, with respect to knowledge and skill acquisition in this field, is the goal of this curriculum and aims to maximize the learning experience by utilizing available technologies in conjunction with already existing texts. Through online video-based demonstration of specific skills, trainees will be able to experience the "thoughtful practitioner" and also be able to maximize the practice of endovascular procedures on the simulator in addition to optimizing the exposure trainees have to senior physicians. |
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WebLenses – an online, in-context, learning support environment |
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by Haggai Mark |
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WebLenses “bring online information into focus” by providing different tools (“lenses”) which can be applied to online content, within context, in order to visualize, annotate, interactively explore, and otherwise engage the learned material. While the implemented system narrowly focuses on a single topic within the domain of College Statistics and offers a small set of lenses, WebLenses is an extensible environment, able to support more domains and more lenses. The WebLenses support learning through just-in-time, as-needed, interactive resources, leveraging guided noticing, differentiated perception, and time and context relevancy. |
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S3AIL : Socially Situated Science for Authentic Inquiry Learning |
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by Chen Kee Ng, Amy Wong |
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S3AIL (Socially Situated Science for Authentic Inquiry Learning) is a learning environment that situates science learning in the practice of science. It integrates social networking, scientific data collection and visualization to support an inquiry-based Ecology curriculum. S3AIL consists of a set of data collection tools, complemented with an online data visualization platform that allows students to aggregate data and visualize multiple representations of the data, within a social network. Situating data visualization within a social network provides a platform for students to engage in scientific discourse and analysis both inside and outside of the classroom, facilitating a scientific community of practice. Preliminary user assessment was conducted with high school teachers and students. Teachers appreciated the value of S3AIL in facilitating data collection and visualization in science learning. The social network environment also facilitated peer learning, allowing for capturing of learning with a social context. A pilot study with high school students showed that multiple representations of data afforded by S3AIL enabled students to analyze data more effectively, and to engage in deep scientific discourse. |
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WikiWorld: An augmented reality approach to inquiry |
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by Dennis Paiz-Ramirez |
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There are many things that can be missed if we simply do not take the time to reflect on the world around us. Often times people cannot engage themselves at sites of interest and do not learn about the the site as a result. WikiWorld encourages users to ask, and find answers to, things that they are interested in. Through the use of geo tagging, a user's question persists at the spot it was asked. Other users who pass by the question can then share their knowledge by answering the question, or expand their knowledge by reading other users responses. |
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ToonTastic: A Global Storytelling Network for Kids, by Kids |
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by Andrew Russell |
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Creativity, collaboration, and cultural understanding are becoming increasingly important in our workplace and society. As educators, we are therefore challenged to create new opportunities for children to express their ideas and share their work in collaboratively playful settings, both locally and online the world over. ToonTastic is an online storytelling and animation tool that empowers young children without any technical skills to create their own cartoons and share their stories with other kids around the world. Our goal is to build an online Global Storytelling Network that will inspire creative collaboration and spread cultural understanding through the power of story. |
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No Sweet Talk: See . Shift . Share. |
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by Prowpannarai Tongliemnak |
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Current learning resources and materials for diabetes awareness in Thailand are not pitched at appropriate level for public outreach. Additionally, they do not explicitly address existing misconceptions. While these current effort have seen some success, more can be done to target the group at risk so that early intervention measures can be taken. "No Sweet Talk" is a series of interactive online videos on social networking sites to heighten awareness and address misconceptions about type 2 Diabetes mellitus among Thais. The online application is designed to encourage learner reflections, correct misconceptions, and potentially change learner's behavior with reference to diabetes. |
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CUDO: Career Exploration without Boundaries |
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by Rachel Yong, Brian Young |
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High schoolers today are making career decisions based on very limited information, despite the explosion of networking opportunities and resources available online. Without the chance to learn from personal experience, most students are forced to rely on people they know, or statistics they read, to learn about careers of interest. Our solution, CUDO, is a career exploration website that breaks down the traditional boundaries between careers and combines the power of online video and social networking into a dynamic learning experience. With CUDO, students connect with working professionals to get anecdotal, up-to-date information and advice. With the experience of others behind them, students can begin their own journey towards finding their passion. |
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