EDPA 4xxx – Innovation Lab

(Class should be cross listed so that it can fulfill a requirement for most CEHD students)

Credit Hours: 1

Number of Students: 5 to 10

Course Grading: Pass or Fail (No A through F)

(Alfonso Sintjago and Isaac Bolger)

Course Description:

Prerequisite: None

This course will serve as a space where CEHD students will be able to expand on their innovative ideas by collaborating with other students within the school of education. They will develop projects of their interest and contribute to other project being developed by their peers. While students are currently learning about a wide number of innovative ideas taking place within the field of education, there are few opportunities for students to go beyond the textbook and develop projects that can impact the local and global community during their studies at the University of Minnesota. Having a very capable, highly educated and self-motivated group of students, this laboratory could serve as an empowering space, where individuals could learn to develop, collaborate on, and implement innovative projects transforming and improving society.…

ICGC-COMPTON INTERNATIONAL FELLOWSHIP (Application 2011)

January 18, 2011

As a PhD student within the Comparative and International Development Education program, I am interested in exploring and researching the concept of dependency, development, technology and inequality. Having met other ICGC-Compton fellows during my first year at the University of Minnesota, I found myself to have a strong relationship with several of these students and would be very interested in being part of this learning community. I have a strong interest and an affinity with Latin America, and it is my goal to spend my professional career working in the region. “A man’s feet must be planted in his country, but his eyes should survey the world.” George Santayana. During my time at the University of Minnesota, I hope to learn the skills and obtain the knowledge to help steer Latin America or a developing country to a more equitable and inclusive future.…

Adoption and Implementation of the iPad (Draft Survey)

 January 7, 2010

The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that relate to the adoption or nonadoption of the iPad by PsTL faculty.

Research question

How do organizational characteristics and perceptions of the iPad’s attributes relate to the adoption and implementation of the iPad?

Models

• Rogers’ (1995) Diffusion of Innovation
• Davis’ (1971) AVICTORY model for organizational change

Dependent variable

Whether or not faculty are classified as an Adopter or Nonadopter.

Adopters are those individuals who either intend to implement the iPad into courses, or those who already have implemented the iPad.  Nonadopters included faculty who have heard of the iPad and are in the process of gathering more information and those who do not intend to implement the iPad.

Independent variables:

• Perceptions of an innovation’s attributes (Rogers, 1995)
• Organizational characteristics (Davis, 1971)

Survey

The purpose of this study is to learn how faculty make decisions about implementing innovations in their courses.…

University of Minnesota – Rochester –> Center for Learning Innovation (CLI)
http://www.r.umn.edu/research/cli/

Thinking of A CEHD Innovation Lab

December, 29, 2010

INNOVATION STUDIES CERTIFICATE
http://cce.umn.edu/Innovation-Studies-Certificate/index.html

Education Innovation Laboratory (EdLabs) – Harvard
http://www.iq.harvard.edu/programs/education_innovation_laboratory_edlabs

Student Run – A space where students will be able to cooperate and collaborate on education projects with a future oriented perspective. By being part of an innovation lab students will be able to share ideas and discuss what they consider to be most relevant to the future of education. Topics such as invisible learning, gamification of education, open education resources, the achievement gap, and the growing impact of online education will be discussed by the members of the innovation lab. To insure that projects will expand away from the drawing board, project will be monitored and regularly discussed.

The lab hopes to bring students together from a wide range of fields. Other universities across the country have established innovation labs but unlike other labs in the country, our initiative hopes to be student run and student centered.…

December, 19, 2010

Research Questions:

How will OER influence the inclusion of local voices in the educational curriculum of developing countries?

How will the growth of online education affect access to education in developing countries, in particular South America?

How will the growing ability for individuals to generate their own videos and other electronic forms of media and the increasing availability of high quality OERs affect traditional higher education?

What are the ways in which mobile technology will impact education (K-12, Higher, Vocational, Formal, and Informal)?

Will the growing use of the internet and the growing access to mobile technology impact the way in which remittances are sent to third world countries? Will the links from migrants with their country of origin continue to strengthen?

Will the increasing use of technology transform the transfer of knowledge, the brain drain, and led to the rise of technological transfer and knowledge remittances?

Sources:

(These are books in my short reading list.…

A Video Game Learning Curriculum

December 18, 2010

Video Game Design Course:

–        Students will develop a character (including time projections of who they want the character to be 5/10/20/50 years into the future and how will the character get there). Students will develop both realistic and imaginative characters.

–        Students will develop a number of characters throughout the school year as well as continuously adding information to their particular characters which will then be compiled into a database. Characters can be related and linked through family or social relations.

–        Students will research the different professions they would like their character to work in, and what constitutes their regular daily schedule. Students will be encouraged to find information about particular professions through different types of media and sources.

–        Students will discuss the positive and negative aspects of their characters, as well as compare and contrast their realistic to their imaginative characters.…

World of Warcraft (WoW) / Runescape / and Minecraft – Unlimited Education Possibilities

World of Warcraft, or WoW, is without contest the most used and best known MMORPG currently available. World of Warcraft has over 11 million active accounts, most of which are located in the United States, with a strong following in Asia and Europe. Despite being developed 6 years ago, the game continues to grow and evolve. On December 7, 2010, the WoW changed once again with the release of Cataclysm, a new expansion pack. Since its beginnings, World of Warcraft has captivated hundreds of thousands of youth through its extensive and interactive world. Unlike other games, WoW is constantly changing and providing players with new and exciting experiences  (McKenna, Gardner, & Myers, 2010). In World of Warcraft individuals create characters on a server which has close to 20,000 players and help characters within their faction to succeed (Nardi & Harris, 2006).…

The Future of Education in the Dominican Republic

December 18, 2010

The Future of Education – The Volatile Nature of Change and the Growing Impact of Technologies

Moving into the 21^st Century it will be important for countries to prepare for a more flexible work place and economy. No longer will individuals retain the same job for their whole careers, but in society 3.0, as “knowmads,” will work for different bosses, changing jobs on a regular basis (Moravec, 2010). In an increasingly complex and volatile market place, children must be educated for an innovation, rather than an industrial, society. Learning is becoming ever more often invisible and personalized while modern media increasingly plays a greater role in extending the reach of the ivory tower (Katz, 2008; Cobo, 2010). Through the growth of OER and by freeing up data, information will reach a greater segment of the population (Downes, 2007; Berners-Lee, 2009; Rosling, 2007).…