Seven Trends Impacting Edu-Jobs - Vander Ark on Innovation Katie McNerney thinks about the future of education and the talent that will be required to unlock its potential. The CEO of EdFuel hangs out at 1776, a D.C. startup accelerator, with founder Kathleen deLaski, also the president of the deLaski Family Foundation. They're working on a national market assessment called Map The Gap due out the first of the year. I talked to them last week about trends impacting talent development in education and some of the competencies that will grow in importance. Seven Trends. As we explore in a new free e-book Navigating the Digital Shift, a confluence of forces has created the best opportunity we've ever had to dramatically boost achievement and completion rates. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 10 In-Demand Competencies. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. A growing number of talent recruitment and development groups are pretty good at mapping competencies for edu-jobs.
Literacies and Fallacies As someone who inhabits multiple learning worlds in libraries and public schools, concepts of literacy–traditional and emerging–are central to my work as I think about pedagogies that inform literacy practices in these spaces. Educational policies and curricular standards, economic factors, local and federal legislation, and political mandates are increasingly a driving force in the literacy practices championed by libraries (public, academic, K-12) and public schools. Critical Literacy: A Perspective for Framing Our Work My experiences as a practitioner contextualize how I think about literacy and learning through critical literacy perspectives, theories that explore the dynamics and issues of power, identity, privilege, and agency shaped by “…one’s historical, economic, ethnic, racial, and gendered positioning” (Hull 4). Critical Literacy: Deborah Brandt’s “Sponsors of Literacy” Sponsors of Literacy as an Interpretive Lens for an Inquiry Stance References: Bakhtin, M. (1981).
Integrating Infographics into the iClassroom So TechChef4U has caught the Infographics Influenza! Being a bit of a Pinterest fanatic, I have found an easy way to support and feed my Infographics Habit. Continuing to stock pile Educational Infographics on my Pinterest board, I waited until I found an app-ortunity to share these resources with one of my teachers and create a delectable lesson. During my stint as an 8th Math tutor, I had a few of the teachers approach me about engaging math lessons that they could utilize with 8th Math after the STAAR test. Pinterest: Educational Infographics “Common Core Standards: Interpret information presented visually, orally, or quantitatively (e.g., in charts, graphs, diagrams, time lines, animations, or interactive elements on Web pages) and explain how the information contributes to an understanding of the text in which it appears” What is an Infographic? Via: OnlineEducation.net More Info/Resources on Teaching with Infographics
A Nation Without School Librarians New literacies, learning, and libraries: How can frameworks from other fields help us think about the issues? Using the Computer at the North Greenwood Library (Clearwater, FL) / CC-BY-NC-SA In Brief: In the library world, we may look to other fields to help us make sense of new digital literacies. Their frameworks may offer us new perspectives, challenge our assumptions, or give us greater clarity on the issues. Introduction The negotiations among kids, parents, educators, and technologists over the shape of youth online participation is also a site of struggle over what counts as legitimate forms of learning and literacy. Our notions of learning and literacy are in flux. Learning and literacy are core values in librarianship. We also look to other fields to see how their perspectives and frameworks can inform and enrich our discussions. In this article, I look at a number of frameworks from other fields that have something to say to us in the library world. Even within the same field, different frameworks can map the same territory in different ways. Literacy, literacies, New Literacy Studies
Why School Librarians Matter - Schools - Swampscott, MA Patch Here we interview Judi Paradis, president of the Massachusetts School Library Association and a NE regional representative from the MSLA. On Tuesday, Oct. 22, Swampscott parent Melissa Defilippi and Judi Paradis, president of the Massachusetts School Library Association, will make a presentation on school libraries to the Swampscott School Committee. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the high school in Room B208. They will talk about problems with Swampscott school libraries and the role libraries play in a student's education. In advance of the Oct. 22. meeting, here is a Patch interview with Judi Paradis, president of the Massachusetts School Library Association:1.) School library programs that are professionally-staffed and well-supported provide students and teachers with many resources and advantages that can make a real difference in learning, including: 3.) MSLA would argue that in today's online environment, school library programs are actually MORE vital. Judi Paradis
Multiple Literacies Multiple Literacies New communication tools, emerging technologies, and social and cultural forces are constantly redefining what we mean by “literacy.” Students now need to use a broad range of literacies to achieve their immediate learning objectives and to recognize and develop their own creative possibilities. Many students are already collaborative writers and content creators in the digital world. In the Learning Commons, the teacher-librarian designs multiple literacy experiences with teaching partners so that students will:
Guns in the Classroom - Lisa Rau Cannon How—and why—I talk to my young students about complex, distressing current events When I asked my middle-school students what an AK-47 is, they flung their arms up so quickly that I thought someone might dislocate a shoulder. A rousing (and mostly accurate) description followed. Then, I asked my favorite question: "How do you know that?" More limb-flinging. As the cacophony of "It's an assault rifle!" Middle schoolers love to talk about things they know, and they love to talk about things they do. It was a fitting moment to segue: "So, what do you know about the gun fired at the LAX airport shooting?" It may seem unusual to talk to young students about such an unsettling topic, but it's business as usual for me, as I teach current events to 6th, 7th and 8th graders at an after-school academy in the Koreatown district of Los Angeles. Adolescents often have fragmented notions about real-world, R-rated themes: violence, death, sex, scandal. It's like unpredictable math.
Multiple Literacies Multiple Literacies New communication tools, emerging technologies, and social and cultural forces are constantly redefining what we mean by “literacy.” Students now need to use a broad range of literacies to achieve their immediate learning objectives and to recognize and develop their own creative possibilities. Many students are already collaborative writers and content creators in the digital world. This world provides learners with unprecedented and powerful opportunities to develop multiple literacies. In the Learning Commons, the teacher-librarian designs multiple literacy experiences with teaching partners so that students will:
Librarians as Instructional Designers: Strategies for Engaging Conversations for Learning School, academic, and public librarians often cite collaborative partnerships as one of the greatest challenges of the profession—how do we invite collaboration, how do we nurture and sustain those partnerships, and how might those efforts translate into additional endeavors? Identifying common goals and cultivating trust are two fundamental building blocks in this process, but libraries and librarians being sensitive to the needs of the community, whether it is an individual, group, or organization, is also paramount. As a school librarian, I have found over the years that my thinking and work as an instructional designer and learning architect are the tasks I dwell in most of the time since they are so critical to the ways that the library can impact the learning culture in very direct and important ways in the larger school environment. As a new librarian here at Norcross High, I’m in the infancy stages of planting and growing trust “seeds” with faculty and students. 1. 2. 3. 4.
What Do We Know about Multiple Literacies? [ Back to main "What We Know" page ] [ Back to Squire Office Home Page ] What current research tells us about teaching, learning and multiple literacies: 1) Supported engagement with multiple literacies increases student success and motivation. Hinchman, K. A compilation of work by leading literacy scholars, this book offers research-based recommendations related to best practices, such as motivating students through engagement with multiple literacies. | Click to Read Abstract | Preview/Access Online | Rush L. Expanding on recommendations in Reading Next, this book offers an overview of research and related classroom practices, including ways of engaging with new literacies and promoting student literacy learning through participatory learning.| Click to Read Abstract | Preview/Access Online | National Council of Teachers of English. (2004). This position statement uses research to argue that reading materials should “tap students’ diverse interests and represent a range of difficulty.”
How to Create a “Culture of Reading” | AASL 2013 What makes a culture of reading? How do you get tweens and teens to be interested (and stay interested) in reading? These were two of the questions that Toni Vahlsing, director of libraries at Abington Friends School outside Philadelphia, posed to the audience during “Here’s a Challenge: Get Teens and Tweens to Read for Pleasure!” a session held during the 2013 American Association of School Librarians (AASL) 16th National Conference in Hartford, CT. After a presentation where the sprightly Vahlsing covered how students choose books—peer recommendation is the number one way—and why allowing kids to select their reading is crucial, she invited members of the audience to share their tips for getting children to read. Below are some of the suggestions that Vahlsing and session attendees shared. Ideas and Tips Newspapers, magazines, and websites are reading.Know what’s new even if you can’t buy it.Covers matter.
Multiple Literacies It’s Not Just the 3 R’s Any More! There are multiple literacies required for success in the 21st century. At one time “literacy” was considered to be the ability to read and write, and perhaps do math. According to Douglas Kellner, Ph.D. at UCLA “literacy involves gaining the skills and knowledge to read and interpret the text of the world and to successfully navigate its challenges, conflicts and crises. Literacy is a necessary condition to equip people to participate in the local, national and global economy, culture and polity.” This is a list of important literacies which should be developed through 21st century curriculum. Ecoliteracy Financial Literacy Media Literacy Emotional Literacy Information Literacy Aural Literacy Visual Literacy Multicultural Literacy Physical Fitness and Nutrition Cyberliteracy Global Competencies
The Importance of Innovation in Education—how can we help? | (written by Laurie Cowgill) The National AASL conference opened with a keynote address by Tony Wagner, Innovation Education Fellow at the Technology Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard University. He expanded on his recent book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World. Wagner contends that public education is missing the mark for student success. He presented the information gleaned from his research on the skills that really translate into success for students. It is not what we know, but how we use what we know that is important.How do we, as educators, identify what critical thinking looks like? There are schools around the country that teach true innovation in education. Mr. Libraries are the perfect place to give students the freedom to pursue knowledge and understanding on their own terms.