Check this out. Could you do something like this for your class? How could a video like this make more of an impact for your parents, for your students?
Should technology and tech tools that students use be banned in schools? Peter DeWitt says it's counterproductive, and sends a negative message to our students.
Dabbleboard is an online collaboration application that's centered around the whiteboard. With a new type of drawing interface that's actually easy and fun to use, Dabbleboard gets out of your way and just lets you draw. Finally the whiteboard enters the digital age!
AcademicEarth is dedicated to breaking down the barriers to a "world class education.'' College-level video classes and supplemental materials are available from universities such as Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, and Yale. They are listed by subject, university, or instructor, and are also available as Playlists, themetic collections of lectures picked by the AcademicEarth editors.
iTunes U - a powerful distribution system for everything from lectures to language lessons, films to labs, audiobooks to tours - is an innovative way to get educational content into the hands of students.
The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.
“cell phones are not computers! They may both contain microprocessors and batteries, but as of today, their functionality is quite different…The computer is an intellectual laboratory and vehicle for self-expression that makes it possible for children to learn and do things in ways unthinkable just a few years ago. We impair such empowerment when we limit educational practice to the functionality of the least powerful device.”
From the article: "Why not let kids use the tech tools they're already familiar with to enhance their learning? But as schools try to figure out the best way of transitioning to this new world, some thorny issues must first be sorted out. How do teachers and school systems prepare for all the different platforms, when some kids are bringing in tablets, others are bringing their parents' old laptops, and the remainder are on mobile phones? And what effect does this change have on the dynamics of a classroom?"
"It was amazing," freshman Parker Hooten said. "We didn't just sit there and learn. We actually did stuff. It made the class much more fun and involving. You want to be there."
"It's really removing the teacher from being this didactic downloader to being a facilitator and a coach," Burnett said.
Great example of how PBL and technology fit together. Technology wasn't replacing another tool here, but being used as a tool to do completely unique and different things not otherwise possible WITHOUT it.
From the article: "Given that schools have embraced technology, what is the real impact on learning? Take away the term, technology, and think of it as a tool - not a magic bullet."
Interesting infographic about the students who have attended/graduated from high school in the past 10 years. As part of that group, the timeline and experience ratings are interesting...