Praxis Makes Perfect

I came across iCue from NBC which bills itself as an interactive learning environment built around video from the NBC archives, games, and discussion for people to learn about politics and the coming election. What a great idea, and I wonder if this kind of format would lend itself to “fun” learning opportunities in other subjects… then again, the cost and expertise needed to develop high quality educational video might hinder widespread development of these kinds of sites… on the other hand, maybe people can leverage web 2.0 tools like youtube to invite students who know a subject to develop their own videos and then organize them into a learning site…. is it possible? http://www.icue.com/

I am intrigued by the thought of participating in the K12 online conference and submitting a proposal. As an education researcher interested in ed-tech, I think I’d have the most to contribute to Week 2 (”Prove It”). But, as I think about what I could propose as a presentation, I realize that (1) there is very little to no research done particularly on the the learning effects of Web 2.0 tools in particular, most of the research has been on multimedia or direct instructional tools, then (2) the questions posed in the Call for Proposals are all very traditionally psychology focused questions. There are plenty of debates currently about the correct instructional strategies for the classroom… would it be helpful to the ed-tech community for a PhD grad student to present the findings that he has learned through his classes, even though he hasn’t done the research himself? Or would additional questions about broader issues related to Web 2.0 also be relevant?

For example, I am particularly interested in studying students’ social networks and social capital and its effects on student success… My hunch is that social tools may influence and change students’ networks, but we still need to understand how that might influence learning in the classroom using Web 2.0 tools. Again, the research hasn’t been done yet! But how helpful would it be if I did a presentation framing how we could think about student social networks from a dual research and practice perspective?

If anyone reads this that is also interested in the K12 online conference, maybe you can help me with these thoughts.