Group items tagged

"12 Reasons Teachers should use Diigo"

"Abstract Many people believe renewable energy sources to be capable of substituting fossil or nuclear energy. However there exist very few scientifically sound studies, which apply due diligence to substantiating this impression. In the present paper, the case of photovoltaic power sources in regions of moderate insolation is analysed critically by using the concept of Energy Return on Energy Invested (ERoEI, also called EROI). But the methodology for calculating the ERoEI differs greatly from author-to-author. The main differences between solar PV Systems are between the current ERoEI and what is called the extended ERoEI (ERoEI EXT). The current methodology recommended by the International Energy Agency is not strictly applicable for comparing photovoltaic (PV) power generation with other systems. The main reasons are due to the fact that on one hand, solar electricity is very material-intensive, labour-intensive and capital-intensive and on the other hand the solar radiation exhibits a rather low power density."

"1. Blogging enables reflection. This is true for both students and educators. Too often do we go through our days, class to class, with minimal opportunities for reflection on our experiences or the information that we have acquired along the way. Blogging offers the opportunity to take a step back and connect with our learning and place it in the context of the bigger picture. Make reflection an assignment or part of another assignment - it is an important component to learning. For students: This is not the easiest thing to accomplish - blogging takes time and that is a finite resource during a busy class period. There is great opportunity in academic support periods or advisory classes for students (particularly in 1:1 schools) to blog. Many advisory classes take place throughout the day, which is a great break point for students to create based on their learning from that day. For teachers: This type of reflection can and should be compiled into your lesson planning for future lessons. Take what you learned from teaching and learning that day and incorporate it into the next day's lessons. Find time to do this during a conference period during your day or right after school. Yes, it is tough to get in the habit of doing a new thing - but once you start using reflection through blogging, I think that your lesson planning will be easier and much more meaningful. 2. Develop an Authentic Audience An authentic audience is a great way to increase rigor and in all of my experiences has led to increased performance by students. Authentic audiences in blogging could mean any number of things - family members, students from other classes, students from other buildings, other teachers, individuals interested in the content from around the world, etc. A student knowing that their work may be seen by people other than what they consider their 'typical audience' (read: teacher) typically spends more time and exerts more effort to creating a quality p

Artículo en inglés... "Mobile devices as teaching tools are becoming a more and more common part of the American education experience in classrooms, from preschool through graduate school. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 58% of U.S. teachers own smartphones - 10 percentage points higher than the national average for adults. Those teachers are building that tech-savviness into their lesson plans, too, by embracing bring-your-own-device policies and leading the push for an iPad for every student. In 2013, an estimated 25% of U.S. schools had BYOD policies in place and it's reasonable to assume those numbers have risen in the past two years. ..."

"It seems only fitting to explore the role of questions in education by asking questions about the process of doing so. I propose that we start with the customary way of framing this topic and then proceed to questions that are deeper and potentially more subversive of traditional schooling. 1. WHICH QUESTIONS? To begin, let's consider what we might ask our students. The least interesting questions are those with straightforward factual answers. That's why a number of writers have encouraged the use of questions described variously as "true" (Wolf, 1987), "essential" (Simon, 2002), "generative" (Perkins, 1992; Perrone, 1998), "guiding" (Traver, 1998), or "fertile" (Harpaz & Lefstein, 2000). What the best of these share is that they're open-ended. Sometimes, in fact, no definitive right answer can be found at all. And even when there is one - or at least when there is reason to prefer some responses to others - the answer isn't obvious and can't be summarized in a sentence. Why is it so hard to find a cure for cancer? Do numbers ever end? Why do people lie? Why did we invade Vietnam? Grappling with meaty questions like these (which were among those generated by a class in Plainview, NY) is a real project . . . literally. A question-based approach to teaching tends to shade into learning that is problem- (Delisle, 1997) and project-based (Kilpatrick, 1918; Blumenfeld et al., 1991; Wolk, 1998). Intellectual proficiency is strengthened as students figure out how to do justice to a rich question. As they investigate and come to understand important ideas more fully, new questions arise along with better ways of asking them, and the learning spirals upwards. Guiding students through this process is not a technique that can be stapled onto our existing pedagogy, nor is it something that teachers can be trained to master during an in-service day. What's required is a continual focus on creating a classroom that is about thinking rather

"Burden of Poverty Lacking money or time can lead one to make poorer decisions, possibly because poverty imposes a cognitive load that saps attention and reduces effort. Mani et al. (p. 976; see the Perspective by Vohs) gathered evidence from shoppers in a New Jersey mall and from farmers in Tamil Nadu, India. They found that considering a projected financial decision, such as how to pay for a car repair, affects people's performance on unrelated spatial and reasoning tasks. Lower-income individuals performed poorly if the repairs were expensive but did fine if the cost was low, whereas higher-income individuals performed well in both conditions, as if the projected financial burden imposed no cognitive pressure. Similarly, the sugarcane farmers from Tamil Nadu performed these tasks better after harvest than before. Abstract The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this hypothesis. First, we experimentally induced thoughts about finances and found that this reduces cognitive performance among poor but not in well-off participants. Second, we examined the cognitive function of farmers over the planting cycle. We found that the same farmer shows diminished cognitive performance before harvest, when poor, as compared with after harvest, when rich. This cannot be explained by differences in time available, nutrition, or work effort. Nor can it be explained with stress: Although farmers do show more stress before harvest, that does not account for diminished cognitive performance. Instead, it appears that poverty itself reduces cognitive capacity. We suggest that this is because poverty-related concerns consume mental resources, leaving less for other tasks. These data provide a previously unexamined perspective and help explain a spectrum of behaviors among the poor. We discuss some implications for poverty policy."

"France plans to outlaw the destruction of unsold consumer products, a practice that currently results in the disposal of new goods worth 800 million euros, or more than $900 million, in the country each year. By 2023, manufacturers and retailers will have to donate, reuse or recycle the goods, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe said on Tuesday of the measure, which the government billed as the first of its kind. "It is waste that defies reason," Mr. Philippe said at a discount store in Paris, according to Agence France-Presse, and he called the practice "scandalous." Under a new measure that will be part of a bill set to be debated by the government in July, destroying unsold goods could result in financial penalties or prison time. The practice - widespread across the retail and consumer industry as a way to free up warehouse space or prevent unwanted items from being sold at a significant discount - has received bad press in France recently. ..."

"Visible mending (VM) is different from traditional mending in that it makes the repair a focal point, rather than blending it into the original garment. There are many reasons for this, from drawing attention to the fact that a garment's lifespan has been prolonged and challenging the notion that secondhand clothes are only worn by the poor, to making a statement about fast fashion's reputation for disintegration or simply adding a personalized touch. "

(luego las problematizamos) "Flexibilidad horaria. Facilidad de acceso. Reducción de costes. Contenidos actualizados. Infinidad de oportunidades de formación. Introducción a las nuevas tecnologías. Networking."

"Hace días en una de las charlas a profesores aula, los docentes compartían sus mayores dificultades en la sala del siglo XXI. Una que era común a todos, era la resistencia general de los niños a investigar, aprender, trabajar lo que ya se encuentra en Google. ¿Por qué hacer lo que ya está? ¿Por qué crear lo que puedo encontrar en la web y en tantas versiones como un alumno podría soñar? A lo que se le sumaba la doble tarea que significaba evaluar las fuentes que habían utilizado los niños o el porcentaje de copy/paste que habían incorporado. La tarea era cuesta arriba, primero motivarlos, luego pasar horas eternas evaluando y contrastando en la web, la originalidad del trabajo. Obviamente la respuesta fue clara, si no establecen el aprendizaje como un desafío continuo, tendrán en el aula hábiles boicoteadores. Los Hijos de la Tecnología viven, navegan y existen en la Internet, por ende dominan todo lo que en ella sucede y ante el mínimo esfuerzo, usarán lo que se encuentra en ella para luego compartirlo con sus pares. Son prácticos, optimizan su tiempo y asumen que todo lo que no les aporta es un mero trámite que es necesario cumplir. Desarrollar nuevas estrategias de aprendizaje son existenciales tanto como comprender que en la sala de clases hay nuevos niños que piensan, crean y comparten de manera diametralmente diferente que hace décadas atrás. ¿Qué hacer? Proponer nuevos espacios de aprendizaje. Hace años opté por el mundo digital ocupando plataformas, blogs, redes, donde no solo publico todos los contendidos a trabajar en el año, también las evaluaciones y recursos digitales para que los padres participen. Versiones diferentes para cada tema, dependiendo de las habilidades y competencias naturales de los alumnos. Dejarlo liderar, cooperar, alimentar su senda de crecimiento personal. Hace mucho tiempo deje de ser quien protagoniza la clase, si alguien ingresara a ella, vería una colmena en acción, donde a lo más soy

"Y esto, ¿para qué sirve? No es de extrañar que cuando estamos explicando un tema escuchemos en numerosas ocasiones la siguiente frase: "Y esto, ¿para qué sirve?" En principio, estas palabras nos deberían causar orgullo. El alumno/a se interesa por el sentido práctico de aquello que estudia, busca con interés la utilidad de la teoría. ... Por ello, entiendo que la búsqueda de la experiencia es fundamental en todo proceso de aprendizaje. No obstante, debemos matizar a la hora de construir discurso. Educamos para el cambio y el cambio implica imaginación. Imaginar aquello que aún no existe. Aprender a ser creativos, innovadores, supone también escapar de este mundo, soñar con la diferencia. Muchas veces, aquello que no tiene sentido práctico hoy sirve para construir en nuestro imaginario otra manera de entender esta realidad. Muchas veces solo sirve para entender que no sirve para nada. Y así, termino con una frase de Fernando Pessoa que dice "la literatura es la prueba evidente de que la vida no basta"."