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Following increasing amount of disruptive technologies in Higher Ed, and announcement of MIT/Harvard EdX platform, author claims to check in with students. Does not really live up to the title (as he does not write enough about conversations with students), but it is a question that does need to be asked. Here is part one of "Did Anyone Ask the Students?" http://chronicle.com/blogs/next/2012/05/01/did-anyone-ask-the-students-part-i/

This article talks about a participatory design initiative with undergraduates at Utah State University to determine how higher education could be transformed into a more engaging and cohesive experience. "What if we put students in the driver's seat of a new kind of R&D to transform higher education? One that provided a platform for engaging students more fully in a real world effort that also involved faculty, administrators, support services and more?"

A new program will allow students to help their teachers better integrate technology in the classroom. As mentioned in the article, this will help students develop technology and critical thinking skills along with communication and service learning.

One of the most powerful classroom management strategies available to teachers is the provision of learning activities which actively engage students during the lesson. When students arrive at the lesson in a motivated state, eager to take part -- and then apply themselves to a given task - there is far less likelihood that their behaviour will become a problem. Like most teachers, you have probably tried a wide range of student engagement and motivation strategies to deal with disruptive students but if you are looking for a reliable SYSTEM which has been proven to raise motivation and engagement levels among the most uninterested, dispassionate learners, you'll love this video series. In this first video, Rob Plevin from Behaviour Needs Ltd explains two reasons WHY it is important to engage your students during lessons. There are hidden benefits to ensuring your students are motivated and engaged during learning activities -- as the video shows.

Duke's entrance into the MOOC space with a course on Bioelectricity. Participation peaked at 1000 students per week. 12,000 students enrolled from 100 countries. The educational range of students varied greatly. 313 students successfully completed the course.

States use simulations to assess science skills and students seemed to "enjoy playing with the computers and took quickly to the assessment." A costly option, but goals to have all students complete computer-based tasks as part of Common Core assessments by 2014. NOTE: This article just scratches the surface of actual results, but for more commentary about this year's results take a look at: "NAEP Reveals Shallow Grasp of Science" http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2012/06/19/36naep.h31.html?tkn=VLPFYOoO%2Fh6K0gBMoWRnkBNKB%2B3NDBvfmvWl&cmp=ENL-EU-NEWS1 It will be important to watch if/how computer simulations help students explain or justify their responses and apply concrete knowledge to real-life scientific scenarios.

This blurb announces a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop software tools that detect student engagement while using educational software--and use the data to improve learning. "To study engagement, robust learning, and emotion in real classrooms, [Ryan S.J.d. Baker's] research combines quantitative field observations of student behavior while using educational software with data mining to detect patterns in the ways students tackle the tasks that [his educational] software presents."

This article suggests lessons that other teachers can learn from jazz teachers in motivating students and talks about the social, constructivist, and personal aspects of jazz that make it a passion for students who may otherwise be uninterested in school. "Students need to be doing something every day to demonstrate their learning."

This article examines k-8 schools vs gr6-8 middle schools. Middle schoolers possibly struggle with the relatedness aspect of motivation when they lack leadership roles for younger students. ". We do, however, find suggestive evidence that the overall climate for student learning is worse in middle schools than in schools that serve students from elementary school through the 8th grade. This suggests a final potential interpretation of our results that is directly related to the choice of grade configuration: students may benefit from being among the oldest students in a school setting that includes very young students, perhaps because they have greater opportunity to take on leadership roles."

I think vocational schools give students the means for making time spent in school relevant and useful to them. They pursue an interest and see it connected to a relevant future. In the current age where interdisciplinary work is the norm, jobs are mutable, and careers are evolutionary, vocational education is no longer preparing students for a job or career; just their first one.

I completely agree! I have a good friend who dropped out of high school, earned his GED the same week, and went on to a technical vocational school to study IT/systems management. Turned out that once he got to the vocational school, he became the top student in most of his classes, and well-known for staying after class to engage instructors in intellectual debate. I find it disappointing that our society tends to devalue vocational schools; it seems to me that we should instead be focusing on what fits each student best.

Students at the Center Project Explores How Students Learn Best--Reports on Enhancing Literacy and on Math Instruction for Minorities also Released New educational technologies offer exciting ways to help teachers adapt classrooms to the interests, needs, and strengths of individual students, but they cannot replace the crucial creative and emotional work of teachers, according to a new research paper from the ambitious interdisciplinary project, Students at the Center: Teaching and Learning in the Era of the Common Core.

Interesting study on rewards and motivation: Some excerpts - Rewards worked much better if they were given to students before the test, not after. Researchers found students worked significantly harder to keep what they had than they did to win something new. But none of the incentives worked at any age if students knew they wouldn't get the reward for a month. "All motivating power of the incentives vanishes when rewards are handed out with a delay," the researchers concluded. "Especially among children, the difference between right now and tomorrow is a big difference," Ms. Sadoff said. "For all students it's important that the reward be immediate." That impatience creates a massive problem for incentive programs based on state test results, which can often take months to turn around.

Thanks for this Kasthuri! This gives additional strength to the immediacy of digital rewards and students having access to their own "stats" (both potentially available in games and simulations). The thought of actual green-back monetary rewards for study/learning gives me the heebie-jeebies. I appreciated Alexandra M. Usher's comment, that "it's really important to reward inputs, not outputs [and] to reward behavior that kids can control, rather than just telling them to get better grades."

One school using video game design to engage students.

Education Week PD Webinars (yes, there is a fee to register). > Developing Intrinsic Motivation in Students with Chris Wejr and Larry Ferlazzo March 5, 2013 at 4pm ET > Intentional Teaching: Infusing Instruction With Purpose with Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey March 20, 2013 at 2pm ET >Daniel Pink on How Teachers Can 'Sell' More to Students April 9, 2013 at 2pm ET

Texting With Teachers Keeps Students in Class | A look at how using mobile phones can help build relationships between students and teachers and improve student attendance.

Since college recruiters know that only a small percentage of students open email, Ohio State is planning to let prospective students get in touch directly with current students via IM, email or phone.