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"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat

"This book explores three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure. Mark argues that quality education is rooted in simplicity. In this book, he convincingly strips away the layers of contradictory pedagogical advice that teachers have received over the years and lends weight to the three key pillars that underpin effective, efficient teaching: the lesson, the curriculum and the school's support structure."

"The professors are much better prepared for a single class so that they can give much more individualized instruction," Lui said. "The practical effectiveness of this means that teachers are now able to use their time more efficiently to hone in on the things that are most troublesome or useful for different groups of students. You're not teaching to the mean or bottom quartile."

Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it is a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn. Anyone who needs to remember things in their daily life can benefit from Anki. Since it is content-agnostic and supports images, audio, videos and scientific markup (via LaTeX), the possibilities are endless. For example: learning a language studying for medical and law exams memorizing people's names and faces brushing up on geography mastering long poems even practicing guitar chords!

The reading process involves two separate but highly interrelated areas - word identification and comprehension. It is well established that difficulties in automatic word recognition significantly affect a reader's ability to effectively comprehend what they are reading (Lyon, 1995; Torgeson, Rashotte, and Alexander, 2001). Even mild difficulties in word identification can pull attention away from the underlying meaning, reduce the speed of reading, and create the need to reread selections to grasp the meaning. Many students who struggle to learn to read are able, with appropriate instruction, to compensate for initial reading problems by becoming accurate decoders but fail to reach a level of sufficient fluency to become fast and efficient readers. Thus, the development of techniques for improving automaticity and fluency is critical. Although the research is clear that a systematic alphabetic approach to teaching beginning readers is more effective than a whole word approach (Adams, 1990; Chall, 1996; Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1009), the most effect ways to develop fluency are less well understood.

There are three cognitive loads that impact the efficient formation of schemas. Extraneous cognitive load are those not directly required to master a task and have a negative impact on schema formation, reducing these is desirable and can be achieved through efficient design. Intrinsic cognitive load is that which is inherent in the task and for the most part cannot be reduced. Tasks with high intrinsic cognitive load are by nature more complex for an individual and in the long term are managed through equally complex schema. Germane cognitive load refers to the mental resources devoted to the efficient formation of schemas and is seen to have a positive effect on learning. Understanding these things will allow us to more effectively target our efforts as learners and teachers ensuring the cognitive load theory has a valuable role to play.

Time… there simply isn't enough. Teachers perpetually moving from one priority to the next, do-to list in hand. Descriptions of teachers include jugglers and plate-spinners as much as educators and guides. Are we doomed to dance to the overactive drum-beat of the system, or is there things that we can do to give ourselves more time to do what is truly important. Indeed, are we responsible for wasting our own time, and that of colleagues.

"For more efficient projects, teams and meetings. Collaborate directly in your browser. Supports 20+ filetypes. Draw, annotate and edit with partners, co-workers or friends. All changes happen real-time on all screens. "

Teachers in tertiary education need new strategies to communicate with students of the net generation and to shape enticing educational experiences for them. The use of new approaches such as video-recorded lectures to communicate directly and individually with all students has been the preserve of technology-savvy educators. However, a recent technological advance - the Apple iPad - has the potential to change this situation, offering access to effective and efficient pedagogy in an easy and intuitive way. This paper is a report on the use of the iPad in teaching activities over the past 15 months, showing how it can be used to enhance engagement with learning for tertiary students, both those studying live on campus and those studying at a distance.

Minnesota Learning Commons
was created to provide access to effective and efficient online learning.

Some further thoughts on ORACY....a person's ability to efficiently communicate with others via the spoken word as well as to fully understand oral communication

Top tip that will make your experience with Google Apps more efficient and enjoyable! Thanks to Kasey Bell for sharing this valuable tip.

"For kid makers, having a dedicated space to work on projects can be pretty wonderful, and it just might help them create more than they ever imagined.  A workspace doesn't need to be huge -- a small workbench that is efficient, compact and flexible in its use and storage can fit almost anywhere.  Here are some tips on how to design and set up a mini maker space made just for your kids."

Great blog post by Bill Ferriter (The Tempered Radical) on the five essential Twitter hashtags that will help ed leaders access quality content efficiently.

In our information-saturated century most of us need help to memorize things efficiently. But it's hard to remember what we have learned. What can we do? Ability to appreciate and organize your study time may help to improve memory skills. Here are some tips.

When principals hear the words Twitter and Facebook they cringe. Immediately, visions of excessive socialization, time wasted, and meaningless conversations in the form of updates come to mind. This is true, in many cases, when these tools are used for personal use. I am here to share ways in which principals can harness the power of these free resources to improve communications, public relations, professional growth, instruction, and create a brand presence for your school. Quite simply, social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook have improved my effectiveness and efficiency as an educational leader.

Fedena is a free & opensource school management software that has more features than a student information system. Use fedena to efficiently manage students, teachers, employees, courses & all the system & process related to your institution.

The (Free) Efficient Way to Manage Class Q&A.

David Puttnam spoke in Dublin tonight - he had some interesting ideas including ORACY - A web definition explains "oracy" as…used to describe a person's ability to efficiently communicate with others via the spoken word as well as to fully understand oral communication. Wilkinson…created the word to emphasize the need for school children to be able to fully use oral skills as an essential basis for learning and social integration. It is an analogy for the words numeracy and literacy, and aids in bringing the focus of oral skill on par with reading and writing in the classroom.