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This animate was adapted from a talk given at the RSA by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA's Benjamin Franklin award. For more information on Sir Ken's work visit: http://www.sirkenrobinson.com

Helen, I like Sir Ken Robinson's stuff, but I do take it with a grain of salt as well. Like Gladwell, he's a good storyteller and can inspire, but everything's got to be taken in context. I love that you ask your students to follow their train of thought. I do that with my kids, and find I often have to explain my own train of thought to others. I like the way you are in tune with the benefits and risks of reflective practice. It can get messy, and it isn't always the best thing for every student. It sounds like you take extra steps to make sure they understand the value of it.

Helen, thanks for underlining the Evoke game. I did find it - www.urgentevoke.com - and was impressed by what a great representative of eLearning this was. Organized, engaging, lots of information - but what I liked most was that it led to action - i.e., the gaming playing is not just on the computer - but actions you take or are encouraged to take to make a difference.

I was able to watch some of this while it streamed live. It's worth watching the recording if you have time. "Tune in to this rare opportunity to see the "best living historian of education" (Washington Post) and America's "soberest, most history-minded education expert" (Wall Street Journal), give one of the best-informed analyses of the current state of American education-what's broken and what are the best ways to fix it. Diane Ravitch is a research professor of education at New York University, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, renowned education historian, and author of The Death and Life of the Great American School System (2010). Her book, which takes issue with both the political right and left, has been called a "must read" for education policymakers at all levels of government."

This is my favorite site to learn about powerful presentation techniques.

I think it is than...

I'm a little slow on the uptake, but the potato salad discussion was great!! I like bacon and sour cream in mine--but on the serious side--life, education, teaching, learning, ad infinitum, are rarely black and white; you are so correct, Jennifer, in the longer comment you addressed to Ann and me about the challenge centering around these things not having to be one way or the other because there are so many other factors involved.

This is an important article about our education system.  I think the paragraph about "drive-by" professional development gets at what I was speaking of last night.  Budgets for teacher professional development are rapidly decreasing, and we are being forced to learn on our own time with our own dollars.  This is why I'm so insistent upon "learning to learn."  My hope is that you all get the opportunity to work in an environment where your professional development is valued and encouraged.

I agree with you, Jennifer, this is an important article! I posted it to my facebook page because many of my friends are teachers and I thought they should read it. Lifelong learning for ALL people is the key to change--I just hope this will translate into additional meaningful dialog about our education system and then into some action! Maybe in some small way, I will be able to effect change--who knows.

So what is new here? Wisconsin is where the wheels hit the pavement. So much for decent pay and etc. Our government doesn't seem to get the educational part of developing and development. Now when it comes to on line teaching they do...go figure!

Joy, Your posts are quite sobering, regarding your own experiences working towards completing your university education. I strongly agree with the following quote in your post: "In sum, it is time for educators to make college and higher learning relevant to their students. It is not about us, it is about them. We are the facilitators of their learning. We must prepare them for the world they will find themselves in when they leave the protected walls of our colleges and universities" I found the recent events in Cairo to be fascinating, where large numbers of people suddenly rose up against an authoritarian and out-of-touch government. This largely peaceful uprising was fueled by the same Web2.0 technologies that are underpinning this class. It's possible that many traditional schools will soon find themselves in a similar situation to the Egyptian government, where students pass them by in favor of lower cost and more relevant educational experiences - many of them available online. Bill Gates recently came under fire for making the statement that valid online college degrees may soon be available for $2000. He may have said this to exaggerate a point, but the evidence of a growing number of online low cost educational resources can't be ignored. One of them is the Khan Academy - run by an MIT graduate who has created a large free archive of mathematics courses that are used by students all over the world - many who claim they are better than their university courses. Colleges and universities ignore this development at their own peril. It's not clear yet how we'll make this transition to relevancy for students, but the next decade will be very interesting...

Thanks you for your comments Mary Ann...the bottom line reads, we may be killing off our aged population by sentencing them to give up and give in to old out-moded concepts!

Joy: I've been following your blog postings for some time now and have been meaning to let you know I always learn and find your postings valuable. Keep the information coming our way.

"In a few weeks, TED will be launching an online forum. We're calling it the TED-ED Brain Trust. We're seeking the expertise of visionary educators, students, organizations, filmmakers & other creative professionals to guide, galvanize & ultimately lead this exciting new initiative."

Thanks for sharing this intentionally forming community. How exciting! The Ken Robinson lecture on education "killing the imagination" I show to my students because it's all about holistic learning. I will definately sign up for this online forum. Thanks for posting.

I have always found the TED site and videos very helpful...they have a purpose and I can find some great videos for courses.

In today's Seattle Times, A3 section - interesting article which followed over 2,000 US students from 2005 to 2009. 45% made no significant improvements in their critical thinking, reasoning or writing skills during first 2 years of study. After completing 4 years, 36 % showed no significant gains in "higher order" thinking skills. Article also states some contributing factors, many students work part-time, however, most students only spent 1/5 time on their studies and 51% on socializing & extra-curricular. I have a strong hunch the internet is a big contributor to the socializing factor. When I read such statistics, it makes me ponder if on-line learning can truly change this social/educational trend. I am enjoying many readings on the diigo, both from Jennifer and others, however, I'm not sure I would design an on-line class which designated a considerable amt. of time to short readings and discussions. Your thoughts on this?

I too found the article interesting - thanks! I do wonder about the types of classes students completed especially in their first two years. The might be a marked difference in skills acquisition if students were completing many required large class survey classes to meet initial requirements vs. small, more focused classes in their areas of interest.

I am still trying to get the picture of "slogging" through studies! Is that what I am doing when reading all this material in Diigo? I don't think so.

This is an overview of a guideline for how learning occurs and how as teachers we can focus our lessons to this guideline. It is relevant in on-line education, as the on-line environment allows us to have different modes to provide information to our students. We can utilize everything from video to chat rooms.

Ann, do you have any tools or taxonomies that have helped you develop those questioning skills? And have you got any experience using the SOLO taxonomy?

I have not had experience with SOLO - Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes - but from the bit of investigation I have done, it is similiar to Bloom's in that it is based upon the notion that a studen'ts ability to grasp more abstract concepts, is based on more fundamental understandings and that you need to make sure you are not too advanced for where the student is. It reminds me of Piaget's concept that you can only learn something that is slightly more advanced than where you are (my paraphrase). As for my experience with help in developing questioning skills, which I feel is an excellent example of elearning, is that my company had us first take an interactive tutorial on Bloom's taxonomy. The "final" was taking a math problem and providing questions for each level of the taxonomy. We posted this on a dedicated discussion, with the teacher providing her response for everyone to see and learn from. We have since started another topic where teacher can post specific questions they are using and have tried and this will eventually be collected into a reference document. For example, one idea that was shared was that you after you have tested your student on a fundamental, you can ask them to give you a problem. My experience is that I often get back something I didn't expect. Like if adding decimels, they will return with a problem that might be in the millionths rather than the tenths. What I found most useful was not these specifics or having a question for each level, as much as the consciousness raising it did for me to think more creatively in helping the students. I have found that an elearning platform is very helpful in this regard. For example, they might take a lesson on adding or subtracting fractions and another on adding or subtracting decimels. I will then give them a problem in adding both - example - 1/2 + .25 = . By having an interactive whiteboard I can see how they convert the fraction to a decimal to add them and offer guidan

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"The 21st century is a world in constant change. In A New Culture of Learning, Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown pursue an understanding of how the forces of change, and emerging waves of interest associated with these forces, inspire and invite us to imagine a future of learning that is as powerful as it is optimistic."

Mary Ann - do try to view the video interviews of Seely Brown & Thomas- very eloquent and thought provoking! The underlying message of this book has truly captured my imagination. Thank you, Jennifer, for sharing this. Some of my biases and hesitations about educators "competing" w/internet, social media learning are being challenged (I love this!) I'm beginning to understand the potential if you view knowledge the way JS Brown does - "information in flux." For educators, its about recognizing our change in role, how we frame or present information, and most important, how we allow our students to "play" with new information and the dispositions for learning we foster. Brown states, " . . . the role of educators needs to shift away from being expert in a particular area of knowledge, to becoming expert in the ability to create and shape new learning environments." For those of us who work with educators in K-12, this will be harder to articulate and sell, but I am excited by the thought. I totally agree with JS Brown, this is a major issue and calling for public ed. especially in the 21st Century. Jennifer, what is the best way for us to purchase this publication? On-line? Amazon? and do we get a student discount?

Helen, I hadn't thought that far ahead! I'll see if the bookstore can order things at a discount. I usually put things on reserve at my local library. If they don't have them, there's a form to order them. When I buy books, I always end up giving them away.

Lawrence Lessig EDUCAUSE09 keynote, November 5, 2009, Denver, a remix building upon lecture at Tokyo University. While we're finding our role in teaching and learning, I think it's important to recognize some of the cultural movements that will influence our professional practice.

A excellent case is made by Johanna Blakely for not having copyright protections on creative work. In this TED TALK she talks about the fact that the fashion industry has trademark protections for logos, but not clothing design - leading to many economic benefits for the entire industry. Here are a few interesting observations from her presentation: The reason the fashion industry doesn't have any copyright protection is that the courts decided long ago is that apparel is too utilitarian to qualify for copyright protection. They didn't want a handful of designers owning the seminal building blocks of our clothing. Somebody would have to license this cuff or this sleeve, because Joe Blow owns it. Because there is no copyright protection within this industry, there is a very open ecology of creative activity. Fashion designers can sample from all of their peers designs - they can take any element from any garment in the history of fashion, and incorporate it into their own design. As a result of this high level of continuing innovation, world wide fashion trends are quickly transmitted worldwide, and the entire fashion industry thrives. Blakely calls it one of the magical side effects of having a culture of copying.

I should amend this last comment to say that I'm recommending this for all kinds of creative work - there should some protections in place. However, I would advocate a shorter copyright period than the current 90 years past the death of the creator. Sonny Bono, a former entertainer (Sonny and Cher) and congressman from Los Angeles who was a staunch advocate of extended copyright thought that intellectual property protections should last "forever less a day". At the time of Thomas Jefferson, copyright protection extended only 14 years past the date of creation.

Teaching on-line or in a classroom requires the ability to ask good questions. I found this article to be useful--I hope you will too.

I'm not opposed to a final project that involves students re-developing this course. It could even be a group project. (But I'd probably want to write about you and brag about you all to my friends!)

I posted Bloom's Taxonomy, which is a guideline for how people learn and how education should be targetted to that model. It is similiar to the types of questioning one does to reflect where we are in the learning process. I think the same is true of our course. We all seem to have through experience and past coursework some basic knowledge of on-line teaching and learning. My preference, I think, would be to have answers/discussion to some of the questions that are coming up, not just a list.

I started a thread in the student discussion area, but realize that this might be a more appropriate place to post. I agree with Downes that the on-line environment broadens the view of what a learner is, but it also brings up the issue of standardization and safety. Students working with a teacher on polar bears collaboratively is engaging and exciting, but how does this fit into education standards, for example.

I think part of the challenge is in overcoming ego, or our desire to confirm our own beliefs and stay in our comfort zones. Maybe we need to give students assignments to write about something completely off the wall, but find the sources to back it up. Then they can see how easy it is to confirm just about anything. I'll add some more resources on media literacy and see what everyone thinks.

I think confirming beliefs is wrong. If you start with a hypothsis and do not know what the answer will turn out to be, you can set aside your biases and research for an answer. Stats give you a way of looking at data. They are testable at the ratio level and the big T for truth never happens. Only the small t for the strength of the correlation between cause and effect.

Dan Meyer teaches high school math outside of Santa Cruz, CA, and explores the intersection of math instruction, multimedia, and inquiry-based learning. He received his Masters of Arts from the University of California at Davis in 2005 and Cable in the Classroom's Leader in Learning award in 2008. He currently works for Google as a curriculum fellow and lives with his wife in Santa Cruz, CA.

Like K. Robinson, Dan Meyer knows how to deliver his message with a sense of humor. I particularly like his suggestion that "the formula for the design of the problem is often more important than finding the answer." Math teachers need to first redesign the problem itself. As an advocate for integrating the arts, using multi-media and videos to teach math concepts and thinking strategies could certainly help to engage the learner. However, watching elementary teachers work with their students (WASL prep) on breaking down a written math problem is an important learning strategy. Seems to me, this deciphering skill has real-world applications, too! Guess I'm "on the fence" about his message.

The articulation of math education by "economics" - i.e., our students who are the next generation need to learn math process skills (he separates out this reasoning from math computation) are not relating to government-mandated math education. By use of visuals, he illustrates how to better engage the student in that process, using an example of a ski-lift to explain slope or a curve. I was thinking that internet education could easily be adapated to this, where there are math problems that the students could individually be guided through problems like this.

My first "Behind the Scenes" reflection for the course.

An Interesting read.

When I was planning, I was reflecting on past experiences with that first week. It's always so hectic. It seems if you require the introductions and orientation and also expect engagement with materials, students become overwhelmed. I'm supporting instructors and students in 3 other courses right now. For those, we introduced new technology (Posterous) and expected introductions, a face to face meeting and engagement with the content. We had a lot of frustrated students and instructors, and several students dropped. (We had serious issues with Posterous.) The slower start allowed me to send more messages to the group and work individually with people who contacted me outside the course.

"This video was produced as a contribution to the EDUCAUSE book, The Tower and the Cloud: Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing, edited by Richard Katz and available as an e-Book at http://www.educause.edu/thetowerandth... or commercially at http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0967... Produced in 2007 as a conversation starter in small groups. Released in 2011 as a conversation starter online."

Jennifer, Just to let you know... the two links in your first post in this thread to the Tower and the Cloud book are broken. I can find the Amazon link but not the Educause..

I cut and pasted that from the description under the video on Youtube. Have you tried clicking them on the video page to see if they work? I know some educause stuff requires membership.

Thought this might be of interest on the topic of copyright.

I don't think this problem would be so wide spread if the information as open. There is a lot being done to open materials to all students. We learned about this concept in Intro to eLearning. I have sent an example: http://www.curriculumcompanion.org/openCourt/index.cfm

We're going to do some experimentation with plagiarism. Stay tuned!

I started this over the summer while taking the first course for this certificate. Please feel free to follow my postings on blogger as we continue in this course.

My end of class reflection is located on my blog.

Thought I had posted this...to keep my blog in order, I post dated this to 2/28/11.