21st Century Learning & Teaching

"Later this week, some of the leading minds behind modern professional development will gather in Florida for the second Miami Device event. Last year's inaugural Miami Device drew a global audience of educators and thought leaders looking for inspirational ways to tackle professional development. For its second year, the event's organizers have increased the scope with four keynote speakers. ConnectIT blogger Eric Patnoudes recently sat down with Miami Device's host, Felix Jacomino, to discuss the origins of the show and the new offerings at this year's event."

"Here's a sketchy video I created for my technology pedagogy course. I have mixed feelings about SAMR, because it often implies that "lower levels" are not as good when often substitution works well. Royan Lee picked this apart well. I also think there are times when the best option involves avoiding technology. For example, there are times when sketching something by hand teaches observational skills better than using a camera. However, I still see a real benefit in the SAMR model, in terms of thinking about the transformative power of technology."

"Straight to the point …. We all make mistakes! Mistakes are OK, mistakes help us learn! However, sometimes, these mistakes can be avoided and last week I made a mistake that should have been avoided and I was (thankfully) held accountable to it."

""We need a really strong, powerful question," he says to a couple dozen fourth graders at John B. Russwurm PS 197, an elementary school in the New York City neighborhood of Harlem. The students, who are scattered cross-legged on the floor of the classroom, eagerly shoot their hands into the air. Mitra calls on a boy in a t-shirt. "Let's hear your question.""

"Do your students have a hard time defining - and thus, perhaps, avoiding - plagiarism? They're not alone. In a cut-and-paste world, examples of both intentional and unintentional plagiarism are everywhere. "

"Complete state results will become publicly available this fall for California and New York, and the entire library will be online in 2017, said Daniel Lewis, chief executive and co-founder of Ravel Law, a commercial start-up in California that has teamed up with Harvard Law for the project. The cases will be available at www.ravellaw.com. Ravel is paying millions of dollars to support the scanning. The cases will be accessible in a searchable format and, along with the texts, they will be presented with visual maps developed by the company, which graphically show the evolution through cases of a judicial concept and how each key decision is cited in others."

"Time for another staff meeting. Need an idea for something that engages teachers? Shakes things up a bit? Starts the year off right? Lessee. Maybe you can group teachers in some cool way -- by their birth month or favorite Jimmy Buffet song. Maybe you could play an inspiring video from YouTube, streaming it from your phone to seem all high-tech and whiz bang."

Resources by Topic: Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Digital Responsibility Media and Digital Literacy Other Resources From Edutopia Additional Resources on the Web

"In the spirt of practicing what we teach and learning what we practice, we at AmplifiEDUcation are committed to documenting our Twitter chats using a variety of tools and lenses. For the October 14, 2015 chat, "Documenting for Learning" we've chosen to use the lens of curation. As I shared last night, I have been practicing using infographics as a documentation tool, so I decided to use that tool to document the chat."

"Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck has become something of a cult figure in education and parenting circles. Her research into boosting student motivation has spawned a mini industry of consultants, sold more than a million books and changed the way that many adults praise children."

"In a given subject, standards or benchmarks-and potentially state curriculum-there are skills and content students must master. Within a given curriculum map, the trick is to identify what skills and content students need to learn, and then identify where students will have the freedom to construct inquiry on their own. If the goal of an activity is acquisition of content knowledge, perhaps you can vary the presentation method. For example, students could have a checklist of information about a particular historical era and then choose a specific medium for sharing those facts with the general public-essay, slideshow, podcast, video, and exhibit being just a few of the options. Alternately, if the goal is skill mastery, students can apply the specified skill to problems and situations that they select on their own, such as applying the same mathematical formulas to analyze statistical data on a topic or field of their choice, be it professional sports or neighborhood crime. The most advanced students can be offered control over both content and methods-what's important to learn, and how to present it."

"If you want to move learners forward, they've got to know where they're starting. It's a simple truth but not one we tend to follow when it comes to professional learning for teachers. The ways in which we assess these learning experiences for educators often fall short of the realities of their contexts. Take, for example, the common practice of ending a session with evaluation forms largely devoted to measuring teachers' level of happiness with a token question intended to gauge the likelihood of someone taking an idea from the workshop and using it next week. These vanity metrics for the professional learning providers give little indication of the impact of their work and at best communicate a very surface set of goals we're striving to achieve as a group learning together. Why are we even attempting to measure impact before we give educators an opportunity to implement what they've learned? "

"Another idea in our Skills and Strategies series, the Four-Corners technique can be used by any teacher on any level with any material - it's all in how you craft it. Below, you'll find a description of the strategy and several suggestions for putting it together with Times content. Have you tried Four Corners, or something like it? How did it go? Let us know in the comments."

"Growing interest in teaching "grit" or "growth mindset" is a hopeful sign. It reflects an increasing awareness that richer, deeper learning can flow from having students struggle with a challenging task and persisting until completion. "

"Explore this educator's guide to open educational resources for information about online repositories, curriculum-sharing websites, sources for lesson plans and activities, and open alternatives to textbooks."

"When I hear the term OER, I don't automatically leap to "Open Educational Resources." Perhaps it just doesn't trip off my metaphorical tongue. Instead, my brain automatically translates it to "free online stuff to use in my classroom." Officially, however, the term OER, according to The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, represents the "teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others. Open educational resources include full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools, materials, or techniques used to support access to knowledge.""

"It took me more than a decade to understand the importance and true worth of collaboration. During my early years in teaching, I strived hard, but I always worked in isolation. My aim was always to excel; thus, I built my library and invested a good amount of money to fill my shelves with physics books. I was mistaken. I focused too much on content and not enough on delivery-until I learned how to collaborate."

"Interview with Janet Hale concerning the Common Core State Standards, wherein our guest draws a sharp and important distinction between standards and curriculum. "

"This week's question is How would you define "teacher leadership" and what does it look like in practice? In Part One, Regie Routman, Aubrie Rojee, Megan M. Allen, Shane Safir, Sean Slade, and Barnett Berry shared their thoughts on teacher leadership. You can also listen to a ten-minute conversation I had with Suzie and Ken on my BAM! Radio Show. You can find a list of, and links to, previous shows here. Today, Laura Robb, Kylene Beers, Susan Chenelle, ReLeah Cossett Lent, Christopher Lehman, Matt Townsley, Anthony Cody, Patricia O'Grady contribute their ideas. I've also included comments from readers."

"The debate about teaching history thematically versus chronologically still captivates and frustrates me almost daily. How does history seem most alive and authentic?"