63 Things Every Student Should Know In A Digital World 63 Things Every Student Should Know In A Digital World by Terry Heick It could be argued—and probably argued well—that what a student fundamentally needs to know today isn’t much different than what Tom Sawyer or Joan of Arc or Alexander the Great needed to know. Communication. Resourcefulness. Creativity. Persistence. How true this turns out to be depends on how macro you want to get. But in an increasingly connected and digital world, the things a student needs to know are indeed changing—fundamental human needs sometimes drastically redressed for an alien modern world. Of course, these are just starters. The Changing Things They Need To Know: 13 Categories & 63 Ideas Information Sources 1. 2. 3. 4. Learning Pathways 5. 6. 7. 8. Human Spaces 9. 10. 11. 12. Socializing Ideas 13. 14. 15. 16. Digital Participation 17. 18. 19. 20. Publishing Nuance 21. 22. 23. 24. Applying Technology 25. 26. 27. 28. The Always-On Audience 29. 30. 31. 32. Social Rules 33. 34. 35. 36. Diction 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43.
Mindsets and STudent Agency Deeper learning requires students to think, question, pursue, and create—to take agency and ownership of their learning. When they do, they acquire deeper understanding and skills, and most important, they become more competent learners in and out of school. They become better prepared to succeed in academics, but also in 21st century careers and in life. We can’t force students to develop agency and drive their own learning. Hierarchy of Learner Needs A large body of research in psychology and education, focused on areas such as motivation, mindset, college & career readiness, grit, non-cognitive factors, and 21st century competencies, is uncovering the critical elements needed for students to drive their own learning. Before diving in, let’s acknowledge that just like any other human being, students need to meet their physiological needs such as food, safety (physical and emotional), and connection with others. A growth mindset can be learned. We must teach kids how to learn. Dweck.
The Other 21st Century Skills Schooling and institutionalized education have become removed from true, instinctual, and human/humane learning. Humans have been learning since the beginning of time with major discoveries and innovations historically and currently emerging in spite of school. This is the biggest problem I have with schools – most are contrived and coercive and do not honor the innate human need and desire to learn, discover, and evolve. If order to fully understand the purpose of school, the history of its evolution as an institution needs to be understood. What follows is part of A Brief History of Education in the Freedom to Learn series published in Psychology Today: If we want to understand why standard schools are what they are, we have to abandon the idea that they are products of logical necessity or scientific insight. From the Time Magazine article, How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. Like this: Like Loading...
21st Century Skills Explore these powerful tools to help reach your goals. Tony Wagner’s Seven Survival Skills “The idea that a company’s senior leaders have all the answers and can solve problems by themselves has gone completely by the wayside…The person who’s close to the work has to have strong analytic skills. You have to be rigorous: test your assumptions, don’t take things at face value, don’t go in with preconceived ideas that you’re trying to prove.” —Ellen Kumata, consultant to Fortune 200 companies “The biggest problem we have in the company as a whole is finding people capable of exerting leadership across the board…Our mantra is that you lead by influence, rather than authority.” “I’ve been here four years, and we’ve done fundamental reorganization every year because of changes in the business…I can guarantee the job I hire someone to do will change or may not exist in the future, so this is why adaptability and learning skills are more important than technical skills.” “The biggest skill people are missing is the ability to communicate: both written and oral presentations.
Teaching Students to Embrace Mistakes For the last ten years, we've worked one-on-one with students from elementary school through graduate school. No matter their age, no matter the material, when you ask what they're struggling with, students almost universally name a subject: "math," "English" or, in some instances, "school." Doubting that all of school is the issue, we then ask to see their last test. After some grumbling, the student digs down, deep into the dark, dank recesses of his or her backpack, and pulls out a balled-up, lunch-stained paper that, once smoothed out, turns out to be the latest exam. To a teacher, this should be incredibly frustrating. The Science Behind Mistakes Telling students they need to take advantage of the feedback they get isn't just good advice -- it's established science. Picture a classical violinist rehearsing. Mistakes are the most important thing that happens in any classroom, because they tell you where to focus that deliberate practice. Credit: Hunter Maats and Katie O'Brien
~ Stephen's Web Revised and Updated (minor corrections and typos only) and placed in MS-Word Document form, November 27, 2007. Click here. The version that follows below is the original (uncorrected) version). Yet another article, describing new forms of knowledge as probablistic, has crossed my desk today, and consequently it seems appropriate at this time to type a few words on the nature of distributed knowledge. It should go without saying that these are my own thoughts, and this discussion should not therefore be considered an authoritative reference on the subject. Moreover, this is intended to be a brief overview, and not an academic treatise on the subject. a. You probably grew up learning that there are two major types of knowledge: qualitative and quantitative. Distributed knowledge adds a third major category to this domain, knowledge that could be described as connective. This is more than just the existence of a relation between one entity and another; it implies interaction. b. c. d. e. f.
Locus of Control Explanations > Preferences > Locus of Control Internal | External | So what? Locus of Control as a principle was originated by Julian Rotter in 1954. It considers the tendency of people to believe that control resides internally within them, or externally, with others or the situation. Note that, like other preferences, this is a spectrum. Internal People with a high internal locus of control believe in their own ability to control themselves and influence the world around them. Rotter (1990) describes the internal locus of control as: 'the degree to which persons expect that a reinforcement or an outcome of their behavior is contingent on their own behavior or personal characteristics' Their belief in their ability to change things may well make them more confident and they will hence seek information that will help them influence people and situations. They are more likely to have expectancy shifts, where a sequence of similar events are expected to have different outcomes. External
Constructivism | online learning insights The Web as a classroom is transforming how people learn, is driving the need for new pedagogy; two recently launched courses at Coursera highlight what happens when pedagogical methods fail to adapt. Divided pedagogy I wrote recently about the Fundamentals of Online: Education [FOE] the Coursera course that was suspended after its first week and is now in MOOC hibernation mode. On the other hand there is the e-Learning and Digital Cultures course also offered on Coursera’s platform that began on the same day as FOE, yet the Digital Cultures course appears to be a smashing success if we use the engagement levels of students on social media platforms as a gauge. The Tale of the Two What made e-Learning and Digital Cultures successful and FOE not? How People Learn: Four Viewpoints In this post I’ll examine four orientations to learning approaches, the processes and pedagogical principles that emerge from each viewpoint. Comparison of Pedagogical Methods of Two Courses on Coursera References
Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice In a new book, Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, the authors offer a practical guide to making knowledge work inside an organization. In this excerpt, the authors detail seven design principles for cultivating communities, everything from "design for evolution" to "combine familiarly and excitement." by Etienne Wenger, Richard McDermott, and William M. Snyder Seven principles for cultivating communities of practice In Silicon Valley, a community of circuit designers meets for a lively debate about the merits of two different designs developed by one of the participants. Because communities of practice are voluntary, what makes them successful over time is their ability to generate enough excitement, relevance, and value to attract and engage members. How do you design for aliveness? Design for evolution. 1. The dynamic nature of communities is key to their evolution. 2. 3. A large portion of community members are peripheral and rarely participate. 4.
How Do I Get a PLN? What is a PLN? Will Richardson was the first person to clearly explain to me about six or seven years ago what a PLN was. Back then, PLN stood for Professional, or Personal Learning Network. A better label today, one that might quiet the nitpickers, is Personalized Learning Network -- the shift in nuance maintains that participants are both personal and professional learners. A PLN is a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time. Each individual educator becomes a potential source of information. PLNs Develop Thought Leaders Many early adopters of the PLN have gone on to become thought leaders in education, not surprising given that PLNs seem to promote a great deal of reflection and collaboration. Barriers to Mass Adoption There are three deterrents to educators using PLNs as a tool for learning and professional development (PD): We must remember that lifelong learning requires effort.