In the March 12, 2012 edition of Forbes magazine, there is an interesting article about adaptive learning software called Knewton (The World’s Greatest Tutor). Reading the article reminded me that many see learning with technology as taking what normally goes on in brick-and-mortar and putting it online (all too often done in isolation) and stopping […]
Consumption AND Creation
Teaching Kids to be “Digital Citizens” (Not Just “Digital Natives”) The ideas in this article rang true after a colleague and I heard an Apple presenter extolling the virtues of the iPad…almost exclusively through the lens of content consumption. Moving further into content/knowledge creation is an important part of the vision of the classroom we […]
The Independent Project
In a world where virtually any content is easily accessible online, why do we insist on the content-laden let-me-shove-it-down-your-throat-and-then-test-you system we currently have in education? How does the Independent Project tap into what schools should really be about – guiding students to find their passion? [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTmH1wS2NJY&w=560&h=315]
Social Learning
This is a great stand-alone presentation (via RJ Jaquez) about social learning. My undergraduate class at Moravian College starts this week. One of my objectives is to challenge them to think about teaching and learning differently. I’ll have to work a viewing of this slide show into our work because I think it describes the […]
Learning Responsible Behavior Now
We are in the first year of a learning initiative (TL2014) that has as it’s goal the transformation of teaching and learning. As a part of this initiative, each student in grade 6-12 has been provided a laptop computer to use during the school day and after hours at home. Our filtering system during the […]
Video – This is how we think
I recently revisited a video I originally viewed well over a year ago. I highly recommend it as it presents ideas relevant to schools as we think about new media and shifting paradigms of communication. In this post, I’d like to share the video as well as my notes. http://vimeo.com/12755237 Fundamental shift in human communication […]
Redesigning the Language of “21st Century Skills”
The language of 21st century skills has become so pervasive it has lost meaning – words such as communication, collaboration, problem solving, etc. Stephen Downes posted thoughts on new language – language that he says “reflect(s) the times and not simply the fact that we have a lot of machines.” Emergent Thinking: extracting patterns, rules, […]
Blended Learning – Pt. II
My district is in the early stages of examining virtual learning. The primary objective, at the moment, seems to be to create our own virtual school in order to “bring back” students who have left the district to enroll in cyber charter schools. While that is fine (assuming we hold the mirror up and ask […]
Gamification and Education
I loved watching this video on how powerful learning can be when it involves game thinking. As I was watching, I kept thinking, “We are the problem. It is our ‘adult’ mindset that needs to change.” In fact, most “adults” watching this would probably cringe at the things Gabe Zichermann is proposing related to education. […]
What if…
Some of our middle school math students have been using a site called Mangahigh. As I observed last week, it seemed as if the students were highly engaged, learning math concepts in a game format. They weren’t just playing against themselves, or their classmates, but against other schools in other countries. The “what if” question: […]