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Dean Mantz

Visual Understanding Environment - 0 views

vue.tufts.edu

ontology mindmap visualization software presentation visual mindmapping elearning

shared by Dean Mantz on 23 Jan 09 - Cached
  • Dean Mantz on 23 Jan 09
     
    The Visual Understanding Environment (VUE) is an Open Source project based at Tufts University. The VUE project is focused on creating flexible tools for managing and integrating digital resources in support of teaching, learning and research. VUE provides a flexible visual environment for structuring, presenting, and sharing digital information.
Dean Mantz

Understanding the Digital Generation - 11 views

www.createspace.com/...EStore.do

generation ianjukes book Understanding the Digital Generation reading

shared by Dean Mantz on 11 Feb 10 - No Cached
  • Dean Mantz on 11 Feb 10
     
    Understanding the Digital Native is co-written by Ian Jukes.
Jennifer Lamkins

The New Heroes . For Teachers: Classroom Materials | PBS - 5 views

www.pbs.org/...teachers

heroes teachers classroom materials

shared by Jennifer Lamkins on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Lamkins on 18 Jan 13
     
    The For Teachers section includes free classroom materials written for students in grades 6-12 to deepen their understanding of the world and related social issues. These activities are intended to raise awareness of individuals who make a difference and show how problem solvers begin and carry out their work.
Jennifer Lamkins

Encyclopedia of Life - Animals - Plants - Pictures & Information - 8 views

eol.org

encyclopedia biology reference nature education science

shared by Jennifer Lamkins on 18 Jan 13 - Cached
  • Jennifer Lamkins on 18 Jan 13
     
    The goal of Encyclopedia of Life is to be a portal to information about all species of life on Earth. Ultimately, the Encyclopedia hopes to "serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it." Many resources are available already, however, this site always will be a work in progress.
Jennifer Lamkins

Game - Meta!Blast - 3 views

www.metablast.org/game

cell game biology

shared by Jennifer Lamkins on 12 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Jennifer Lamkins on 12 Dec 12
     
    Metablast is a real-time 3D action-adventure video game, aimed at high school and undergraduate student audiences, meant to provide an entertaining, engaging experience while simultaneously educating players about cell biology. By immersing players into a virtual cell environment and allowing them to interact with it on their own terms, the developers hope that players will come to a greater understanding of the cell than they could learn from traditional diagrams and textbooks.
Alicia Kelley

- iKeepSafe - 0 views

www.ikeepsafe.org

Internet safety idt7064

shared by Alicia Kelley on 22 Jul 12 - Cached
  • Alicia Kelley on 22 Jul 12
     
    I like this site because easy for children to understand the information is not too mature or over their heads.  It also has a section for parents if they want to be able to share with students at home.
Lynley Greer

FBI - Kids Safety - 0 views

www.fbi.gov/...kids-safety

Safety idt7064

shared by Lynley Greer on 15 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • Lynley Greer on 15 Jun 12
     
    This website offers many pointers about child safety in general. They have a whole sections about Internet safety. They give some good tips that are easy to understand for kids of every age.
andrew jhons

Infographic: Online Economics Tutoring-The Way to Know TheEconomic Str - 0 views

infogr.am/nomic-strength-of-your-country

shared by andrew jhons on 06 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • andrew jhons on 06 Nov 13
     
    The study of Economics explores a country's economy at the level of production, consumption, cost and expenditure. Learning Economics is a way of resourceful living not only for an individual family, but it decides the fate of a country. If everyone knows what actually happens to his country's economy and how it happens and on what basis, he is sure to follow the simple methods by which he can contribute what he can to the economic development of his country. Hence you can understand the  importance of learning Economics as an important subject in your curriculum.
Clif Mims

ExploreLearning - Interactive Math and Science Simulations. - 1 views

www.explorelearning.com

Games Math Science Resources

shared by Clif Mims on 29 Dec 08 - Cached
  • Clif Mims on 29 Dec 08
     
    Online simulations that power inquiry and understanding.
Clif Mims

Homeschool Math - 1 views

www.homeschoolmath.net

Math Resources Worksheets Skills-Practice Teaching Lesson-Plans

shared by Clif Mims on 26 Sep 09 - Cached
  • Clif Mims on 26 Sep 09
     
    A free comprehensive math resource site. Find free worksheets, math ebooks for elementary grades, extensive link list of games, interactive tutorials & quizzes, curriculum guide, and math teaching help articles/lessons. The resources emphasize understanding of concepts instead of mechanical memorization of rules.
Michael Johnson

Teaching in Social and Technological Networks « Connectivism - 9 views

www.connectivism.ca/?p=220

teaching Learning Social Media social networks George Siemens

shared by Michael Johnson on 17 Feb 10 - Cached
  • The model falls apart when we distribute content and extend the activities of the teacher to include multiple educator inputs and peer-driven learning.
  • Skype brings anyone, from anywhere, into a classroom. Students are not confined to interacting with only the ideas of a researcher or theorist. Instead, a student can interact directly with researchers through Twitter, blogs, Facebook, and listservs. The largely unitary voice of the traditional teacher is fragmented by the limitless conversation opportunities available in networks. When learners have control of the tools of conversation, they also control the conversations in which they choose to engage. Course content is similarly fragmented. The textbook is now augmented with YouTube videos, online articles, simulations, Second Life builds, virtual museums, Diigo content trails, StumpleUpon reflections, and so on.
  • Traditional courses provide a coherent view of a subject. This view is shaped by “learning outcomes” (or objectives). These outcomes drive the selection of content and the design of learning activities. Ideally, outcomes and content/curriculum/instruction are then aligned with the assessment. It’s all very logical: we teach what we say we are going to teach, and then we assess what we said we would teach. This cozy comfortable world of outcomes-instruction-assessment alignment exists only in education. In all other areas of life, ambiguity, uncertainty, and unkowns reign. Fragmentation of content and conversation is about to disrupt this well-ordered view of learning. Educators and universities are beginning to realize that they no longer have the control they once (thought they) did
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • I’ve come to view teaching as a critical and needed activity in the chaotic and ambiguous information climate created by networks.
  • In networks, teachers are one node among many. Learners will, however, likely be somewhat selective of which nodes they follow and listen to. Most likely, a teacher will be one of the more prominent nodes in a learner’s network. Thoughts, ideas, or messages that the teacher amplifies will generally have a greater probability of being seen by course participants. The network of information is shaped by the actions of the teacher in drawing attention to signals (content elements) that are particularly important in a given subject area.
  • While “curator” carries the stigma of dusty museums, the metaphor is appropriate for teaching and learning. The curator, in a learning context, arranges key elements of a subject in such a manner that learners will “bump into” them throughout the course. Instead of explicitly stating “you must know this”, the curator includes critical course concepts in her dialogue with learners, her comments on blog posts, her in-class discussions, and in her personal reflections. As learners grow their own networks of understanding, frequent encounters with conceptual artifacts shared by the teacher will begin to resonate.
  • Today’s social web is no different – we find our way through active exploration. Designers can aid the wayfinding process through consistency of design and functionality across various tools, but ultimately, it is the responsibility of the individual to click/fail/recoup and continue. Fortunately, the experience of wayfinding is now augmented by social systems. Social structures are filters. As a learner grows (and prunes) her personal networks, she also develops an effective means to filter abundance. The network becomes a cognitive agent in this instance – helping the learner to make sense of complex subject areas by relying not only on her own reading and resource exploration, but by permitting her social network to filter resources and draw attention to important topics. In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • Aggregation should do the same – reveal the content and conversation structure of the course as it unfolds, rather than defining it in advance.
  • Filtering resources is an important educator role, but as noted already, effective filtering can be done through a combination of wayfinding, social sensemaking, and aggregation. But expertise still matters. Educators often have years or decades of experience in a field. As such, they are familiar with many of the concepts, pitfalls, confusions, and distractions that learners are likely to encounter. As should be evident by now, the educator is an important agent in networked learning. Instead of being the sole or dominant filter of information, he now shares this task with other methods and individuals.
  • Filtering can be done in explicit ways – such as selecting readings around course topics – or in less obvious ways – such as writing summary blog posts around topics. Learning is an eliminative process. By determining what doesn’t belong, a learner develops and focuses his understanding of a topic. The teacher assists in the process by providing one stream of filtered information. The student is then faced with making nuanced selections based on the multiple information streams he encounters
  • Stephen’s statements that resonated with many learners centers on modelling as a teaching practice: “To teach is to model and to demonstrate. To learn is to practice and to reflect.” (As far as I can tell, he first made the statement during OCC in 2007).
  • Modelling has its roots in apprenticeship. Learning is a multi-faceted process, involving cognitive, social, and emotional dimensions. Knowledge is similarly multi-faceted, involving declarative, procedural, and academic dimensions. It is unreasonable to expect a class environment to capture the richness of these dimensions. Apprenticeship learning models are among the most effective in attending to the full breadth of learning. Apprenticeship is concerned with more than cognition and knowledge (to know about) – it also addresses the process of becoming a carpenter, plumber, or physician.
  • Without an online identity, you can’t connect with others – to know and be known. I don’t think I’m overstating the importance of have a presence in order to participate in networks. To teach well in networks – to weave a narrative of coherence with learners – requires a point of presence. As a course progresses, the teacher provides summary comments, synthesizes discussions, provides critical perspectives, and directs learners to resources they may not have encountered before.
  • Persistent presence in the learning network is needed for the teacher to amplify, curate, aggregate, and filter content and to model critical thinking and cognitive attributes that reflect the needs of a discipline.
  • Teaching and learning in social and technological networks is similarly surprising – it’s hard to imagine that many of the tools we’re using are less than a decade old (the methods of learning in networks are not new, however. People have always learned in social networks).
  • We’re still early in many of these trends. Many questions remain unanswered about privacy, ethics in networks, and assessment.
  • We’re still early in many of these trends. Many questions remain unanswered about privacy, ethics in networks, and assessment.
  • The tools for controlling both content and conversation have shifted from the educator to the learner. We require a system that acknowledges this reality.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • In order for these networks to work effectively, learners must be conscious of the need for diversity and should include nodes that offer critical or antagonistic perspectives on all topic areas. Sensemaking in complex environments is a social process.
  • Michael Johnson on 17 Feb 10
     
    Discusses the role of teachers in the learning  process through social networks: He gives seven roles 1. Amplifying, 2. Curating, 3. Wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking, 4. Aggregating, 5. Filtering, 6. Modelling, 7. Persistent presence. He ends with this provocative thought: "My view is that change in education needs to be systemic and substantial. Education is concerned with content and conversations. The tools for controlling both content and conversation have shifted from the educator to the learner. We require a system that acknowledges this reality."
Barbara Lindsey

Digital Natives - 10 views

www.digitalnative.org/#home

digital natives cybersafety fryer media

shared by Barbara Lindsey on 02 Jan 10 - Cached
  • Barbara Lindsey on 02 Jan 10
     
    A collaborative space supported by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The project's goal is to better understand young people's experiences with digital media, including Internet, cell phones and related technologies. By gaining insight into how digital natives make sense of their interactions in this digital lanscape, we may address the issues their practices raise, learn how to harness the opportunities their digital fluency presents, and shape our regulatory and educational frameworks in a way that advances the public interest. Thx to Wes Fryer for this find!
Professional Learning Board

Attention: Parents, Don't Give Your Kids a Cell Phone Until You Read This - 17 views

professionallearningboard.com/k12blog

internet safety cell phones gps photos education k12

shared by Professional Learning Board on 27 Nov 09 - Cached
  • Paul McKenzie on 28 Nov 09
     
    Good grief. Should we also tell them to stay away from the road because of the dangerous cars? Sounds like another way to deny kids an increasingly important 21C literacy.
  • ...1 more comment...
  • Professional Learning Board on 28 Nov 09
     
    Your analogy doesn't work. Of course we shouldn't deny them cell phones! Just as we should teach them how to drive before giving them a car, we should also teach them how to safely use cell phones. AND we should keep up on understanding the changes in the technology as well.
  • Paul McKenzie on 28 Nov 09
     
    Apologies - I thought you were advocating for the bulleted section of the article.
  • Professional Learning Board on 29 Nov 09
     
    Thanks. My general rule of thumb is to only advocate for continual improvement through on-going learning. I consider myself to be pretty tech-savvy and was SHOCKED to learn that GPS coordinates get auto-embedded in images. I'd never considered this before and don't consider the extra information (GPS coordinates that can easily be mapped to an exact location) something that "should be" (yet it is) made available to anyone who can view a picture. In other words, let's say, I'm super careful to not include identifying information in my photos (my name, school name, city landmarks, etc) and take a picture of say, my stereo system. I've now included with this image the exact coordinates for where my home (with stereo) is located. Now a potential thief has this information (w/Google Map directions). It's super hard to be intentional about all of our choices and actions (including using GPS data w/cell phone images). That said, the more we all know, the more each of us is able to make decisions that best align with our own views, values and understandings. It's one thing for an adult to make a decision or not make a decision about inclusion of GPS data in their cell phone taken images, it takes another level of consideration when it involves giving that capability to children. THANK YOU for helping me to capture and better articulate my thoughts in this area!
Ben Rimes

Free and legal music downloads - Jamendo - 22 views

www.jamendo.com/en

cc creative commons jamendo

shared by Ben Rimes on 24 Feb 11 - Cached
Lisa DuFur liked it
  • Ben Rimes on 24 Feb 11
     
    Free and unlimited music published under creative commons license. Good place to find music for projects, and help students understand the CC movement.
Ben Rimes

The Test Generation - 11 views

prospect.org/...articles

testing colorado pay teacher performance assessment

shared by Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      How many decades have teacher's experienced this firsthand as students try to cheat, weasel, and otherwise fabricate their way to the reward, whether it's a gold star, a piece of candy, or some extra credit.
  • In 2005, for example, Alabama reported that 83 percent of its fourth-graders were proficient in reading, even though the NAEP found that only 22 percent of these children were proficient readers. The harsh punishments associated with NCLB had encouraged Alabama and most other states to dumb down their tests and then teach directly to them.
  • The letter is a thinly veiled attack on teachers' unions and the job security for which they fight. Mike Stahl, former executive director of the Pikes Peak Education Association, says union membership in Harrison has decreased by half under Miles' leadership, and that teacher turnover, at about 25 percent from year to year, "is the highest in the state among like-sized or larger districts." According to Stahl, Miles "is very anti-union and very prone to retaliation for speaking in opposition to district or superintendent plans. ... There was no collaboration with staff or union in the development of this plan. As a result, district teacher morale is extremely low."
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      This is where a lot of the proponents of education and teacher evaluation reform fall. In the area that no longer concerns itself with building effective cooperation, teamwork, and a positive work atmosphere, a shame really.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • Since Miles became superintendent, Harrison's scores on state exams in math, reading, and writing have steadily increased. In reading, for example, 54 percent of Harrison students were proficient in 2005, compared to 61 percent in 2010. Critics who chalk those gains up to "drill and kill" teaching might find at least one thing to love about Harrison District 2: Its test score-based teacher-evaluation system is matched by intense professional-development efforts of the sort promoted by education experts from across the political spectrum.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      The silver lining of this system.
  • But "really systemic, momentous things are happening right now, and I am at the ideological epicenter of that change," he added. "If nothing else, it's really interesting
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      Don't our schools deserve reform and/or experimentation that is better than just "really interesting?"
  • Rival groups of education researchers interpret the reliability of value-added differently but even the technique's defenders have urged caution, as have the Educational Testing Service and the Department of Education's own Institute for Education Sciences. Experts raise a number of powerful objections: that value-added measurements are often based on poorly designed, unsophisticated standardized tests; that the ratings are particularly volatile (a teacher who scores very well or very poorly using value-added has only a one-third chance of getting a similar score the following year, and it takes about 10 years of data to reduce the value-added error rate to 12 percent for any individual teacher); and that the technique gives the impression that the teacher is the only factor in student achievement, ignoring parental involvement, after-school tutoring, and other "inputs" that research shows account for up to 80 percent of a student's achievement outcomes
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      Although "value-added" seems great on the surface, having to wait around for 10 years to get a 12 percent error rate and then deal with all of the uncontrolable factors, makes student performance assessments seem like a joke almost.
  • A consensus is emerging on what those best practices are, and they have little to do with test-driven instruction. Research by Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford University teaching expert and former Obama adviser, has found that in Finland, South Korea, and other high-performing nations, teachers spend just 50 percent of their workday in the classroom with students, compared to about 80 percent for American teachers. During the rest of their day, Finnish and South Korean teachers work with other adults to plan lessons, observe one another's classrooms, and evaluate student work. This balance is especially important for beginning teachers; powerful evidence suggests that the single most helpful teacher-training exercise is to spend time inside a master teacher's classroom and to get feedback from that master teacher on one's own practice.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      Reflective practitioning through blogging as a systemic model for teacher PD would be one way to encourage growth in this area.
  • The teachers are grouped to maximize the sharing of best practices; one team includes a second-year teacher struggling with classroom management, a veteran teacher who is excellent at discipline but behind the curve on technology, and a third teacher who is an innovator on using technology in the classroom.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 11 Apr 11
       
      Interesting group composition, and would be easy to put together in any school with proper surveys and cooperation among teaching "families".
  • When I visited MSLA in November, the halls were bright and orderly, the students warm and polite, and the teachers enthusiastic -- in other words, MSLA has many of the characteristics of high-performing schools around the world. What sets MSLA apart is its commitment to teaching as a shared endeavor to raise student achievement -- not a competition. During the 2009-2010 school year, all of the school's teachers together pursued the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Take One! program, which focuses on using curriculum standards to improve teaching and evaluate student outcomes. This year, the staff-wide initiative is to include literacy skills-building in each and every lesson, whether the subject area is science, art, or social studies.
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 12 Apr 11
       
      This is what schools should be doing. Foster community, cooperation, and collaboration among the teachers, not isolating them in content area groups, and separating them based on department. Inter-disciplinary teaching teams is a first start, but having everyone in a district adopt the same goal, and work together would be huge.
  • As Nazareno walked me through MSLA's hallways, introducing me to kids and teachers, she reflected on how her profession is changing. "I'm not afraid of being held accountable. I haven't dedicated a career to have kids unable to read or do science," she said. "But people need to understand that teaching and learning are very complex processes, and any time you try to measure anything that's highly complex, you can miss the nuances." Nazareno paused outside a classroom door and lowered her voice. "We had a girl in the second grade whose mother died. At the school next door, a girl was brutally murdered. That's all they've been talking about there for two weeks; they lost a lot of instruction time." She raised her eyebrows. "How do you factor that into value-added?"
    • Ben Rimes
      Ben Rimes on 12 Apr 11
       
      Education ultimately is about navigating the real world, and attempting to make meaning from our daily individual experiences, or building community around shared experiences.
Ben Rimes

Online QDA - Methodologies - 12 views

onlineqda.hud.ac.uk/methodologies.php

qualitative data analysis resources assessment

shared by Ben Rimes on 26 Apr 11 - No Cached
Lisa DuFur liked it
  • Ben Rimes on 26 Apr 11
     
    Resources for understanding and performing qualitative data analysis. Very useful as schools are forced to look more and more at data, and need a way for teachers to effectively use that data to impact instruction.
  • Lisa DuFur on 04 May 11
     
    QDA has become a growing factor in our school system. The data teachers collect and analyze spans from written tests, student response data, individual curricular modules, grade book analytics, state tests, national tests and more. Many teachers are overwhelmed with assessment and data. This site is a wonderful resource to keep in our pockets so that assessment methods and data collected have a quality aspect and can be used as a solid directional arrow for instruction. Much appreciated.
James Liu

Introduction to the TOEFL listening section - 0 views

www.bestmytest.com/...uction-toefl-listening-section

toefl listening toefl ibt listening practice toefl ibt practice test toefl listening practice

shared by James Liu on 16 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • James Liu on 16 Nov 15
     
    The listening section of the iBT TOEFL test aims to measure one's ability to listen to, hear and understand spoken in English. For academic purposes one has to listen to lectures and conversations.
James Liu

Find Vet out Unqualified Online Employers by Using TOEFL Scores - 0 views

www.magazinesworld.org/...ers-by-using-tofel-scores.html

toefl scores toefl listening how to prepare for toefl exam

shared by James Liu on 10 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • James Liu on 10 Dec 15
     
    These tests cover all the basic aspects of the English language such as reading, understanding and writing skills to get the best TOEFL score.
Maintenance Training

What is a Pareto Chart - 80 20 Rule? - 0 views

bin95.com/Pareto-charts-80-20-rule.htm

pareto pareto chart pareto chart analysis 80 20 rule what is the 80 20 rule

shared by Maintenance Training on 24 Oct 18 - No Cached
  • Maintenance Training on 24 Oct 18
     
    What is a Pareto Chart? What is the 80 20 Rule? Get a better understanding with this article and its real world Pareto chart analysis examples.
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