Group items tagged

"If you're like me, you can't believe that June is already here. And despite the craziness of assessments, reporting, awards day ceremonies, field trips, and impending good byes to students, my thoughts are already turning to my favourite season of the year. Summer! Bikinis and beaches, airplanes and backpacks, golf clubs and green grass, patios and cool drinks, and professional learning. That's right-professional learning. It's not only students who can experience summer learning loss! The glorious months of July and August are a rare opportunity for relaxation and adventure, but summer holidays also gives educators a chance to engage in self-directed professional learning. With ten months of busy schedules and mandatory professional learning days, pursuing our own educational interests is an indulgence many of us we feel we can't afford. This summer I challenge you to choose a topic you are passionate or curious about and pair some professional learning with your favourite summertime activity. Put a few of these summer learning hacks into action and avoid the summer slide!"

Freedom to Learn is a blog the theme of which is the promoting children's self-direction in learning from the viewpoint of evolutionary psychology.

"Our initial reaction when seeing the following infographic from Mia MacMeekin was to think about instructional design rather than classroom management. That is, work backwards from a student-centered, inquiry-based, self-directed, and inherently personalized learning model where students, while plugged in to relevant digital and physical communities and working closely with mentors and peers, solved important and authentic problems through a mix of design, creativity, and macro critical thinking. Then we awoke from our naps, wiped the drool from our lips, and realized that for many teachers, the reality they face each day is very traditional:"

"This curriculum has been designed by the Maker Jawn team and is based on activities that have worked well at our program sites. Most of the curriculum aims to introduce skills that participants can go on to use for self-directed projects. "

"Innovating thinking is one of those awkward concepts in education-one that is often espoused, but isn't measured, reported on, trained around, or celebrated. It's just sort of there. Innovative thinking in students will flower when we design classrooms that absolutely can't survive without it. Same with critical thinking, self-direction, creativity, and so on. Until we reach that point, it's on the shoulders of the classroom teacher to tease it out of students through a combination of inspiration, modeling, scaffolding, and creating persistent opportunity. The following graphic by Mia MacMeekin offers 27 ways to think about this idea. As usual, some of the tips are better than others-"Flip: Start from the End" makes sense, but may or may not promote innovation. The same with "Grow: Grow with each approach.""

A no-cost, self-directed, virtual school built for the vocal health of U.S. teachers

"You keep hearing about this hour of code thing, but you're not a "hacker," and aren't real comfortable with teaching what you don't know. Especially when it relates to technology and its fundamental programming. You know this is some kind of "coding week." You've seen our tips for integrating coding into the classroom. Now what to do? Turn students loose with Scratch or Codea or Kahn Academy? Well, maybe. Self-Directed Learning is a core learning fluency in an age of access."

"After weeks of poring over reviews and testing the app in my classroom, I can say with confidence that instaGrok offers the best research engine experience for education of any app for tablets running iOS or Android. The instaGrok app is more classroom-friendly than its competitors, and its visual presentation of results is unparalleled. With instaGrok, teachers can encourage self-directed learning, empowering students to hone research, critical thinking, and writing skills. The search results engage students and encourage them to dig deeper in research projects. Read on to learn why instaGrok is the ideal classroom research app."

"Jackie Gerstein's User Generated Education is a favorite of ours, with her ideas on self-directed learning, connectivity, experiential learning, and other strands of progressive teaching and learning very much in aligned with our own thoughts on what a modern learning experience should look like. At the core of Gerstein's thinking is the idea of making-hands on creation of compelling stuff that reflects what's important to students. She has recently released a new book on this idea, The Educator as a Maker Educator. Among the ideas offered up in the book is exactly what you might expect from the title-reenvisioning the role of the teacher, this time as a "maker educator.""

"Our PYP evaluation went really well and it was gratifying to hear the evaluators' positive observations of our school. They talked about our dynamic learning spaces, the energy of our teachers and learners and the respect that is evident between staff and students. They were impressed by how articulate our students are and the openness of our teachers. It was clear to them that the entire school community has a deep understanding of the PYP philosophy and that we have a strong culture of learning. Almost all their recommendations are things on which we are either working already or have identified for action through the self study. There's only one thing I found jarring in their feedback and it relates to my beliefs about inquiry learning. They noted that neither students nor teachers seem able to identify what particular inquiry cycles we follow. They said the children to whom they spoke didn't seem to be aware of the specific 'stages' of inquiry and that most teachers couldn't articulate how an inquiry cycle directs our planning. To be honest, I'm glad."

"ner Driven Community," a disruptive approach led by self-directed learners, in a community tightly bound by personal covenants and contracts, using the full power of the internet to craft a transformative, personalized learning path."

"The embracement of the maker movement is being seen in K-12 schools and districts across the world. As a result, makerspaces are being instituted to allow students to tinker, invent, create, and make to learn.  A makerspace can best be defined as a physical place where students can create real-world products/projects using real-world tools in a shared work space. With natural connections and applications to STEAM areas as well as a focus on self-directed, inquiry-based, and hands on learning, it is difficult not to appreciate and admire the positive impact that makerspaces can have on all students.  In times when many schools and districts have cut programs such as wood/metal shop and agriculture, makerspaces provide a 21st Century alternative to meet the learning needs of our most at-risk students.  "

"Why use video games in the classroom as teaching tools? Let's be clear-we've come a long way from Asteroids and Space Invaders. The modern capabilities and designs of computer games provide endless opportunities for meaningful learning experiences. Used appropriately and effectively, technology can make a difference in students' lives and affect their attitude toward school in a positive way. So ditch the old stereotypes and misconceptions you may have about the ill effects of video games and reframe your perception in the light of using them to enhance learning. Gamification of classrooms isn't a new idea. The components of the gaming world lend themselves well to self-directed learning, because gaming taps into the variables which inherently motivate the desire for progress. In fact, using a set of constructs called game mechanics one could conceivably create situations that enhance learning by incorporating the kinds of motivating strategies found in today's best video games. Whether you choose to "gamify" your physical classroom all the way or only use video games as an occasional learning enhancement, making learning fun will positively reinforce students' experiences of school. Here are some suggestions on how to successfully use video games in the classroom."

Self directed learning

"The single most important skill you will ever learn is in itself an oxymoron. It is dependent on your ability to vanquish procrastination and achieve something today with view to tackling the unknown that comes tomorrow. As I've written previously it requires the drive to tackle the modern world head on: doing nothing has never been so easy. Got a spare few hours? They can disappear as quickly as unlocking your smart phone. For me then this affords opportunity for those who have taught themselves the skill I allude to; to learn how to learn and have the desire to maniacally do so for the rest of your life. The ability to employ autodidacticism in your every day life is the single most valuable skill you can ever acquire and employ. Self-directed learning enables you to learn the skills that you are most passionate about and employ them in innovative way to achieve your goals and ambitions. We no longer need schools, universities or teachers to spoon feed us the information you are paying to acquire. Go out and try finding what interests you and expand your horizons through learning. Schools are broken, they teach you memory skills required to pass exams at the detriment of teaching you what it means to learn."

"To help educators enhance their knowledge and "in-demand" skills so they can integrate their learning into classrooms, ICTC would like to introduce a new initiative called CyberEd, a National Cyber Security Awareness & Training Initiative. This initiative has been made possible in part by a grant from the Cisco Networking Academy, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. A part of this initiative, 130 educators in middle and secondary schools will have the opportunity to receive training in Cisco's Introduction to Cyber Security and/or Cyber Security Essentials courses at no cost, with resources included to help them integrate cyber security into student learning. Additionally, 8-10 educators will have the opportunity to receive training in CCNA 1 & 2 at no cost who are interested in deepening their studies. These professional development opportunities will take place virtually. The courses will be facilitated/led by an instructor, while some elements of the course material will also be self-directed. All courses will be delivered in English at this time."

We are driven by curiosity. It is an innately human quality that has driven us to explore, ask questions, investigate, wonder why and search for a deeper understanding. In a very fundamental way curiosity is the driver of all self-directed learning. It is our desire to find out more, unlock new knowledge and answer our questions (big ones and little ones) that compels us to learn. Sir Ken Robinson famously and provocatively asked "Do Schools Kill Creativity?". The same question might be asked about curiosity.