Group items tagged

In 2002, The No Child Left Behind Act said that students should be technologically literate by the end of the 8th grade. Texas developed a long list of specific technology skills students should know, but nobody has required that students learn them. "We have a difficult time finding the time for the students to be taught these technology skills since teachers have to focus on preparing students for the TAKS test," said Mark Gabehart, AISD's technology chief.

Executive Summary of Book about teaching the digital native

Generally adults help young people learn to drive safely before giving them car keys and turning them loose on the streets of the world. Young people also need guidance and adult assistance to learn how to safely navigate the virtual environments of the 21st Century. Schools must be proactive, rather than merely defensive, in helping students acquire the skills of digital citizenship needed today and in the future. Simply banning read/write web tools on school networks is an inadequate response: Educators must strive to learn alongside students and parents how these technologies can be safely and powerfully used to communicate and collaborate.

Navigating the Digital Rapids written by Julie Lindsay and I about 21st Century Skills and @netgened and @digiteen. One of the points in this article, I'd like to repeat on this bookmark and my blog: "Teachers who avoid customization often claim they cannot customize and meet standards at the same time. But meeting standardized learning outcomes does not mean you have to standardize the process. In fact, if you involve students in student-centered, globally connected projects, each student's learning experience becomes markedly different, and each classroom becomes as unique as the students and teachers who learn there. A customized classroom and national standards can coexist and lead to rich learning." Read and let me know if you have questions!

We combine performance evaluation with a series mastery quizzes to lock in the essential concepts delivered by the tutorials. As an educator you'll have access to performance evaluation and mastery quiz data. You'll have an online record of each student's performance that can be downloaded for data analysis.

This is my first question if I know every kid has a device: "What should the student learning experience be?" That's a question that can be addressed through design. And like any design provocation, you begin by deeply understanding the needs of humans first, in this case, the learner. And then you make sense of that, you find what you want to design around by developing a set of design drivers (such as skills, habits of the mind, the physical and digital learning spaces, etc.) and then you ideate, ideate and ideate. Ask a second, third, fourth question … Yes … and … what if … how might we? Ask those questions. Prototype an experience, put it out there, find out what works, what doesn't, and refine and adjust. Make it better. Place the student and the learning at the center of the first question that you ask. Make it about them and what they should experience in your school as a learner. Don't make it about whether or not the device supports Shockwave.

Retired math teacher who has a model that tries to answer your question. Suggestions welcome. http://www.textbooksfree.org/Educating%20the%20Class%20of%202030.htm

Two studies were released in an attempt to "quantify the benefits of mobile technology in education and the infrastructure needed..." In these students students had tablets and Internet access at home and at school. Of course, I'm not sure that it is tablet computers that give benefits, Internet access, cloud computing, or a combination, but I'm sure these studies will be touted by many far and wide. Of course, remember if they had strapped the tablets to the kid''s back and hadn't used them - they would have had lower scores. All improvement is all in how technology is being USED to teach. "The studies put Android tablets in the hands of students and their teachers in two schools - eighth-graders at Stone Middle School in Fairfax County Public Schools and fifth-graders at Falconer Elementary School in Chicago Public Schools - and provided wireless access to the students both in school and away from school. (The devices were HTC Evo tablets.) Researchers then followed the students' activities over the course of a year, with the aim of evaluating "how access to these devices for communication with teachers and classmates increases comfort with technology, extends the learning day, and allows students to develop digital citizenship skills within a safe and secure learning environment.""

"Our investigations have shown that social software tools support a variety of ways of learning: sharing of resources (eg bookmarks, photographs), collaborative learning, problem-based and inquiry-based learning, reflective learning, and peer-to-peer learning. Students gain transferable skills of team working, online collaboration, negotiation, and communication, individual and group reflection, and managing digital identities."

Speakaboos brings classic children's entertainment into a digital world. Beloved characters and treasured stories are given new life through amazing celebrity performances, beautiful illustrations, and original music. At Speakaboos, children develop literacy skills while learning about technology in a safe and fun environment.

Use this website to create, read, and share digital books and build reading skills in students. The books you build will be universally designed and accessible -- elementary teachers should be all over this super cool resource.

"The mission of the library media program is to ensure that students, staff, and community have access to and possess the knowledge and skills to effectively use information in both print and digital formats. Library media center initiatives support and foster life-long learning." (Nice library page!)

The Multiplication Tool supports the teaching and learning of multi-digit multiplication, a critical elementary math skill that many students have difficulty mastering, but which is essential to success in middle and high school mathematics and beyond.

"While every school knows the importance of safeguarding in our digital world, it's also important that they know and understand the most effective strategies to help safeguard their pupils online, both in and out of the classroom. The UK Council for Child Internet Safety (UKCCIS), have recently launched a framework which aims to highlight, across all key stages, the skills and knowledge children should have in order to feel safe, and act responsibly, online so that they are able to enjoy the online world."

Although this lecture by the futurists from Info Savvy Group is dated 2006 it is an essential and clearcut distillation of current issues for teachers of youth in the classroom. The Info Savvy website-CommittedSardine has plenty other free resources, I located this elsewhere as you can see. http://www.committedsardine.com/handouts.cfm

This site transforms your computer into a music mixer and your students can make music mixes on the web and practise their DJ skills. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Music%2C+Sound+%26+Podcasts

Stimulating critical thinking using technology has the potential to create more in depth understanding of science and math content by students when engaged in learning activities which integrate in-class and on-line technology resources. Technology tools support stimulation of both inquiry-based and critical thinking skills by engaging students in exploring, thinking, reading, writing, researching, inventing, problem-solving, and experiencing the world outside their classroom. This is accomplished through learning content through the lens of video to multimedia to the internet (Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement, NCREL, 2005).

Article by Wil Richardson on Collaboration

Science and gaming

Science and gaming