Top 5 Student Response Systems that Work on Multiple Platforms #edtechbc. Image Source If there are two things that students crave, they are convenience and connectivity. These are the reasons why students love student response systems that work on their devices. They feel connected with the rest of the world because they have access to their devices, and they can engage in learning in a way that feels natural and convenient to them.
Student response systems have morphed over the years from simple ‘clicker’ systems to web based apps that work with a multitude of devices and operating systems. Here are the 5 best student response systems that interface with multiple devices. 5. Kahoot is a utility that allows teachers to create quizzes and surveys, and then send them to students. 4. Socrative works excellently both for students working on their own or for students who are collaborating with one another. 3. [Sorry, we just learned that Infuse Learning stopped doing business a few months back! 2. 1. Print This Post. Instructor-Facilitated Online Learning: How to Maximize Your Virtual Student Engagement - Work in Progress. Guest post by Academy of Learning College Instructors that have taught online, have at one time or another felt limited, because they do not have eye contact with their students. They cannot tell if they are awake or paying attention. There are times they ask questions or request feedback but they get no response in return.
On the other hand even the most motivated student can be turned off if they are not being engaged. To be able to maximize engagement online, there are several tactics that can be used. You will want to consider your skills as an instructor, technology, instructional design, manager support and learner motivation. Open all avenues of communication Some of the students may prefer whiteboard tools or chat to communicate. Let the students choose the teaching mediums that they prefer such as interactive reading materials, audio recordings, graphs or images as this will make the students more motivated and engaged.
Instructor presence Use information that the students provide. Amplifying Student Voice Through Digital Literacy #edtechbc. A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation | TeachThought #edtechbc. A Comprehensive Framework For Student Motivation by Terry Heick When researching student motivation and gamification late last year, I came across the most comprehensive gamification framework I’ve ever seen. Developed by gamification expert Yu-kai Chou, it was an ambitious effort that distinguished black hat gamification (which is “bad”–think Farmville and Candy Crush) from white hat gamification (which is “good”–think Minecraft or even an ACT score). (It’s also copyrighted, but they graciously allowed us to use it.) While it is designed not as an educational framework, but rather as a way to demonstrate gamification and its many strands, gamification is about human encouragement and motivation.
For educators, student motivation is one of the pillars of a academic performance. So what began as a post about gamification became more a matter of student motivation–what motivates students in the classroom and why. 8 Core Drives Of Student Motivation 1) Epic Meaning & Calling. Techniques for Liberating Student Work from Learning Management Systems | MindShift #edtechbc #etug. By Justin Reich Helping students become networked learners begins by thinking carefully about where we conduct our online learning. Most online learning in higher education and in K-12 takes place in Learning Management Systems (LMS) such as Canvas, Moodle or Blackboard. In higher education in particular, these LMS are designed to scale up the distribution of course materials — by default they are configured to distribute syllabi, course readings and assignments.
Student contributions are usually limited to discussion forums and assignment submissions. Since these are institutionally managed spaces, students can lose control over what they submit to the LMS. Breaking Out of the LMS Last fall, I taught T509- Massive: The Future of Learning at Scale, a course at the Harvard Graduate School of Education that examined a variety of large-scale learning environments with many learners and few instructors. This is a different and potentially quite radical vision of the purposes of schooling. 5 Smart (And Fun!) Uses for Student Blogs. Some would argue that the 21st classroom isn’t complete without a classroom blog.
Students can use it to hand in assignments, explore the more creative side of assignments, and learn how to be a good digital citizen. The best part: there are many blog platforms to choose from—WordPress, Blogger, Edublogs—and most of them are free. Use these five ideas to take full advantage of this simple tool, making homework and in-class assignments more exciting and educational. 1.
Teach Something to Another Student Encourage students to demonstrate their knowledge of a subject by teaching another student instead of turning in a homework sheet or report. For example: Break the class into two groups, giving each one a different reading assignment.Further split the students into groups of two, each one with a different reading assignment.After finishing the reading, each student has to write a blog post to their partner explaining the main points or exploring a topic that you suggest. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Does Class Size Matter in Online Courses? 3 Perspectives: The Economist, Instructor & Student #edtechbc #elearning. What is the ideal class size in an online, for-credit course? Fifteen, twenty students? How about forty? A group of researchers at Stanford University set out to answer this question by conducting a study with over 100,000 students across 102 undergraduate and graduate courses. They presented their findings at the American Economic Association (AEA) Conference this month (2015) in “Virtually Large: The Effects of Class Size in Online College Courses”. They also shared their research at the (APPAM) conference in November and at the CESifo conference on the Economics of Education (Bettinger et al., 2014).
This study takes a unique perspective on the topic of optimal class size for online, for-credit classes in higher education—it incorporates principles from a model in microeconomics—economies of scale. Why Class Size Matters There’s a need for educators and administrators to address the size of online classes. Consensus? Three Perspectives on Online Class Size Closing Thoughts References: Does Class Size Matter in Online Courses? Three Perspectives: The Economist, Instructor & Student #edtechbc. Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement | edX #edtechbc. Anant, Rob, and the rest of the edX leadership team have been wonderfully supportive of my research efforts. In addition, Anant and Rob have personally contributed to framing some of the questions that I investigated in my work. I plan to blog about my findings in the coming months. In this first post, I’ll share some preliminary results about video usage, obtained from initial analyses of a few edX math and science courses.
Unsurprisingly, students engaged more with shorter videos. Traditional in-person lectures usually last an hour, but students have much shorter attention spans when watching educational videos online. The graph below shows median engagement times versus video length, aggregated over several million video watching sessions: The optimal video length is 6 minutes or shorter — students watched most of the way through these short videos. By Philip Guo. Reshaping Modern Education with Technology Infographic | e-Learning Infographics #edtechbc. Educational Technology Infographics Reshaping Modern Education with Technology Infographic How Technology is Reshaping Modern Education Over the last few years, modern education has gone through some major changes. Teachers have long adopted interactive technologies and students increasingly use smart devices to access learning resources. Such trends are mainly triggered by the development of web technologies and the growing use of mobile devices in particular.
The accelerated technology development, therefore, enabled us to access previously unimaginable spaces, thus changing our perspective on most aspects of our daily lives. Consequently, we are witnessing new paradigms in the modern education system, with more and more resources being made available to students’ in classrooms. The Reshaping Modern Education with Technology Infographic outlines some of the key figures related to the use of technology in modern education, particularly focusing on language learning.
Via: saundz.com. Do libraries matter in distance education? Academics discuss the changing roles of campus libraries and librarians in the online education era. [Editor’s note: Edits have been made to reflect changes in lead author citation, as well as professional title.] With the explosion of distance education, librarianship is changing from managing books to connecting people and quality resources while at the same time delivering resources effectively and providing the best customer service possible. That’s the consensus, say Amanda Corbett, a graduate student at East Carolina University (ECU) and a professional librarian, and Abbie Brown, professor at ECU, of current research on the changing role of libraries and librarians, as well as best practices from major colleges and universities across the country.
In answer to the question, “Do libraries and librarians play a part in advancing distance education?” (Next page: Skills, competencies and benefits provided by libraries) What Education Technology Could Look Like Over the Next Five Years #edtechbc. In a fast-moving field like education technology, it’s worth taking a moment to take stock of new developments, persistent trends and the challenges to effective tech implementation in real classrooms. The NMC Horizon 2015 K-12 report offers a snapshot of where ed tech stands now and where it is likely to go in the next five years, according to 56 education and technology experts from 22 countries. Deeper Learning: The expert panel identified several long-term trends that will greatly influence the adoption of technology in classrooms over the next five years and beyond.
They see worldwide educators focusing on “deeper learning” outcomes that try to connect what happens in the classroom to experts and experiences beyond school as an important trend. Teachers at the cutting edge of this work are asking students to use technology to access and synthesize information in the service of finding solutions to multifaceted, complex problems they might encounter in the real world.
A Teenager’s View on Education Technology #edtechbc. Tablets For as much educational value as tablets can contribute, they also come with the unending source of entertainment called THE INTERNET! If you look at the screens of kids in my class, you’ll likely find apps like Minecraft, Candy Crush, and don’t forget Netflix on mute with subtitles. School administrations basically play Internet whack-a-mole as they try to enforce firewalls and blocks that students continually find ways around.
The point is that tablets are unwieldy. If left unchecked by teachers, there’s no telling what kids are doing behind their screens. Wise to tablets’ distraction potential, some teachers have banned them completely. So yes, tablets can be used to create a new age of interconnected classrooms of the future — but they are just as likely to turn into procrastination stations. Teacher Websites Like a good little pupil, my first move after school everyday is to boot up my teachers’ websites on an oh-so-eager hunt for my homework assignments.
Google Classroom. Developing Digital Literacies: UK Education Resource | Jisc #edtechbc. Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society. Digital literacy looks beyond functional IT skills to describe a richer set of digital behaviours, practices and identities. What it means to be digitally literate changes over time and across contexts, so digital literacies are essentially a set of academic and professional situated practices supported by diverse and changing technologies. This definition quoted above can be used as a starting point to explore what key digital literacies are in a particular context eg university, college, service, department, subject area or professional environment. Digital literacies encompasses a range of other capabilities represented here in a seven elements model: Digital literacy as a developmental process Defining digital literacy in your context Background About this resource This detailed guide draws on this to provide a set of practical guidance, tools and approaches.
Sneak Peek At The Future: 2015 NMC Horizon Report - K12 Education Edition #edtechbc. Although the full 2015 K-12 Horizon Report is anticipated to be finished by June this year, an early preview of this report was already showcased at the CoSN’s annual conference this week, offering educators a sneak peek into the future. This interim report identifies the 16 technologies that are shaping and transforming K-12 education and a vision of the students of tomorrow. More importantly, the report is set out to address one of the key challenges that most educators face: how to integrate these emerging technologies into the classroom. Are they practical? Will they solve real educational problems? The roles of formal education and teachers will require some serious rethinking, the report says.
The students of tomorrow will demand the curriculum of tomorrow The interim NCM report also projects a long-term trend for more and more schools to be restructured in ways that allow for flexibility, spur creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. 1. In one year or less (2015 – 2016): 2. 3. WEFUSA NewVisionforEducation Report2015. 5 Reasons to Start Your Own Educational Podcast... Adaptive Learning: The Latest Trend In Digital Education | Education Dive #edtechbc. There is perhaps no hotter segment in ed tech right now than adaptive learning, which adjusts the learning experience based on a student's progress. It becomes more difficult if they're progressing well, and slows down if they need further instruction. The technology has even attracted funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which assembled a diverse coalition of colleges ranging from the University of Texas at Austin to the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
It isn't just colleges, either—adaptive learning is benefiting K-12, as well. With positive results coming in for many of the companies producing adaptive learning tools, the growth isn't likely to stop soon. So who are some of the key players? Here, in no particular order, are 10 companies and partnerships offering some of the best approaches adaptive learning: Like Pearson, ed publishing giant Macmillan also formed a partnership with Knewton in May. Spying on students? Education publisher Pearson monitoring social media activity. A copy of the leaked letter penned by a NJ school superintendent over Pearson's monitoring of students' social media.
(bobbraunsledger.com) One of the world’s largest education publishing companies, which crafted the standardized tests for the new Common Core curriculum, has been monitoring social media accounts to see if students refer to their exams. Pearson -- a British-based publishing house with it's U.S. headquarters in New Jersey -- has the contract to develop and provide the PARCC (Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) standardized tests. PARCC is one of the two agencies that developed the Common Core program.
Word that Pearson was monitoring social media posts for students commenting on the exams was first reported on the blog of Bob Braun, a former education reporter for The Star-Ledger of Newark, New Jersey. “The DOE informed us that Pearson is monitoring all social media during PARCC testing,” she said in the letter. Online permission slips service | Educational Technology Guy #edtechbc. 5 Big Ways Education Will Change By 2020 #edtechbc. A List Of Everyday Essential Apps for Education | Education Week Teacher #edtechbc. Digital Literacy Curriculum, Free From Microsoft #edtechbc. Today's "Pearls Before Swine" comicstrip and it's comment on education #edtechbc #bcssta. Global storytelling with a green screen and iPads | Innovation: Education #edtechbc. Is online education good or bad? And is this really the right question? #edtechbc #elearning.
YouTube Channels With Educational Content | EdTechReview #edtechbc. 5 Completely Free Education Reference eBooks from Google Books #edtechbc #bclearns. 7 Best Practices for Building a Multimodal Online Elementary Curriculum -- THE Journal. 7 Best Practices for Building a Multimodal Online Elementary Curriculum #edtechbc. The 5 Most Effective Educational Technology Interventions | ICT Works #edtechbc.