This is the home site for NYC iZone. The NYC iZone is an initiative intended to allow schools to innovate in order to achieve dramatically improved outcomes by rethinking the standard assumptions that underlie 'business as usual' in education.
I just listened to the a digital storytelling webinar (archived) from this ISTE series. It was very good and I found great resources that I can share with teachers.
There is another live webinar at the end of the month, but since they are archived, you can always check it out at a convenient time.
The NETP presents a model of 21st century learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan also identifies far-reaching “grand challenge problems” that should be funded and coordinated at a national level.
Just as leveraging technology can help us improve learning and assessment, the model of 21st century learning calls for using technology to help build the capacity of educators by enabling a shift to a model of connected teaching. In such a teaching model, teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners and classrooms are fully connected to provide educators with 24/7 access to data and analytic tools as well as to resources that help them act on the insights the data provide.
In connected teaching, teaching is a team activity. Individual educators build online learning communities consisting of their students and their students’ peers; fellow educators in their schools, libraries, and afterschool programs; professional experts in various disciplines around the world; members of community organizations that serve students in the hours they are not in school; and parents who desire greater participation in their children’s education.
Episodic and ineffective professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration.
From the summary: "
The NETP presents a model of 21st century learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas: learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan also identifies far-reaching "grand challenge problems" that should be funded and coordinated at a national level."
EdCrowd is a community of teachers passionate about using the power of the crowd to find the best answers to our questions and passing on that wisdom to our students.
PowerPoint’s worst offense is not a chart like the spaghetti graphic, which was first uncovered by NBC’s Richard Engel, but rigid lists of bullet points (in, say, a presentation on a conflict’s causes) that take no account of interconnected political, economic and ethnic forces.
behind all the PowerPoint jokes are serious concerns that the program stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making.
“I have to make a storyboard complete with digital pictures, diagrams and text summaries on just about anything that happens,” Lieutenant Nuxoll told the Web site. “Conduct a key leader engagement? Make a storyboard. Award a microgrant? Make a storyboard.”
Sounds like the exercise has become about the tool, and the tool is meant to stand in for someone who is putting the simplified/bulleted content in context. Powerpoint is not the enemy, it's being misused.
the slides impart less information than a five-page paper can hold, and that they relieve the briefer of the need to polish writing to convey an analytic, persuasive point
“Dumb-Dumb Bullets,
vague PowerPoint slides
oes come in handy when the goal is not imparting information
Sounds like the exercise has become about the tool, and the tool is meant to stand-in for someone who is putting the simplified/bulleted content in context.
Powerpoint is not the enemy, it's being misused as a replacement for rigorous critical thinking around complex issues. It's a visual aide, not a complete platform for stand-alone communication.
Very interesting site devoted to supporting development of PLCs... serach for digital and find variety of articles available. Site maintained by Solution Tree - no advertising
"This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide," said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in a statement released to coincide with the publication of the report. "We must take advantage of this historic opportunity to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to bring broadband access and online learning to more communities."
This comprehensive set of resources will be extremely helpful in the development of an online learning community with an emphasis on virtual and blended modes of learning.
Become a "contributor" and add your kid-friendly favorite resources. Then have your K-5 students learn search strategies with results limited to teacher-approved sites.