Group items tagged

"Unfortunately, unchecked and unfocused use of technology can result in students disconnecting from the "why" of learning and from the real-time relationships that are key to their development and success. Alternatively, high-quality integration of technology has the potential to not only prepare young people for their futures, but also to enhance and expand learning and connectedness. Join our guests as they discuss specific ways you can overcome barriers to connecting digital learners and lead your school community in meaningful technology integration. You'll hear from: * Heidi Hayes Jacobs, author of Curriculum 21: Essential Education in a Changing World, founder and president of Curriculum Designers Inc., and executive director of the Curriculum Mapping Institute; * Juliette Mersiowsky, instructional designer and instructor of education and technology at Germanna Community College in Virginia; and * Ena Bentley Wood, technology integration specialist with Arlington (Va.) Public Schools. How does your school and community meaningfully connect digital learners to their peers, teachers, and communities; to rich and challenging learning; and to their futures?"

"District administrators more likely to support certain technologies than teachers; pre-service teacher education lagging in 21st-century instructional methods"

"If your school is seeking to incorporate more collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, the design of the learning environment-whether it's a classroom or a more informal space-can be a critical factor in making this transformative move. Technology, in particular, can play a pivotal role in enabling students to work effectively in teams and in supporting educators as they make the transition from a lecture-oriented to a more facilitative instructional mode. "

Based on the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Grades 9-12, This response video combined with the original "An Open Letter to Educators" exemplifies the intent of these two standards: --Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and collaborate on a shared writing product, incorporating diverse and sometimes conflicting feedback. --Demonstrate command of technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update work in response to ongoing feedback, including fresh arguments or new information. This video exemplifies the intent of these two standards.

"Today's kids are hardwired in a fundamentally different way than most of the adults who teach them. Every child from high school on down grew up immersed in a world of technology. None have known a world without visual computing. Many never saw a day in which broadband Net access wasn't delivered directly to one of the two or three PCs in their house. Other items within easy daily reach include a DVD, various cell phones, and game consoles."

"Children who blog, text or use social networking websites are more confident about their writing skills, according to the National Literacy Trust."

Micheal Hildebrant's opinion column makes good points. i especially liked his last paragraph.

Watch how Nash Rocky Mountain Early College High School uses EduPlatform in their 1:1 [computer/internet access] initiative, which integrates today's latest technologies into the classroom for 21st century learning.

Excellent resource for staying up with current (and archived) technology-oriented teaching and learning focuses

"Students increasingly are taking education into their own hands with personal technology experiences, a trend with important implications for schools"

"As the workplace changes and becomes increasingly global, today's students must be educated with a 21st-century mindset. Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills are no longer just "good skills" to have; they are increasingly vital to a 21st-century education-and students should begin cultivating these skills as early as possible. Attracting students to the STEM disciplines is the first hurdle, and retaining student interest in these areas is the second. But once student interest in STEM-related fields is established, they will discover they are on a successful path not just for higher education, but for the workforce as well."

"Alejandra Quaglia The world in which my students are growing up is changing very quickly. With smartphones, video games, wikis, blogs, texting, and e-mails as an integral part of their lives, students are multitaskers, fast-paced, and highly collaborative. Over the last 10 years, I've found that I can no longer apply teaching methods that were developed before the rise of technology. My students got bored, and they didn't pay much attention to highly structured textbook lessons. As a language arts teacher in the bilingual St. Andrew's Scots School in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I was determined to change my education approach to help prepare my students for our changing world."

"Has there ever been such a frenzy of thinking and activity over a concept which does not even exist? I am referring, of course, to the ridiculous notion of so-called '21st century skills'. Bloggers, teachers, employer organisations and even governments have fallen over themselves to produce documents 'proving' that 21st century skills are essential in the 21st century. Papers have been written. Rubrics have been created. In England the National Curriculum itself has been perverted from its course to include 'Personal Learning and Training Skills' (aptly pronounced, generally, as 'pelts'). I am surprised that I've yet to see jobs advertised: "Wanted: Dynamic Director of 21st Century Skills"; "Needed as soon as possible: 21st century skills co-ordinator.""

"Teens across the country are starting to play computer games in school - and their teachers encourage them. It's called three-dimensional learning, and it has little in common with the 1980s video arcades parents remember. In North Carolina, high school students who take an elective called "Computer Applications 2" get introduced to Second Life or ReactionGrid, 3-D virtual worlds in which each player has an avatar - like a digital sock puppet that the user controls. In at least one school district, middle school students sit down at computers to play 3-D games in math and language arts classes. Quantcast "

"This short video gives a quick peek into our experimental classroom at the No. 1 High School Attached to Central China Normal University, where we're running a project-based curriculum. For anyone who has visited China and been taken aback by the large, quiet classrooms that feature students quietly listening to teacher lectures, this video should be of interest. As we embark on a 1-to-1 iPad classroom in our second semester of this academic year, these students demonstrate to me that they're ready for active learning in a system that to date has rarely used technology as a significant teaching tool."

"Jason Ryan Dorsey, the Gen Y Guy, talks about how teachers can influence students, how students can reach success by taking control of their educational path, and his success as a New York Times Best-selling author at age 18."

"The 21st Century Fluencies are not about technical prowess, they are critical thinking skills, and they are essential to living in this multimedia world. We call them fluencies for a reason. To be literate means to have knowledge or competence. To be fluent is something a little more, it is to demonstrate mastery and to do so unconsciously and smoothly."

"The creation and maintenance of the Math Wiki by our Middle Schoolers was the perfect platform to expose students to an array of design tools to create tutorials for their classmates and other math students around the world."

"These 21st Century Skills Map are each the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation."

"Our room is a large semi-industrial studio. The students in the foreground are sitting in our Blogger's Lounge while in the distance, two students are projecting student work and leading a peer review session, and to the right a cluster of students have a chat session around a table to plan for their presentation; two more groups hang in our mini Mac lab just to the left of where this picture is cropped."