Group items tagged

"I'm a firm believer in the notion that opinionated kids are the most important resources for argument writing, so when it comes to coaching this form in classrooms, early conversations are often about inciting passion and letting kids talk about what matters…..to them. Experience has taught me that most don't care to write about school uniforms, cell phone use, or cyber bullying, and when they are asked to write about these things, what emerges is typically uninspired. They have a lot to say about a lot of other things though, and they're eager to research and learn more about issues that really mean something to them. Ready to support these kinds of writers in your classroom?"

"21st century skills is a term that's been bandied about for over a decade now. Loosely, it refers to the creative and technology-based skills students are increasingly required to demonstrate to use information in the real world. While there's plenty of tools, leadership, strategies, and even rhetoric surrounding this discussion, what's there's less of is data."

"Wherever we are, we'd all like to think our classrooms are "intellectually active" places. Progressive learning (like our 21st Century Model, for example) environments. Highly effective and conducive to student-centered learning. But what does that mean? The reality is, there is no single answer because teaching and learning are awkward to consider as single events or individual "things." This is all a bunch of rhetoric until we put on our white coats and study it under a microscope, at which point abstractions like curiosity, authenticity, self-knowledge, and affection will be hard to pin down. So we put together one take on the characteristics of a highly effective classroom. They can act as a kind of criteria to measure your own against-see if you notice a pattern."

"Kids have always made in my library. We encouraged digital and visual and dramatic and rhetorical creativity before, during, and after school.  But for a while, I've questioned the value of using already heavily used real estate to randomly carve out space for a 3D printer, electronics stations and sewing machines. I had my doubts about the makerspace movement in school libraries. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to chat with Amos Blanton, project manager of the Scratch online community, and a member of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT Media Lab.  On his profile Amos notes:  I design and sustain creative learning environments for people with agency. Amos makes the case for makerspaces as powerful, authentic, relevant learning experiences, and for when and why library may be the very right space to create a makerspace."

"I read Fareed Zakaria's work often. He's a great journalist for the Washington Post and a TV news anchor with his own show on CNN. I dug into a piece yesterday he wrote titled "Why America's Obsession with STEM Education is Dangerous". Unlike Zakaria's articles on foreign policy, which are insightful, thought-provoking, and in-depth, this article paints an innacurate and overly-simplified picture of what STEM education is and should be. Worse yet, his argument injects dangerously reductive rhetoric into the public debate on education, where we already see heightened emotion and political division. Maybe this type of reaction is what Zakaria is aiming for. He releases a new book today on this same topic called "In Defense of a Liberal Education". "

"This week's edition of Sunday Night Teacher focuses on motivation-specifically motivating students by helping them see the big picture. These videos are all charged with hyperbole, rhetoric, and emotion. While the tones, themes, sounds, and visuals make powerful cases for motivation, what you're motivating them for and towards is on you. Yes, ideally motivation comes from curiosity and self-awareness, not rah-rah speeches you show them from YouTube-so let's use both. Prime your inquiry-based learning unit with a video, offer then a basic model, then unleash them and watch them fly."

"Notice that we didn't use the more vague "good teacher" phrasing. That's an important distinction, because here we're talking about something a bit more clinical. Not entirely scientific and analytical and icky, but not entirely rhetorical and abstract and mushy either. Something somewhere in the middle-human, efficient, and hopefully happy and sustainable as a result. "

"So the other day I tweeted out this comment, "I am amazed each day to see so much educational progress in my Twitter feed. This should be the norm, not the exception." Many people in education talk a great game when it comes to the effective use of technology, but the results (lack there of) speak for themselves. I constantly see and hear about leaders who tout themselves in a way that makes others develop a perception that they actually know something about the effective integration of a variety of technology tools to improve professional practice. However, once you get past the rhetoric you quickly realize that it is just talk with a clear lack of substance.  This is not to say that they are unwilling to learn or embrace significant change in this area.  It just hasn't happened yet, at least from my view.  Thus, the use of social media in schools by educators continues to be an uphill battle.  "

Welcome to the 21st Century! Can You Digg It? While the goals have more or less stayed the same, the methods and technologies used for the Three R's, Reading, Writing & Research, have started to shift. The workshop/s associated with this website continue to give the website developers, the workshop facilitators, and the workshop participants the opportunities to explore how to best facilitate teaching research and writing in the 21st century. Assumptions and Philosophies Rhetorically Situated Research Projects Scaffolded Research Projects Creative Research Presentations Technologies

"Figuring out which tool is right for the job is something we all struggle with every day. Whether you're a contractor, plumber, or teacher, there's a lot of options to choose from. Teachers managing connected classrooms have it quite rough, though. There's an embarassment of riches when it comes to apps, web tools, and digital services that want to make your life easier. So how do you easily figure out which are the best education apps for connected classrooms, you ask? Great rhetorical question, Jeff!"

Colourful language in this post, however lots of really strong points made. An alternative to the "technology is bad" rhetoric so prevalent in social media posts/cartoons/popular opinion.

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

"The digital revolution, globalisation and demographic changes are transforming labour markets at a time when policy makers are also struggling with persistently slow productivity and wage growth and high levels of income inequality. The new OECD Jobs Strategy provides a comprehensive framework and detailed policy analysis and recommendations to help countries promote not only strong job creation but also foster job quality and inclusiveness as central policy priorities, while emphasising the importance of resilience and adaptability for good economic and labour market performance in a rapidly changing world of work. The key message is that flexibility-enhancing policies in product and labour markets are necessary but not sufficient. Policies and institutions that protect workers, foster inclusiveness and allow workers and firms to make the most of ongoing changes are also needed to promote good and sustainable outcomes. "The OECD's latest Jobs Strategy is a smart and sensible updating and rethinking of how countries should advance the goal of shared prosperity. I hope policymakers around the world not only read it but take its important advice." Jason Furman, Professor Harvard Kennedy School and former Chairman of President Obama's Council of Economic Advisers   "Inequality, economic insecurity, economic exclusion, are making the headlines.  Anger is high, populist rhetoric is on the rise.   What can be done?  What strategies to adopt?  These are the challenging questions taken up by the new OECD Jobs Strategy report.  I hope the report triggers the very serious discussions these issues deserve."    Olivier Blanchard, Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute, Emeritus Professor at MIT and former Chief Economist of the IMF "

"What are the kind of things a 21st century teacher needs to know and be able to do? What about 21st century students? What education technology works, and what is a waste of time? What would a checklist for 21st century teaching look like? Does "21st century teaching" even make sense to use as a phrase anymore? If not, do we just say "teaching"? Does that fit our needs to innovate our collective profession to meet a modern circumstance? These are among the questions today's teachers have to face daily-in the classroom, mass media, professional development, and more. These conversations can get complex, opinionated, stuffed with rhetoric, and downright overwhelming at times. In response, Sylvia Duckworth has made consistent contributions to this conversation by creating colorful illustrations that communicate many of these ideas in easy-to-skim, easy-on-the-eyes, tempting to pin and share graphics."