Overview
Type: Vanderbilt Initiative Award (ViA)
Digital tools are constantly changing the way we teach and learn, yet our understanding of these tools is lagging behind. Some students and teachers continue to employ traditional learning tools such as printed text and pen whereas others enlist digital tools such as MOOCs, online discussion spaces, interactive digital textbooks, video lectures and/or some combination thereof to facilitate learning. These choices are related to the affordances of the tools. Indeed, one of these forms — the interactive digital textbook — can play host to a wealth of tools, including text and images, simulations and animations, video coverage of selected material (e.g., “lectures”), embedded formative and summative assessments, discussion forums, mapping and GIS tools, embedded (or links to) collaborative writing environments akin to Google Docs and Wikimedia, as well as “hidden” intelligent software to personalize the learning experience. This project aims to better understand the move to the digital by investigating how we best coordinate learning tools within interactive, online, digital textbooks in ways that facilitate teaching and learning for different learners in varying educational domains and settings. This TIP is investigating the pros and cons of using selected digital tools that can be embedded within digital textbooks.
Faculty Participants
Lead Faculty in bold
Peabody College
- Amanda Goodwin, Associate Professor, Dept. of Teaching & Learning
- Sun-Joo Cho, Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development
- Gayathri Narasimham, Assistant Director for Education and Research
School of Engineering
- Doug Fisher, Associate Professor of Computer Engineering
College of Arts & Science
- Haerin Shin, Assistant Professor, Dept. of English