Learner Focused

Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation -- so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

Every child in America deserves an education that prepares them for success in college and careers and a rich, fulfilling life. Unfortunately, our antiquated school calendar is too limiting to provide millions of children with the breadth and depth of educational experiences they will need to thrive.

Individuals bring a huge variety of skills, needs, and interests to learning. Neuroscience reveals that these differences are as varied and unique as our DNA or fingerprints. Three primary brain networks come into play:

"How Motivation Affects Learning and Behavior "

TEDxEnola, an independently organized full day event held on February 1, 2012 focused on 21st Century education reform with a focus on cutting edge brain research topics and strategies. National experts from the field shared ideas and research about the critical need for brain centered learning envirionments in today's schools. A "one size fits all" instructional approach will not work for the today's diverse learners. Learn how to engage your students with brain based and innovative 21st Century instructional strategies that work.

Michael Merzenich studies neuroplasticity -- the brain's powerful ability to change itself and adapt -- and ways we might make use of that plasticity to heal injured brains and enhance the skills in healthy ones.

""ClassDojo makes it easy to keep my students alert and on-task.""

"Ames (1992), Lepper and Hodell (1989) suggest some strategies to increase students' classroom motivation. Turner and Paris (1995) term these the Six C's of Motivation: choice, challenge, control, collaboration, constructing meaning, and consequences. As we apply the Six C's of Motivation to instructional design it is important to remember that these strategies are extremely flexible and can be modified and adapted as needed. "

"This site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people's behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it's change for the better."

Free resource of educational web tools, 21st century skills, tips and tutorials on how teachers and students integrate technology into education

This post is 1st in a 3 part series on the topic of group work in online learning communities. Post 2 will be about strategies for effective group work, and post 3, successful evaluation and outcomes . Group work.

Presentations, printables and posters for Bloom's Taxonomy

Google Tools to Support Bloom's Revised Taxonomy

Questions aligned to Blooms (older version) for higher order thinking.

Gallery Walk involves preparing questions based around a lecture's central concept, issue, or debate. The wording of the question depends on the desired learning skill or level of abstraction. A variety of questions can be used but the technique seems to work best with higher order questions relating to analysis, evaluation, and synthesis.

"Bloom's Revised Taxonomy In the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised Bloom's Taxonomy and published this- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy in 2001.Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy. They are arranged below in increasing order, from low to high."

"This is a table looking at traditional classroom practice and potential digital alternatives."