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Excellent tips on designing learning interactions with relevant and potentially risky on the job challenges as the subject matter

Beautiful flower of social pedagogies to illustrate what teachers design for and what students experience

by Derek Bruff, November 6, 2011. The best justification of the Innovation Lab premise that I have seen. "Sharing student work on a course blog is an example of what Randall Bass and Heidi Elmendorf, of Georgetown University, call "social pedagogies." They define these as "design approaches for teaching and learning that engage students with what we might call an 'authentic audience' (other than the teacher), where the representation of knowledge for an audience is absolutely central to the construction of knowledge in a course."" Often our students engage in what Ken Bain, vice provost and a historian at Montclair State University, calls strategic or surface learning, instead of the deep learning experiences we want them to have. Deep learning is hard work, and students need to be well motivated in order to pursue it. Extrinsic factors like grades aren't sufficient-they motivate competitive students toward strategic learning and risk-averse students to surface learning. Social pedagogies provide a way to tap into a set of intrinsic motivations that we often overlook: people's desire to be part of a community and to share what they know with that community. My students might not see the beauty and power of mathematics, but they can look forward to participating in a community effort to learn about math. Online, social pedagogies can play an important role in creating such a community. These are strong motivators, and we can make use of them in the courses we teach.

On blip.tv. A series of websites and other technology that aid the teaching and learning process. The resources are are curated by instructional designers at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Website run by Skip Downing, author of On Course: Strategies for Success in College and in Life. The site provides practical applications of the On Course principles (free of charge). Strategies are designed with the goal of empowering students to become active, responsible learners. There are links to descriptions of workshops and to registration options.

Online resource to design and manage project based learning projects for middle and high school students.

Instructional Rounds, based on the work of Dr. Richard Elmore, is a process designed to examine what is happening with teaching/learning in classrooms and schools by working with groups of educators (networks) within a school, school district, or area.

Published in Spectrum > Mobile Learning, Libraries, And Technologies, March 12, 2009. "MLE-Moodle is an out-of-the-box mobile Learning (mLearning) system, designed for mobile phones." With MCNC in particular, we've discussed how it might be helpful to be able to engage students/faculty/administrators in Polilogue via mobile phone in addition to computer.

"The relationship between innovation and learning is about finding a relationship between what is familiar and what is strange. Creativity and imagination are both maps that allow us to do that. Imagination is a quality we all have, and it is an unlimited resource. The goal of education, training, and innovation spaces is to create and structure an environment where imagination can flourish. Those environments need to possess three qualities: A Space to Ask "What If" In order for imagination to flourish, there must be an opportunity to see things as other than they currently are or appear to be. This begins with a simple question: What if? It is a process of introducing something strange and perhaps even demonstrably untrue into our current situation or perspective. The imagination has to reconcile what is imagined within the boundaries of what is actual and therefore must understand how the world would have to change in order to make what is imagined a reality. Tools and Technique to Re-Imagine Context The work of imagination only has a payoff if it can be put into practice. That means that the context needs to be shaped and articulated in a meaningful way. In the 21st century we are surrounded by tools that allow us to reshape and re-imagine context all the time. From social network sites, to video and music distribution, to web design and production, we are surrounded by opportunities not just to create new content, but literally to transform the context in which that content has meaning. A Network of Imagination Imagination can only flourish when there is a networked collection of people to share that imaginative vision, embellish it, and develop it. What we have elsewhere called "networks of imagination" are shared tools of communication and in some cases co-presence that allow groups of people to construct those imagined realities in practical and concrete ways. Today's networked technology is more than just a conduit to communicate info

Curt Bonk is an amazing instructional design professor at Indiana University. Here he has 27 videos (about 10 minutes long each) covering everything from discussion forums (I learned a lot!) to Blended Learning to wiki uses and applications. All free!

short video (<2 minutes) on how knowledge is created in a MOOC. How does the MOOC approach resemble/depart from existing IL-SLI design? How should it affect what we try to do this year in IL-SLI for IL teachers? For IL students? Does the MOOC label help or hurt explaining IL-SLI intent and set-up?

Blog on the Teacher Leaders Network (TLN). The blogger, Bill Ferriter, teaches 6th grade language arts in Wake County, NC. He has designed professional development courses for educators nationwide on the use of web2.0 technologies in the classroom.

The CareerZone is "a proven, successful career exploration and planning system designed especially for students. " The site is powered by the Occupational Information Network (O*Net) database, from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) "is an elementary through postsecondary college readiness system that is designed to increase schoolwide learning and performance." According to their website, AVID began in 1980 at Clairemont High School and now serves "over 400,000 students in nearly 4,500 elementary and secondary schools in 47 states, the District of Columbia and across 16 countries/territories.

A series of 4 books by Jim Burke, published by Scholastic, 2009.

Burke's work was mentioned as supporting design of a course to boost college readiness.

Research & Reports page. Available resources include: research reports, tools, newsletters and policy briefs related to education reform and workforce development at local, state and federal levels.

In pre-Jam materials, participants recommended these specific publications: Nodine, T. (2009). Innovations in college readiness: How early colleges are preparing students underrepresented in higher education for college success. Washington, D.C. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Education & Jobs for the Future and Hoffman, N., & Vargas, J. (2010). A policymaker's guide to early college designs: Expanding a strategy for achieving college readiness for all.

By Daniel T. Willingham, in American Educator, spring 2009, pp 4-13. Excerpted from his book, Why Don't Students Like School, published by John Wiley & Sons, 2009. This article was one of the assigned readings for MCNC's Principals and Directors meeting, Feb 2010.

PechaKucha is a presentation format: 20 slides x 20 seconds.

SIL Team, Doris told me about this and Eric Markinson sent it to me. It's an awesome idea to share with your students as they go out to present, but it's also something you could organize in your School, Local Community, etc. Terry

Excellent article on creating online learning environments that embody autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Purpose has three elements: opportunity for user to contribute to training, opportunity to influence others, and opportunity to be recognized for their efforts.

Built by Jobs for the Future (JFF), this toolkit helps Early Colleges organize, analyze and understand their data.