Group items tagged

we've found five sites that try to add some structure to the process, and checked out if they're worth your time. *IKnowTweet *ToAnswer *TwttrStrm *twtpoll *twitQA

"Part of what makes games great is how subjective our enjoyment of them can be. The best games unravel in different ways for different people; we play them differently and in different contexts, changing what they mean to us. Unfortunately, when we evaluate games for the classroom we often don't consider how mutable they are. We see them as either containing a certain amount of educational content or not. Some games fit into this model, sure. But for games that are more akin to, say, modeling clay than quizzes -- the learning value is up for grabs; they need people to give them shape and context. On its face, Geoguessr -- a geography guessing game that tosses players into random parts of the world (using Google's Street View) -- doesn't seem to have much traditional educational value. There's not much to be memorized and used on a typical geography test. Players guess where they are rather than know it, and guessing is bad, right? Not quite. Because what Geoguessr gets kids to do is think about what the essence of geography is. It asks the player to consider "place" in every sense, not just from the perspective of a geographer. It asks the player to think like an anthropologist, a scientist, indeed - a detective. In fact, it's one of my go-to examples of "21st century literacy," that notoriously murky way of looking at the world that's tough to understand, let alone teach."

"It just might be that in a society where information is abundant, thinking habits are more important than knowledge. Somewhere beneath wisdom and above the "things" a student knows. Laws of economics say that scarcity increases value. It's no longer information that's scarce, but rather meaningful response to that information. Thought. And thought has a source-a complex set of processes, background knowledge, and schema that we can, as educators think of as cognitive habits. And if they're habits, well, that means they're probably something we can practice at, doesn't it?"

GENEVA - An worldwide conference on Sunday accepted a U.N.-brokered serenity strategy that demands the development of a adjusting govt in Syria, but at Russia's insistence the bargain contract remaining the entrance start to Syria's chief professional being aspect of it. The U.S. supported away from requiring that the strategy should clearly contact for President Bashar Assad to have no part in a new Syrian govt, expecting the concession would motivate Italy to put higher stress on its long time best friend to end the aggressive attack that the resistance says has stated more than 14,000 life. But even with Russia's most specific declaration of assistance yet for a governmental changeover in Syria, it is far from certain that the strategy will have any actual impact in reducing the assault. A key expression in the contract needs that the adjusting relating to human body "shall be established on the foundation common approval," successfully providing the existing govt and the resistance veto energy over each other. Syrian resistance results instantly denied any idea of providing in a changeover with Assad, though the contract also needs protection power chiefs and solutions to have the assurance of the individuals. Assad's govt had no immediate response, but he has regularly said his govt has a liability to remove terrorists and will not take any non-Syrian style of government.

A great overview of Lance's research into the effectiveness of libraries.  He answers the question: Do school libraries or librarians make a difference?  His answer (A HUGE YES!) is back by 14 years of remarkable research.  The point is proved.  But this information remains unknown to many principals and superintendents.  Anyone interested in 21st century teaching and learning will find this interview fascinating.

"Like Donald Graves, I believe that the teacher is the chief learner in the classroom. I also believe that positioning ourselves as learners sustains our passion for our work. When we make a study of our teaching, we discover things we would not have otherwise. Lights flicker. We're continually inspired. What would happen if you became a learner and embraced the idea students assessing teachers? This has nothing to do with mandating the use of student feedback for teacher evaluation purposes. This kind of assessment is off the record. It's a gift that your students give you, and one that you might use in service to them."

"When I heard the news that Phil Schlechty had passed away it was sudden and I felt sadness. I've never met Phil but I've been deeply impacted by his work throughout the years. You see it's one of the things I'm learning about education and writing in this whole connected place: We get to know people through their work, we get to know people through their passions, and we get to know people who we actually don't know face-to-face. Schlechty's work around engagement is one of the most enlightening and simple frameworks for educators to use. What I found fascinating about his levels of engagement is that I could see myself in the classroom working towards compliance instead of engagement."

"High school students ask this question partly to challenge the teacher's authority, but they may really want to know the answer. "