The Other 21st Century Skills Many have attempted to identify the skills important for a learner today in this era of the 21st century (I know it is an overused phrase). I have an affinity towards the skills identified by Tony Wagner: Critical thinking and problem-solvingCollaboration across networks and leading by influenceAgility and adaptabilityInitiative and entrepreneurialismEffective oral and written communicationAccessing and analyzing informationCuriosity and imagination Today I viewed a slideshow created by Gallup entitled, The Economics of Human Development: The Path to Winning Again in Education. Here are some slides from this presentation. This presentation sparked my thinking about what other skills and attributes would serve the learners (of all ages) in this era of learning. GritResilienceHope and OptimismVisionSelf-RegulationEmpathy and Global Stewardship Grit Students can develop psychological resources that promote grit, tenacity, and perseverance. Resilience
What skills will you need to succeed in the future? Top 10 skills for the successful 21st-century worker Leadership Take a cross-disciplinary approach to project team- work. and following in order to prepare for your career. Many businesses are adopting a participative management style, which involves employees in decision making. George DeMetropolis University of Phoenix faculty member and leadership consultant Critical thinking Take coursework that offers an opportunity to engage in self-directed, project-based and applied learning. Communication Learn in an environment that requires participation in many modes of communication. Students hold themselves accountable and have the opportunity to hold others accountable for the good of the team. Irene Blundell University of Phoenix faculty member Productivity and accountability Select a school that provides a code of conduct in learning situations to build accountability and productivity. Collaboration Choose courses that are collaborative and measure success by team results. Adaptability Take advantage of flexible course schedules and
How to Get Girls Into Coding WHEN I was 7 years old, I knew the capitals of most major countries and their currencies. I had to, if I wanted to track down a devious criminal mastermind in the computer game “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?” On screen, the ACME Detective Agency would spit out clues like notable landmarks to help players identify the city where Carmen’s globe-trotting henchmen were hiding out. I wouldn’t learn how to pronounce Reykjavik for more than a decade, but I could tell you that its currency was called the krona. I was the child of Indian immigrants, and like any begrudging Bengal tiger cub, I penciled in fill-in-the-blank maps and memorized multiplication tables after dinner. A huge nationwide push is underway, funded by the nonprofit Code.org’s corporate and billionaire donors, from Amazon and Google to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, to introduce American schoolchildren to coding and to redefine it as a basic skill to be learned alongside the three R’s. Continue reading the main story
The Importance of Thinking In- and Out-of-the-Box How to encourage creativity in a tech-based environment. GUEST COLUMN | by Wendy Marshall How do you teach a student to be creative? It used to be that educators encouraged innovation by telling children to “think outside the box” via a “sky’s the limit” approach. During our summer Makers Camp that is put on by my educational center ExplorOcean, children (ages 9-13) participate in guided projects using tools such as Little Bits, Makey Makeyand Hummingbird robotics. It is important, especially in a tech-based environment, to encourage students to think both inside and outside the box. 1. Researchers who study prodigious accomplishments talk about the 10,000-hour rule, which means in order to be able to do something notable, one must devote 10,000+ hours to mastering that discipline. 2. Requirements, guidelines, time and materials all narrow the realm in which a student is allowed to operate, making it easier for her or him to focus on the problem or issue. 3. 4. 5. Like this:
3 Ways Coding and Gaming Can Enhance Learning Coding isn't just for computer science any more. Educators are finding that teaching students to write code and design games enhances learning and creates engagement. These examples illustrate how coding and games are being used across the curriculum and at all levels, as well as why great teaching is at the very heart of this innovation. Connecting With Each Learner: Inform7 (Interactive Fiction for High School) Imagine a weather-beaten oak door. It has a heavy brass knocker and a tarnished handle that doesn't look like it has been used in some time. Now go to Google Images and try to find a picture of the exact door that you have seen in your head. Now imagine that as you approach the door, you notice deep scratches along the doorframe, as if something has been trying to get in . . . or trying to hold the door closed. Yet through the power of narrative description, we are all probably picturing the same door in our heads. Great Teachers
Gamestorming Upgrade Your Brain: Resources for Coding Beginners Adam Benzion is the founder of Entirely—a Seattle startup focused on social innovation, keen on connecting more people in more places to create special things together. “Everybody in this country should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.”— Steve Jobs Anyone who’s paying attention these days has probably figured out that computer programming is fast becoming the new standard of literacy in our technology-driven economy. Those with even a rudimentary knowledge of code will probably read this little article and chuckle. But for me and many other “business types,” not understanding coding has become a real handicap and a growing blind spot. As an intelligent person who’s had a successful career in the software industry and even managed to deliver as technology entrepreneur, I hate feeling left out of certain conversations because I don’t know the language. Everyone is tweaking, hacking, and experimenting. Upgrading your MBA brain is actually fun Spread the word
10 places where anyone can learn to code Teens, tweens and kids are often referred to as “digital natives.” Having grown up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, they’re often extraordinarily adept at interacting with digital technology. But Mitch Resnick, who spoke at TEDxBeaconStreet, is skeptical of this descriptor. Sure, young people can text and chat and play games, he says, “but that doesn’t really make you fluent.” Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code Fluency, Resnick proposes in this TED Talk, comes not through interacting with new technologies, but through creating them. The point isn’t to create a generation of programmers, Resnick argues. In his talk, Resnick describes Scratch, the programming software that he and a research group at MIT Media Lab developed to allow people to easily create and share their own interactive games and animations. At Codecademy, you can take lessons on writing simple commands in JavaScript, HTML and CSS, Python and Ruby. While we’re at it: bonus!
Gamestar Mechanic Teaching Coding in Class: 17 Apps to Try November 17, 2014 Today as I was going through my bookmarks, I come across this excellent visual created by Sean Junkins where he features a bunch of powerful apps to help you teach coding in the classroom. Unfortunately, the visual does not render legible enough when turned into large infographic. So instead, I am sharing with you the apps featured in it. I really like how Sean Junkins arranged these apps into different categories which will help you target different areas in the teaching of coding. Enjoy 1- Learning the basics A- Daisy the Dinosaur Learn the basics of computer programming with Daisy the Dinosaur! B- Move The Turtle Move The Turtle is an educational application for iPhone and iPad that teaches children the basics of creating computer programs, using intuitive graphic commands.2- Video tutorials Udacity courses are taught by industry experts from Facebook, Google, Cloudera and MongoDB. C- Khan Academy This is the official iPad app of the popular Khan Academy platform.
A Glimpse into the future of learning Designing Personalized Learning Experiences The phrase “personalized learning” gets tossed around a lot in education circles. Sometimes it’s used in the context of educational technology tools that offer lessons keyed to the academic level of individual students. Other times it’s referring to the personal touch of a teacher getting to know a student, learning about their interests and tailoring lessons to meet both their needs and their passion areas. As with most education jargon, the phrase isn’t fixed, but it usually connects to the idea that not all students need the same thing at the same time. It implies choice, multiple pathways to learning, many ways to demonstrate competency and resists the notion that all students learn the same way. Educator Mia MacMeekin has put together a clear infographic highlighting some of the ways teachers design “personalized” curriculum.
EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian Editor’s Note: This article, reprinted from the June 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is a thoughtful and insightful examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement. The authors’ analysis and argument are strong, and the benefits they tout are inspiring. The authors will follow up with two more articles on the maker movement which will be published in the next two issues of Teacher Librarian. To download a PDF version of this article, click here. Educational makerspaces (EM) and maker education (ME) have the potential to revolutionize the way we approach teaching and learning. In practical terms, educational makerspaces are the ideal environment for maker education. Makerspaces outside of the educational environment are adult playgrounds for thinking and whimsical construction. The maker education approach to learning is highly individual yet lives within certain boundaries. Invite curiosity. Inspire wonder.