Group items tagged

"Conversation is key . Sawyer succinctly explains this principle: "Conversation leads to flow, and flow leads to creativity." When having students work in groups, consider what will spark rich conversation. The original researcher on flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, found that rich conversation precedes and ignites flow more than any other activity.1 Tasks that require (or force) interaction lead to richer collaborative conceptualization. Set a clear but open-ended goal . Groups produce the richest ideas when they have a goal that will focus their interaction but also has fluid enough boundaries to allow for creativity. This is a challenge we often overlook. As teachers, we often have an idea of what a group's final product should look like (or sound like, or…). If we put students into groups to produce a predetermined outcome, we prevent creative thinking from finding an entry point. Try not announcing time limits. As teachers we often use a time limit as a "motivator" that we hope will keep group work focused. In reality, this may be a major detractor from quality group work. Deadlines, according to Sawyer, tend to impede flow and produce lower quality results. Groups produce their best work in low-pressure situations. Without a need to "keep one eye on the clock," the group's focus can be fully given to the task. Do not appoint a group "leader." In research studies, supervisors, or group leaders, tend to subvert flow unless they participate as an equal, listening and allowing the group's thoughts and decisions to guide the interaction. Keep it small. Groups with the minimum number of members that are needed to accomplish a task are more efficient and effective. Consider weaving together individual and group work. For additive tasks-tasks in whicha group is expectedtoproduce a list, adding one idea to another-research suggests that better results develop

some good tips on helping students learn how to make appropriate comments on blogs

Learning with blogs and wikis.

The next student blogging challenge will be starting in mid September. Over the next few weeks, I will be getting the registration forms ready and posted on a page on this blog. Make sure you keep checking and sign up when they have been published.

Though educators are finding smart ways to integrate technology and learning, the road has been and continues to be challenging on multiple fronts. The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 K-12 Edition, a collaboration between the New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking, and the International Society for Technology in Education, takes the birds-eye view and encapsulates some of the significant challenges that must still be addressed and offers the following assessment.

Inspired by the popular campus game Humans vs. Zombies, join @Jessifer and @allistelling for an epic zombiefied experiment in Twitter literacy, gamification, collaboration, and emergent learning. Part flash-mob. Part Hunger-Games. Part Twitter-pocalypse. Part digital feeding frenzy. Part micro-MOOC. Part giant game of Twitter tag. Band together your most trusted Twitter allies to defend against a virtual Zombie horde. Collect canned goods, store water, watch your hashtags, and sleep with one eye open. THE RULES TO JOIN THE GAME: Register on this page. Commit to posting at least 10 tweets per day. THEN, TO PLAY: 1. A ZOMBIE can #bite (to attack) once every 30 minutes. A bite will turn a HUMAN to a ZOMBIE in exactly five minutes. A #bite can only be sent to a player who has been active on Twitter in the last five mins. 2. A HUMAN can #dodge (protect yourself) once per hour and #swipe (protect someone else) once per hour. 3. When you are bitten, you have five mins to reply to the ZOMBIE with #dodge or have another player reply to you and the zombie with #swipe. A turned HUMAN must update the Twitter vs. Zombies Scoreboard by changing his/her status to ZOMBIE. 4. The rules are emergent. There will be challenges, amendments, and rule adaptations as suggested by the community and implemented by administrators. Keep your eyes on the blog and #TvsZ for updates. Anatomy of an action tweet: [@name(s)] [body of tweet with action tag #bite, #dodge, or #swipe playfully inserted] [game tag: #TvsZ] Example of a bite/dodge: @DigiWriMo attacks: "@moocmooc I want to #bite your lovely flesh. #TvsZ @moocmooc dodges: "@DigiWriMo No you don't. I have not used #dodge in an hour. #TvsZ Example of a bite/swipe: @DigiWriMo attacks: "@moocmooc What's that lump on your neck? Is that some kind of #bite? #TvsZ @Jessifer defends: "@DigiWriMo @moocmooc I #swipe your hungry beak. [pets @moocmooc] #TvsZ The game is beta, and we will be crowd-sourcing the rules as it's played.

"The Alliance for Excellent Education recently released Culture Shift: Teaching in a Learner-Centered Environment Powered By Digital Learning. The report advocates that a culture shift to a learner centered classroom environment is needed to prepare students to meet the challenges and demands of a global economy"

This year my school district in Vermont ventured into a sort-of BYOD/1:1 hybrid program. We realized the importance of allowing our students access to technology to enhance their learning, but the infrastructure wasn't in place to tackle a traditional BYOD. .. Instead, we chose to be creative with our technology and professional development.