The focus of the collaborative
learning community is learning - learning where students are
actively demonstrating their understanding, rather than students passing written
tests as the sole sign of knowing. Learning, that is based on conceptual
understanding and the ability to apply this knowledge in a variety of contexts,
is a primary goal within a collaborative learning community. It is a new way of
thinking for most educators (and the public) to know that all students can and
will learn, that learning needs to be demonstrated, that it is important to
learn not only facts, but also conceptual relationships of ideas and the
processes and positive attitudes of learning. There is much talk about thinking
and problem-solving skills, multiple intelligences, learning styles and
fostering creativity; yet, implementation of these ideas are often relegated to
separate programs. They have not yet been embedded in each and everything that
is taught. Putting the focus on student learning, rather than teacher telling or
"covering the content", means (1) students take responsibility for their own
learning, (2) learning experiences are geared to students' interests and needs,
(3) students are actively engaged in learning in a variety of groups and
contexts, and (4) learning is understood, applied and internalized.
If you use a smartboard and live it or love it, but are not able to get one in the room with you full time this is a link for you. You can submit a lesson to smart and if you win you will get a prize package of $12,000 of goods.
Click on the scalpel and follow the directions to virtually dissect a human eye. After each step, students will need to place the part of the eye removed in the correct grid spot. This hurts me to do even virtually...but it is pretty neat!
David Warlick talks about how education could change if we would let it. The things we do not like now are the things that may power the classroom of tomorrow.
Why text is only one path directed. Please share the video in the blog, because it show how textbook do not carry students' interests in mind. Also may hopefully change the mind of some teachers to get out of the text and to look another places.
Looking for a different tool look at this map. I like the tool to show students cycles of things. The one that is linked in of web 2.0 apps setup by types. This link is one that I created using the program, http://www.mindmeister.com/18887812. You also can share it, export as PDF, and Embed in to your site.
Create a legitimate gmail account at http://mail.google.com/. (e.g. username@gmail.com). Then, you can use that base account to "trick" web applications that require e-mail address to create user accounts. The way it works is that you add a + and a student name/alias after the gmail user name (e.g. username+sara@gmail.com, username+tom@gmail.com, username+chris@gmail.com, etc.)
I literally, just stumbled across this. I'm not vouching for its use at school just yet until I fully understand it. BUT it's one of the coolest things I have seen lately.