Group items tagged

Professor of Math and Social Media (are these related?) as well as CEO of Edge of Learning LLC. Site includes many nice online teaching resources, as well as some math games.

This page has great articles for teaching literature.

I didn't realize that they had a section for grants. Thanks for sharing!

This article describes how the connectivism of social and technological networks has changed the role of the teacher. The author maintains that the connectedness students have with information at any given time or place means the teacher does not need to serve the role of the only expert in the students' lives. Several roles that the author believes teachers should play in such connected learning situations are described.

This blog post focuses on the role of the teacher in a connectivist driven teaching paradigm. The author suggests that the role of the teacher must shift from "controlling" learning to "influencing" learning. He suggests seven roles teachers must play in networked learning environments: amplifying, curating, wayfinding and socially-driven sensemaking, aggregating, filtering, modelling, and persistent presence.

I really like that it defines the role of the instructor. It is moving away from some of the earlier educational theories were the instructor was simply a subject matter expert. As an instructor we are moving more to not just telling but showing the information and where to get the information to enhance the learning.

This article has some up-to-date resources on ways to teach Internet safety, including games and more!

Mentor Mob is a way to organize websites. It allows you to put all the websites together that you want shown. It would be a great way to get the students involved in their learning because you could even have them build their own lists of websites to review or teach a concept, then build quizzes or homework questions around it. I am really excited to try this out.

I'm in love with world of graphic design. How many people can say that they teach their craft, I can. That said, I needed to find a CoP that does just that. Although this is from the University of Brighton it provides support with young aspiring graphic designers. 

That is great! I would love to teach more of what I love to do. This is a great article that explores CoP within a specific group of learners interested in the same topic (graphic designing).

Good ideas for teaching research to middle school students. Includes relative advantage talking points for video instruction.

Teacher Training | News Most Professional Development 'Sporadic, Short Term, and Divorced from Teaching and Student Achievement' Professional development should provide teachers with continuous feedback and opportunities to collaborate and coach each other, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress.

How three theories have shaped distance learning over the years. Connectivist theory shows how learning is about forming connections with others through human and digital interaction. Developed in the digital age and assumes access to social networking technologies.

This is a March 2011 journal article that highlights the shifts in technology and theory for distance learning. First, there was the cognitive-behaviorist with it's focus on read, watch, and recall. As the web developed, we saw constructivism shift the teachers duties from content creator to a guide through the content as students synthesized. Connectivism promotes the teacher as a "co-traveler" helping students to explore, connect, and create.

A Position of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Question: What is the role of technology in the teaching and learning of mathematics? NCTM Position It is essential that teachers and students have regular access to technologies that support and advance mathematical sense making, reasoning, problem solving, and communication.

Promethean Planet has over 60,000 free teaching resources, lesson plans and worksheets. Including free interactive whiteboard resources. As we transition away from SMART Boards to Promethean ActivPanels, I've encouraged teachers in our district to sign up for a Promethean Planet account to take advantage of and share resources.

Although I'm usually a bit skeptical when reading anything commissioned by a for-profit publisher like Pearson, this survey reflects responses from almost 8000 higher ed faculty with some interesting results in the data. The faculty voices section at the end is always interesting and sometimes hard to read.

This paper explores faculty views with respect to tech literacy, tech training, and pedagogy. The upshot is that to more broadly integrate technology in higher ed, more effective faculty training is required.

I really like the point within the paper where they identify the aspects that must be considered when training in a teacher. He states four main points about technology teacher training that I think are really relevant in where education is going today. 1. Education training takes considerably longer to learn than learning a new teaching model. 2. Access to technology at home and at school is essential. 3. Fear of the unknown must be addressed. And 4. The use of technology will force teachers to re-conceptualize the way in which they teach. I think these are 4 very interesting talking points when looking at the use of social networks and highlights the importance of using CoP's and Learning Networks to have each group benefit.

The study in the paper was interesting as it looked at K-12 educators and their use of Twitter to research, relate and form PLNs. Twitter and other social medias have allowed teachers to form networks that are specific to their needs and wants in terms of their own professional growth. In the "End of Isolation" the researchers findings touched on the fact that "over 82% of the time, the educators in this study chose to follow other educators or content experts related to their field of teaching so they were able to create a personal learning network meaningful to their professional needs." Now I just need to work with teachers at my school site to help them realize the individualized professional potential!

This study underscored the benefits of Twitter for the educational community. The article shared the advantages to new teachers in particular, where one participant stated it changed her vision and practice in the classroom. Very powerful!

Of all the resources I have read thus far on PLNs, this particular article forced me to think deeper and reconsider my interpretation of this concept. First of all, I found that the article provided a picture of the quality of interaction that can occur within Twitter. The data collected by researchers provides an in depth look at Twitter as a PLN - a feat that few other resources I have read have accomplished. By detailing the amount, quality, and type of interactions and connections, a tangible conception of a PLN emerges, even for someone who has little to no experience with Twitter. Of the 10 surveyed, a majority of their connections and tweets were professionally related. According to Nussbaum-Beach (video I posted), the difference between a PLN and a CoP is the familiarity of the people and the connection to an idea or problem. However, this study provides a different perception of a PLN that is largely professionally based with strong two-way connections. These conclusions made me wonder if it is possible for facets of a PLN on Twitter to transform into a CoP. Further, at what point can one argue that a PLN has successfully transform into a virtual CoP? Thanks for sharing. This was an excellent read!

The authors argue that there is no difference between theories of teaching and theories of learning (rendering the debate over whether connectivism is one or the other irrelevant). The elaborate on the ideas that instructors in connectivism are participants in a class learning along with the students, rather than being the sources of knowledge, and that one important role of instructors may be to defend the connections of the past so that they will be carried forward. I found this to be one of the most illuminating articles on connectivism that I've read thus far.