The Pearsonizing of the American Mind - Bridging Differences. d97cooltools.blogspot.com/2012/02/digital-differentiation-get-wired.html. Technology is a tool that can be used to help teachers facilitate learning experiences that address the diverse learning needs of all students and help them develop 21st Century Skills. At it's most basic level, digital tools can be used to help students find, understand and use information. When combined with student-driven learning experiences fueled by Essential Questions offering flexible learning paths, it can be the ticket to success. Here is a closer look at three components of effectively using technology as a tool for digital differentiation. Note: The interactive graphics you see below have been updated. They can be found in a newer post on this blog. The goal is to design student-driven learning experiences that are fueled by standards-based Essential Questions and facilitated by digital tools to provide students with flexible learning paths.
Essential Questions: Student-driven learning experiences should be driven by standards-based Essential Questions. When Schools' Internet Filters Follow You Home. Protecting Children on the (Schools’) Internet Schools and libraries that receive federal E-rate funding (a program that helps underwrite their telecommunications and Internet costs) are required by CIPA, the Children’s Internet Protection Act, to create an Internet safety policy and filter or block certain kinds of websites. The law only demands these filters address obscenity, child pornography and sites that are “harmful to minors,” but schools interpret this mandate in a variety of ways. Some ban all sorts of websites: video streaming sites (including YouTube and by extension Khan Academy), peer-to-peer networks (including Skype and Dropbox), and social media networks (Twitter, Facebook, Ning, Blogger, Tumblr).
They ban these sites for students, which often means they’re unavailable to teachers as well. CIPA was signed in to law in 2001. Far more schools do have Internet access now than did in 2001. Yet the perception that students are still in danger when doing so persists. The "Dirty Work of Education" No question, one of the most talked about, Tweeted about, blogged and written about ideas in the past year has been the “flipped classroom,” the idea that we can use technology to deliver the “lecture” as the homework and then use class time, ideally, to bring the concepts to life in meaningful, real world ways. And it’s been interesting to watch the “debate” around the merits. 2011 ed tech media darling Sal Khan and his Khan Academy supporters would tell you it’s a transformative, new way of thinking about the classroom fueled by technology.
Detractors argue it’s old wine in new bottles, that a lecture is a lecture regardless of form, and that at best the opportunity is to help kids who need remediation or extra help. In case you’re not up to speed on what Knewton is doing, here’s the brief from their website: Knewton’s award-winning Adaptive Learning Platform™ uses proprietary algorithms to deliver a personalized learning path for each student, each day. The bottom line? Opting Out. Just wanted to share that next week while thousands of New Jersey school children will be subjected to the annual ASK standardized tests, my 12-year old son Tucker will not be among them.
We made a formal request to opt out, which is our legal right in NJ, and he’ll be staying home during the testing periods. (The absences are excused, btw.) Wendy and I came to this decision after seriously considering the potential effects for the school and after some serious conversations with Tuck. Obviously, he didn’t mind the staying home part, but he did have concerns about what others might say or think. I’m thinking that won’t be a problem, but we wanted to make sure that in the end he was on board, and he is. Below is a letter that we’re sending to the local paper and to nj.com. Interested in your thoughts, as always. To the Editor:After much thought, we have decided to keep our son home during the 7th Grade NJ ASK standardized assessments that are being given in his school next week. Downgraded by Evaluation Reforms. Kickboard: A Data Dashboard for Teachers.
I chose "data" as one of the most important ed-tech trends of 2011, and it's one that continues to gain steam this year as well. But as it does so -- as education becomes increasingly "data-driven" -- there are numerous challenges and repercussions, many of which have a lot more to do with education politics than with education performance. (The release of the Teacher Data Reports in New York City is one recent example.) Part of the problem with the push to become more data-driven (and there are many problems and, I'd argue too, many benefits) is that this seems to be yet another initiative that is done to teachers and students, rather than done by or done for them. That's where Kickboard hopes to step in, making it easier for teachers to collect and analyze data from their classes -- both academic and behavioral data, in real-time not just at the end of a class period or school day.
For its part, Kickboard is currently in beta in more than 70 schools. Will Technology Advance Learning, or Prove a Distraction? Eric Mazur on new interactive teaching techniques | Harvard Magazine Mar-Apr 2012. In 1990, after seven years of teaching at Harvard, Eric Mazur, now Balkanski professor of physics and applied physics, was delivering clear, polished lectures and demonstrations and getting high student evaluations for his introductory Physics 11 course, populated mainly by premed and engineering students who were successfully solving complicated problems.
Then he discovered that his success as a teacher “was a complete illusion, a house of cards.” The epiphany came via an article in the American Journal of Physics by Arizona State professor David Hestenes. He had devised a very simple test, couched in everyday language, to check students’ understanding of one of the most fundamental concepts of physics—force—and had administered it to thousands of undergraduates in the southwestern United States. Mazur tried the test on his own students. Some soul-searching followed. Serendipity provided the breakthrough he needed. “Here’s what happened,” he continues. “It’s not easy. Bounce – A fun and easy way to share ideas on a webpage. RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms. Where does 21st Century teaching begin? [Guest Blog] The 21st Century Teaching Project Findings (Part 2) Seann Dikkers 3/1/12 This post is part of an ongoing series abridged from the 21st Century Teaching Project (21CTP) – a study of expert professional development trajectories and digital age practice.
Let’s assume that the goal of teacher training and professional development (PD) is to prepare teachers with powerful models, tools, and pedagogies that will inform expert practice over a career. If so, the 21CTP is designed to help us as a community, 1) hear from 39 award winning teachers, and 2) ask relevant questions about how to study and design teacher training and PD in the coming years. When over half of these teachers say they completely changed their practice mid-career, I’m particularly interested in what, who, and how those trajectories started. In the first part of this series, I shared one data point on what wasn’t working. 21CTP Theme 2: Narrated Beginnings A beginning narrative explains ‘what started it all?’ External Influence. The 21st Century Teaching Project. Interesting Ways to use Endless Ocean « Trails Optional. iLearn Technology.
The Whiteboard Blog | Supporting the use of technology in the classroom. The Best Online Virtual “Corkboards” (or “Bulletin Boards”) NOTE: First, Wallwisher, the popular virtual “corkboard” or “bulletin board” Web tool changed their name — they’re now known as Padlet (though all their old links using the Wallwisher name work fine).
Now, Corkboard.Me, a similar tool, just announced they’re changing their name, too — they are now known as NoteApp. Wallwisher was the first online application that let you easily place virtual post-it notes on a virtual corkboard or bulletin board, and allow you to post text, images, and/or videos on them. This kinds of apps have many uses. I particularly like them for easy social bookmarking (my students, for example, post their favorite language-learning games on them so their classmates can try them out. I also have students use them to supplement inductive data sets (a series of pieces of information about a topic( they have categorized in the classroom. Once they categorize the information, they write a summary sentence about each category and find an image that goes with it. 2¢ Worth. Listen A few weeks ago I worked and attended North Carolina's ISTE affiliate conference. I opened the NCTIES conference with a breakfast keynote address and Marc Prensky closed it with a luncheon keynote the next day.
Sadly, I missed the second day of the conference. I would first offer some constructive criticism to NCTIES , and to all such ed-tech conferences across the nation and around the world. The only idea I can think of is to have one or two session rooms devoted to unconference topics. Now to the surprises It was in the student showcase, a part of most ed-tech conferences that I often miss, using it as an opportunity to visit the exhibitors or dash up to my room for something or other. She then began telling me what they were doing, describing some of the communication skills they were learning as well as social studies and character. “No software. After my hesitation, she continued, “..the game master.” Seeing this was energizing to me.
Donna Hitchings, Snaderson HS, WCPSS. Cool Cat Teacher™ - Vicki Davis , Cool Cat Teacher Blog. Twelve Ideas for Teaching with QR Codes. Updated 01/2014 As mobile learning becomes more and more prevalent, we must find effective ways to leverage mobile tools in the classroom. As always, the tool must fit the need.
Mobile learning can create both the tool and the need. With safe and specific structures, mobile learning tools can harness the excitement of technology with the purpose of effective instruction. A Quick Tutorial QR stands for Quick Response. 1. Have students use QR to create resumes that link to other content such as their professional website or portfolio. 2. You can create QR for linking students to examples of quality work, whether it's PowerPoint or slideshare for a class presentation, or people speaking a foreign language specific to your current lesson. 3. Integrate QR with a PBL or Service Learning project where students can create the codes that will link to the content they create. 4.
Save a few trees! 5. Award prizes by having students scan a code leading to an animation or badge. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Choose your own adventure videos. Life in a Inquiry Driven, Technology-Embedded, Connected Classroom: Science. I teach in an inquiry, project-based, technology embedded classroom. A mouthful, I know. So what does that mean? It means I lecture less, and my students explore more. It means that I create a classroom where students encounter concepts, via labs and other methods, before they necessarily understand all the specifics of what is happening. It’s a place where my students spend time piecing together what they have learned, critically evaluating its larger purpose, and reflecting on their own learning. It also means my students don’t acquire knowledge just for the sake of acquiring it. Into play. So what does this look like?
On lab days, one of the first things my students do is take out their phones. I used to have students sketch pictures of lab slides. Much time sketching throughout their schooling career. Last year, instead of sketching, my students began taking pictures with their phones of what was on the slide. The nuts & bolts of embedded technology The powerpoint rule is flexible. iPad as an Interactive White Board for $5 or $10. School leaders around the United States continue to spend HUGE amounts of money on interactive whiteboards for classrooms, despite the fact that these devices universally FAIL to empower students to become more independent, self-directed and engaged learners in the way mobile learning devices (like laptops, tablets or other personal digital learning tools) can.
Please do not misunderstand me: It definitely IS a big deal for a teacher and his/her students to have access to an LCD projector connected to a computer in the classroom if previously, the “normal” technology in the room was an overhead projector. photo © 2010 Wesley Fryer | more info (via: Wylio) In the last two weeks, Tim Tyson has recorded and published (both to his blog and his YouTube channel) eight screencasts totaling 52 minutes and 37 seconds. To be clear, as Tim Tyson outlined in his introductory video about this process, everyone should understand the requirements to use an iPad as an IWB. You need: