Understanding How the Brain Thinks Understanding How the Brain Works For 21st century success, now more than ever, students will need a skill set far beyond the current mandated standards that are evaluated on standardized tests. The qualifications for success in today's ever-changing world will demand the ability to think critically, communicate clearly, use continually changing technology, be culturally aware and adaptive, and possess the judgment and open-mindedness to make complex decisions based on accurate analysis of information. The most rewarding jobs of this century will be those that cannot be done by computers. For students to be best prepared for the opportunities and challenges awaiting them, they need to develop their highest thinking skills -- the brain's executive functions. Factory Model of Education Prepares for "Assembly Line" Jobs Automation and computerization are exceeding human ability for doing repetitive tasks and calculations, but the educational model has not changed. Climb high.
Twelve learning technologies with big education potential By Laura Devaney, Managing Editor, @eSN_Laura Read more by Laura Devaney May 22nd, 2013 Learning technologies that will become widespread and widely-implemented in a year or less: 1. Bring your own device initiatives 2. Cloud computing 3. Technologies and practices that have the potential to change teaching and learning, but that are two or three years from popular practice, include: 5. Four or five years down the line, learning technologies that may dramatically influence education include: 9. 3D printing 10. Several key factors are driving technology trends: Key challenges include: Ongoing professional development needs to be valued and integrated. The report is produced by the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education.
How to Use Curriculum Map for Lesson PlanningThe Educator's Room | Empowering Teachers as the Experts. One of the greatest challenges for new teachers and veterans alike can be lesson planning. For new teachers, getting to know the curriculum and finding ways to enliven it for students can sometimes be daunting. For veterans, keeping lessons fresh and new ideas flowing, even when you’ve taught the same thing for... One of the greatest challenges for new teachers and veterans alike can be lesson planning. In basic terms, a curriculum map is a way to visually organize the content, skills, assessments, and needed resources within a particular curriculum. There are many different software programs now that assist districts and departments in curriculum mapping, and some schools give departments specific professional collaboration time to work on them. To create a basic curriculum map for a subject that you teach, set up a table with six columns. First Column: The Month. Second Column: The Essential Question(s). Why is Geography important to understanding Culture? Fourth Column: Skills.
What Is Design Thinking? How might we engage students more deeply in reading? -- Karen, learning specialist How might we create a classroom space that is more centered around the needs and interests of the students? -- Michael, second-grade teacher How might we create a more collaborative culture for teachers at our school? How might we connect more with our neighborhood community? How might we create a district-wide approach to curriculum that engages the 21st century learner? As educators, we are designing every single day -- whether it's finding new ways to teach content more effectively, using our classroom space differently, developing new approaches to connecting with parents, or creating new solutions for our schools. Wherever they fall on the spectrum of scale -- the challenges facing educators today are real, complex, and varied. Design Thinking is one of them. Design Thinking is a process and a mindset It's human-centered It's collaborative Designing requires conversation, critique and all-out teamwork.
1352461687 6Fotolia 40346191 XS Claves y sugerencias para gestionar exitosamente un proyecto de e-learning ¿Cuáles son los aspectos pedagógicos, tecnológicos, de diseño instruccional, humanos y económicos, que entran en juego al gestionar un proyecto? ¿Cuáles son los procedimientos ideales para el desarrollo de contenidos? “Es importante que antes de comenzar a gestionar un proyecto de e-learning se tenga claro el requerimiento del cliente, el objetivo del proyecto, el tiempo que se tiene para realizarlo, el presupuesto y el equipo que va a trabajar en dicho proyecto”, señaló Yamila Ribba, líder de proyectos y coordinadora en Capacitaciones de e-ABC Learning, una de las empresas de referencia en el sector de la formación apoyada en tecnologías de América Latina, durante una entrevista mantenida con America Learning Media. Al ser consultada por las 10 claves fundamentales para gestionar exitosamente un proyecto de e-learning, la especialista destacó las siguientes: • Buena comunicación • Un cronograma ajustado a los tiempos reales • Capacidad de negociar • Gestión de Recursos • Objetivos claros
College Readiness: Reading Critically We have a generation of students that are trained to automatically trust the textbook, or for that matter, trust anything that is written. Today, many students don't know how to read things with a grain of salt. So how do we go about fixing this? Well, first we have to get them to read, then get them to read critically. Dr. Today, Mike Rose is a professor at UCLA's Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Between the Lines Reading has to be synonymous to thinking. With all of that creative learning juice flowing in student's brains while they read, it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. We should teach students to identify concepts while they read and then judge which of them is a key concept. Have you heard of the residue of thinking? As you can see, using Cornell Notes the right way can help students read critically, which by the way helps them remember what they read. Going Digital What strategies have you found to be effective in helping students read critically?
Interculture and school! INTERCULTURA – non-profit, volunteer based, educational organisation, promoting intercultural learning through student exchanges Intercultura is a non-governmental organisation, recognised by the Italian government, operated by over 4,000 volunteers in 147 chapters all over Italy, and belonging to the international networks of AFS Intercultural Programs and of EFIL, the European Federation for Intercultural Learning. Thanks to these affiliations Intercultura has a consultative status at the Unesco and in the Council of Europe. In more than 50 countries, AFS is an international, voluntary, non-governmental, non-profit organization that provides intercultural learning opportunities to help people develop the knowledge, skills and understanding needed to create a more just and peaceful world.To learn more about AFS 100 years history, please start the AFS interactive timeline. The School Program abroad Class Exchanges Volunteering with Intercultura Scholarship Training
Students Evolve from Consumers to Critics and Creators Critical-thinking skills -- and fluency in multimedia production -- are integral to media literacy. Running Time: 8 min. For many students, what happens in the traditional American classroom is boring. A recent study, "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds," found that students in grades 3-12 spend an average of six hours and twenty-one minutes plugged in to some type of media each day. For this digital generation, electronic media is increasingly seductive, influential, and pervasive, yet most schools treat the written word as the only means of communication worthy of study. Credit: Edutopia Cue the herald trumpets, and enter the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), an organization that promotes media literacy as an essential life skill. Media literacy means various things to different people, encompassing everything from the basics of graphic design to critical analysis of advertising images and news broadcasts. Credit: The Jacob Burns Film Center
intercultural education What Teachers Need to Know about Critical Thinking Vs Creative Thinking December 7, 2014 When it comes to differentiating critical thinking from creative thinking, things get a little bit blurry as there is no consensus as to what really defines these processes. This lack of consensus is particularly reflected in the various meanings creative thinking takes in different disciplines.For instance, in business and corporate world, creative thinking is synonymous with entrepreneurship, in mathematics it stands for problem solving, and in education it carries connotations of innovation. While there is no agreed upon definition for these two types of thinking, a comprehensive body of literature confirms the fact that creative and critical thinking are not identical. Also, check out this table to learn about some of the differences between creative and critical thinking. As for Umich.edu, both creative and critical thinkers use different thinking strategies: Creative Thinkers Here is a good illustrative visual on creative and critical thinking from Brain tree.
The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking The Question Game by Sophie Wrobel, geist.avesophos.de The Question Game: A Playful Way To Teach Critical Thinking Big idea: Teaching kids to ask smart questions on their own A four-year-old asks on average about 400 questions per day, and an adult hardly asks any. Our school system is structured around rewards for regurgitating the right answer, and not asking smart questions – in fact, it discourages asking questions. In A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas, Warren Berger suggests that there are three main questions which help in problem solving: Why questions, What If questions, and How questions. Regardless of the question, the question needs to be phrased openly and positively in order to achieve positive results – a closed or negative question only raises bad feelings against each other. Why questions help to find the root of a problemWhat If questions open up the floor for creative solutionsHow questions focus on developing practical solutions
13 Essential 21st Century Skills for Todays Students Educators and workforce experts alike often warn that our children need improved 21st century skills. Without these skills, they will not be able to successfully participate in the global economy. They won’t be adequately prepared for college and work. But what, exactly, are 21st century skills? Are we just talking about computer and technology skills? It depends on who you ask. More than Computers & Technology Hanover Research recently analyzed six major educational frameworks designed to improve the development of 21st century skills. While each framework has slightly different list of critical 21st century skills, all agree on four critical areas for development: Collaboration and teamwork Creativity and imagination Critical thinking Problem solving “It is easy to see how these skills could be valuable to a new high school graduate and to employers, as well as how these skills can easily interact with one another,” according to the Hanover Research report. Deeper Dives