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garth nichols

Sugata Mitra and the new educational Romanticism - a parody - 0 views

www.digitalcounterrevolution.co.uk/...usseau-educational-romanticism

edtech Rousseau technology counterrevolution staff_development

shared by garth nichols on 21 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • ll children are born to drive their education. The problem is that prior to the digital age there were no child-friendly pedagogic vehicles. Now that the military-industrial complex has created them, parents and teachers should give the keys to the kids as soon as possible and let them head off on their own down the beautifully linear highway of knowledge.
  • One of the empires is the empire of fear. Surely we are not free if our lives are dominated by fear. Although Mitra’s minimal model blithely assumes that children greet everything new with a calm curiosity, Rousseau recognises that children can just as easily respond to the new with fear. To avoid this requires early training. A snippet of his advice on this subject:
  • At another junction on the same road is the empire of habit. We are not free if we are too firmly set in our ways. Hence Rousseau’s advice: “the only habit that a child should be allowed to contract is none. Do not carry him on one arm more than the other; do not accustom him to give one hand rather than the other, to use one more than the other, to want to eat, sleep, or be active at the same hours…Prepare from afar the reign of his freedom…” (63) (Sir Ken Robinson’s critique of the school bell is but a footnote to this.)
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • If tools are needed, he suggested, it is better that we make them ourselves, and for the sake of the children’s freedom it is better that they acquire the belief that the imperfect tools they make themselves are better than perfect tools made by others.
  • he great Romantic pedagogy of liberation becomes a parody of itself when it loses sight of how vulnerable the child is to a myriad imperial forces, reducing itself to the myopic claim that the only thing children need to be liberated from is teachers.
  • Of course, the child must feel at every step of the way that she is making the discoveries, or, as Rousseau says of his Emile in his now outdated language: “let him always believe he is the master” but, he reminds the tutor, “let it always be you who are.” (120)
  • Rousseau suggests beginning the scientific part of a child’s education with some geographical discovery learning. He has a nice criticism of his EdTech contemporaries: “You want to teach geography to this child, and you go and get globes, cosmic spheres, and maps for him. So many devices! Why all these representations? Why do you not begin by showing him the object itself so that he will at least know what you are talking about?” (168)
  • If curiosity and attention need cultivation and direction, they also need protection. Rousseau sees a particular risk with the sciences – and this is one which online learning surely magnifies, not diminishes. He puts it beautifully, describing the entry into science as something that can be like entering “into a bottomless sea…When I see a man, enamoured of the various kinds of knowledge, let himself be seduced by their charm and run from one to the other without knowing how to stop himself, I believe I am seeing a child on the shore gathering shells and beginning by loading himself up with them; then, tempted by those he sees next, he throws some away and picks up others, until, overwhelmed by their multitude and not knowing anymore which to choose, he ends by throwing them all away and returning empty-handed.” (172)
  • In a parallel way, learning emerges at the edge of chaos where children meet Google, and it emerges with the same spontaneity seen when the first amoeba dragged itself out of the primordial soup.
  • “The man who did not know pain would know neither the tenderness of humanity nor the sweetness of commiseration. His heart would be moved by nothing. He would not be sociable; he would be a monster among his kind.” (87)
  • Rousseau makes a point more specifically about the psychology of the child, arguing that it is damaging for children to be encouraged to learn things that are beyond the developing sphere of their experience.
  • Children become accustomed to parroting the truth instead of perceiving for themselves that something is true.
  • No child ever came face to face with his mortality when his avatar was struck by a pixelated bullet. No, the child learns infinitely more about the human condition from a single bout of toothache than from 1,000 hours of online gaming.
  • Mitra’s minimalism is not just the minimalism of a hands-off approach to teaching; it is also the minimalism of a theory that – in that questionable analytic tradition – wants to limit itself to technique. All we are given is a methodology – the theoretical equivalent of the automotive machinery that children can drive.
  • garth nichols on 21 Apr 14
     
    This is a real eye-opener for the counter-digital-revolution perspective. It's good to keep these perspectives in mind as we chart our way forward because these ideas can help temper our enthusiasm for tech as a panacea
Justin Medved

40 Maps That Will Help You Make Sense of the World «TwistedSifter - 1 views

twistedsifter.com/...lp-you-make-sense-of-the-world

maps

shared by Justin Medved on 19 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Justin Medved on 19 Feb 14
     
    "If you're a visual learner like myself, then you know maps, charts and infographics can really help bring data and information to life. Maps can make a point resonate with readers and this collection aims to do just that. Hopefully some of these maps will surprise you and you'll learn something new. A few are important to know, some interpret and display data in a beautiful or creative way, and a few may even make you chuckle or shake your head."
Justin Medved

Excellent Checklist for Evaluating Information Sources ~ Educational Technology and Mob... - 0 views

www.educatorstechnology.com/...-checklist-for-evaluating.html

shared by Justin Medved on 14 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Justin Medved on 14 Apr 14
     
    "Digital literacy, as a set of skills that students need to develop and master in order to properly use digital technologies , is an essential component of the 21st century education. Being digitally literate should not be confused with being comfortable  using certain types of digital media such as  social media. And as Danah Boyd argued in her book "Understanding The Social Lives of Networked Teens" teenagers know how how to use Facebook, but their understanding of the site's privacy settings did not mesh with the ways in which they configured their accounts.They know how to get to Google but had little understanding about how to construct a query to get quality information from the popular search engine."
Justin Medved

Skills in Flux - New skills of for the 21st century - 2 views

www.nytimes.com/...skills-in-flux.html

skills 21stcenturyskills

shared by Justin Medved on 25 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Justin Medved on 25 Mar 15
     
    "As the economy changes, the skills required to thrive in it change, too," says David Brooks in this New York Times column, "and it takes a while before these new skills are defined and acknowledged." He gives several examples: * Herding cats - Doug Lemov has catalogued the "micro-gestures" of especially effective teachers in his book, Teach Like a Champion 2.0 (Jossey-Bass, 2015). "The master of cat herding," says Brooks, "senses when attention is about to wander, knows how fast to move a diverse group, senses the rhythm between lecturing and class participation, varies the emotional tone. This is a performance skill that surely is relevant beyond education." * Social courage - In today's loosely networked world, this has particular value - the ability to go to a conference, meet a variety of people, invite six of them to lunch afterward, and form long-term friendships with four of them. "People with social courage are extroverted in issuing invitations but introverted in conversation - willing to listen 70 percent of the time," says Brooks. "They build not just contacts but actual friendships by engaging people on multiple levels." * Capturing amorphous trends with a clarifying label - People with this skill can "look at a complex situation, grasp the gist and clarify it by naming what is going on," says Brooks. He quotes Oswald Chambers: "The author who benefits you most is not the one who tells you something you did not know before, but the one who gives expression to the truth that has been dumbly struggling in you for utterance." * Making nonhuman things intuitive to humans - This is what Steve Jobs did so well. * Purpose provision - "Many people go through life overwhelmed by options, afraid of closing off opportunities," says Brooks. But a few have fully cultivated moral passions that can help others choose the one thing they sho
Derek Doucet

The Professors' Big Stage - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-the-professors-big-stage.html

blended learning MOOC

shared by Derek Doucet on 09 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • How can colleges charge $50,000 a year if my kid can learn it all free from massive open online courses?
  • Sandel had just lectured in Seoul in an outdoor amphitheater to 14,000 people, with audience participation.
  • ecause increasingly the world does not care what you know. Everything is on Google. The world only cares, and will only pay for, what you can do with what you know. And therefore it will not pay for a C+ in chemistry, just because your state college considers that a passing grade and was willing to give you a diploma that says so. We’re moving to a more competency-based world where there will be less interest in how you acquired the competency — in an online course, at a four-year-college or in a company-administered class — and more demand to prove that you mastered the competency.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • There seemed to be a strong consensus that this “blended model” combining online lectures with a teacher-led classroom experience was the ideal.
  • We demand that plumbers and kindergarten teachers be certified to do what they do, but there is no requirement that college professors know how to teach. No more. The world of MOOCs is creating a competition that will force every professor to improve his or her pedagogy or face an online competitor.
  • ¶Bottom line: There is still huge value in the residential college experience and the teacher-student and student-student interactions it facilitates. But to thrive, universities will have to nurture even more of those unique experiences while blending in technology to improve education outcomes in measurable ways at lower costs.
garth nichols

Math Problems: Knowing, Doing, and Explaining Your Answer - 1 views

www.educationnews.org/...ing-and-explaining-your-answer

math knowing

shared by garth nichols on 13 May 15 - No Cached
  • garth nichols on 13 May 15
     
    Great article on Math Understanding and how to show it...
garth nichols

great technology requires an understanding of the humans who use it - 0 views

us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=bc04df008d4705e4e77c2eb35&id=a5ff5e74dc&e=352a91d6c3

edtech cohort21

shared by garth nichols on 17 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Clearly, MIT BLOSSOMS (the name stands for Blended Learning Open Source Science Or Math Studies) isn’t gaining fans by virtue of its whiz-bang technology. Rather, it exerts its appeal through an unassuming but remarkably sophisticated understanding of what it is that students and teachers actually need. It’s an understanding that is directly at odds with the assumptions of most of the edtech universe.
  • For example: BLOSSOMS is not “student-centered.” In its Twitter profile, the program is described as “teacher-centric”—heresy at a moment when teachers are supposed to be the “guide on the side,” not the “sage on the stage.” The attention of students engaged in a BLOSSOMS lesson, it’s expected, will be directed at the “guest teacher” on the video or at the classroom teacher leading the interactive session.
  • All this is blasphemy in view of the hardening orthodoxy of the edtech establishment. And all this is perfectly aligned with what research in psychology and cognitive science tells us about how students learn. We know that students do not make optimal choices when directing their own learning; especially when they’re new to a subject, they need guidance from an experienced teacher. We know that students do not learn deeply or lastingly when they have a world of distractions at their fingertips. And we know that students learn best not as isolated units but as part of a socially connected group. Modest as it is from a technological perspective, MIT BLOSSOMS is ideally designed for learning—a reminder that more and better technology does not always lead to more and better education.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The creators of BLOSSOMS also candidly acknowledge that many teachers are threatened by the technology moving into their classrooms—and that they have reason to feel that way. Champions of educational technology often predict (with barely disguised glee) that computers will soon replace teachers, and school districts are already looking to edtech as a way to reduce teaching costs. The message to teachers from the advocates of technology is often heard as: Move aside, or get left behind.
  • Should the creators of educational technology care so much about the tender feelings of teachers, especially those inclined to stand in the way of technological progress? Yes—because it’s teachers who determine how well and how often technology is used.
  • Edtech proponents who think that technology can “disrupt” or “transform” education on its own would do well to take a lesson from the creators of BLOSSOM, who call their program’s blend of computers and people a “teaching duet.” Their enthusiasm for the possibilities of technology is matched by an awareness of the limits of human nature. 
  • garth nichols on 17 Jul 14
     
    A very important message to all who are trying to integrate Tech into their school...
Sarah Bylsma

The Global Teacher | The Principal of Change - 1 views

georgecouros.ca/...4449

global teacher cohort21

shared by Sarah Bylsma on 13 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • “classroom teacher” is someone that focuses on their classroom and students only.
  • “school teacher“.  This to me was the ideal as this teacher connected with every student in their classroom, as well as students and educators around the school
  • global teacher has the best elements of the classroom and school teacher, but their focus is on “what is best for kids”, no matter if is their own kids, kids in the school across the street, or across the ocean.
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  • Global teachers (should) care about education as a whole, as well as their school and their classroom.  I just want to iterate that if the person only looks at sharing and learning globally, but cannot connect with those in their classroom or school, I would not consider them a “global teacher”.  They just know that we are better when we work together, not just taking, but contributing.  They know what they share makes a difference for others, as well as knowing what they learn from others makes a difference for their school and students.
    • Sarah Bylsma
      Sarah Bylsma on 13 Feb 14
       
      Cohort21 goal. 
robin_michel

The Company Chaos You Don't Know You're Creating - 1 views

www.fastcompany.com/...s-you-dont-know-youre-creating

chaos classroom organization executive function time management education learning

shared by robin_michel on 22 Nov 15 - Cached
  • define organizational chaos. You know exactly what I am talking about: shifting priorities, unclear direction, unstable processes, unhappy customers, disengaged employees.
  • I'm also not talking about energizing chaos—the type of externally driven change from customers and competitors that stimulates innovation, reduces complacency,
  • By reducing the organizational chaos that is completely within your control, you not only establish a solid foundation on which excellence can be built, but you also free up the psychic energy and resources you need to cope with the truly unforeseen circumstances
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Habits are nearly invisible. You engage in them without realizing they are there. And you can look at another organization that is succeeding and not notice the real differences between how that outstanding organization behaves and how your organization behaves. When looking at outstanding organizations, you may miss the important trees and just see the forest.
  • economist Lant Pritchett, who describes this process as isomorphic mimicry, a phrase that means the copying of forms rather than functions. I
Justin Medved

Suggested Laptop Agreements for Middle School Families | Edutopia - 0 views

www.edutopia.org/...le-school-families-edward-chen

laptops digital citizenship

shared by Justin Medved on 14 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Justin Medved on 14 Feb 13
     
    "Sometimes we assume our child knows what the family standard is for laptop or computer use, but we find it extremely helpful when families explicitly talk things through so there are no misunderstandings. Pre-established limit setting and boundaries are still necessary with students today. We encourage parents to start these conversations early, so they can set the right expectations of behavior with their students, before the device reaches home. We recommend beginning over the summer and continuing the conversation throughout the school year. A written agreement posted near the computer helps your student refer back to it when he or she has a question or forgets. We highly recommend that families have these agreements between parents and students in place before school laptops come home, and to share the information with any caregivers. It is never too late to start this process."
sallymastro

Mobile Tech in Classrooms Boost English Learners - New America Media - 0 views

newamericamedia.org/...-english-learners-a-leg-up.php

shared by sallymastro on 27 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • when a student asked Nieto if he could bring his iPod to class, Nieto agreed, and neither teacher nor student has looked back since.
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      Whether iphone or ereaders...allowing students to use technology to enhance the learning process is something I am starting to approach with a more open mind.
  • said mobile devices are particularly useful because of the many learning applications and basic language tools, such as spell check and grammar check, which increase the speed of learning. Rather than view the mobile applications as learning shortcuts tantamount to cheating, Nieto sees them as motivational tools that increase his students’ interest in reading and writing by giving them instant feedback. It’s a perspective most of his students seem to share.
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      Instant feedback is what I am looking for in the English classroom. I want to be able to provide constructive criticism more immediately, so the students can edit at the moment as opposed to waiting a day or two days to receive my comments on a writing piece.
  • as motivational tools that increase his students’ interest in reading and writing by giving them instant feedback.
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      When I indicated to my students that they could use kindles, kobos or ireaders/iphones for the ISU novel study unit, they were quite excited and quickly retained copies of ISU via this means. I am still using paper copies of the books as well, but I want to be able to have choice in their methods of acquiring texts and engaging in the reading process.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Project Tomorrow survey of roughly 300,000 K-12 students, 42,000 parents, 38,000 teachers and librarians, and 3,500 administrators from over 6,500 public and private schools, on how they are using—and would like to be using —new technologies in the classroom.
  • The results show that while the majority of students—and, perhaps surprisingly, parents—are in favor of using mobile devices for learning as long as the school allows it, most school administrators remain opposed
  • “I know the main reasons mobile technology is not welcome in the classroom are fear and misunderstanding about the structure that it gives the learning,” said Reina Cabezas, a teacher at Cox Elementary in Oakland, Calif., who is also doing masters thesis research on the topic of mobile devices in the classroom.
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      Currently my students are participating in their ISU novel study. They are currently reading and annotating their novels. I have indicated to my students that ireaders or ereaders are the quickest means to accessing a text as opposed to waiting one to two weeks for a book if it has had to be ordered. With the ireaders and ereaders they can now annotate and highlight important or interesting passages as they read. I would like to be able to have the students bring these technology tools to class. I have indicated that this is the direction in which I am going with ISU study, and so far, my Director has indicated he will back in allowing the kids to bring ereaders/ireaders to class. Fingers crossed it will bring positive and engaging results.
  • “But I don't think we stop living because of fear, right? No, we educate ourselves and learn about the security measures, expectations of all stakeholders, and apply principles of successful models of mobile devices in the classroom. Most importantly, we realize that technology is a tool of efficacy for the teacher, not the teacher's replacement. Lastly, technology only engages and motivates students when teachers know how to use them strategically to keep the hook. Overuse of anything is never good.”
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      I am hoping that I will be able to show my Director and Head of School the successful incorporation of ereaders/ireaders into the English classroom.
    • sallymastro
      sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
       
      Ongoing concern within my school is the use of personal mobile devices in the classroom. Policy at our school is mobile phones are in the lockers and not used on school premises.
  • sallymastro on 27 Oct 12
     
    You should read this article because, like me, if you have been skeptical about the use of iphones in the classroom, you will be enlightened about how to proceed in a way that will make technologies in the classroom understandable to and meaningful for all stakeholders:administrators, teachers, parents and students. Stay tuned for my blog on incorporating ireaders/ereaders in the English classroom. 
mrdanbailey61

Inquiry is Differentiation | Discovering the Art of Mathematics (DAoM) - 2 views

www.artofmathematics.org/...inquiry-is-differentiation

inquiry differentiation mathematics

shared by mrdanbailey61 on 22 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • explains some of the individual differences that influence problem solving
  • psychologist David Jonassen
  • Given the reality of all these differences, how can I even dream of a functional classroom in which every student is learning at their own learning edge?
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • I believe that inquiry helps tremendously in reaching learners on different levels at the same time
  • work at their own pace
  • This is kind of funny because whole class discussions actually help make knowledge more equal which makes the classroom experience less differentiated. So while this is not really a tool to help students at their individual learning edges, it is a tool to bring out the differences and spread ideas and questions around the class.
    • mrdanbailey61
      mrdanbailey61 on 22 Oct 16
       
      This is a puzzle - how do we democratize input? This is why I like the idea of Twitter in the classroom - can be a way for reluctant speakers to particpate.
  • Ok, by now I know that it is impossible to find one particular task that will be just at the right level for all my students.
  • Another way of bringing in differentiation into your class is by letting students work on two different topics simultaneously. The students choose when they are ready to switch tasks for a while and then come back later to pick up the first topic again.
  • students know pretty well how they compare to other students and that they don’t like having to fit in and be the same all the time
  • Assessment and differentiation is a tricky subject,
  • mrdanbailey61 on 22 Oct 16
     
    I am not a math teacher, but I really like the ideas here. I am working at getting a handle on differentiation and inquiry-based learning for my subjects and classes (Our classes typically have 5-10 students with assessments and IEPs)..
Justin Medved

How Do I Differentiate Through Project-Based Learning? - TeachThought PD - 3 views

wegrowteachers.com/...-a-project-based-learning-unit

PBL

shared by Justin Medved on 21 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • Justin Medved on 21 Nov 16
     
    "There are many opportunities to differentiate from the start of a PBL unit to its climactic conclusion. In my book, So All Can Learn: A Practical Guide for Differentiation (February 2017), I explain that the key is to think of Differentiation as a lens that's used to view lessons and units for planned opportunities of supports that meet all learner needs. For PBL units, as with traditional units, lesson planning is where the learning experiences take shape. Here are some PBL strategies that can be differentiated to bring out the power of meeting learner needs, so all can learn. Strong PBL units include standard elements that make for rich experiences. They include: Authentic Purpose Entry Event Need to Know protocol Checkpoints Student Voice"
garth nichols

Using "Think-Time" and "Wait-Time" Skillfully in the Classroom. ERIC Digest. - 2 views

www.ericdigests.org/...think.htm

Wait Time Pause

shared by garth nichols on 14 Mar 16 - Cached
  • garth nichols on 14 Mar 16
     
    "when students are given 3 or more seconds of undisturbed "wait-time," there are certain positive outcomes: * The length and correctness of their responses increase. * The number of their "I don't know" and no answer responses decreases. * The number of volunteered, appropriate answers by larger numbers of students greatly increases. * The scores of students on academic achievement tests tend to increase. When teachers wait patiently in silence for 3 or more seconds at appropriate places, positive changes in their own teacher behaviors also occur: * Their questioning strategies tend to be more varied and flexible. * They decrease the quantity and increase the quality and variety of their questions. * They ask additional questions that require more complex information processing and higher-level thinking on the part of students."
Sarah Bylsma

S.A.S.S.Y. SAMR: Toolkit for Educators to Transform Instruction - 0 views

www.techchef4u.com/...ators-to-transform-instruction

SAMR Ipad toolkit technology education cohort21 Learning

shared by Sarah Bylsma on 13 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • Sarah Bylsma on 13 Feb 14
     
    Great interactive SAMR toolkit. I would love to know how she did this.
mardimichels

About: Cybersmart - 0 views

www.cybersmart.gov.au/...about.aspx

technology education digital citizenship

shared by mardimichels on 21 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • The Cybersmart Citizens Guide promotes positive engagement with the online world. Through the three principles of ENGAGE, KNOW and CHOOSE, the Guide provides an umbrella for resources that support online safety, security and digital citizenship.
  • The Cybersmart Citizens Guide promotes positive engagement with the online world. Through the three principles of ENGAGE, KNOW and CHOOSE, the Guide provides an umbrella for resources that support online safety, security and digital citizenship.
  • mardimichels on 21 Feb 14
     
    Promoting positive engagement with the online world for students. An Australian guide but with some good ideas!
garth nichols

The Current State: Educational Technology | Tim Klapdor - 1 views

timklapdor.wordpress.com/...t-state-educational-technology

educational technology SAMR

shared by garth nichols on 17 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • The SAMR model provides a perfect lens for looking at the implementation of technology. After spending some time with the model and reflecting on the current raft of technologies – I have to say we have barely moved past the enhancement stage.
  • You’re all probably familiar with the Gartner hype cycle - “the graphic representation of the maturity, adoption and social application of specific technologies”. If I was to put EdTech on the graph somewhere right now in February 2013 it would be at the very pit of the “trough of disillusionment”. In the diagram above I’ve tried to to illustrate the my view of the current state by combining the SAMR and Hype Cycle. The technological solutions that we put our faith in have failed to meet expectations and have quickly become unfashionable. The LMS has dropped off the page despite it underwriting most institutions online presense and being the foundation of technological progress so far. While we can wallow in the downturn the fact is that the next phase – the Slope of Enlightenment – is just around the corner. The climate is right to move forward, beyond the hype and beyond simple enhancement. Its time for transformation.
  • The big issue with EdTech at the moment is the lack of real solutions. The vendors and the products they are peddling are carry overs and do little more that enhance and keep the status quo. They don’t move very far down the SAMR line, and they barely get close to the real transformation that is possible (and needed). The fact is that there is no solution on the market that can provide the technical transformation required in the education sector. And it’s a shared problem across sectors and industries – from news, to broadcast and publishing. So lets work this out together rather than paying someone else to silo off yet another years content.
  • garth nichols on 17 Nov 13
     
    Building on the SAMR model - how to know when technology is and isn't working in the classroom
garth nichols

How We Learn: Scientific American - 7 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

brain-based learning cohort21

shared by garth nichols on 26 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • garth nichols on 26 Oct 13
     
    This is the article from Jen Bibby's recent post. She uses this to lay the foundation of her approach to French, but also to pose the question: what 21st century tools allow educators to access and compliment what we know about brain-based learning?
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