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The Mobile Learning Institute’s film series “A 21st Century Education” profiles individuals who embrace and defend fresh approaches to learning and who confront the urgent social challenges that are part of a 21st century experience. “A 21st Century Education” compiles, in short film format, the best ideas around school reform. The series is meant to start, extend, or nudge the conversation about how to make change in education happen.

Social media has become very popular with individuals in their personal lives, but is now moving into the workplace and offers new opportunities for both working and learning.  This new phase of  learning is known as Social Learning. A Guide to Social Learning provides a practical guide to getting engaged with social media, and understanding their use for formal and informal learning. The contents list appears in the Page Navigation area (on the left). Expand and contract the sections as required.  

A Guide to Social Learning is a social resource.  If you are a learning professional, you are invited to contribute to this resource by sharing your own experiences and ideas, and/or to help create supporting materials.  To contribute to this resource, you need to be a member of the C4LPT Social Learning Network. Request an account by emailing admin@c4lpt.net. Note: You don't need an account just to read the resource!

Clearly, the note-taking factor contributed to the overall scores. As someone who was in college before podcasting became popular but after sending students home with PowerPoint printouts became all the rage, I know from experience that many students think that printed slides are merely notes in prepackaged form.

McKinney acknowledged that the students who downloaded the podcast simply seemed to do better with taking notes and paying closer attention to what was being said, as they were able to go back and repeat parts of the lecture they had trouble understanding. "It isn't so much that you have a podcast, it's what you do with it," she told New Scientist.

As for whether podcasts can replace professors, McKinney stops short of suggesting that all classrooms become virtual. She refers to them as a supplemental tool to a traditional lecture that can help students gain a better understanding of the material and also help free up professors from answering repetitive questions. The takeaway? Go to class, take notes, listen to the podcast, and take more notes.

I’m reminded of the best book any new teacher should have that helps address some of these questions, The First Days of School: How to Be an Effective Teacher by Harry Wong. There is a new 2009 edition out now. 

One point in Wong’s book that still lingers with me is the importance of planning and preparation. You cannot over plan.

With good procedures in order, students trained, expectations explained and lots of practice, the classroom can run smoothly. When you plan well, stay organized, and maintain a positive outlook even when it becomes stressful, you can bring new challenges and fun ways to learning. You will gain as much as your students do for it will be a rich and rewarding experience.

According to William Rust, research director for the IT research and consulting firm Gartner, there is a new digital divide occurring in schools. Whereas this divide used to refer to whether or not students had access to technology, now it concerns whether schools are using technology effectively to achieve results.

Regarding the changing nature of learners, Gartner believes that so-called "digital natives" will demand, and need, new types of learning experiences.

"The biggest shift we're seeing right now is student preference shifting from print to digital resources," Rust noted. "It's all about the web."

Educators know there are student factors outside of school, such as home life and childhood experiences, that have a big influence on student success in school. New research has shown that one factor in particular—academic vocabulary—is one of the strongest indicators of how well students will learn subject area content when they come to school.