Why Instructional Design Must Focus on Learning Outcomes, Not Learning Activities It’s no secret that kids learn better when teachers provide learning activities that keep them engaged. Teachers work tirelessly to plan engaging lessons that capture and keep the interests of their students, thereby making content more accessible. However, teachers continue to feel the daunting pressure to compete for their students’ attention amidst the ever-evolving and rapidly-hanging mass media, social media, and entertainment industry, as these elements do a stellar job of keeping students highly engaged outside of the classroom. Although it is vitally important for us to know and understand our students' interests and the best conditions under which they learn, there is good news: It’s not necessary that we focus our efforts on competing with the devices and activities our students engage in during their downtime outside of the classroom! Recreation, entertainment, and downtime for students outside of the classroom are just that: recreation, entertainment, and downtime.
Creative Commons | En blogg om skola, skolutveckling och samhällsfrågor En infographic skapad av Shihaam Donnelly som förklarar hur CC (creative commons licenser) fungerar. Nedan beskriver jag de olika delarna av en CC-licens. Tänk på att andra lagt ner tid och energi på att skapa sådant som du har användning för (bilder, musik, texter, filmer mm), så länka hellre en gång för mycket än en gång för lite till ursprungsskaparen av verket. CC Erkännande. Alla cc-licenser har erkännande. Det betyder att de som använder det du skapat måste ge dig erkännande, d v s ange dig som upphovsman och i övrigt följa de andra cc-villkor som du lagt i licensen. CC Icke kommersiell. CC Inga bearbetningar. CC Dela lika. De sex vanligaste licenserna av CC där man kombinerar ihop ovanstående symboler. ”CC BY” Andra får ändra, bygga vidare på, distribuera vidare (även kommersiellt) det som du skapat. ”CC BY SA” Andra får ändra, bygga vidare på, distribuera vidare (även kommersiellt) det som du skapat. ”CC BY ND” Andra får sprida (även kommersiellt) det som du skapat.
Overview - Mentira Mentira, a project launched in July 2009, is the first mobile, place-based, augmented reality game explicitly oriented towards the development of language skills in Spanish. It is set in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood in Albuquerque, NM and plays out much like a historical novel in which fact and fiction combine to set the context and social conditions for meaningful interaction (in Spanish) with simulated characters, other players, and local citizens. While playing Mentira, learners must investigate clues and talk to various non-player characters (NPCs) in order to absolve their own family, proving they are not responsible for a murder in a local neighborhood. In a core component of the game, players are required to visit the local neighborhood in order to collect additional clues and, ultimately, solve the mystery by determining the responsible party.
Awaken the Learner, Tips Awaken the Learner To effectively prepare learners for success, teachers can emphasize cognitive skills in addition to content in their classrooms. Teaching knowledge has always been an essential component of the American school system, but recent instructional standards have also highlighted the importance of teaching cognitive skills. Cognitive skills, such as generating conclusions, problem solving, experimenting, and decision making, are thinking processes that promote a deeper comprehension of complex ideas. The cognitive skill generating conclusions challenges students to analyze the truth and validity of their own and others’ thinking. Conclusions are formed when one accepts that certain premises about an idea are true and uses these premises to make a judgement about a person, topic, or idea. Problem solving is a cognitive skill that has significant application in school and outside the world of academics. Students best learn in environments where they feel safe.
Over 300 Virtual Tours & Museums around the World Tour The American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Photography Guided Tour American Red Cross Virtual Museum American Treasures - Library of Congress The Ancient Olympic Games Virtual Museum Tour an Ancient Roman Villa Tour of The Andy Warhol Museum The Canadian Museum of Civilization Tour The Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo Tour The Collection at The National Gallery of Art Tour the DeCordova 35 acre Sculpture Park The Drop Zone Virtual Museum (WW II Airborne) Virtual Tour of Durham Cathedral Tour the Ellis Island, NY 1900-1920 Photographic Exhibit Tour the Field Museum of Natural History Exhibits Institute and Museum of History of Science - Florence, Italy German Leather Museum Greek and Roman Art Collection Tour the Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village Holocaust Museum Tour The International Museum of Horses Tour The Jimmy Stewart Museum Museum of HP Calculators Tour The Museum of Unnatural Mystery Tour the Metropolitan Museum of Art The First Virtual Mousepad Museum Tour the U.C.
Google Offers Virtual Tours of 17 of the Top Museums Using Street View Technology LONDON (REUTERS).- Google aims to bring the world's great art galleries into the home with a new website that offers virtual tours using Street View technology, the ability to build private collections and ultra-high resolution images. While most big galleries have been busy making their works accessible online for years, experts told a launch at London's Tate Britain gallery on Tuesday that Google's site was looking to take the online art experience to a new level. "It could be the game changer," said Julian Raby of the Freer Gallery of Art, part of the Smithsonian in Washington DC, which is one of 17 galleries taking part in the project. Nelson Mattos, VP Engineering at Google, said the Art Project site would allow children from Latin America, India and Africa, who were unlikely to see the originals, to come close to the experience on the internet. "We obviously don't believe this technology is going to prevent people from coming to the museums," he added.
Engagement Vs. Compliance The “Rule of Two Feet” I recently attended a conference that asked attendees to follow the “rule of two feet”. Throughout the conference day, if you found yourself in a session that didn’t apply or interest you, it was fine to pick up and move to another session. The presenter would not be offended, but would realize that the session was not a good match for that particular person. Compliance or engagement? In my district, we teach all students the acronym S.L.A.N.T. from the book Teach Like a Champion. Compliance is not a bad thing. How do we engage students? When students are engaged, they are so immersed in their learning that they aren’t thinking about anything else. So, if you were a student in your classroom, would you stay? If not, reflect upon what aspect(s) of the day you wouldn’t like and explore how you could change it. Related PBL and STEAM: Do they intersect? I recently attended an in-district training session on problem-based learning. May 23, 2014 In "Arts Integration"
Kids Speak Out on Student Engagement A while back, I was asked, "What engages students?" Sure, I could respond, sharing anecdotes about what I believed to be engaging, but I thought it would be so much better to lob that question to my own eighth graders. The responses I received from all 220 of them seemed to fall under 10 categories, representing reoccuring themes that appeared again and again. So, from the mouths of babes, here are my students' answers to the question: "What engages students?" 1. "Middle-school students are growing learners who require and want interaction with other people to fully attain their potential." "Teens find it most interesting and exciting when there is a little bit of talking involved. 2. "I believe that when students participate in "learning by doing" it helps them focus more. "We have entered a digital age of video, Facebook, Twitter, etc., and they [have] become more of a daily thing for teens and students. 3. "I believe that it all boils down to relationships. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
How You Can Bring Creativity Back Into Your Classroom With Project Based Learning Think about it: when was the last time a creative task held your focus? Perhaps when you needed to solve a complex problem with a personal solution? Make a drawing? Now, imagine kids getting that feeling every time we introduce a new concept or ask an essential question. According to a study from Adobe (which an accompanying infographic shown to the right), 82% of college-educated professionals wish they had more exposure to creative thinking as students. But where to begin? Teacher Sets the Standards, Student Chooses the Project As you get ready for the new 2016-2017 school year, you wonder—where does one start? For the More Tech-y Perhaps you and your students enjoy using technology, as it continues to offer new and exciting ways for students to show their creativity. What are my options? Video Review/DemonstrationShort FilmDigital StorytellingAudiobookComputer Model/Program3D Design/PrintWebsitePodcastVirtual or Augmented Reality For the Less Tech-y What are my options?
Why Music Makes Our Brain Sing Photo MUSIC is not tangible. You can’t eat it, drink it or mate with it. It doesn’t protect against the rain, wind or cold. In the modern age we spend great sums of money to attend concerts, download music files, play instruments and listen to our favorite artists whether we’re in a subway or salon. So why does this thingless “thing” — at its core, a mere sequence of sounds — hold such potentially enormous intrinsic value? The quick and easy explanation is that music brings a unique pleasure to humans. More than a decade ago, our research team used brain imaging to show that music that people described as highly emotional engaged the reward system deep in their brains — activating subcortical nuclei known to be important in reward, motivation and emotion. But what may be most interesting here is when this neurotransmitter is released: not only when the music rises to a peak emotional moment, but also several seconds before, during what we might call the anticipation phase.
Modes and Video Games Music There's a very useful classification of music which helps explain why pieces sound dramatically more happy or sad: the major and minor scales. The major scale is the staging ground for most of the peaceful or upbeat music you'll hear, whereas the minor is a little darker and used for more music with some conflict or sorrow inherent to it. Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars and Captain Jack Sparrow's theme from Pirates of the Caribbean are both written in a minor key, and the major key dominates the lullaby scene and most tension free music. The reason music sounds so different depending on which scale it's written in has to do with the different notes that make up the scales, the minor scale has a few lowered notes which give it a less pleasant sound. The vast majority of music falls into one of those two categories, and our system of musical notation is designed around the properties of those two types of scales. i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii.
Structuring Collaboration for Student Success (Keys to PBL Series Part 3) Peggy: The teacher doesn’t just throw control to the students and say, "Let me know what you figure out." She really has to plan ahead of time, she has to figure out how to group the students so that they're the most productive. She has to scaffold their work, so she provides hints or clues or templates, worksheets is necessary, to kinda show them what they need to do first, what they might consider doing next. She has to teach them how to work together. Teamwork is not something that comes naturally, especially for younger students. They really need to learn how to do that. Sheela: So we would have a anchor or a set of expectations about what kind of language would be used, what the roles and responsibilities are for each person in that group. Student: So you start with one trail mix and give out stickers. Student: I do the sticker charge thing. Student: Oh, that makes sense. Teacher: So what's this lake potentially used for? Sheela: So it's really the art of facilitation.
Building Rigorous Projects That Are Core to Learning (Keys to PBL Series Part 2) Steven: A lot of people think that Project Based Learning is fluff. So what we did, instead of having a three-column rubric that has "Unsatisfactory, Proficient and Advanced," we added a fourth column. It is the "Standards," what has to be taught. Peggy: Students are going to address the content that they need to learn through this PBL approach. PBL provides the meat of the curriculum. It's not a side thing you do at the end of the unit for fun. Lisa: I start with the standards in mind. Steven: Our students still take assessments, district assessments, and benchmarks. Peggy: There's really two main reasons that a teacher should use a PBL approach. Steven: It's a shift in the delivery of instruction.
Establishing Real-World Connections in Projects (Keys to PBL Series Part 1) Peggy: Usually by starting with an authentic problem in the community, or in the neighborhood, you anchor the unit with a driving question. So students are given this question, for example, "What's in our water? And how did it get there?" And then the students choose different paths to explore that question. Sheela: Start to examine what's happening in your local community. Lisa: It's knowing people. Sheela: We find that the best way is to take the kids out into the community. Peggy: Once you're aware of this type of approach to teaching, it's like you have little antenna out.