Learning. Online-education. MediaBerkman » Blog Archive » Mica Pollock on Building OneVille: Understanding and Improving a Communication Ecosystem in Education [AUDIO] In order to support youth in a community, who needs to communicate what information to whom, through which media? Which barriers are in the way of such communication, and how might these barriers be overcome? And what are the devil(s) in the details of just “adding tech”? In the OneVille Project, students, teachers, parents, mentors, techies, and researchers are co-designing and pilot-testing a toolbox of open source “community communication tools” supporting students individually, across schools, and citywide. Mica Pollock—an anthropologist of education and Somerville parent—shares her early thoughts on this collective effort to understand and improve a city’s ecosystem of communications.
Download the …or download the OGG audio format! Share! Winner Announced: Tell Us About Your Nontraditional Education - Education. We're happy to announce the winner of our contest, in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in which we asked you to send us your s tories of your nontraditional paths to educational success. The winner is Anthony Armstrong, whose UPS-ad inspired video is below. His submission was the most ingenious, and also quite touching. Please watch: We would also like to highlight two runners up. Sheila Burson, who didn't attend school as a young adult and then was in a serious car accident, managed to go back to school and earn a degree: However, a wonderful speech therapist suggested I try one class at the local community college (Butte College in Oroville, California), a class on brain injury and accommodations for my disabilities.
With accommodations, I discovered I could go back to school—which I did at 55 years old. Read Burson's full submission on the fifth slide, here . During the third week of class, she returned a paper to me with a single comment on it. More Colleges Are Using Hand-Held Devices as Classroom Aids. ‘Gifted' – what is it good for? The applicants at this Calgary school for gifted students are already younger than most: Unlike a lot of similar programs, it starts with kindergarten. But according to Hal Curties, the vice-principal of the Westmount Charter School, inquiries skew even earlier. "One was for someone who was 18 months old. And one from a mother whose child was in utero - but she was convinced that the child was going to be gifted.
" Such manoeuvres speak to an enduring misconception among parents about the "gifted" label - that it's a prize to covet, a first fateful step on a path to a child attaining the best education and the brightest future. But a growing group of parents, educators and critics say striving parents should be careful what they wish for. The downsides of both special gifted programs and of childhood giftedness itself are leading some to question the logic behind the label.
Disabilities often accompany the advantages In Ms. "People think they want gifted children," one mother told her. Classrooms of Tomorrow. Beyond Superman: A Guest Blog by George Lucas. Twenty years ago when we started The George Lucas Educational Foundation, we thought it would be 10 years before the general public would understand that the education system was in serious need of fixing. Today, in the wake of new energy in Washington D.C., new focus in the educational and philanthropic communities, and with the recent release of the film "Waiting for Superman," the nation is getting a better picture of what is wrong with public education in America.
And people are finally talking about it. It's time to have a conversation about what's right in our schools, what's working. And as we debate what to do to fix the problems, let's remember that there are successes in education everyday we can emulate. In districts of every stripe and demographic make-up, educators are dedicating themselves to providing their students with a high quality 21st century education, and using new technologies to make it happen.
Are there enough of these teachers and principals? See more see less. Academies: School Within a School. College and career prep are fully integrated in academies that give students a wide range of options after high school. Credit: Ethan Pines Dave Hackett is a master of illusion. The juniors in his science class at the Manufacturing Production Technology Academy (MPTA) of Laguna Creek High School, in Elk Grove, California, are too busy launching and chasing the rockets they made in class to notice they're actually learning physics. Hackett's class is part of a high school innovation movement known as career academies. They're small schools, located within larger comprehensive high schools, and they integrate academics with technical know-how in an occupation or industry that has important ties to the local region: renewable energy, health and science, agriculture, or, in the case of MPTA, computer-aided design and manufacturing. Comment on this video, download, and more With the exception of some electives and Advanced Placement courses, academy students move together from class to class.
21st Century Skills | Welcome to NCS-Tech! We live in times of unprecedented technological change. The growth of the Internet, the proliferation computing devices (particularly low-cost machines like the XO computer pictured here), and the increasing availability of high-speed Internet access all point to the same reality: today’s students are citizens of a globally networked world. Tom Friedman’s The World is Flat identifies ten “flatteners” – forces converging for the first time to level the worldwide economic playing.
Innovative educators like Julie Davis (Qatar, Doha) and Vicki Davis (Camilla, Georgia) applied Tom Friedman’s principles and created the Flat Classroom Project, an award-winning, internationally recognized global collaboration between Julie and Vicki’s students. These students, half a world apart, work together, seamlessly, virtually, synchronously and asynchronously to expand their knowledge of math, science, social studies, language arts, and more … not to mention each other and the world around them. Inspirational Videos | Welcome to NCS-Tech! On this page, I want to feature what I consider to be important, influential, thought-provoking videos relevant for education in the 21st century, or, that have a particular message I find compelling.
They are in no particular order, other than chronologically, and some are fairly old, but all are (again in my opinion) worth watching. Obvious to You, Amazing to Others Telling the New Story Respect Rap Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action Teacher Appreciation Song: A Song for Teachers – You Have Made A Difference Social Bookmarking in Plain English DL Hughley thanks his teacher Comedian D.L. How Google Saved a SchoolPBS Frontline Digital Nation Project Pattie Maes demos the Sixth Sense TED Talks World Builder Bruce Branit A Vision of K-12 Students Today Youtube user bjnesbitt A Vision of Students Today Michael Wesch Did You Know 2.0 Dr. 21st Century Skills: The Movement “Mapleseed” – Sophomore @ Palo Alto High School Welcome to the Human Network Cisco Systems Can kids teach themselves?
Rugrat-ical Technology: Five Truths of Teaching Tech to Elementary Students. I often get a look of confusion when I tell my students to, "Go mess up, will ya'. " Their eyes widen and they turn to a neighbor for a lifejacket because I just threw them in the deep end of technology. Come on, it's only a computer. Using tech in the classroom requires trust. Are they going to mess up? Sure. Are they going to add another call to your list, a dreaded call to the technology department? Here are a few tips and technology suggestions from my experiences with third graders.
Truth #1: Time + Exposure = Progress May I be blunt here? Truth #2: Hire your own tech specialists The moment the computers are unleashed you always have one kid (maybe more) who is sitting there licking his chops. Truth #3: Beware of the Posers Related to the previous tip, it's important to pick a helper who can really help. 1. 2. 3. Clearly, everyone will be a lot happier if you pick your classroom's go-to helper from the first group. Truth #4: Set Achievable Goals Here are a few that I fancy: Prezi. Event Asks "What Material Do Students Need to Learn?" - Education.
A Textbook Example of What's Wrong with Education. A former schoolbook editor parses the politics of educational publishing. Some years ago, I signed on as an editor at a major publisher of elementary school and high school textbooks, filled with the idealistic belief that I'd be working with equally idealistic authors to create books that would excite teachers and fill young minds with Big Ideas. Not so. I got a hint of things to come when I overheard my boss lamenting, "The books are done and we still don't have an author! I must sign someone today! " Every time a friend with kids in school tells me textbooks are too generic, I think back to that moment.
"Who writes these things? " Textbooks are a core part of the curriculum, as crucial to the teacher as a blueprint is to a carpenter, so one might assume they are conceived, researched, written, and published as unique contributions to advancing knowledge. In fact, most of these books fall far short of their important role in the educational scheme of things. Welcome to the Machine But wait. DIGITAL_LITERACY Main Page. CogDogBlog Wiki - Amazing Stories 2010. WANTED: STORIES (to share!) We all start out in our educational careers (meaning when we were in kindergarten) knowing intrinsically the value of sharing. Somewhere between there and graduate school, we lose track of this simple concept, be it worrying about intellectual property rights or fearing theft.
The open ecology of the internet can undermine this learned and limiting stinginess. In this session for the Adobe Education Leaders, we (Alan Levine and John Ittelson) want to celebrate the True Stories of things that happen to educators when they share something openly on the web. We are asking our colleagues to share with us a video of their own stories of something surprising, valuable, powerful, or just plain inspiring that happened when that piece of media, that document, that video, that blog post, became valuable to someone they did not know before. It's pretty simple.
You, of course! Here it is! Sharing: The Moral Imperative. 6 Free Websites for Learning and Teaching Science. From robotics to space research, from physics to computer science, the Internet is a vast trove of information about the sciences. Resources such as Wikipedia (and its easy-on-younger-minds counterpart, Simple English Wikipedia) and online video make the process of learning about and teaching science subjects much easier than ever before. Rather than resorting to yet another 600-page textbook, next time you're hard up for understanding or inspiration, check out one of these six websites that offer information on the sciences.
And particularly if you're a scientist or educator yourself, let us know in the comments where you hang out online to learn about and discuss your favorite science topics. 1. Scitable If genetics and evolution are of interest to you, Scitable is a must-see resource. This free (paid for by sponsorships from brands) science library acts as a classroom resource as well as a personal learning tool. 2. iTunes U 3. 4. 5. 6. Building Green and Healthy Places for Learning. Almost one in five Americans are housed in schools for the better part of each day, but many of these schools offer toxic environments with poor daylight and are sited in far-off places, which means they are both unhealthy learning environments and contribute to sprawl (or unhealthy communities). Creating green and healthy schools which are in walkable, bikeable neighborhoods is key to increasing test scores and graduating children who can be future stewards of the environment.
But how do we build green schools? This question and others were asked during the National Building Museum’s latest “For the Greener Good” discussion on green schools. Joanne Silberner, Health Correspondent, National Public Radio, moderated a panel featuring Dr. Howard Frumkin, Director, National Center for Environmental Health / Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, U.S. Defining green schools Glenn Cummings, Deputy Assistant Secretary, U.S. “Green + healthy is the real sweet spot,” said Dr. Mwesch's Channel. 3 Ways Educators Are Embracing Social Technology. The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies.
In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education. Pockets of experimentation are emerging all around the world, and I hope to inspire my fellow teachers with some stories of success. Skype and Language Learning Why force students to yawn over a textbook when a real-life native speaker is only a Skype call away? "I absolutely fell in love with this program," wrote one student. Perhaps the greatest benefit of using Skype is the radical increase in motivation. Mobile Phones Twitter Many universities have internal e-mail systems and message boards. Conclusion More social media resources from Mashable: Open thinking » Pursuing the Elusive Metaphor of Community – Schwier. Open thinking » The Machine is (Changing) Us – Michael Wesch.
Demos | Publications. Education for a digital generation. Image: 'Franci plays maze' by Nico Cavallotto Demos, the UK thinktank 'for everyday democracy', released Their Space: Education for a digital generation, written by Hannah Green and Celia Hannon on January the 11th, and available as a free CC licensed download. For the edtechs amongst you it offers a good overview to the national policy level approach the UK is increasingly adopting.
For the non-digital, it provides an introduction of some the key ideas currently informing calls for educational reform. The increasing recognition and consensus that digital literacy is something that needs to be mainstreamed is obviously a welcome one. The authors take a practical, moral-panic defusing approach to the reality of new technologies and practices, focusing on participation and economic arguments. The brief glossary features more commercial services (ie Facebook) than it does tools (eg blogs) and some of the entries are debatable. Chapter 5, The world has changed so why haven't we? A Vision of Students Today. Open thinking » Micro Lectures. Open Doctrine - Introduction to K12 Online Conference Presentation (Teaser)
EC&I 831. Open thinking » Open/Networked Teaching Keynote at MoodleMoot. I gave a keynote today at Canada’s MoodleMoot ’09 in Edmonton, Alberta. Below are the slides and a list of some key links. The talk was given to about 300 in-house delegates and about 80 online (via Elluminate). I will share the recording once/if I get access. Relevant links in order of appearance: - Wordle: Make “beautiful” word clouds. - Networked Teacher: Diagram via Flickr. - Twitter: Dominant microblogging tool. - EC&I 831: My open graduate course. - Open Doctrine: Alec’s own attack ad. - Network Sherpa: Diagram via Flickr. - Cathedral and the Bazaar: by Eric S.
Update: The Elluminate recording is now available here. Open thinking » 80+ Videos for Tech. & Media Literacy.