Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds is the third in a series of large-scale, nationally representative surveys by the Foundation about young people's media use. It found that the amount of time young people spend with entertainment media has risen dramatically, especially among minority youth. Today, 8-18 year-olds devote an average of 7 hours and 38 minutes (7:38) to using entertainment media across a typical day (more than 53 hours a week). And because they spend so much of that time 'media multitasking,' they actually manage to pack a total of 10 hours and 45 minutes (10:45) worth of media content into those 7½ hours.
Bottom line is that we will see learners becoming responsible to their peers, audiences, and communities for their learning. ..and that responsibility will not be based on a measure of their learning (how much or how well), but on what they have learned and what they can do with what they’ve learned.
The common habits of successful adult learners guides their completion of continuing education programs through dedication and will power. Success or failure rests squarely on their shoulders, and no one
else's. Their overall view is that any short-term sacrifice is well worth the effort, as long as long-term goals are met and success becomes a reality.
K12 Online Conference Sarah Sutter presented a great story of her classroom blogging experience. In the presentation Sarah covers everything from her first steps toward getting students blogging two years ago through today. If you're looking for ideas about using blogs in education, Sarah's presentation is well worth eighteen minutes of your time. You can find supporting materials for Sarah Sutter's K12 Online Conference presentation here.
But the final answer is worth the struggle. It reveals that the fastest path obeys a relationship known as Snell's law. What's spooky is that nature obeys it, too.
Snell's law describes how light rays bend when they pass from air into water, as they do when shining into a swimming pool....
The eerie point is that light behaves as if it were considering all possible paths and automatically taking the best one. Nature - cue the theme from "The Twilight Zone" - somehow knows calculus.
For those who teach Greek Mythology, you can now watch Jim Henson's The Storyteller on-line. We've been watching this on Netflix over the weekend and my children have been enthralled with stories from ancient mythology. It is a well worth piece. The only note is that in the trailer for one of the episodes there was a tad bit of nudity (sort of) - one of those things to just make sure you screen to make sure it isn't there. It was on the Icarus and DEadelus movie, however, if you fast forward past the intro it shouldn't be a problem.
For those that don't work with an LMS, Engrade looks like a fine tool for educators. It integrates some interesting power tools. Discussions, wikis, quizzes, messaging. This might be an LMS substitute for those teachers looking for a free blended tech solution. Worth investigating!
In traditional classrooms the teacher is seen as the information
giver; knowledge flows only one way from teacher to student. In contrast,
the methods used in a collaborative
classroom emphasize shared knowledge and decision making.
Teachers may have a great deal of difficulty learning how to share control
of instruction with students.
helping students make their own decisions will conflict
with some teachers' learned experiences as well as their feelings about
being in charge.
For some teachers
this is a most difficult challenge
Similarly, students who are used to relying on teachers to give them
so much structure, direction and information will have to learn to start
asking themselves
"What can I do before I ask an adult?"
Some psychologists point out that fostering self-determination
and personal efficacy can conflict with our goals for collaborative work
(Sigel) unless we find ways to mold both goals into our instructional programs
self-direction can refer
not only to the individual but to a group, a class of students, that decides
upon goals, designs strategies and collaboratively evaluates progress on
a group basis. As Vygotsky (1978) notes,
learning to think occurs within
a social context; group speech gradually becomes internalized as personal
self-talk about confronting life's difficult, complex situations.
Finally, personal efficacy means taking control of one's destiny
school restructuring and change
Some critics (Apple, 1979) suggest that
schools help students reproduce knowledge of a dominant social, economic
class, and not engage in producing for their own knowledge.
Further, many parents are concerned that a reorientation toward student
self-direction and personal efficacy will diminish the influence of home
and school and inadequately prepare students for the work force.
#TEDActiveEDU How can we empower kids to reshape the education system? Fantastic idea worth spreading started by Steve Hargadon on March 3, 2011 calling students to action in speaking up about their education.
Our Flat Classroom Keynote from Mount Carmel Area High School "Student Perspective ~ Change Matters" was one of the top 10 videos.
In a recent post about Tuition-Free Education Courses for Teachers, I pointed out a number of online education courses that are free to self-learners around the world. Most of these courses are provided through well-known colleges and universities. While these courses are an excellent way to broaden your knowledge of specific topics, they aren't the only sources of free teacher education on the web. There are many other organizations that provide tuition-free education courses to teachers. A few more worth checking out include:
Virtual field trips and videos are on this website which guarantees that videos are "kid friendly educational videos." May be worth using if youtube is blocked.
You may have heard the news last week that Articulate launched a new screencasting tool called Screenr. It is a free web-based tool that lets you create screencasts without installing any software.
My favorite…there’s no branding on the downloaded MP4 files. Since you can download the videos, you’re free to use them as you wish. That means you can use it in your elearning courses without looking like one of those MLS soccer players. Go Sounders!
And of course, Screenr is free. Free is always good.