Over at the Wisconsin Center of Education Research, they have a lot of working papers, some of which focus on technology-enhanced learning. The most recent one is "Video Games and the Future of Learning" by David Williamson Shaffer, Kurt R. Squire, Richard Halverson, and James P. Gee, all of the University of Wisconsin. Here's the abstract:

Will video games change the way we learn? We argue here for a particular view of games—and of learning—as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. From this perspective, we describe an approach to the design of learning environments that builds on the educational properties of games, but deeply grounds them within a theory of learning appropriate to an age marked by the power of new technologies. We argue that to understand the future of learning, we have to look beyond schools to the emerging arena of video games. We suggest that video games matter because they present players with simulated worlds: worlds that, if well constructed, are not just about facts or isolated skills, but embody particular social practices. Video games thus make it possible for players to participate in valued communities of practice and as a result develop the ways of thinking that organize those practices. Most educational games to date have been produced in the absence of any coherent theory of learning or underlying body of research. We argue here for such a theory—and for research that addresses the important questions about this relatively new medium that such a theory implies.

More here.

A small plug for the new Games, Learning & Society program offered through the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Details here:

http://website.education.wisc.edu/gls/index.htm

Areas of study include digital literacies, digital game-based learning environments, gender and gameplay, and MMOGs.

Today's Tampa Tribune has a story, "Weaving Through the Tangled Web," that might be of interest to Kairosnews readers.

The reporter, Gary Haber, briefly references the ETS Information and Communication Technology Literacy Assessment and the Pew Internet and American Life Project, among others, and intermingles student perspectives with faculty and administrator views.

One thing that always interests me personally is the notion of "authority" and how it's constructed. I'd like my students to be able to think critically about what the encounter online, but I don't know that I necessarily want them creating a sort of good/bad binary based only on publisher and currency.

The Kaiser Family Foundation's new report, Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-olds looks like the kind of research that I'd like to read to get better insight into the effects of multimedia on the next generation of students. Since I don't have the time at the moment, I'll have to be satisfied with these interesting notes from the report courtesy of Eide Neurolearning Blog:

Heavy video game use does not mean less reading - in fact heavy game players seemed to read more and spend more time with their parents (see full report for details of this)- but there seem to be some mixed results. Children with the poorest grades, had the lowest times spent reading (no surprise), but also spent more time each day playing video games.

Meanwhile, CBS News coverage provides a different look at the report, including a concern about multitasking:

What effect so-called "media multitasking" has on the often fragile ability of kids to focus is unclear because detailed research is quite new, said Vicky Rideout, the foundation vice president who directed the study.