Three Trends That Will Shape the Future of Curriculum Big Ideas Culture Digital Tools Teaching Strategies What we as adults experienced in school, as educators and students, will bear little resemblance to what lies ahead. Here’s a look at current trends, their implications, and changes to watch for. The Three Key Trends 1. Digital delivery No longer shackled to books as their only source of content, educators and students are going online to find reliable, valuable, and up-to-the-minute information. FLickr:Remiforall Add to that sites like the Khan Academy, a collection of thousands of YouTube videos that teach everything from calculus to the French Revolution, TeacherTube’s collection of content, books that have been turned into YouTube videos, as well as sites from museums and art institutions, sites like NASA and the Smithsonian, TED Talks and the thousands of other educational resources available, and you can start to see how online content will be used as a primary resource. 2. Flickr:YasminF Every learner counts. 3. Lenny Gonzalez
Using Old Maps as Tools to Explore Our World What Is It? In this bulletin board activity, students work collaboratively to explore sections of old maps. By closely examining these unique historical documents, students learn to see maps as more than just tools for locating places. Rationale Maps are essential tools in modern life but they also are primary source documents reflecting the people, time, and culture that produced them. Description After selecting a map, the teacher should photocopy it with two concerns in mind: It should be a suitable size for an available bulletin board or display area. In the classroom, groups of students will work with single sections of the map, using a specific procedure (see Handout 1) that will help them uncover meaning in the map. Teacher Preparation Scheduling: Place this lesson into your school’s curriculum and your course calendar. Maps, after all, can be compelling visual resources offering various ways to turn a class into a learning community. In the Classroom Common Pitfalls Example Maps
In Classroom of Future, Outdated Testing Can’t Keep Up Digital Tools Teaching Strategies Flickr:AlbertoGP Sunday’s New York Times article, “In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores” by Matt Richtel had the wrong headline. When describing a classroom in Arizona’s Kyrene School District, which invested $33 million from a ballot initiative dedicated to technology upgrades, Richtel laments the district’s “stagnant scores” in reading and math. He writes: “Critics counter that, absent clear proof, schools are being motivated by a blind faith in technology and an overemphasis on digital skills — like using PowerPoint and multimedia tools — at the expense of math, reading and writing fundamentals.” When technology is deployed thoughtfully in a way that feeds into a broader system that’s not reliant on the outdated factory model of schooling, the quality of learning should not be discounted — even if it can’t be measured yet. And this is where Richtel buries the lead, in paragraph 42, about a third of the way through the article: Related
How Learning Environments Are Changing Culture Digital Tools Teaching Strategies A school’s perimeters are no longer the only place students learn. Kids are learning about the world from their homes, from the community, and anywhere it’s available to them. The Three Key Trends 1. Whether it’s to cut costs or give students more options, virtual schools – and brick-and-mortar schools that offer online courses – are proliferating. Flickr:Striatic New virtual schools are springing up, as are traditional school districts offering online courses. Cost cutting is a big motivating factor for traditional schools offering online programs. Universities are also leveraging online classes for practical benefits — as a way to compensate for over-filled classes and a way to save costs. Online classes offer a number of benefits: personalized, flexible learning approaches, access to courses that are over-capacity, and collaboration with other institutions, for starters. [Sara Bernard contributed to this report.] 2) Theme-Based. Lenny Gonzalez
9 Places to Find Creative Commons & Public Domain Images When students create multimedia projects they might be tempted to simply do a Google Images search and use the first images they see. But as educators we have a responsibility to teach students to respect copyright holders' rights. One of the ways that we can do that is to teach students to use Creative Commons and Public Domain images. Morgue File provides free photos with license to remix. The Morgue File photo collection contains thousands of images that anyone can use for free in academic or commercial presentations. Wylio is an image search engine designed to help bloggers and others quickly find, cite, and use Creative Commons licensed images. William Vann's EduPic Graphical Resource provides free photographs and drawings for teachers and students to use in their classrooms. The World Images Kiosk hosted by San Jose State Universityoffers more than 75,000 images that teachers and students can use in their academic projects.
School Day of the Future How Do We Prepare Our Children for What’s Next? When most of us were deciding what to major in at college, the word Google was not a verb. It wasn’t anywhere close to being conceived at all. Neither was Wikipedia or the iPhone or YouTube. Continue Reading A Glimpse into Future Schools Education Next’s report on five schools that exemplify the model of the future school includes the Denver School of Science and Technology and Carpe Diem Collegiate High School. Continue Reading A Challenge to Doubters: Do Something Impossible Make Your Own List. Continue Reading 21 Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020 Flickr: Corey Leopold Inspired by Sandy Speicher’s vision of the designed school day of the future, reader Shelly Blake-Plock shared his own predictions of that ideal day. Continue Reading The School Day of the Future is DESIGNED Unpredictable, inconsistent, and designed to be wildly relevant for learners, their engagement, and their development. Continue Reading Continue Reading Continue Reading
5 Startups to Watch The Origins of Christmas Dear Readers, We've published several articles this weekend that provide insight into how Christmas Day came to be such an important date of the world calendar. The first is "The Origins of Christmas," in which we note that "Since the mid-fourth century, Western Christians have celebrated Christmas on Dec. 25 to honor the birth date of Jesus Christ. The date is not supported by Biblical evidence, however, and the true origins of the celebration may lie in secular festivals centered around the winter solstice." We discuss the fourth-century deliberations, and how, in 17th Century Britain, Christmas was for a time banned because its celebration engendered immoral behavior. Our article continues with the significant role played by authors Washington Irving and Charles Dickens in establishing Christmas as a peaceful, family-oriented holiday. Some of this information is repackaged, and supplemented, in our Q&A article on the history of Christmas.
Universities -- Free Courses See our list of the top schools offering free courses online. Learn about what types of courses are available to find the school and courses that are right for you. Online Courses for Credit Plenty of free resources are available online for students who want to learn a new topic, but these free options don't generally lead to college credit. Students who want to earn college credit might want to look for online options that charge a small fee in exchange for access to online lessons. These fee-based courses can help students earn alternative forms of college credit. Education Portal offers this style of distance learning with quick, engaging video lessons and self-assessment quizzes. Free Online Non-Credited Courses Students who want to use the free university resources can go to the school's link, scroll through the list of available courses and lectures and view or download the available content. Carnegie Mellon University at CMU Open Learning Initiative Yale University at Open Yale