Discover practical strategies to make reading aloud a meaningful family ritual. The stories we read--and the conversations we have about them--help shape family traditions, create lifelong memories, and become part of our legacy. Reading aloud not only has the power to change a family--it has the power to change the world. But we all know that connecting deeply with our families can be difficult in our busy, technology-driven society. Reading aloud is one of the best ways to be fully present with our children, even after they can read themselves, but it isn't always easy to do. Discover how to: Prepare your kids for academic success through reading to them Develop empathy and compassion in your kids through books Find time to read aloud in the midst of school, sports, and dinner dishes Choose books across a variety of sibling interests and ages Make reading aloud the best part of your family's day The Read-Aloud Family also offers age-appropriate book lists from infancy through adolescence. From a toddler's wonder to a teenager's resistance, you will find the inspiration you need to start a read-aloud movement in your own home.

With e-learning technologies evolving and expanding at high rates, organizations and institutions around the world are integrating massive open online courses (MOOCs) and other open educational resources (OERs). MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South explores the initiatives that are leveraging these flexible systems to educate, train, and empower populations previously denied access to such opportunities. Featuring contributors leading efforts in rapidly changing nations and regions, this wide-ranging collection grapples with accreditation, credentialing, quality standards, innovative assessment, learner motivation and attrition, and numerous other issues. The provocative narratives curated in this volume demonstrate how MOOCs and OER can be effectively designed and implemented in vastly different ways in particular settings, as detailed by experts from Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific/Oceania, and the Caribbean. This comprehensive text is an essential resource for policy makers, instructional designers, practitioners, administrators, and other MOOC and OER community stakeholders.

The International Handbook of e-Learning, Volume 1 provides a comprehensive compendium of research and theory in all aspects of e-learning, one of the most significant ongoing global developments in the entire field of education. Covering history, design models, instructional strategies, best practices, competencies, evaluation, assessment, and more, these twenty-seven contributions tackle the tremendous potential and flexibility inherent to this rapidly growing new paradigm. Past and present empirical research frames each chapter, while future research needs are discussed in relation to both confirmed practice and recent changes in the field. The book will be of interest to anyone seeking to create and sustain meaningful, supportive learning environments within today's anytime, anywhere framework, from teachers, administrators, and policy makers to corporate and government trainers.

The International Handbook of e-Learning, Volume 2 provides a comprehensive compendium of implementation and practice in all aspects of e-learning, one of the most significant ongoing global developments in the entire field of education. Covering the integration, challenges, implications, and context-appropriate use of open education networks, blended learning, mobile technologies, social media, and other platforms in a variety of unique international settings, these thirty contributions illustrate the wide-ranging applications and solutions made possible by this rapidly growing new paradigm. Case studies are driven by empirical research and attention to cultural specificity, while future research needs are discussed in relation to both confirmed practice and recent changes in the field. The book will be of interest to anyone seeking to create and sustain meaningful, supportive learning environments within today's anytime, anywhere framework, from teachers, administrators, and policy makers to corporate and government trainers.

In today's educational space, no student who struggles with reading should be denied a fair and equal education just because teachers are not trained to understand the implications of dyslexia. Failing to learn to read is not failing to learn. It merely means that the orthodox methods of whole-language reading instruction have not favored those students who need specific multisensory instruction. In Narratives from Mothers of Children with Dyslexia: Our Stories for Educators, mothers share personal stories of pain in navigating educational spaces for the success of their sons and daughters who are dyslexic. Despite resistance from within the PreK-12 academy, these mothers have become warriors for education. The narratives in this text are global ones, from Singapore, India, Kenya, Spain, Great Britain, and the United States, and are in local "dialect." The mothers use a variety of terms to describe their experiences, but the differences in language only prove that the language of experience is universal; we can understand everyone, even if they use different terms or names. We understand what they have learned through the challenges and struggles of serving as the backbone of their child's education. We can easily translate that experience into the global, universal expression of a parent's love for their child.

Were you just Googling this: "Help! My child hates school"? Is your child depressed, unmotivated, resentful, or angry when it's time to go to school each morning? Does your child come home from school and share stories of being bullied, made fun of, or just plain feeling unheard or understood? Does your child possess unusual talents that go unrecognized or unused at school-or, worse, is he or she seen as strange, weird, or abnormal by teachers or peers? If you answered yes to any of these questions, or your child just plain hates to go to school, help has arrived. Dr. Mara Linaberger tackles the real issues behind why your kid hates school and uncovers ways to turn the situation around, allowing you to craft a plan to get your child out of misery and back to thriving. Help! My Child Hates School is dedicated to frustrated parents everywhere who are serious about their child's happiness and are ready to take action. Along the way, Dr. Linaberger, an educational innovator with over 25 years of experience, will share stories, tips, and tricks to help you instill a love for learning in your child! If your child can't last another day in school, and you've had it with the fighting, crying, and coercing, Help! My Child Hates School is for you. Join the thousands of parents who are taking back their right to co-create an amazing future for their child and tackle all of your fears and questions along the way!

Allow your children to experience the adventure, freedom, and wonder of childhood with this practical guide that provides all the information, inspiration, and advice you need for creating a modern, quality homeschool education. Inspired by the spirit of Henry David Thoreau-"All good things are wild and free"-mother of five Ainsley Arment founded Wild + Free. This growing online community of mothers and families want their children to receive a quality education at home by challenging their intellectual abilities and nurturing their sense of curiosity, joy and awe-the essence of a positive childhood. The homeschool approach of past generations is gone-including the stigma of socially awkward kids, conservative clothes, and a classroom setting replicated in the home. The Wild + Free movement is focused on a love of nature, reading great books, pursuing interests and hobbies, making the entire world a classroom, and prolonging the wonder of childhood, an appealing philosophy that is unpacked in the pages of this book The Call of the Wild and Free offers advice, information, and positive encouragement for parents considering homeschooling, those currently in the trenches looking for inspiration, as well as parents, educators, and caregivers who want supplementary resources to enhance their kids' traditional educations.

2020 Outreach Magazine Resource of the Year ("Also Recommended," Cross-Cultural and Missional) In our globalized world, ideas are constantly being exchanged between people of different cultural backgrounds. But educators often struggle to adapt to the contexts of diverse learners. Some focus so much on content delivery that they overlook crosscultural barriers to effective teaching. Educator and missiologist James Plueddemann offers field-tested insights for teaching across cultural differences. He unpacks how different cultural dynamics may inhibit learning and offers a framework for integrating conceptual ideas into practical experience. He provides a model of teaching as pilgrimage, where the aim is not merely the mastery of information but the use of knowledge to foster the development of the pilgrim learner. Plueddemann's crosscultural experience shows how teachers can make connections between content and context, bridging truth and life. Those who teach in educational institutions, mission organizations, churches, and other ministries will find insights here for transformational crosscultural learning.

Equally grounded in the research and the practical applications developed by the authors over a number of years, this book shows how virtual learning environments could represent the future of higher education. As academics begin to use environments such as Second Life to reach a broader student audience, this volume offers the distance-learning community (administrators, faculty, and students) a different, yet successful, approach to delivering content over the Internet through 3D virtual learning environments that have the potential to transform higher education. Covering a broad spectrum of frameworks, from commercial multiplayer video games to online learning, the book shows just how powerful these environments can be in the arena of education, and concludes that data-driven practice will ensure almost universal take-up, even among those currently unwilling to use V-learning. The authors provide numerous practical examples of distance learning in its current state of development, as well as making informed predictions about how future environments might evolve. This much-needed book is right at the cutting edge of its subject, and comes at a time when research in both educational gaming and distance learning are converging.

Globally, universities are challenged to deliver quality learning programs and are forced to respond in a meaningful way. These challenges have led to universities experiencing an increase in self-directed learning by using technologies in teaching and learning modes of delivery for open and distributed environments. Student Support Toward Self-Directed Learning in Open and Distributed Environments is a comprehensive scholarly book that combines theory and practice, reflecting on the dimensions of pedagogical strategies and programs that support student success at primary, secondary, and higher education institutions. It covers the current debates pertaining to student support academically, emotionally, financially, and administratively, along with new kinds of strategies to support the learner through digital technologies. Featuring a wide array of topics including digitalized citizenship, e-learning, and special education, this book is essential for professionals, researchers, educators, administrators, teacher educators, academicians, and instructional designers.

What do young people really do with digital media? Young People's Literacies in the Digital Age aims to debunk the common myths and assumptions that are associated with young people's relationship with digital media. In contrast to widespread notions of the empowered and enabled 'digital native', the book presents a more complex picture of young people's digital lives. Focusing on the notion of 'critical digital literacies' this book tackles a number of pressing questions that are often ignored in media hype and political panics over young people's digital media use, including: In what ways can digital media enhance, shape or constrain identity representation and communication? How do digital experiences map onto young people's everyday lives? What are young people's critical understandings of digital media and how did they develop these? What are the dominant understandings young people have of digital media and in whose interests do they work? These questions are addressed through the findings of a year of fieldwork with groups of young people aged 14 to 19 years. Over the course of eight chapters, the experiences and views of these young people are explored with reference to various academic literatures, such as digital literacies, media and communication studies, critical theory and youth studies. Starting with their early socialisation into the digital context, the book traces the continuities, contradictions and conflicts they encounter as part of their practices. Written in a detailed but accessible manner, this book develops a unique perspective on young people's digital lives.

The book makes an assessment of what it means to avail of the distance education services available in India, how the process got implemented in the first place, and how distance education is shaping up to become the next great phase in the journey of Indian education. Focus has also been concentrated upon the challenges and issues. The book also incorporates evaluation of the various developmental programmes undertaken by the government regarding distance education in both urban as well as rural areas.

This book examines the diversity of international student experiences in the top four destination countries in the English-speaking world (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada). Bringing together scholars from the fields of education, sociology, communications, linguistics, international relations, and geography, this edited collection explores the challenges and opportunities of "international encounters" on college and university campuses. Additionally, the contributors rethink many of the key concepts in the field of international student studies such as "international student," "host community," and "cultural adjustment" while also critically examining the role that race, gender, and national identity play in shaping international student experiences. Through a series of case studies, the contributions to this book highlight the diverse experiences of international students from different world regions, including East Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. The broader aim of the book is to enrich our understanding of cross-cultural interactions within the context of higher education institutions in order to enhance the international student experience.

Designing and Developing Robust Instructional Apps advances the state of instructional app development using three learning paradigms for building knowledge foundations, problem-solving, and experimentation. Drawing on research and development lessons gleaned from noted educational technologists, time-tested systematic instructional design processes, and results from user experience design, the book considers the planning and specification of instructional apps that blend media (text, images, sound, and moving pictures) and instructional method. Further, for readers with little to no programming experience, introductory treatments of JavaScript and Python, along with data fundamentals and machine learning techniques, offer a guided journey that produces robust instructional apps and concludes with next steps for advancing the state of instructional app development.

Several key developments challenge the field of educational measurement today: demands for tests at larger scales with higher stakes, an improved understanding of how people develop capabilities, and new technologies for interactive digital assessments. Sociocognitive Foundations of Educational Measurement integrates new developments in educational measurement and educational psychology in order to provide researchers, testing professionals, and students with an innovative sociocognitive perspective on assessment. This comprehensive volume begins with a broad explanation of the sociocognitive perspective and the foundations of assessment, then provides a series of focused applications to major topics such as assessment arguments, validity, fairness, interactive assessment, and a conception of "measurement" in educational assessment. Classical test theory, item response theory, categorical models, mixture models, cognitive diagnosis models, and Bayesian networks are explored from the resulting perspective. Ideal for specialists in these areas, graduate students, developers, and scholars in both educational measurement and fields that contribute to a sociocognitive perspective, this book consolidates nearly a decade of research into a fresh perspective on educational measurement.

Learning Analytics Goes to School presents a framework for engaging in education research and improving education practice through the use of newly available data sources and analytical approaches. The application of data-intensive research techniques to understanding and improving learning environments has been growing at a rapid pace. In this book, three leading researchers convey lessons from their own experiences-and the current state of the art in educational data mining and learning analytics more generally-by providing an explicit set of tools and processes for engaging in collaborative data-intensive improvement.

Blended Basic Language Courses: Design, Pedagogy, and Implementation examines lower-division blended courses in fifty-two second language programs at U.S. colleges and universities. Drawing upon a large-scale original study of language faculty, instructors, program directors, and students who have experience with blended classes of thirteen languages other than English, this volume provides new information about the breadth of blended course designs and implementation strategies in use in basic language programs. The mixed-methods study, conducted with surveys and interviews, recommends ways that institutions, departments, and instructors can make the most of digital pedagogy to support student learning, both in officially blended courses and at all levels of technological integration, from fully face-to-face to fully online.

Learning Analytics Goes to School presents a framework for engaging in education research and improving education practice through the use of newly available data sources and analytical approaches. The application of data-intensive research techniques to understanding and improving learning environments has been growing at a rapid pace. In this book, three leading researchers convey lessons from their own experiences-and the current state of the art in educational data mining and learning analytics more generally-by providing an explicit set of tools and processes for engaging in collaborative data-intensive improvement.

Based on over fifteen years of groundbreaking research, Developing Creative Thinking Skills helps learners demonstrably increase their own creative thinking skills. Focusing on divergent thinking, twelve inventive chapters build one's capacity to generate a wide range of ideas, both as an individual and as a collaborator. This innovative textbook outlines a semester-long structure for the development of creative thinking skills and can easily be utilized as a self-directed format for those learning outside of a classroom. Readers are stimulated to maximize their own creativity through active exercises, challenges to personal limits and assumptions, and ideas that can help create powerful habits of variance.

There are two distinct professional communities that share an interest in using innovative approaches and emerging technologies to design and implement effective support for learning. This edited collection addresses the growing divide between the learning sciences community and the instructional design and technology community, bringing leading scholars from both fields together in one volume in an attempt to find productive middle ground. Chapters discuss the implications of not bridging this divide, propose possible resolutions, and go on to lay a foundation for continued discourse in this important area.

Two of the most visible and important trends in higher education today are its exploding costs and the rapid expansion of online learning. Could the growth in online courses slow the rising cost of college and help solve the crisis of affordability? In this short and incisive book, William G. Bowen, one of the foremost experts on the intersection of education and economics, explains why, despite his earlier skepticism, he now believes technology has the potential to help rein in costs without negatively affecting student learning. As a former president of Princeton University, an economist, and author of many books on education, including the acclaimed bestseller "The Shape of the River," Bowen speaks with unique expertise on the subject.

Surveying the dizzying array of new technology-based teaching and learning initiatives, including the highly publicized emergence of "massive open online courses" (MOOCs), Bowen argues that such technologies could transform traditional higher education--allowing it at last to curb rising costs by increasing productivity, while preserving quality and protecting core values. But the challenges, which are organizational and philosophical as much as technological, are daunting. They include providing hard evidence of whether online education is cost-effective in various settings, rethinking the governance and decision-making structures of higher education, and developing customizable technological platforms. Yet, Bowen remains optimistic that the potential payoff is great.

Based on the 2012 Tanner Lectures on Human Values, delivered at Stanford University, the book includes responses from Stanford president John Hennessy, Harvard University psychologist Howard Gardner, Columbia University literature professor Andrew Delbanco, and Coursera cofounder Daphne Koller.

Augmented Education in the Global Age: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Learning and Work is an edited collection that explores the impact of Artificial Intelligence on learning and work, and how this emerging technology will transform and disrupt our current institutions. Chapters in this book discuss the history of technological revolutions and consider the anxieties and social challenges of lost occupations as well as the new economic and labor opportunities in the evolution of industries. Chapter authors unpack the nature of augmented education, from revamping curriculum and personalizing education, to redesigning learning spaces and redefining teaching in a computational era. Ultimately the book discusses policy and planning for an augmented future, arguing that education systems are undergoing a metamorphosis and will need to adapt in order to support competitive labor systems amid global competition and the race against automating technologies. Bringing together expert perspectives from around the world, this is the exciting, informative collection of research and analysis surrounding the future of work and learning amid rapid, accelerating technological change.

e-Learning Ecologies explores transformations in the patterns of pedagogy that accompany e-learning-the use of computing devices that mediate or supplement the relationships between learners and teachers-to present and assess learnable content, to provide spaces where students do their work, and to mediate peer-to-peer interactions. Written by the members of the "new learning" research group, this textbook suggests that e-learning ecologies may play a key part in shifting the systems of modern education, even as technology itself is pedagogically neutral. The chapters in this book aim to create an analytical framework with which to differentiate those aspects of educational technology that reproduce old pedagogical relations from those that are genuinely innovative and generative of new kinds of learning. Featuring case studies from elementary schools, colleges, and universities on the practicalities of new learning environments, e-Learning Ecologies elucidates the role of new technologies of knowledge representation and communication in bringing about change to educational institutions.

This book analyses higher education's digital transformation and potential disruption from a holistic point of view, providing a balanced and critical account from a variety of interdisciplinary viewpoints. It looks at case studies on educational and emerging technology, their impact, the potential risk of digitalization disrupting higher education, and also offers a glimpse into what the future of digitalization will likely bring. Researchers and practitioners from countries including New Zealand, Russia, Eswatini, India, and the USA, bring together their knowledge and understanding of this rapidly evolving field. The contributors analyse academia's digitalization along the broad topics of the sector's general digital (r)evolution. The book looks at changes in instructional formats from the Massive Open Online Courses to Small Private Online Courses and artificial intelligence. This work also provides analysis on how skills, competences and social networks demanded by future jobs and job markets can be further integrated into higher education.