Group items tagged

Describes effective online teaching strategies and forms of assessment. Lists benefits of online learning and assessments.

Emphasizing the advantages to implementing some form of distance education into elementary and secondary schools.

"Applying critical thinking in the language classroom enables and encourages learners to speculate, criticize, and form conclusions about knowledge they already have as well as information they will acquire in the future. To activate and develop critical thinking in their students, language teachers need to set up tasks and activities and adjust their teaching programs and materials to promote such thinking. Teaching language through critical thinking enables learners to recognize a wide range of subjective analyses, to develop self-awareness, and to see linkages and complexities they might otherwise miss."

Describes forms of assessment, principles of assessment, and implications for assessment and course design.

Story about how our solar system formed.

A description of how a star is formed and die.

Story of how a solar system can form and all the objects that it contains.

QUOTE: What is reflective learning? As early as 1933 Dewey defined reflective thought as "active, persistent, and careful consideration of any belief or supposed form of knowledge in the light of the grounds that support it and further conclusions to which it tends" (Dewey, 1933 in Andrusyszyn & Davie, 1997, p.105). He believed that associating ideas was integral to thinking and that one had to search for deeper meanings through reflective thinking to capture and understand the core essence of something, to transform doubt into understanding and understanding into further action (Andrusyszyn & Davie, 1997).

New forms of student assessment are designed to demonstrate what students are learning and what they can do with their knowledge. Known variously as "alternative" or "more authentic" measures, these assessments require students to "perform" in some way--by writing, demonstrating, explaining, or constructing a project or experiment--so they are also called "performance-based" tests.

Describes anchored discussion. Compares regular discussion with anchored discussion.

Anchored discussion is a form of collaborative literature processing. It "starts from the notion of collaborative discussion that is contextualized or anchored within a specific content" (van der Pol, Admiraal & Simons, 2006). In this course, the discussions we participate in are based on prompts that address ideas included in each of the required resources for each module. However, an anchored discussion is a discussion that is focused on one piece of literature. As students read and digest the material, discussions about the meaning of that material occur within a window where the material is present. It is like having an asynchronous chat window open next to a research article. (van der Pol et al., 2006) As I started learning about anchored discussions, I saw many connections to shared annotation such as what we use Diigo for. Van der Pol et al. (2006) state that "shared annotation might leave more room for individual processes, but is shown to have some limitations in supporting interactivity". Anchored discussions take shared annotation a step further in that it requires conversation (as opposed to individual notes) regarding a resource. The collaborative piece of anchored discussions really got my attention in that it provides greater opportunity for the development of teaching presence by both students and the instructor. The opportunity to facilitate a discussion within the context of a required reading is an exciting idea for me. The use of anchored discussion allows for all three facets of teaching presence: instructional design and organization, facilitating discourse, and direct instruction (Shea, Pickett, & Pelz, 2003). I am wondering if there is a way to use Diigo in creating anchored discussions.

Very good video on types and uses of formative assessment

Features Paul Black. I think this is a great video that vividly depicts ways instructors can change the way they interact with pupils to enhance student outcomes.

This is part of Kenzie Waller's Lesson Plan to use Voicethread for Digital Story Telling Digital Story Telling Kenzie Waller Problem or Need: Students need motivation and excitement to practice writing. Developing a technology rich way to practice writing will engage students. At the end of the process students will have a published piece of writing with feedback from other students and the teacher. A real-world performance: All students need to be able to communicate using proper English in the form of speaking and writing. An instructional objective: Develop a technology-rich writing lesson plan that align to state standards and benchmarks. Also, using a professional critique process of their own work and the work of others using a rubric and recording comments.

Learning retention pyramid form Sousa's "how the brain learns"

Interesting visual of learner retention with different teaching methods

Peer Revie adds value and increases positive attitudes towards learning.

So far this resource, Terrapin Station, isn't available yet.