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daniel rezac

Moving at the Speed of Creativity - 0 views

www.speedofcreativity.org

writing blog edtech web2.0

shared by daniel rezac on 22 Dec 10 - Cached
  • Scratch, a free iconic programming language and active learning community provided by MIT, is a learning platform EVERYONE involved in education should know how to use. This is a bold claim, but I'm ready to defend it more than ever after spending four weeks working with Scratch this past semester with my UNT pre-service education students. Together, we learned about the primary Scratch project types (Animations, Games, Simulations, Music, Art, and Stories) as well as other possibilities. Teaching about Scratch and with Scratch enabled me to model project-based learning for my students, and enabled them to learn first-hand the power (as well as challenges) of discovery learning. Scratch challenged all of us, since it took everyone outside our comfort zones. When you ask students to create a word processing document, a spreadsheet, or a presentation, there's a VERY high likelihood they have past experiences with those activities. None of my students had ever used Scratch prior to our class, and many had never tried any kind of computer programming previously. Scratch is a very open environment, so it is ripe for creativity and creative expression. Our schools are too often devoid of opportunities for creative expression, and the invitation for students to demonstrate their learning with Scratch can change this. Few things made me happier this semester than my students discovering how THEY could be successful using Scratch to communicate with others, and resolving to share it with their own students when they begin teaching. This is one example from a student's blog reflection about Scratch and Chris Betcher's 2010 K-12 Online Conference presentation, "Teaching Kids To Think Using Scratch."
    • daniel rezac
      daniel rezac on 22 Dec 10
       
      a VERY Bold claim.
  • daniel rezac on 22 Dec 10
     
    Scratch, a free iconic programming language and active learning community provided by MIT, is a learning platform EVERYONE involved in education should know how to use. This is a bold claim, but I'm ready to defend it more than ever after spending four weeks working with Scratch this past semester with my UNT pre-service education students.
  • James O'Hagan on 08 Jan 11
     
    I will be attempting to use Scratch with my high school sped class. I think I can scaffold this appropriately.
James O'Hagan

Does the Digital Classroom Enfeeble the Mind? - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.instapaper.com/text

education_policy

shared by James O'Hagan on 16 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Go up to any adult with a good life, no matter what his or her station, and ask if a teacher made a difference, and you’ll always see a face light up. The human element, a magical connection, is at the heart of successful education, and you can’t bottle it.
  • My father would have been spat out by today’s test-driven educational regime.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Really? Would he?
  • Probe one of those illuminated faces further, and you can also usually elicit memories of a particularly bad teacher.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Mrs. Souza, fifth grade, but we still did some awesome projects around Haley's Comet. She was just mean.
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • Trusting teachers too much also has its perils. For every good teacher who is too creative to survive in the era of “no child left behind,” there’s probably another tenacious, horrid teacher who might be dethroned only because of unquestionably bad outcomes on objective tests.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Just as there are people bad in their profession in any field- private sector, government, education. Remember Windows ME and Vista, Microsoft Boy?
  • How do we use the technologies of computation, statistics and networking to shed light — without killing the magic?
  • Nothing kills music for me as much as having some algorithm calculate what music I will want to hear. That seems to miss the whole point.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      I wonder if this guy has a TiVo or an Amazon account, or has ever taken a suggestion from a friend of a band to listen to or see?
  • nventing your musical taste is the point, isn’t it?
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      And part of the exploration is suggestions. Some people live in cultural enclaves that don't have readily available "culture."
  • Education — in the broadest sense — does what genes can’t do. It forever filters and bequeaths memories, ideas, identities, cultures and technologies. Humans compute and transfer nongenetic information between generations, creating a longitudinal intelligence that is unlike anything else on Earth. The data links that hold the structure together in time swell rhythmically to the frequency of human regeneration. This is education.
  • The future of education in the digital age will be determined by our judgment of which aspects of the information we pass between generations can be represented in computers at all. If we try to represent something digitally when we actually can’t, we kill the romance and make some aspect of the human condition newly bland and absurd.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Example?
  • The crucial choice of which intergenerational information is to be treated as computational grist is usually not made by educators or curriculum developers but by young engineers.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Schoology? :)
  • Some of the top digital designs of the moment, both in school and in the rest of life, embed the underlying message that we understand the brain and its workings. That is false. We don’t know how information is represented in the brain. We don’t know how reason is accomplished by neurons. There are some vaguely cool ideas floating around, and we might know a lot more about these things any moment now, but at this moment, we don’t.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      So as an educator I should not use my professional judgements on what technologies I should try to use to help my students understand the intergenerational material that is so important?
  • We are tempted by the demons of commercial and professional ambition to pretend we know more than we do.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Oh, I completely agree on this one... i.e. MIE, ADE, GCE, DEN...
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      In addition, professional EdTech speakers.... AKA sell-outs.
  • We see the embedded philosophy bloom when students assemble papers as mash-ups from online snippets instead of thinking and composing on a blank piece of screen.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Is this REALLY any different, at a rudementary level then what happened in the past. It is just easier to copy and paste. The stupid prompts teachers use should garner the need for thought. It is just that teachers continue to use the same dumb prompts in a world where Wikipedia and Wolfram Alpha can provide the easy answer.
  • What is wrong with this is not that students are any lazier now or learning less.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      Is this even a sentence?!
  • What is really lost when this happens is the self-invention of a human brain. If students don’t learn to think, then no amount of access to information will do them any good.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      I don't see this as a technology issue, at all. This is a teacher issue. This is an educational issue. This is a systemic problem that if we took all high tech tools out of the schools this would STILL be a problem.
  • I am a technologist, and so my first impulse might be to try to fix this problem with better technology.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      People applying technologies can solve a problem though. The ultimate example is the Printing Press and what that did to promote education around the world. 
  • it might now lull us into hypnotic complacency.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      You only have to read 1984 to understand that statement. That one I do agree with.
  • Learning at its truest is a leap into the unknown.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      So Learning is a leap into the unknown, but we cannot use technology, which produces unknowns, to leap into the unknown of Learning? Am I missing the point?
  • Right now the first way is ubiquitous, but the virtual spaceships are being built only by tenacious oddballs in unusual circumstances. More spaceships, please.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      I honestly was not agreeing with Lanier, by and large, until this last statement. He really is a Papert-kinda-guy just by that last statement alone. Computers should transform pedagogy and the curriculum. Computers do not have to serve our 20th century curriculums and make people believe that if a computer is involved that this is 21st century learning.
  • a partner architect at Microsoft Research and the innovator in residence at the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      WHO MAKES UP THESE TITLES?!?!?!?!
James O'Hagan

Can Mobile Devices Transform Education? - 1 views

www.ascd.org/...Transform-Education%C2%A2.aspx

education mobile ascd

shared by James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • February 2011 | Volume 53 | Number 2 Make Parents Your Partners    Can Mobile Devices Transform Education? Rick Allen The popularity of smartphones, including Droids, iPhones, and BlackBerries, that now have GPS, texting, voice, and multimedia capabilities has prompted industry and education reformers to shine the light on these mobile devices as vehicles suitable for transforming K–12 learning for the 21st century. Although they present challenges as well as potential benefits, education experts reason that these powerful small computers motivate students; provide constant access to the wealth of knowledge, tools, and experts on the web; and are cheaper and more plentiful than laptops or desktop workstations. "A big c
  • "cognitive audit trail"
  • Students also said they used their wireless devices to look up information on the Internet and consult with other students to share tips for solving problems or clarify their understanding of concepts with the teacher.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      What was their digital learning space?
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Dunleavy hopes his research will determine whether using mobile devices can enhance learning
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 18 Mar 11
       
      HOPES! There is HOPE! I like "it does" rather than HOPES!
  • The greatest strength of mobile devices could be for outside-the-classroom learning. It's a cheaper way of doing one-to-one learning, and students would have a shorter learning curve because they're used to these devices
daniel rezac

Rival Philosophies, Both Compelling - Room for Debate - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...l-philosophies-both-compelling

edreach14 philosophies bill jobs

shared by daniel rezac on 22 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • Is there an app for improving America’s educational system? Will watching a PowerPoint presentation about the nation’s educational challenge help to understand the opportunities and difficulties facing the country?
  • Two college dropouts, Steve Jobs (Reed College) and Bill Gates (Harvard University) have articulated theories about education. And their viewpoints are as different as are their companies (Apple and Microsoft, respectively), presenting a contrast in style and philosophy.
  • Gates hopes to analyze and adjust the education system in order to produce a more efficient and effective learning environment.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Jobs is focused more on individual learning and less on systemic education. Technology is his way to get a well-integrated mind flowing in multiple directions. His learning philosophy gives each person the ability to chart his own course.
  • Gates’ recent speech to the nation’s governors stressed assessment, measuring outcomes and tracking students’ progress. Technology and benchmarking are joined at the hip
  • Jobs’ approach allows for individual experimentation to find a unique solution to each person’s quest. It is the symbol of intellectual multi-tasking. This is a more experimental, integrated search for a holistic view of the universe, one that has multiple access points. Each student becomes his or her own teacher.
  • Gates is studying the science of education. Jobs is creating the art of learning. I’m sure there is an app for teaching arithmetic by watching the heavens and counting the stars
J B

TeachPaperless: IEP Recommendation: Mobile Access - 0 views

teachpaperless.blogspot.com/...ommendation-mobile-access.html

mobile mlearning app development special education: technology

shared by J B on 26 May 11 - No Cached
  • mobile tech is the single best vehicle for addressing the confidence and practical needs of many of our kids with learning differences
  • I don't mean to say that the tech itself is the 'difference', what I am trying to say is that the tech -- and especially the personalized and always-on facet of mobile tech -- will provide the connection to the tools, the teachers, and the interventions that will make the difference in a way both unique and also requiring a re-thinking in terms of how we offer relevant services to students with learning differences.
  • we need to explain to developers what we and our students need from them
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Even better, we should be calling for Ed Schools to provide instruction in app making and digital design so that we -- the teachers -- have the capacity to program our own teaching.
  • we need to push now for an end to the access issues facing all of our schools
  • Let's make districts come to the realization that mobile devices and mobile access are the point-of-entry for learning right now. Let's put state funded devices in the hands of kids who need them and let all kids bring their own INTELLECTUAL EMPOWERMENT DEVICES to class.
judith epcke

The Answer Sheet - First blame the teachers, then the parents - 0 views

voices.washingtonpost.com/...t-blame-the-teachers-then.html

edreach accountability parents

shared by judith epcke on 06 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • judith epcke on 06 Dec 10
     
    The U.S. Department of Education blames teachers for low test scores, and parents could be next, writes Maine educator Maja Wilson. She argues that rather than looking for ways to boost achievement, officials are assigning blame through a so-called "accountability movement." She writes that Education Secretary Arne Duncan's next move might be to implement a system he saw while working in Chicago schools that graded parents on whether they were involved in schools and their students were prepared to learn
judith epcke

Heather Wolpert-Gawron: The Education of Student Success: Top 10 Family Responsibilitie... - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...tion-of-student-_b_789565.html

edreach student_success education_policy

shared by judith epcke on 06 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • judith epcke on 06 Dec 10
     
    Teachers, students and parents all have roles in ensuring student success, says teacher Heather Wolpert-Gawron, who lists the top 10 responsibilities of each in three blog posts. For teachers, it is important to be experts in your field, make lessons engaging and relevant and be strong role models. Wolpert-Gawron writes that students must be their own advocates, ask questions and communicate with teachers. Families, she writes, are responsible for making sure students attend school ready to learn. However, a fourth party -- policymakers and voters -- must support education if students are to succeed, Wolpert-Gawron writes.
judith epcke

Education Week Teacher: Best Practice: Think Globally-or Locally? - 0 views

www.edweek.org/...tln_bestpractice.html

Global_Learning glocal edreach technology_integration

shared by judith epcke on 23 Dec 10 - No Cached
  • judith epcke on 23 Dec 10
     
    Do digital tools and the Web's ability to connect classrooms to global society detract from or enhance teaching and learning? Two teacher leaders offer divergent views. Always an interesting discussion.
daniel rezac

EdTechTrek - 0 views

ransomtech.edublogs.org

educon education_policy technology_integration edreach8

shared by daniel rezac on 01 Feb 11 - Cached
  • Educon is described as “both a conversation and a conference”. Although I don’t want to romanticize Educon as a learning event, one of the things I appreciate the most is the nature of the presentations. They are indeed conversations. Dialog and open thinking are essential to the “structure” of the sessions. And, often, the conversations spill over to the hallways, the stairways, the meals, and of course, in virtual spaces. Back to the quotation above, it resonates greatly on a number of dimensions. The essence of its message to me is that innovation happens as a result of continued open exchange of ideas in conjunction with intentional and serendipitous expansion of one’s learning network. It is this open and networked exchange of ideas that leads to the creation of new ideas.
James O'Hagan

Google's 8-Point Plan to Help Managers Improve - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...13hire.html

education_policy Google

shared by James O'Hagan on 15 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 15 Mar 11
       
      How many principals, or superintendents, do you know who are like this?
  • James O'Hagan on 15 Mar 11
     
    Something we can all learn from since many are administrators.
James O'Hagan

film music | mobygratis.com - 0 views

mobygratis.com/film-music.html

music filmmaking media

shared by James O'Hagan on 22 Mar 11 - Cached
  • James O'Hagan on 22 Mar 11
     
    Excellent music for a student or teacher or presenter to add to their NON-PROFIT presentation. Learn about licensing. Does require a lot of information to register.
daniel rezac

Thoughts By Jen » Blog Archive » Yes, I am Frustrated - 1 views

projectsbyjen.com/blog

edreach12

shared by daniel rezac on 10 Mar 11 - No Cached
  • daniel rezac on 10 Mar 11
     
    For the last few months, there has been a grumbling in my soul regarding my "Personal Learning Network" - or as I prefer to call them "my friends online". Instead of moving forward, it feels we have come to a crossroads and have stalled. As the dweller that I am - I have spent some time in self-reflection of why this might be (both as a participant and also as a grateful receiver of info). …..and just decided to share my thoughts. 1.  The honeymoon is over. The newness of wonderment with this thing called "twitter" or "PLN"  is now over.  We are getting to know each other - the true parts of each other - and seeing each others pros and cons.  With familiarity at times can come contempt.  The being on our best behavior (whether some of us ever really were - grins) has also faded and there is impatience and nit picking where before there was compromise and "this I can ignore."    Plus, the small network that was manageable is now huge - and at times overwhelming and overstimulating. Because the "honeymoon" is over - reality is settling in…..which can be a good thing, as well as bad - it just seems (to me) that we are not as nice to each other as we used to be.
James O'Hagan

Playing Tag or Digital Games? Why Not Both? | MindShift - 0 views

mindshift.kqed.org/...-games-can-build-on-each-other

games education digital learning

shared by James O'Hagan on 13 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • But why do I need a computer for that?
  • most educational games deal a lot in the “Who?, What?, When?, and Where?” while the questions I hear from young kids are more of the “How?” and “Why?” variety
  • The fundamental problem is not that learning isn’t fun, it’s that we’re answering questions that kids aren’t asking (Who?, What?, When?, Where?) instead of giving them tools to experiment, build on, and share their own ideas
    • James O'Hagan
      James O'Hagan on 13 Apr 11
       
      Gee, hasn't Papert and Stager said this for years?
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • We need to stop thinking of educational media as fancy content delivery mechanisms (interactive videos and electronic books) and start building tools that help kids design and develop their own understandings of the world through iterative content creation.
  • Let’s empower children as designers by making concepts and tools accessible to learners and then, above all, let’s give kids megaphones to share their ideas with friends, family, and peers around the world.
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