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garth nichols

Do girls learn differently? - 2 views

  • To hear some ed tech enthusiasts tell it, online learning is sweeping aside the barriers that have in the past prevented access to education. But such pronouncements are premature. As it turns out, students often carry these barriers right along with them, from the real world into the virtual one.
  • These dismally low numbers provide a reminder that “access” to education is more complicated than simply throwing open the digital doors to whoever wants to sign up. So how can we turn the mere availability of online instruction in STEM into true access for female students?
  • One potential solution to this information-age problem comes from an old-fashioned source: single-sex education. The Online School for Girls, founded in 2009, provides an all-female e-learning experience.
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  • But evidence is weak that there is such a thing as “girls’ learning,” online or offline, if what is meant by that is that each gender has cognitive differences that should be accommodated by different instructional methods. Neuroscientist Lise Eliot has argued persuasively that, while small inherent differences in aptitude between males and females do exist (even as infants, for example, boys seem to have an edge in spatial cognition), society takes these small differences and makes them much bigger—by supporting boys in math and science, and by discouraging girls who study these subjects.
  • These same dynamics play out online, as Cheryan demonstrated in a subsequent study. Changing the design of a virtual classroom—from one that conveyed computer science stereotypes to one that did not —“significantly increased women’s interest and anticipated success in computer science,” Cheryan and her colleagues reported.
  • Cheryan notes, “was sufficient to boost female undergraduates’ interest in computer science to the level of their male peers.”
  • Another way to promote female students’ sense of belonging in online math and science courses would be putting more women at the head of virtual classrooms.
  • All these approaches have in common a focus, not on teaching girls and women differently, but on helping them to feel differently about their place in the fields of math and science. Just as in the physical world, in the virtual sphere the barriers to girls’ and women’s advancement in STEM fields remain very much in place. With informed intervention and clever design, however, the digital walls may prove easier to scale.
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    This article is great for those at BSS, Branksome, Havergal, oh and any other school! I was on a panel with Brad Rathgeber, the Director of the OnLine School for Girls, and he was a great speaker on this front...
lesmcbeth

Welcome to the Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking - 0 views

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    A Virtual Crash Course in Design Thinking from Stanford's d.School.
Justin Medved

Column: Futile fight on student tweets - 0 views

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    "Taking a cue from The Scarlet Letter, the website Jezebel compiled racially insensitive tweets directed toward President Obama by high school students across the country, naming names and even calling the students' schools. The tweets - posted by students under their real identities - covered the full range of bigotry, from racial epithets to basketball stereotypes, with the N-word in abundance. In response, Giga OMasked, "When does shaming racist kids turn into online bullying?" The answer to that is never. It would be a mistake to mischaracterize the denunciation of racially offensive speech as abusive. To the contrary, that give-and-take (or more precisely "say something deeply offensive and get verbally pummeled") is what free speech in America is all about. That's the flaw in virtually every strategy to keep students in both high school and college on the social media straight and narrow. High school is all about preparing the next generation for citizenship. We teach them civics, history, a smattering of math and science and hand them a diploma. But we too often also try to control their every move. That's literally the case with the news last week that a sophomore at John Jay High School in San Antonio was expelled after refusing to carry an ID with a computer chip designed to track the movements of every student in the school."
Justin Medved

Twitter Chats - The ins, outs and my top 8 chats - 2 views

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    Twitter Chats - The ins, outs and my top 8 chats Educational Twitter Chats are happening all the time on Twitter and as a globally connected educator - I LOVE IT! Every opportunity I can get I involve myself in the 1 hour twitter chats that surface themselves in my twitter feed. It gives me the opportunity to connect and collaborate with like minded educators, network with the best in the business and pick up new and interesting things to use to make me a better educator. PD in the palm of my hands (literally). For those that don't know what I am talking about - let me give you the low-down. Twitter chats take place on twitter at a certain time every week (click here for a complete list of education related twitter chats and their times). All chats use a certain hashtag to discuss a variety of topics with a education related theme. They provide a unique and eye opening opportunity for educators to connect, share and collaborate with others from all over the world. The best part about this virtual staffroom ….. it is FREE!
garth nichols

Educational Leadership:Technology-Rich Learning:Tech Leaders Speak Up About Learning - 0 views

  • The key to infusing technology for deep learning is professional development for teachers. At our school, each teacher wrote his or her own professional development plan. Then we changed the job description of the technology teacher to include meeting with each teacher to refine and review these plans. Instead of teaching computers to the students, the new technology integration coach—a new title to reflect new duties–was now available to partner with the teacher in the classroom. As teachers became more comfortable, the coaching sessions centered on how to extend learning.
  • At the same time, our administrative team began using e-communication folders for parent communication, e-portfolios for teachers, and Moodle for virtual classroom environments. Teachers experienced rich, efficient collaboration and communication through technology. This resulted in more effective face-to face communication.
  • Three things are basic to preparing students to be deeper learners: (1) access to quality curriculums, teaching, and learning, (2) robust information resources, technology tools, devices, and infrastructures, and (3) a student-centered learning environment that promotes critical thinking and problem solving.
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  • One of a leader's most important roles is to be a model for teachers–who then become models for students. Modeling digital learning in professional learning communities, faculty meetings, parent events, and everyday tasks helps adult learners in the school challenge themselves to authentically learn how to use technology.
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    This is a great article for how to introduce edtech into a school - it has real world examples as well
mardimichels

197 Educational YouTube Channels You Should Know About - InformED : - 2 views

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    "f you don't have a YouTube channel as an education provider, there's a good chance you're behind the times. Nearly every major educational institution in the world now hosts its own collection of videos featuring news, lectures, tutorials, and open courseware. Just as many individuals have their own channel, curating their expertise in a series of broadcasted lessons. These channels allow instructors to share information and blend media in unprecedented and exciting new ways. From teaching Mandarin Chinese to busting myths about Astronomy, the educational possibilities are virtually endless pun intended! Because we can now sift through thousands of resources while navigating a single repository, the potential for inspiration and growth in the field of education has reached a new height. Here are the top channels worth following based on views, subscriptions, and quality of content:"
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    Thanks Justin for sharing this - definite food for thought!
garth nichols

How Should Schools Navigate Student Privacy in a Social Media World? | EdTech Magazine - 2 views

  • Most projects and social networks encourage users to upload a personal ID or photograph. Student safety, however, is paramount to shelter identities. Clever and quirky avatars, therefore, can help students distinguish their profiles and still remain incognito. An avatar is a customized online icon that represents a user's virtual self. A signature avatar can give a child great pride in his or her masterpiece. Among the many cartoony or creative avatar generators available on the web, many require accounts or email addresses or are not safe for school. To take advantage of all that the Web affords, workarounds can be used to protect privacy but still allow for a personalized identity. A few ways to do this include generating avatars, setting-up username conventions, creating email shortcuts, and screencapping of content.
  • The education-approved social networks and cartoon avatars will work on elementary and perhaps some middle school students, but high school kids are a whole different ballgame. Yes, content-filtering solutions can prevent students from accessing social media while they’re connected to school networks, but once they’re on their personal devices, it’s out of the school’s hands.
  • In the article, Cutler outlines five questions that he advises his students to ask themselves when engaging in social media activity: Do I treat others online with the same respect I would accord them in person? Would my parents be disappointed in me if they examined my online behavior? Does my online behavior accurately reflect who I am away from the computer? Could my online behavior hinder my future college and employment prospects? How could my online behavior affect current and future personal relationships?
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    IN our last Cohort 21 session, there was a lot of discussion around how our schools manage, or don't, social media when integrating it into the classroom. Here is a great look at this issue
tantoniades

Life in a 21st-Century English Class | MindShift | KQED News - 4 views

  • Finally, technology is embedded into the structure of all we do. It’s part of how we research, how we capture information, and how we display our learning. It’s never an accessory tacked on at the end.
    • tantoniades
       
      This is where I need to get.  I'm still very much in the "tacking on" phase.
  • My students started by creating a Flickr feed, Facebook page, a YouTube account, a Tumblr blog, and a Twitter account. They decided that visual representations of their knowledge would be the most powerful. So some of my students created photographs depicting images that they felt best represented modern trafficking. These photos were then edited in Picnik, and posted to our blog.
    • tantoniades
       
      I dont know what half of these things are, but I'm going to find out - we do Beloved, which is really similar thematically, and my assessment for the unit is really similar (even if it's not tech-based...yet).
  • A few years ago I tried to teach this idea to a grade 12 class when we were studying essay writing. They didn’t get it. But in the context we were using, after comparing social media content, it made perfect sense to my grade 11 students.
    • tantoniades
       
      I find this really annoying.  
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  • The Museum Box site allows you to build  an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box. Students can display anything from a text file to a movie. My students will be using this platform to argue their thesis, rather than writing a traditional essay.
    • tantoniades
       
      Intriguing.  Go on...
  • My students have started designing our curriculum units. Seriously. While transitioning to our current unit, we discussed the possibilities as a class.
    • tantoniades
       
      I dont mean to be a crank, but this has everything to do with teaching, and nothing to do with technology.
  • Before the technology/constructivist shift in my classsroom, I would have taught all of this quite traditionally. We’d read books, answer questions, and then address those questions in class. I’d lecture a lot, with supplemental grammar lessons here and there, and I’d include some type of artistic project to achieve viewing and representing objectives. The whole design would have been extremely teacher centered. And at the end of it all, I’d hope they learned something about writing and thinking. Instead, inquiry and technology are a natural part of our English classes.
    • tantoniades
       
      Again, I know I'm being a cynical old grump, but you cannot use "technology" and "constructivist" like they're two parts of the same idea.  I think it's perfectly feasible to imagine a constructivist classroom that runs without tech, and vice versa.  Both of them running in harmony...that's the dream, all right.
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    An article about some ways technology can be used to help an inquiry-based high school English class...
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    Hey Tony - I think you'd be really interested in TPACK - a tech integration framework that looks at pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge and tech knowledge. For more info check out tpack.org! We'll be looking at these in our third face to face but it sounds like you're ready to delve!
mrarsenault

16 of the Best Blended Learning Resources | Edudemic - 4 views

  • Blended learning uses both in-person and online methods to teach students, and there are several different models for implementing it in the classroom.
  • Flipped learning is one of the blended learning models. This article from Edutopia gives tips for flipping a project-based learning classroom. The tips include things like using short videos, encouraging collaborative virtual work, and considering the scope of technology that is available to students.
    • gregadams290684
       
      Might have some good ideas about flipping the classroom...
    • gregadams290684
       
      Flipped classroom ideas
  • Adjusting to blended learning may mean adjusting how you motivate your students. Dellicker Strategies provides a brief overview of how to encourage students to thrive in a blended learning environment. The article goes over three things that teachers should try to cultivate in students, namely autonomy, priority, and visibility.
    • mariearagona
       
      This refers to an interesting article. Some great ideas!
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  • Tools to Make Blended Learning Work
    • mrarsenault
       
      I am just beginning the journey implementing Blended Learning. How many other people have Blended Learning experiences in Cohort?
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    Blended Learning Resources
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    This is an article on blended learning.
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    Hi, thanks for the information and resources. I have not completely read everything, but this resource supplies lots of variety and interesting articles on blended learning. I will try to adopt a few techniques.
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