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61 Educational Apps For The 21st Century Student

61 Educational Apps For The 21st Century Student
It’s not entirely clear what it means to be a “21st century student.” And in 2013, it’s also not entirely clear what the definition of an “educational app” might be. Just as students are no longer tethered to textbooks (in most formal education settings), apps that are strictly didactic–designed to promote academic proficiency and foundational fluency–are often the first that parents and teachers reach for when looking for something “constructive.” But the reality is, the 21st century is as much about finding, evaluating, managing, sharing, and curating information as it is reading texts, answering questions, and applying memorized formulas to neatly scaffolded problems. So, critical thinking and transfer over accuracy and recall. In that context, what are often thought of as “productivity apps” are not only “educational,” but are often the real marrow of 21st century learning. Which is probably not a coincidence, and what makes the following list by Michael Hyatt useful.

A Diagram Of 21st Century Pedagogy - The modern learner has to sift through a lot of information. That means higher level thinking skills like analysis and evaluation are necessary just to reduce all the noise and establish the credibility of information. There is also the matter of utility. Evaluating information depends as much on context and circumstance as it does the nature of the data itself. The essay full of fluff may distill quite nicely down to a 140 character tweet. Context matters, and the diagram from edorigami below captures this, though not from the perspective of the student and content knowledge, but the teacher and various pedagogical components themselves, including Higher-Order Thinking Skills, Peer Collaboration, and Media Fluency. (See also our framework on the 6 channels of 21st century Learning.)

The 12 Must-Have Skills Of Modern Learners If you consider yourself a modern learner and take advantage of modern technology in order to improve yourself, then you probably have some or most of these characteristics. If you use technology to bolster your understanding of a particular topic, use critical thinking and problem-solving skills to tackle tough questions, or simply collaborate across networks (online and in-person), then you’ve got some of the skills of modern learners. That’s the idea behind this fabulous visualization from User-Generated Education . It details the 12 skills of modern learners that, depending on your current skill level, you should aspire to attain, already have, or at least know about. Another critical skill I want to point out is empathy and global stewardship. What’s your favorite skill?

21st Century Icebreakers: 11 Ways To Get To Know Your Students with Technology In honor of the start of a new school year, I am sharing one of my popular posts again with you with a couple of new additions! On Monday I will begin my new job. As I’ve mentioned before, I will be working as a Technology Resource Specialist as well as teaching a couple of classes. As always, I am nervous and excited for the first day of school, and eager to meet a new group of students. As an educator, I often find myself repeating the same icebreakers each year, trying to quickly get to know my students through “Two Truths and a Lie” or a “Getting To Know You” fact sheet. In an effort to bring my own classroom to the present, I’ve put together a list of 13 icebreakers that use technology and fit with 21st century students: Have students create a Pinterest board with 10 pins that summarizes them.Ask students to create a 30 second podcast that introduces themselves. Have any other 21st century icebreakers? Like this: Like Loading...

The 5 Important Elements of The 21st Century Classroom Technology is radically transforming the way education is delivered and part of this transformation is taking place right inside our classrooms. From the ancient one-room school to the 20th century classroom where we have been taught, the classroom, as a pedagogical concept, has never witnessed such a transformational revolution as is the case now with the uptake of digital technology.And guess what this is only the beginning. The pace with which technology is developing makes it really impossible for anyone to predict what kind of classrooms we will have in the next few decades. This excellent graphic below sheds more light on how classrooms have been transformed by technology and draws clear comparisons between several learning modes. Source: onlineuniversities.com

BYOD: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly “BYOD” Bring Your own Device. A great idea that can easily turn messy. Biztech has introduced the BYOD: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly infographic asking you to answer 6 easy but important questions before you launch into a BYOD situation. If your company is considering allowing employees to bring their own devices to work, make sure you have a game plan in place.BYOD has freed up many enterprises from the responsibility of exclusively purchasing and maintaining computing devices, such as notebooks, tablets and smartphones, but companies still need to have policies set in place to make things work.BizTech magazine has put together an infographic that highlights six core questions every company should consider before moving forward with BYOD:Who buys the devices?What’s the right policy? The organization in this design is really well done. One of the data visualizations is hard for the readers to understand. Thanks to Ricky for sending in the link!

BYOD in Education: An Emerging and Irreversible Trend Family & Parenting, School & Education, Local News By Vickie Moller Published: June 04 2013 The topic of BYOD-Bring Your Own Device is gaining momentum--educators simply cannot ignore it. The topic of BYOD-Bring Your Own Device is gaining momentum—educators simply cannot ignore it. Last year, at the Long Island Tech Summit, members of the educational technology team of the New York Comprehensive Center said the implementation of BYOD programs has become a highly polarized subject in the educational community but that based on the success of early adopters of BYOD programs, it is likely that more will be implemented in the near future. “Education must move with the times. “BYOD-Bring Your Own Device, is a trend that is catching on quickly. Researchers have found that 81 percent of Generation Y connects wirelessly and 73 percent of them use social networking to connect with others—and educators can use these facts to their advantage. The reasons to implement BYOD are compelling.

Building an Effective School BYOD Plan Become an educational innovator & disrupt! 5 key skills to develop This week I briefly spoke to our key leaders about innovation, an integral part of the DNA at SCIL. A culture of innovation is essential to achieving our vision and values. Our 21stC life is a result of innovation. School education is currently being disrupted. Physical design of the schoolMethods of learningThe role of the teacherExams and assessmentThe day – timetable, durationLibraries, books and other resources How do I know that this innovation is working toward positive outcomes? I have met too many passionate educators who are seeking change for the right reason: They put the need of the learner at the heart of all they do. How can we bring innovation to education? 1. At SCIL, we seek inspiration outside schools. 2. At SCIL we ask: Why do we have textbooks’? Innovators challenge common wisdom, imagine opposites and embrace constraints. ‘Embrace constraints’ seems counter-intuitive, however, great design and innovation comes from working to constraints. 3. 4. 5. Like this:

5 Levels Of Technology Integration In Curriculum - The integration of technology in learning is not new. In the 1980s, many schools had fancy calculators, Macintosh computers, and were even teaching students basic coding. This kind of integration often happened at the lesson or activity level, meaning that it was often surface-level, tacked-on, and perhaps a bit superficial. The power of technology is difficult to fully leverage without curriculum-level integration. The following technology integration matrix we spotted over on zzwriter.com‘s excellent blog takes a look at this idea of embedding technology at the curriculum level. 5 Levels Of Technology Integration In Curriculum

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