Lessons and Legacies from Stanford’s Free Online Classes Digital Tools Teaching Strategies Stanford Artificial Intelligence Class By Steve Henn Last year, Stanford University computer science professor Sebastian Thrun — also known as the fellow who helped build Google’s self-driving car — got together with a small group of Stanford colleagues and they impulsively decided to open their classes to the world. They would allow anyone, anywhere to attend online, take quizzes, ask questions and even get grades for free. They made the announcement with almost no fanfare by sending out a single email to a professional group. “Within hours, we had 5,000 students signed up,” Thrun says. You can only imagine what those meetings must have been like, with professors telling the school they wanted to teach free, graded online classes for which students could receive a certificate of completion. “I think the impact will be large and it will be widespread.” For decades, technology has promised to remake education — and it may finally be about to deliver. Related
Blog Advice from Mentor Teachers for New (and Experienced) Teachers This post originally appeared on Edutopia, a site created by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, dedicated to improving the K-12 learning process by using digital media to document, disseminate, and advocate for innovative, replicable strategies that prepare students. View Original > Being a mentor teacher to a teaching candidate is quite a privilege and honor, as you are integral in nurturing and helping that new teacher to reflect and improve upon his or her instruction. I recently reached out to fellow mentor teachers and asked them about their advice and best practices, not only for teacher mentors, but also for new teachers in the field. For New TeachersMake Relationships with the Right People Ted Malefyt is a middle school science teacher for Hamilton Community Schools in Michigan. Nurture Unit and Lesson Design Sometimes we focus too much on delivery of the lesson rather than the design of the lesson itself.
30+ Cool Content Curation Tools for Personal & Professional Use As the web becomes more and more inundated with blogs, videos, tweets, status updates, news, articles, and countless other forms of content, “information overload” is something we all seem to suffer. It is becoming more difficult to weed through all the “stuff” out there and pluck out the best, most share-worthy tidbits of information, especially if your topic is niche. Let’s face it, Google definitely has its shortcomings when it comes to content curation and the more it tries to cater to all audiences, the less useful it becomes. The demand for timely, relevant content that is specific to our unique interests and perspectives has given rise to a new generation of tools that aim to help individuals and companies curate content from the web and deliver it in a meaningful way. Here’s a look at over 30 content curation tools (mostly free, but some paid/professional tools as well) that will help you cut through the clutter of your information stream to find the gems. Comments(65)
www.edutopia.org/blog/how-to-build-calendar-pbl-summer-pd Teachers want to know what the day-to-day looks like. I know I do. After generating great project ideas, I want to know exactly what my day-to-day looks like. There is a pitfall there. Sometimes we plan the calendar too quickly. "The project went longer than I thought." "I forgot a lesson, or didn't think that the students would need it." These all stem from rushing too quickly to the calendar. Begin with the End in Mind Look at the products students are creating. In it, you can see the teacher thought about not only important essential questions and content, but also skills, like taking photographs. Open Your Filing Cabinet Please, please, please don't reinvent the wheel. Plug and Play This is the most gratifying step, because now, building the physical calendar is easy. It's a Reframe We've all been there.
The Dyslexic Professor I’ve seen this posted on many of my friend’s Facebook pages the last several weeks. I’m unsure of the origin or I would give the original author credit. All I know is that this is a reminder to all of us to be in the moment and to always be present. I struggle with this balancing act. We all do. Image Credit Dear Mom On the iPhone, I see you over there on the bench, messing on your iPhone. But Momma, let me tell you what you don’t see right now….. Your little girl is spinning round and round, making her dress twirl. You aren’t. Your little boy keeps shouting, “Mom, MOM watch this!” He sees that too. Now you are pushing your baby in the swing. Talk to her. Put your eyes back on your prize…Your kids. Show them that they are the priority. Play time at the park will be over before you know it. The childhood of your children will be gone before you know it. They won’t always want to come to the park with you, Mommy. Because they know… I know that’s not true, Mommy. Like this: Like Loading...
23 Ways To Use The iPad In The 21st Century PBL Classroom By Workflow 23 Ways To Use The iPad In The 21st Century PBL Classroom by TeachThought Staff The iPad is not magic, and as many educators have found integrating them meaningfully is by no means a just-add-water proposition. The same applies to Project-Based Learning. Project-Based Learning is a method of giving learners access to curriculum in authentic ways that promote collaboration, design, imagination, and innovation while also allowing for more natural integration of digital and social media. Below we’ve offered 23 ways that the iPad can be used in your classroom. Note that the visual is also arranged in a kind of visual spectrum, as our past visuals have been.
The Innovative Educator Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration In Project Based Learning Welcome to the second in a series of PBL Mania Posts. For the next few weeks I am celebrating Project Based Learning by hosting a webinar at Edtech Leaders Online and giving a PBL session at the NICE Conference in Chicago. In this post I will introduce you to some outstanding collaboration tools found on the web that can be used in the PBL classroom. Before reading please take a moment to subscribe to this 21centuryedtech Blog by email or RSS and also give me a follow on Twitter at mjgormans. You will not want to miss this series or future posts involving STEM, Flipping the Classroom, Technology Integration, Common Core, and 21st Century Skills, So Sign Up Now! As always… thanks and have a great week. - Mike Gorman (21centuryedtech) First Some Notes For PD This Week 1. 2. 10 Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration in PBL This PBL Mania post will explore some of those collaborative Web 2.0 tools that can enhance the PBL experience. Google Docs – Not much needs to be said.
Driving Innovation in K-12 « February 9, 2012 by cultureofyes I have to give this post my usual preface that these slides are part of the presentation I am giving on innovation in K-12, but only one part of the story. Today, I am part of an event hosted by Simon Fraser University, Targeting Technology for Maximum Student Benefit. I won’t cover the ground I have covered before as the scenario and other background on the event is available (here), as well as from a substantial post I recently wrote on the appeal of one-to-one devices in the classroom and equity (here). Beyond this and going forward, there are a few key points I would like to emphasize as we look at my assumptions and thinking on what we should and shouldn’t be doing: Some assumptions for the next 5 years: What We Would Do: What We Wouldn’t Do: Distributive Learning, – we want all classes to be blended classes. With that preamble and a very brief explanation, here is my slidedeck.