Chris Fahnoe is a doctoral student in our hybrid PhD program. As a part of his practicum research he conducted a study investigating whether students embedded in technology-rich, self-directed, open-ended learning environments develop self-regulation skills? We submitted his paper to the 2013 SITE conference at New Orleans, and will be presenting it there next week. Here is the reference (slides and paper coming soon).

Fahnoe, C., & Mishra, P. (2013). Do 21st Century Learning Environments Support Self-Directed Learning? Middle School Students’ Response to an Intentionally Designed Learning Environment. Paper to be presented at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society of Information Technology in Teacher Education, New Orleans.

We recently found out that this paper will be receiving two different awards at the SITE conference.

1. The SITE 2013 Outstanding Paper Award (to be recognized on March 27, Wednesday at 8:45 AM (too early if you ask me). 
2. TPACK SIG Paper Awards for 2013, recognizing “the best TPACK-related scholarship at SITE each year” (to be recognized, Tuesday, March 26th @ 12:30 PM).

In brief, his research shows that thoughtfully designed 21st Century classrooms support “the development of self-directed learning attitudes and behaviors.” Chris’ study was referenced in a recent TechTrends piece. Below is a link to that article:

Mishra, P., Fahnoe, C., Henriksen, D. & the Deep-Play Research Group (2013). Creativity, self-directed learning, and the architecture of technology rich environments. Tech Trends, (57)1. p. 10-13.