Research report emphasizing cultural change to iPad for e-reading sharing/collaborative work (e.g., Dropbox and iAnnotate) but online final exam still chose laptops (since not collaborative effort?)
Examine your students' background knowledge on a new topic of study by asking them to write about it. Pass out index cards and instruct students to fill only one side with their related thoughts and experiences. Provide a minute to write followed by a minute to discuss their ideas with a nearby partner. Collect the cards and set them aside until the end of the unit. Then, ask students to revisit their original notes and, on the backs of their cards, describe how their thinking has expanded or changed on this issue. The initial card writing gives you an insight into background knowledge, while the final card writing offers students insight into their thinking and learning.
If we continue to believe that we must collect and grade every piece of student writing, our exhaustion will result in students writing far less. Sure, if necessary, we can award points, checks, or stamps, but these should simply be records of whether the students gave a good-faith effort (full credit) or not (no credit), not grades that attempt to assess the writing (Vopat, 2009).
Offer students an intriguing content-area prompt. For example, if the topic was e-waste, you might ask students to write about the importance of e-devices in their own lives or you might project a photograph of a mountain of discarded, obsolete cell phones. Let students think and write for a minute or two. Then, working with a partner, have each student read aloud what they wrote and discuss their ideas.
Another very social writing activity is written conversation. Starting in groups of three or four, students silently respond to a content-related prompt, writing for several minutes until most class members have about a third or half a page of writing. Then, within the group, students pass their papers to their right. Now, each student must read the previous writer's thoughts and expand the conversation by exploring ideas and asking questions. After a few minutes of writing, papers are passed again, and the conversation continues to blossom as more and more ideas and responses are added. When the paper returns to the owner after several passes, each student gets to read a very interesting conversation that began with their initial written response. Of course, this written conversation could continue as an out-loud discussion, as well.
If you want students to be better readers, writers, and thinkers in every content area, then writing every day in every class is key. Be sure to make that informal and spontaneous writing short, frequent, and shared.
"Examine your students' background knowledge on a new topic of study by asking them to write about it. Pass out index cards and instruct students to fill only one side with their related thoughts and experiences. Provide a minute to write followed by a minute to discuss their ideas with a nearby partner. Collect the cards and set them aside until the end of the unit. Then, ask students to revisit their original notes and, on the backs of their cards, describe how their thinking has expanded or changed on this issue. The initial card writing gives you an insight into background knowledge, while the final card writing offers students insight into their thinking and learning."
I am reading the book. It is very interesting. Hope to be able to do Genius Hour with my students. I look forward to posts here in this thread to know more about how others implement Genius Hour.
Sensing the excitement from online education tools like edX,
Google has just unveiled a (very beta) version of its own course building
software. If you’ve ever wanted to run your own online courses, this might be
worth your time
So we packaged up the technology we used to build Power Searching and are
providing it as an open source project called Course
Builder. We want to make this technology available so that others can
experiment with online learning
We believe Google’s preliminary efforts here may be useful to those looking to
scale online education through the cloud
A critical assessment of mainstream of higher education reveals that universities spent most energy on delivery of knowledge. Application of knowledge is dominated by ‘near transfer’, which means that students learn to give practical examples of theoretical concepts. ‘Far transfer’ originates from the analysis and solving of real problems, without prior exposure to cues regarding relevant knowledge. It occurs in Schools that deploy problem- or project-based learning. Exchange of codified and practical knowledge is absent in general. It might take place during internships, but projects outside the university are better and moreover, they offer opportunity for integration with other learning processes.
A balanced and integrated approach of the three learning processes mentioned above is occurring in only few universities. Elsewhere, students learn (and forget) lots of knowledge, have only limited experience with the application of knowledge and are ignorant of the clash between codified and practical knowledge. Consequently, the majority of our universities are disavowing their main goal, the development of ‘readiness for society’. It is this verdict that justifies a revolution in higher education.
Sometimes I think that he tries too hard to separate the intellect from the will. I wonder on a physiological level what this looks like in the brain: are their separate components in the brain for recognition and judgment. Perhaps there are. If so, should those be the terms rather than intellect and will?
Just to be living on this earth in this solar system in this galaxy in this universe is immensely rare and lucky.
to recognize is to accept something as true, but to acknowledge is to have a perspective, or how you choose to view that recognizable truth.
Some people feel the rain, and others just get wet
acknowledgement is perspective.
uses the word surprise as a way of saying be mindful and appreciate the little things in life that go on around you
ollowing this quote the author goes on to
because many of use feel a moral obligation to return our benefactor the favor thus making the seemingly “gratuitous act” a debt that we must repay by giving our own gift.
the bonds of interdependence set us free
once you can acknowledge a gift for a gift and acknowledge dependence then you’re free to go forward into full gratefulness.
yesterday morning my friend, knowing that I’m not an early bird, brought an extra granola bar to class just to give it to me which was a surprise that I had not expected. This was merely a simple surprise that I felt then, but after I thought it over again, this surprise made me realize how grateful I felt for having a such friend
By allowing ourselves to be helped in life and understanding that receiving help is not a show of weakness but in fact a show of mindfulness, we open ourselves up to the surprises and pleasures of communicating with people on a regular day basis
independent vs dependent. Being considered “legally” independent I have truly learned how dependent I am for others.
I always thought why would I hassle someone else for my incompetency
that weak need to feel weak in order to grow. We need to put everything out there and grow and learn from our experiences.
Letting weakness show is one of the strongest things we can do in order to know ourselves at a deeper level
Helping someone, whether it is a friend, neighbor or family member is something one should do out of the goodness of our heart. Everything comes full circle,
it is a personal choice to help others, and my way of reminding myself that I am grateful to be here,
I know what a horse looks like, feels like and moves like, but every time I go visit, I am still surprised and amused just by watching the horses out in the field.
The more grateful you become the more you appreciate life, which in a sense does make you younger because you are embracing living life
When my dad and hundreds of others died on 9/11/01 you could notice something different in the air.
"teindl-Rast inspired me to start working on a project that I have been putting off. (ironically when I chose to read this passage I was procrastinating) There is never an ideal or perfect time for any person to start any task. Instead of taking this moment right now, we co"
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
This article emphasizes that ELLs benefit when literature teachers include techniques that make the learning more accessible. I like the idea of connecting the literature to a real project. I do this same activity with my adult ELLs every semester. For example, this semester they are reading "Breaking Through", a true story about a boy whose parents are undocumented agricultural workers. It is a great story of perseverance and "grit" that shows how immigrants make this country stronger. I am going to pair the reading with a group project called "The Immigrant Experience in Houston". My students will research an immigrant group and chronicle the melting pot that is Houston. They will create a Power Point Presentation and share their research with the class. Food samples always get 5 extra points!
Do
a timeline search. Use "view:timeline" followed by whatever you are
researching to get a timeline for that topic
Invite
others. If you have events on your calendar that you want to invite
others to join, just add their email address under Add Guests within the event.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar
template
. Have
an easy to use school year
calendar
through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions
boost.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Use
the school year calendar template. Have an easy to use school year
calendar through Google Docs by following these instructions.
Create
online surveys for research projects. Quickly and easily create
online surveys for any research project that requires feedback from others. The
answers are saved to your Google Docs account.
Calculate
with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the
answer immediately. For example, "2*4" will get you the answer "8."
Time. Enter "what time is it" and any location to find out
the local time.
Calculate
with Google. Type in any normal mathematical expressions to get the
answer immediately. For example, "2*4" will get you the answer "8."
Time. Enter "what time is it" and any location to find out
the local time.
Incorporate
Google Calendar and Docs on your Gmail page. Have access to recent
documents used in Google Docs and get an agenda of upcoming activities you have
on Google Calendar with small boxes added to your Gmail page. Go to Labs to
select this option.
In school, getting people to share can be difficult. Learners may be diffident, or they may not have good strategies for sharing. Children often do not know how to offer constructive criticism or build on an idea. It can be helpful to give templates for sharing, such as two likes and a wish, where the “wish” is a constructive criticism or a building idea.
But more often than not, it is because one or more of five ingredients is missing: joint attention, listening, sharing, coordinating, and perspective taking.
Using a common visual anchor (e.g., a common diagram) can help people maintain joint visual attention.
Sharing operates on two levels: sharing common goals and sharing ideas.
Many college students dislike group projects. Some of this is naïve egoism and an unwillingness to compromise
Collaboration requires a great deal of turn-taking coordination.
It can be useful to establish collaborative structures and rules.
primary reason for collaborating is that people bring different ideas to the table. The first four ingredients—joint attention, listening, sharing, and coordinating—support the exchange of information. The fifth ingredient is understanding why people are offering the information they do. This often goes beyond what speakers can possibly show and say (see Chapter S). People need to understand the point of view behind what others are saying, so they can interpret it more fully. This requires perspective taking. This is where important learning takes place, because learners can gain a new way to think about matters. It can also help differentiate and clarify one’s own ideas. A conflict of opinions can enhance learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009).
An interesting study on perspective taking (Kulkarni, Cambre, Kotturi, Bernstein, & Klemmer, 2015) occurred in a massive open online course (MOOC) with global participation. In their online discussions, learners were encouraged to review lecture content by relating it to their local context. The researchers placed people into low- or high-diversity groups based on the spread of geographic regions among participants. Students in the most geographically diverse discussion groups saw the highest learning gains, presumably because they had the opportunity to consider more different perspectives than geographically uniform groups did
Think back to your grade school years…What academic experience do you remember? Most likely whatever came to your mind was not a worksheet. You probably remember something that was taught to you because it was a project, experiment, or field trip-not a lesson that came from a worksheet. What does this mean?
E-learning is a growing trend at community colleges, according to survey results from the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
E-learning is already used at 47 percent of community colleges and is expected to increase to 55 percent within two years. The survey of 578 community college faculty was conducted by Eric Liguori, an assistant professor at California State University.
Eighty-four percent of respondents believe e-learning is a valuable educational tool.
The top five benefits of e-learning identified by respondents are:
It increases access through location and time-flexible learning.
More resources and information are available to students 24/7.
Teachers can use a wide variety of tools and methods for teaching.
It is a good supplement to face-to-face curriculum.
It can lead to a richer learning experience if integrated correctly, freeing up class time for more engaging activities. This experience is often referred to as “flipping the classroom.”
When asked about the barriers to adopting online learning, faculty cited such concerns as doubt about its capability and reliability, acceptance by students and teachers, and lack of resources, such as time and technical support.
Twenty-three percent of respondents said the effectiveness of e-learning depends on the resources available, including the format and features of courses. For example, e-learning is best when teachers are adequately trained to use it, there is high-quality content and curriculum design, it’s used in conjunction with real-world situations and there is opportunity for student-teacher interactions, discussion boards and collaborative projects.
“Our survey looked at how community college faculty members are using e-learning as a cost-effective means” to increase completion rates and ensure that “students walk away with credentials that are meaningful in the workplace and that they are prepared for the careers they hope to pursue, including, for many, the start of entrepreneurial endeavors,” said NACCE President and CEO Heather Van Sickle.
great teachers engineer learning experiences that maneuver the students into the driver's seat and then the teachers get out of the way.
great teacher will devise a way to give the students an urgent reason to learn skills or knowledge and then let them show they have learned it by what they can do. This is called project-based learning.
Students learn best when they are in control of their learning
Yet what do we find in every public school and university? Teachers talking, talking and talking while students listen, daydream and doze. We call this lecture.
Socrates had it right when he only answered a question with more questions and look what he produced -- some of the greatest minds that ever lived. We call this the Socratic method.
great teacher devises learning experiences that force all the students to be engaged much like being in the deep end of the swimming pool. Then the lesson on arm and leg strokes becomes relevant. To learn, the students must do something. We call this performance-based learning.
One characteristic of an effective teacher is that they don't teach.
We have assembled a wide array of PBL-related resources created by BIE and collected from fellow PBL travelers. The resources are organized into three broad categories: things to read, to watch, or to interact with.
If you would like to take a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approach to learning about PBL, then check out the recommend resources for teachers, coaches, principals, and district leaders. The featured resources have a note on "How Can You Use It?" We also suggest starting your DIY experience by purchasing one of BIE's books.
This statement encompasses what I am trying to achieve in this resource design assessment. It also clearly links to the SMAR model of best ICT use in education, by implementing learning experience with technology that 'redefines' the activity. Meaning the activity is something that could not be done without the technology used.
help children build on their own experiences, construct their own meanings, create products, and solve problems successfully.
In my resource design students will take part in a long term water sustainability project. A website will assist them in attaining access to multiple resources, communication with the outerworld (blogging) and creating products such as videos, visuals etc.
Webquest was used as an inspiration for my resource design, as it provides a useful platform for inquiry units to be created. There are endless examples on there. I really recommend you have a look at them. I decided to create my own website on weebly, as it provided more options and interactivity.
Hi Maggie, I would love to see both a user's personal rating system combined with a reader's rating system - kinda like editor's comments & reader's comments on Amazon. Creating lists could also ...
9. Fail to provide training and additional resources needed for tech implementation. Training with an expert user is always a plus, even when using someone on staff as that expert. Even more important is providing time for the teacher to explore, experiment, and "play" with the technology. As far as resources, school leaders need to make sure teachers have all they need to implement new technologies: everything from powerbars to tables. Nothing can be more frustrating than having your greatest tech plans foiled by a lack of power outlets.
Very true! Research has shown that the most successful technology interests are those that have proper support and professional development.
5. Fail to provide adequate hardware and/or software. I've seen so many examples of this over the years. Teachers are encouraged to get students writing and engaging in online blogging, but they don't have access to computers. Another example is even more ludicrous; students being asked to create 21st century projects yet they aren't given anything but 20th century tools such a colored pencils and construction paper. It is the school leader's responsibility to ensure teachers have adequate hardware and software for implementing technology.
So difficult to be innovative and relevant when using outdated tools and materials that can't even support the tools we want to use.
While school districts are obligated under CIPA and common sense to provide some level of protection for young students, a filtering system is inadequate or faulty when it dictates what teachers can and can't do with the technology.
This is especially difficult when only one person holds the key to the access. School leaders (i.e. principals) should be just as able to unblock access as the IT department.
Envision Education
www.envisionschools.org
Envision Education was founded in 2002 on this simple idea. We believe the current achievement gap reflects a systemic failure to understand how kids learn, what motivates them to learn, and what they need in order to learn well. We employ the best practices of high school design —rigorous college-preparatory curricula, small and personalized learning environments, and a focus on measurable results—and add a truly innovative model that emphasizes project-based learning, development of Deeper Learning skills, integration of arts and technology into core subjects, real-world experience in workplaces, and a uniquely rigorous assessment system. Each Envision Education school employs specific learning tactics built upon the four key R’s: Rigor, Relevance, Relationships, and Results. Vibrant learning communities apply compassion and high expectations to inspire and empower students. Our approach is specifically designed to increase student engagement, deepen integration and understanding, promote active learning, and ensure college success. We hold all our students to rigorous academic standards while providing the necessary supports—academic, emotional, and behavioral—so they can achieve success in college and life.
Scope: United States
Research report emphasizing cultural change to iPad for e-reading sharing/collaborative work (e.g., Dropbox and iAnnotate) but online final exam still chose laptops (since not collaborative effort?)
