Group items tagged

"In a way, the current education system is already set up like a game-just not a very well designed one. Students earn points (grades), gain levels (grades), and in a way, have leaderboards. There are class valedictorians and students are essentially ranked based on their grades when colleges are deciding who to accept. Currently, the typical grading system in schools has students starting off with a 100 average, which slowly (or quickly, depending on the student's performance) gets lower and lower as the student receives anything less than a 100 on any assignments, tests, etc."

"Today, I'm going to tell you a fairy tale: Once upon a time, my mother in law (a third grade teacher) was in her classroom at school when her principal walked in and gave her an iPad for her class to use. Well, technically it was supposed to be for the entire third grade to share, but that's almost beside the point. After some initial excitement, she discussed how the entire third grade was supposed to share a single iPad with her fellow third grade teachers, and the iPad was promptly banished into a drawer, never to see the light of day again. The end."

"One of the things that I always do in my Google Apps workshops and webinars is teach people how to create self-grading quizzes through Google Forms and Spreadsheets. Depending upon the pace of the group we'll often look at creating image-based and multiple page quizzes too. I've recently put all of the screenshots of those processes into one PDF. You can view the PDF below. (If you are viewing this on an iPad, you might not be able to see the guide)."

"Here is a wonderful step by step guide on how teachers can use Google Drive iPad app to create, distribute, submit, grade and return assignments. The guide starts with setting up a Gmail for students and moves on to how students can create and share a folder with their teacher.It also provides examples on how teachers can create a class folder with a variety of subfolders. the next part covers how teachers can create and submit assignments using apps like iWork which allows students to open Google Drive and upload their assignments. Next is a section on how teachers can collect, grade and return students assignments."

"I argued yesterday that authentic learning is a vital part of education in the 21st Century. The need to create learning opportunities that are grounded in reality, and form a concrete basis for real world transferable knowledge and skills has never been more important. We also need authentic assessment for learning. Too often in school classrooms around the world the delivery of content is abstract, disconnected and decontextualised. Students are then regularly tested on their recall of what they have 'learnt' and graded as successes or failures. But exactly what is their success or failure? And what does this process of assessment teach students about the school system? Part of the problem is that content is delivered, with little opportunity for students to make personal sense of that content. Another problem is that students are then expected to replicate that 'knowledge' in a form that is recognisable as the original. Students are therefore learning exactly what is already known, rather than exploring new knowledge and gaining fresh insight on the world. "

"Hear the word "unconference," and you may frown your face in confusion at the meaning of the word. Conferences themselves are quite familiar for most K-12 teachers. Conferences are essentially professional development where you go sit in a room somewhere, follow a moderator's directions, and get lectured at for a bit - whether or not it relates to your subject or grade level. But what part does the participant play? Most often that of a tacit observer."

"MasteryConnect just released a new Next Generation Science Standards app on iOS and Android (the windows version comes out next week). Like MasteryConnect's Common Core State Standards app, the free science app is a great resource for teachers, parents, and students. The app is easy to navigate. You can search by grade level, topic or keyword. Encouraging integration, the new science app also makes referencing standards in the Common Core so easy."

"In early September, my sixth grade social studies students began playing the SimCityEDU beta. Around the same time, my seventh graders began playing a non-digital debate game -- complete with teams, a point system and a leaderboard. All of my students are rewarded for their growth and accomplishments with a digital badge system. After one month, I find that my students remain highly engaged in their learning. Gamifying my classroom has truly been transformative! "

"As a passionate Economics major in college (which grew into an MBA), I find Econ at the root of much of the world around us. It starts with counting coins in first and second grade and grows up to a peek into NASDAQ and other adult subjects in middle school."

"As the school doors swing open to welcome the start of another year, both teachers and students will have goals: to inspire a class, to learn new things, to get good grades. What probably won't be on that list is to make a mistake -- in fact many. But it should be. "

"The school has an unconventional take on the iPad's purpose. The devices are not really valued as portable screens or mobile gaming devices. Teachers I talked to seemed uninterested, almost dismissive, of animations and gamelike apps. Instead, the tablets were intended to be used as video cameras, audio recorders, and multimedia notebooks of individual students' creations. The teachers cared most about how the devices could capture moments that told stories about their students' experiences in school. Instead of focusing on what was coming out of the iPad, they were focused on what was going into it."