The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System Finland’s education system is touted by many as one of the best, if not the best, in the world, and its students consistently score at or neat the top of international tests (you might also be interested in The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery) . What, if anything, can we in the United States learn from what they are doing? Here are my choices for The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System (please feel free to suggest additional articles I should include): Learning from Finland:How one of the world’s top educational performers turned around from The Boston Globe Imagine a nation with excellent schools by Ken Bernstein. Ken’s posted a similar article at Daily Kos, which has a ton of comments. What can we learn from Finland? Finnish Envy by Paul Thomas In Teachers We Trust: An Interview with Finnish Education Expert Reijo Laukkanen at Learning First Why do Finland’s schools get the best results? *promote good education!
Studio Neat — Welcome PROBLEM BASED LEARNING DESCRIPTION As an MBA, you will have to be an accomplished problem-solver of organizational design and change situations. You will also have to be a self-directed learner your entire professional life, as knowledge in the field of management will change, and you will continuously be meeting new and unexpected challenges. The consideration of these factors such as these dictates the wisdom of a problem-based, student-centered, self-directed program that will allow you, the student, in collaboration with your group and instructor, to design an experience tailor-made to your individual needs. What Is Problem-Based Learning (PBL)? Problem-based learning (PBL) is an approach that challenges students to learn through engagement in a real problem. Problem-based learning is student-centered. Learning takes place within the contexts of authentic tasks, issues, and problems--that are aligned with real-world concerns. Where Did PBL Come From and Who Else is Using It? Why PBL? How Does PBL Work? Phase 1. Phase 2.
The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online This “The Best…” list requires a bit of an explanation. I’ve already posted The Best Websites For K-12 Writing Instruction/Reinforcement. That list primarily contains links to sites that provide direct writing instruction. And I’ve also posted several lists of Web 2.0 tools where writing is a key feature to using them, including The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows, The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Animations, and The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online. I thought, though, that it would be useful to create another list of the best places where the primary purpose is just to write, and which make it interesting and easy for English Language Learners and other students to do so. You can find easier tools that don’t have as many features at A Few Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology. Here are my choices for the Best Places Where Students Can Write Online: Obviously, Edublogs has to be on this list. Kidblog is another option. MiCRO-BLOGS:
Why Every Student Should Be In a 1:1 Classroom 1 to 1 Classroom Teacher Mark Pullen shares some observations on the benefits of this increasingly popular instructional technology. As a teacher in a one-to-one (a.k.a. “1:1”) classroom, where each student has his/her own laptop computer, I have seen many benefits that this form of ubiquitous access to technology can provide. The single most important benefit, however, is clear: 1:1 technology allows teachers to differentiate both in terms of how they teach and how the students are expected to demonstrate their learning. Let’s examine both of these advantages in more detail. Differentiation of Content Delivery In traditional instruction, not involving the use of technology, teaching and learning were typically undifferentiated. With 1:1 technology, content delivery can be differentiated, particularly through video (khanacademy.org is probably the largest and most famous free site attempting to use video in this way). About Kelly Walsh Print This Post
Problem-based learning Problem-based learning (PBL) is an exciting alternative to traditional classroom learning. With PBL, your teacher presents you with a problem, not lectures or assignments or exercises. Since you are not handed "content", your learning becomes active in the sense that you discover and work with content that you determine to be necessary to solve the problem. In PBL, your teacher acts as facilitator and mentor, rather than a source of "solutions." Problem based learning will provide you with opportunities to examine and try out what you know discover what you need to learn develop your people skills for achieving higher performance in teams improve your communications skills state and defend positions with evidence and sound argument become more flexible in processing information and meeting obligations practice skills that you will need after your education A Summary of Problem-Based Learning: This is a simplified model--more detailed models are referenced below. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.
Why The Future Of Work Will Make Us More Human Jobs are not only being outsourced to people other countries, but they are being "othersourced" to automated workers. Jared Weiner, a futurist and consultant at Weiner Edrich Brown, notes that we’ll see more white-collar jobs lost to software algorithms, intelligent computers, and robotics. While automation has already had a significant impact on manufacturing, we are just beginning to see the impact of artificial intelligence on the traditional professions. He notes that the financial services industry is becoming increasingly othersourced, and is experiencing a modern industrial revolution of its own. Industries that undergo this transformation don’t disappear, but the number of jobs that they support changes drastically. Since 1970, manufacturing jobs as a percentage of total employment have declined from a quarter of payrolls to less than ten percent. This is all a part of the transition towards a post-industrial economy.
Technology Timesavers for Teachers - myTeachersLounge Teachers today are fortunate to have access to technological tools that make our jobs easier and minimize the paperwork involved in educating our students. I didn’t grow up with computers like today’s students did, but I’m very much on board with becoming more tech savvy and, yes, even accepting help from my students when I have technical difficulties. About a year ago I bought myself an iPad after saving for it for months. It was going to help me organize my life, both at home and at school, and guess what? The first tool I use is DropBox and you don’t have to have an iPad to use it. DropBox is a way to store your documents “in the cloud” so that you have access to them wherever you are. I cannot tell you how liberating it was for me to kick my jump drive to the curb. I also don’t have the problem of having some files on my computer at home and some on my computer at school. That makes this control freak happy, let me tell you. The other website and free app I use is Dictionary.com.
10 Awesome Tools To Make Infographics Advertisement Who can resist a colourful, thoughtful venn diagram anyway? In terms of blogging success, infographics are far more likely to be shared than your average blog post. This means more eyeballs on your important information, more people rallying for your cause, more backlinks and more visits to your blog. In short, a quality infographic done well could be what your blog needs right now. Designing An Infographic Some great tips for designing infographics: Keep it simple! Ideas for infographic formats include: Timelines;Flow charts;Annotated maps;Graphs;Venn diagrams;Size comparisons;Showing familiar objects or similar size or value. Here are some great tutorials on infographic creation: Creating Your Infographic Plan and research.If required, use free software to create simple graphs and visualisations of data.Use vector graphic software to bring these visualisations into the one graphic. Free Online Tools For Creating Infographics Stat Planet Hohli Creately New York Times Many Eyes Wordle
Connect, Share, Learn It has been an incredible journey since I decided to become a connected educator back in March of 2009. As I sit here writing this post, I cannot help but reflect on the positive changes that have taken place at my school and with me professionally. Through connected learning and sharing, I have become better equipped to lead change at New Milford High School and to begin to transform the teaching and learning process. Make no mistake; the knowledge, resources, ideas, strategies, and feedback that I receive from my Personal Learning Network (PLN) have had such a dramatic impact on me as an educational leader. When we take the time to connect, share, and learn we are opening our minds to endless possibilities to improve our schools and ourselves. The challenge becomes not only sustaining the role and value of PLN’s, but empowering more educators to embrace this pathway of learning.
Three Things I Should Have Done in College « Educator I got to speak with a group of preservice teachers this morning at the University of Evansville. Heading into the class, I was thinking about what things I would share to start them off on the right foot. This is what I came up with: Photo by @ahahahahannah via Twitter 1. Join Twitter – If you are not involved in some sort of professional learning network, you need to find one. 2. 3.