Virtual Learning Environment Showcase

Through rapid "lightning round" introductions, campus practitioners will share how they are leveraging today's technologies to create mobile and virtual learning environments. Learn about their process for experimentation and assessment and find out how these innovators are targeting student success with emerging technologies.

During the first half hour of each hour-long session, presenters will share a 10-minute overview of their project. The second half hour is designed for informal interaction with these innovators so you can follow up, learn more, and make connections.

A VLE for Foreign Languages and Ideas for Others
One of the benefits of open virtual learning environments is their ability to allow students to apply and share the knowledge they have gained in the classroom. The Mixxer is a project hosted at Dickinson College created using Drupal to connect language learners with native speakers around the world for language exchanges via Skype. The showcase will briefly demonstrate the site, describe how it has changed language classes at Dickinson and other schools, and finally how to create similar environments in other subject areas using Drupal.

Exposing the Wizard: Using Metacollaboration to Engage Students (and Educators) in Authentic Learning
Have you struggled to get faculty buy-in for the use of technology in the classroom? Is assessment of learner outcomes important to your institution? Do educators want optional course management systems? Using Epsilen, the New York Times Knowledge Network's global learning system, presenters will focus on how various uses of technology in English and education courses have engaged students and educators in participatory-centered methods of learning. “Exposing the Wizard” demonstrates how the active, practical integration of technology into the classroom promotes a metacollaborative learning environment where educators and students create, share, and produce projects as co-participants (aka edu-dents).

Exploring Microsoft Surface for Teaching and Learning
Microsoft Surface promotes active learning, collaborative exploration, and real-time feedback. This session will highlight Surface pilots under way at Ball State University, Ohio State University, and the University of Notre Dame involving collaboration among undergraduate students, faculty members, and staff members in the following disciplines and departments: business, engineering, geography, library, science, and information technology. Microsoft Surface enables new modes of human computer interaction and learning including interacting with physical and digital elements in the periodic table, exploring the history of buildings on campus, and creating new learning strategies and modalities using interactive gaming.