A new blog created by primary grade elementary teachers about how they are using technology in their classrooms. If you're in the primary grades, keep an eye on this blog!
So, according to this, most teachers believe digital technology is detrimental to kids' attention spans and perseverance. But is it? This research seems like it could be a bit skewed...
An interview with George Lucas provides some compelling arguments for the importance of teaching digital and visual literacy to students, in order to equip them to succeed in the 21st century.
An interesting video about people who post educational videos online. Some are teachers, some are not. It's exciting that people and students are learning through these videos, but is this the future of education? What do we as trained teachers offer that untrained video educators don't? Anything? What is going to be the role of the classroom with 4 walls in the future?
I didn't log in and try to use this tool, but it looks like a neat way to collaborate with others on online/multimedia projects. Could be useful in the classroom??
Just as students in a shop class use the materials, tools, strategies, and vocabulary of real-life woodworkers, students in a history class need exposure to the materials, tools, strategies, and vocabulary of historians. Such exposure is especially needed at a time when the Internet makes available to all readers a wide range of sources of varying credibility. Students must be equipped to analyze and evaluate such information.
Sobering reminder about how we need to pay attention to our own biases and work to promote gender equality in the classroom and within subject areas like science.
So the sense is that wisdom, in the future, is putting together symbiotically what the brain does best and what machines do even better.
One of the ways is to be a little tolerant. All technology breaks down. When our cars break down, we don’t immediately get back on horses. And we don’t teach horseback riding in school. When technology breaks down, we fix it and move on.
we have to figure out how to use the technology in a way that is powerful and not trivial.
I like this diagram! Gives us something a little higher to aim for than just a perfect test score.
The “higher” needs, levels 5 to 7, focus on the cultural cohesion and values alignment; mutually beneficial alliances and partnerships with other schools and the local community; and a strong focus on social responsibility. The emphasis at these higher levels is on enhancing the common good of all stakeholders—students, employees, parents, the local community, and society at large. Abraham Maslow referred to these as “growth” needs. When these needs are fulfilled they do not go away. They engender deeper levels of commitment and motivation.
For better or worse, our high schools in the US have many extracurricular opportunities for students to feel that sense of culture with each other.
And yet doesn't research also show that you are more likely to get a job with a degree than not? But maybe the learning doesn't transfer, just the piece of paper saying you completed a program... Hmmm...
“It’s Never Mattered That American Schools Lag Behind Other Countries”?
Focusing on performance and results should happen, but in order to take a school from “good to great”, the focus has to eventually change. Once stakeholders realize that their school is judged by more than test scores, real change can happen.