Khan Academy iPad Apps for Autistic Students Apps on portable devices such as the Apple iPad can help non-verbal children to communicate basic needs. Intuitive apps that employ colorful images and sounds can also hold a child's attention long enough to learn and offer effective tools to build vocabulary and reinforce word knowledge. The following iPad apps are designed to augment self-expression among children with autism spectrum disorders and other cognitive impairments. Becoming more comfortable with language may also encourage more safe social interaction among family members and classmates. 1. Apple iTunes Store Autism Xpress is a free app that encourages people with autism to recognize and express emotions. 2. Grace is a picture exchange system designed to encourage independent social interaction among people with autism. 3. iConverse iConverse is designed for children with autistic and other communicative disabilities who have not yet mastered basic speech. 4. 5.
10 Things in School That Should Be Obsolete Flickr: Corey Leopold By Greg Stack So much about how and where kids learn has changed over the years, but the physical structure of schools has not. Looking around most school facilities — even those that aren’t old and crumbling — it’s obvious that so much of it is obsolete today, and yet still in wide use. 1. COMPUTER LABS. At Northern Beaches Christian School students learn everywhere. 2. 3. 4. 5. Corridors at Machias Elementary are used for informal learning 6. 7. 8. Learner Centered Classroom at Riverview Elementary School. 9. 10. Greg Stack is an architect for NAC Architecture and specializes in developing best practices for the planning and design of educational environments.
Sir Ken Robinson on “Personalized Learning” « Personalizing Learning Thank you to “PW” for posting this content as a comment on Nov. 20th–I wanted to repost to draw attention to what Sir Ken Robinson says about Personalized Learning: “Personalized learning, to me, is the process of contouring learning to the individuals that you’re dealing with, recognizing that we all have different strengths and weaknesses, different interests [and] different ways of learning.” “It isn’t that everyone has to learn different things, although eventually our interests will take us in different directions,” he continued. “But in terms of the things we want all people to learn … personalized learning is finding the best ways to engage with people with different interests, passions and ways of thinking.” It’s what good teachers have always known, he added. “That their job is not to teach subjects, but to teach students.” Like this: Like Loading...
The Pocket Rocket PBL Definitions « Personalizing Learning CALGARY BOARD OF EDUCATION: “Key components of personalization have been identified as integrating and differentiating curriculum, development of learner profiles, flexible program delivery, technology infusion, social construction, and individual student learning plans.” learning how to learn: helping pupils develop a repertoire of learning skills and strategies to support their development as self-directed learnersassessment for learning: using a range of assessment techniques, with the emphasis on formative assessment that engages the learnerteaching and learning strategies: deploying the full repertoire of strategies, with pupil and teacher make informed decisions about which to use and whencurriculum choice: providing pupils with guided opportunities to develop individual learning pathways that develop skills rather than knowledgementoring and support: ensuring pupils have a one-to-one mentoring relationship with an adult, and benefit from peer support
Monday Morning Inspiration – My Post for Brad Patterson’s (@brad5patterson) Blog Challenge Some books from my collection A few weeks ago, Brad Patterson, a fantastic person and educator located in France, and a person I am honoured to call a friend, posted a blog challenge on his blog A Journée in Language – Brad asked us to say which quote defines our teaching style. In the comments section, there is a huge number of amazing and inspiring quotes! I mentioned one that I (still) cannot remember who said it or if it was exactly said that way: A good teacher is always a learner. I was going to write about that one. The best part of my job is that it has inspired me to always be a learner… #teaching #abed It hit me! From social media: numerous are the posts and articles that mention Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to name but a few media that have greatly assisted educators worldwide to connect and learn from each other. So, keep up the good work of learning every day! A big thank you to Chris McCullough for his fantastic tweet-quote that made my day and my teaching career!
What’s the Best Way to Practice Project Based Learning? By Peter Skillen Project Based Learning can mean different things to different people, and can be practiced in a variety of ways. For educators who want to dive in, the good news is that a rich trove of resources are available. In order to create your own definition and practice, here are some parameters to consider. We like to think with the frame of continua rather than dichotomies simply because things are rarely on or off, black or white, ones or zeroes. You could likely add other dimensions to consider as you build your own understandings and beliefs. Who is in control? Who is asking the question to be investigated in the project? If the projects are collaborative in nature, you may wish to consider the amount of interdependence that students have with one another. Is the content a rich, deep problem space or is it a more narrowly focused content area? How authentic is the problem under investigation? This post originally appeared on Voices from the Learning Revolution. Related