Group items tagged

"Here are all of the videos that Digital Learning & Teaching Vic has uploaded to Vimeo. Appearances are videos that Digital Learning & Teaching Vic has been credited in by others."

"The purpose of this site is to introduce the concept of Personal Learning Networks (PLN) and its key principles. The site is divided into several sections that are represented in the navigation menu. The first section-What is a PLN?-provides background information about PLN and a definition of this concept. Tools to construct a PLN is a section that describes the main categories-namely format, function, and application-in the PLN Tool Browser. In the Build your PLN section, we address the topics of privacy and licensing, including Creative Commons. How to optimize a PLN by adding a social dimension is the focus of the Making It Social section. The PLN Examples contain student testimonials that illustrate the uses of a PLN. Finally, if you want to explore tools that can be used to construct your own personal learning network, please check our PLN Tool Browser."

"However, the current focus on initial teacher education as the be-all and end-all of teacher education ignores the importance of ongoing professional development. This should take place not only in the first years of teaching, but throughout teachers' careers. As a comparison, medicine graduates study at university for five or six years, then still need to undertake an internship of one year before being allowed to register for general practice. Most go on to undertake a further two to three years of residency before beginning specialist training. Perhaps we should be taking our cue from medicine, and treating our graduate teachers in a similar manner to medical interns and residents. Learning to teach is a process that begins at universities, but continues for an entire career."

"Google Tools offer a perfect solution for supporting PBL and CBL in the classroom.  These teaching and learning frameworks focus on a student-driven experience where collaboration is a key component."

"At the start of the 21st century only half of all school classrooms had Internet access, compared to 98% today. The proliferation and sheer breadth of accessibility that the Internet offers has in many ways redefined the process of "growing up" - this graphic explores this redefinition and provides insight into not just how we learn stuff, but also what we learn from a young age now that we have computers."

All K-12 and Higher Ed Teachers, Administrators, IT Directors, and Tech Coordinators! Have you heard about the New Zealand Summit? Are you interested in how Google Apps in Education can promote student learning and motivation? The program features Google Certified Teachers, Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, practicing administrators, solution providers, Google engineers, and representatives from the Google Apps for Education team. Register now to send teachers, administrators, tech directors, library media specialists, tech support staff, CTOs, and anyone who is interested in finding out more about leveraging Google Apps for Education to support student learning.

An interesting page that looks at learning in the digital age. It includes a neat slideshare and movies as well as reference to SAMR

"This Contemporary Literacy Practices of Preps e-book has been developed to showcase the range of learning opportunities possible when digital technologies become an integral part of children's' learning and development. The e-book is also a testament to the amazing capabilities of young learners to acquire the necessary digital literacy skills necessary for participation in life. The e-book highlights how technologies can help support sharing, collaboration and communication in and beyond the classroom."

I've spent the past few months with GCSE and A-level classes doing absolutely no writing at all beyond sample tests and student blogs. Students realise how high the bar of public domain writing is. This can be initially intimidating, but that removes all apathy or sense of the humdrum. Asking all students to write blogs as learning unfolds and interlinks empowers the teacher to be more supportive because they're less tied to the bureaucracy; it raises challenge levels; it enables IT-skilling; it lets students see their own progress and differentiates well; it means more productive and accelerating learning-talk over rote-writing.

"Technology is transforming today's educational landscape, reaching children's fingers before they reach their shoes. According to the infographic below from LearnStuff.com, 70 percent of children between the ages of 2-5 can use a computer mouse, while only 11 percent can tie their own shoes. Today's generation is growing up with technology, proving to reject traditional beliefs about how people learn. 90 percent of students think tablets help them study more efficiently, and cause them to read 1.5 more books annually. Read the infographic below to see how students interact with technology along their scholastic path, from grade school to graduation."

"For the longest time teachers and lecturers have held the monopoly on the production of academic content. They create lesson plans, produce resources, devise marking schemes and search around for activities and games they can repurpose to use in teaching sessions. Although the production of content has been the preserve of the teacher and the academic since the formalisation of education, increasingly, we also see learners creating their own content. They have the tools, they own the technology, and they have the confidence to use them, not only informally, but increasingly in formal learning contexts. Many are prolific and proficient in producing blogs, podcasts, videos and photos for sharing on the web. They can do it all using the simple smartphone in their pocket. This user generated content trend is apparent not only in universities and colleges but also in the compulsory education sectors."

"To better understand our students and cater to their learning needs, we need to understand the context in which they live. There is definitely a generational gap between us and them and the more this gap is bridged the  smoother and more effective communication flows. In this regard, I am sharing with you this useful graphic that outlines the digital, social, and cultural differences between various generations. "

Begun in 2007, Creative Educator focuses on effective ideas and strategies to foster creativity and engage students in the curriculum. Articles are designed to provide you with an informed and diverse view of today's educational technology field, including fresh ideas about project-based learning, classroom management, and creativity. The classroom stories illustrate how educators are already utilizing creativity tools in their classrooms and the lesson plans provide specific ideas, resources, and directions that make implementing creative work with technology even easier.

"Will Richardson was the first person to clearly explain to me about six or seven years ago what a PLN was. Back then, PLN stood for Professional, or Personal Learning Network. A better label today, one that might quiet the nitpickers, is Personalized Learning Network -- the shift in nuance maintains that participants are both personal and professional learners. A PLN is a tool that uses social media and technology to collect, communicate, collaborate and create with connected colleagues anywhere at any time. Participating educators, worldwide, make requests and share resources."

"What does it mean for a classroom or school to "go Google"? Learn all about Chromebooks, Google Apps for Education and Tablets with Google Play for Education and how together these powerful tools can transform teaching and learning."

"For teachers, blogging can be the difference between mediocre and exceptional. Taking the time to reflect on pedagogy and problem solve publicly can enhance the learning for the teacher and the students by proxy. There are many ways that educators can use blogs to enhance classroom learning."

I have long held the belief that education and technology are the two great equalizers in life. This next phase of the Internet-Web 2.0 and collaboration-provide a vision of what is possible. As we see this vision taking shape in the present-enabling collaboration, breaking down barriers across the globe and providing access to information anywhere, anytime-this belief continues to grow. Education and technology go hand in hand, with the network serving as the platform for what we call the Learning Society, which we outline in detail in the pages that follow.

"You can use Google Earth to simply search for a place or try one our advanced features, such as recording a tour or importing GPS data. Whether you're learning to use Google Earth for the first time or you're already an expert user, here are some tools to help you explore further. "

"This formula has been proven in my class over the last 6 months. PBL is my favourite thing at the moment, and if you've read my personal blog you'd think I had the words edmodo and PBL tattooed onto my brain. (I don't, I promise!) PBL is a tough nut to crack when you're working for a public school with limited resources and the pressure of external standardised tests breathing down your neck. PBL is hard because it requires quite a lot of planning as well as quite a lot of guts - you need to have faith in yourself as an educator and faith that your students will 'go with' your radicalised view of teaching and learning. Getting your students to work in small groups to complete a project that will be shared with a real-world audience is pretty daunting. But it is made so much easier, and made so much better, thanks to edmodo."

Check out how this Aussie teacher works with her class in Edmodo, especially step 5 the reflections.

"As the school doors swing open to welcome the start of another year, both teachers and students will have goals: to inspire a class, to learn new things, to get good grades. What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be. Why? Because we're raising a generation of children -- primarily in affluent, high-achieving districts -- who are terrified of blundering. Of failing. Of even sitting with the discomfort of not knowing something for a few minutes. If students are afraid of mistakes, then they're afraid of trying something new, of being creative, of thinking in a different way. They're scared to raise their hands when they don't know the answer and their response to a difficult problem is to ask the teacher rather than try different solutions that might, gasp, be wrong. They're as one teacher told me, "victims of excellence." "