"Finland's Pasi Sahlberg is one of the world's leading experts on school reform and the author of the best-selling "Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn About Educational Change in Finland?" In this piece he writes about whether the emphasis that American school reformers put on "teacher effectiveness" is really the best approach to improving student achievement."
This article brings forth some challenges to some of the things we assume in the U.S. that make for success in our schools. With the CCSS, this discussion becomes even more relevant.
"NY Times writers collaborated with the Common Sense Media writer Kelly Schryver to focus on the increasingly important and nuanced question "Who Are You Online?" Times and Learning Network content as well as offerings from Common Sense Media's K-12 Digital Literacy and Citizenship curriculum for teaching and learning about this complex issue." Lots of avenues to take this material in working with students.
Catlin Tucker, Honors English teacher, shares: "The SAMR model (substitution, augmentation, modification and redefinition) explores the impact of integrating technology on both teaching and learning. It attempts to outline a progression that educators follow in their journey towards redefining teaching and learning with technology. I've used this model as a guide to identify where a particular lesson or activity falls on the spectrum of technology integration, but it does not reflect the teacher's evolution." Read the rest of her post.
"ames are infiltrating every aspect of daily life - and everyone's now a gamer, in one form or another. Early-on "gamification" involved adding simple game mechanics like points, badges and leaderboards to websites and apps. But that's not what makes games truly compelling. Good games take players on a journey, giving them something to learn, master and share. Gamification 2.0 is about creating game-like digital services that shape real-world behavior and deliver deep value to players, -- using a blend of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations. In this talk, we'll do a teardown of the biggest and most influential social gaming services, and distill those lessons into these Seven Core Concepts for Smart Gamification.
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Does your research teaching embrace the 21st century learner? This blog post has great information/lessons on strategies for helping students curate (finding/evaluating/managing) information.
"An infopic is a photo with text layered on top that is designed to communicate a message. The message might be a summary, quote, definition, notes, data, weblink, hashtag, or other informational tidbits. The information might come from a conference, workshop, activity, lesson, video, book, a conversation, etc. Your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Google Plus are great places to share infopics." Tony shares how to create infopic in a great video. He is an amazing teacher!
Anyone receiving a text or photo can use their 10 seconds to capture a "screenshot,
"It's not anything that every parent and grandparent hasn't already seen," Harkness said. The problem, he adds, is the actions "get documented, replayed and sent around," and kids "forget how fast it moves and how far it goes."
some of the new social networking sites have become ripe targets for spreading malware and propagating scams.
Also worth noting is that almost every mobile app available collects some kind of personal data, such as a person's birthdate or the location of their phone, and shares that information with third parties for marketing purposes
Several consumer advocates actually recommend exposing their kids to social media sites earlier than age 12, when they're more receptive to hearing lessons about online etiquette and safety.
Levey links her kids' devices to her iTunes account so she's aware of any program they download.
Federal Trade Commission's guide to talking to kids about being online: http://1.usa.gov/PWkwfp
"Will you ever just walk into class and ask, "Okay, what do you want to study today?" Of course not. Inquiry-based learning is founded on students taking the lead in their own learning, but it still requires considerable planning on your part. Projects must fit into your larger program structure, goals and plans, but the students will be actively involved in planning the projects with you and asking the questions that launch their individual inquiries."
In thinking about PBL and other inquiry-based learning, this post and the graphic of the inquiry process are easy to connect with.