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"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

Buy Wechat Account Introduction Wechat accounts are used for a variety of purposes, from transferring and entering dispatches and making calls to using the mobile payment service, Wechat Pay. Purchasing a Wechat account is a simple process, and one that can be done online. When buying a Wechat account, you'll need to give the account's unique ID number, as well as your own particular information, similar as your name and dispatch address. Once the account is registered, you'll be suitable to use it to communicate with your connections and access the features of Wechat. When buying a Wechat account, make sure you read the terms and conditions and read up on the security measures the account provider has in place to insure your data is kept secure. Companies can use. client service WeChat can be used to give client service to guests, responding to inquiries and furnishing support. Marketing Companies can use WeChat to produce juggernauts, post updates, and announce products and services. Payment WeChat allows companies to accept payments directly from guests through its mobile portmanteau. Content creation Companies can produce and partake blogs, papers, and other content on WeChat. Brand structure Companies can use WeChat to make their brand by connecting with guests and creating a sense of community. Recruiting Companies can use WeChat to retain new workers and share job rosters. Deals Companies can use WeChat to promote their products, services, and specials. Events Companies can use WeChat to host virtual events and promote them to their followers. Buy Wechat Account Are you looking for a way to market your business? Then wechat account is an excellent choice WeChat is a popular social media platform in China that allows druggies to shoot dispatches, make payments, share prints, and more. It's a great way to reach out to implicit guests and make your brand in the Chinese request. With WeChat, you can produce juggernauts, run contests, and offer

Buy Wechat Account Introduction Wechat accounts are used for a variety of purposes, from transferring and entering dispatches and making calls to using the mobile payment service, Wechat Pay. Purchasing a Wechat account is a simple process, and one that can be done online. When buying a Wechat account, you'll need to give the account's unique ID number, as well as your own particular information, similar as your name and dispatch address. Once the account is registered, you'll be suitable to use it to communicate with your connections and access the features of Wechat. When buying a Wechat account, make sure you read the terms and conditions and read up on the security measures the account provider has in place to insure your data is kept secure. Companies can use. client service WeChat can be used to give client service to guests, responding to inquiries and furnishing support. Marketing Companies can use WeChat to produce juggernauts, post updates, and announce products and services. Payment WeChat allows companies to accept payments directly from guests through its mobile portmanteau. Content creation Companies can produce and partake blogs, papers, and other content on WeChat. Brand structure Companies can use WeChat to make their brand by connecting with guests and creating a sense of community. Recruiting Companies can use WeChat to retain new workers and share job rosters. Deals Companies can use WeChat to promote their products, services, and specials. Events Companies can use WeChat to host virtual events and promote them to their followers. Buy Wechat Account Are you looking for a way to market your business? Then wechat account is an excellent choice WeChat is a popular social media platform in China that allows druggies to shoot dispatches, make payments, share prints, and more. It's a great way to reach out to implicit guests and make your brand in the Chinese request. With WeChat, you can produce juggernauts, run contests, and offer

Buy Wechat Account Introduction Wechat accounts are used for a variety of purposes, from transferring and entering dispatches and making calls to using the mobile payment service, Wechat Pay. Purchasing a Wechat account is a simple process, and one that can be done online. When buying a Wechat account, you'll need to give the account's unique ID number, as well as your own particular information, similar as your name and dispatch address. Once the account is registered, you'll be suitable to use it to communicate with your connections and access the features of Wechat. When buying a Wechat account, make sure you read the terms and conditions and read up on the security measures the account provider has in place to insure your data is kept secure. Companies can use. client service WeChat can be used to give client service to guests, responding to inquiries and furnishing support. Marketing Companies can use WeChat to produce juggernauts, post updates, and announce products and services. Payment WeChat allows companies to accept payments directly from guests through its mobile portmanteau. Content creation Companies can produce and partake blogs, papers, and other content on WeChat. Brand structure Companies can use WeChat to make their brand by connecting with guests and creating a sense of community. Recruiting Companies can use WeChat to retain new workers and share job rosters. Deals Companies can use WeChat to promote their products, services, and specials. Events Companies can use WeChat to host virtual events and promote them to their followers. Buy Wechat Account Are you looking for a way to market your business? Then wechat account is an excellent choice WeChat is a popular social media platform in China that allows druggies to shoot dispatches, make payments, share prints, and more. It's a great way to reach out to implicit guests and make your brand in the Chinese request. With WeChat, you can produce juggernauts, run contests, and offer

An important part of the role of any educator is that of planning learning sequences. Perhaps you are tasked with designing curriculum or more likely you are translating a mandatory curriculum into workable units of learning. The task is complex and there are multiple arrangements. The goal is to design units that connect students with learning in ways that are meaningful and relevant. A well-designed unit of learning fits seamlessly alongside other learning opportunities and the overall sequence of learning should match the learners developing expertise. As we plan units of learning we must consider a great variety of factors which impact the learning we design. Our knowledge of our students and where they are with their learning is crucial and a strong place to start. We also need to know what it is we are required to teach and have a grab bag of pedagogical moves that bring this content alive.

In a heutagogical approach to teaching and learning, learners are highly autonomous and self-determined and emphasis is placed on development of learner capacity and capability with the goal of producing learners who are well-prepared for the complexities of today's workplace. The approach has been proposed as a theory for applying to emerging technologies in distance education and for guiding distance education practice and the ways in which distance educators develop and deliver instruction using newer technologies such as social media.

The Teach, Learn, Share database is a national platform where educators and systems can share their effective approaches to literacy and numeracy teaching and learning in Australia. Once established, the Teach, Learn, Share database will be the 'go-to' site for information about effective literacy and numeracy strategies for individual teachers, schools, systems and the wider education community. The database will include descriptions of successful literacy and numeracy initiatives in a diverse range of school settings, capacity for targeted searching and links to relevant and appropriate research in the areas of literacy and numeracy.

There is an understandable interest in deep-learning, after all, who wants their students to have a superficial understanding of the content. Read the marketing of almost any school and you are likely to find some statement about the deep-learning that is achieved as a result of their excellent teaching and learning platform. Likewise, ask any teach about their philosophy of teaching and you will hear how they engage their students with learning that promotes a deep-understanding.

Education 2.0? Designing the web for teaching and learning. A Commentary by the Technology Enhanced Learning phase of the Teaching and Learning Research Programme (UK)

Professor MacFarlane discusses many issues which ring true to me. In particular: - lack of vision for what education could be like with new technology (around 4 min mark) - the web2.0 and technology revolution is great for the 15% of people who have a good life anyway because of their suituation and culture (5:30) - others don't benefit from the access to the technology - they need help (6:00) - no change in classroom over last 20 years with computers and in danger of no change in next 20 years (7:30) - instruction vs. construction (8:30) - expect learning to change with introduction of technology (10:30) - but hasn't really done so - student self-directed learning is separate from school work i.e. at home and not related to school (14:30) - much of what kids do on computers at home is trivial (16:00) - the ones that do have good experiences are the same 15% (16:30) - kids that are missing out have a computer at home probably but no access to the community that enables them to have these experiences (17:10) - doing something by themselves does not really benefit them - it is being part of a community that had benefit for learning - what are we dong for these people? (19:10) - talking about missing pedagogical model for how to teach (22:00) - teachers are expected to use technology to provide innovative learning but no model against which to do so, some don't use it at all, some use it inappropriately - there maybe some individual examples but not overall (23:00) - schools bad at connecting with their communities in a learning sense (26:00) - talks about chinese online writing community and how they comment, collaborate (34:00) - community (47:30) - communitites aren't formed when people are brought together in schools etc. - need to have a common problem or interest (48:30) - Plant's definition? - in education the problem is because assessment is done individually (49:00) - so forming groups and sharing ideas is not attractive for students - worried about not getti

Iinterweaving three approaches - Research-led Teaching, Inquiry-based Learning, and Research on Teaching and Learning - into one distinctive model called Research-led Learning & Teaching (RLT).

key points (see also my bookmark to the BLC '07 keynote by Professor McFarlane) - technology is not helping learning (1:30) - american high schools are counterproductive to success in knowledge society (Bill Gates) (2:30) - have a model where kids produce their own digital representation of how they see the world (4:00) - make learning deeper rather than try to cover a lot of content but shallow learning (5:00) - one suggestion is teaching people to be able to recognise an evidence-based argument and not be susceptible to incorrect information (6:00) - model for assessment based on this sort of change to curriculum (7:30) - meaningful coursework - mainly in school - not allowing homework to restrict their self learning - treat school like work in a way with emphasis on quality not quantity (10:00) - need to connect with parents who see school as different than their schooling and unsure about its benefits (11:00) - access to technology (12:00) - benefit based on having the access first bit also that their environment but also their culture at home helps them benefit - top 15% (from BLC keynote) are getting most benefit from access and their culture - but these normally high achievers can't see school as relevant to them based on what they experience at home and are failing at school (13:30) - community knowledge and learning capacity building in technology (14:00) - "digital challenge" program in Bristol (14:40) - community mentors that learn something then teach to others in the community - giving more people access and that means they can have choices on what they can do

"Blended Learning" is often used to define learning solutions that include parts of the content, or experiences, being delivered in different ways. Each may use different instructional methods more appropriate to each lesson or module of content. Whilst everyone seems to have their own view of what a blended solution looks like, most will agree that 21st century "courses" will contain lessons/modules that vary in their media selection, and mode of delivery." "Blended learning is not new. Long before the internet, and computer-based training, innovative teachers and designers of instruction have blended a variety of media, and methods, to present learners with a blended learning experience. However, today's use of the term speaks more to our history of migrating completely from the classroom to CBT, and learning from that experience. And finding a place where we all realize there will always be a place for ILT, and CBT, and all micro forms of learning in-between."

teachers are being deskilled, unceremoniously removed from the process of school governance, largely reduced to technicians or subordinated to the authority of security guards. Underlying these transformations are a number of forces eager to privatize schools, substitute vocational training for education and reduce teaching and learning to reductive modes of testing and evaluation.

In this issue we present articles that push the boundaries of research on digital cultures, teaching, and technologies in fruitful and generative directions.  Researchers and practitioners in this issue present case studies and analysis of practical classroom use of copyright literacies, learning management systems, mobile/cell phones, social video, Twitter, and Google Reader.  The articles demonstrate how the affordances of digital culture have shifted our understandings of how pupils learn as content can be accessed, designed, and shared.  Despite the affordances of digital culture, teaching and learning-with and through digital technologies-requires effective pedagogy.  Digital technologies are not 'teacher-proof' tools; they require thoughtful and thorough integration into pedagogy, in a manner that reflects carefully articulated instructional and learning goals

Is a lack of PD a barrier? Professional development is a barrier, although I think they can teach themselves much of what teachers need to be learning to be able to modernise their classrooms. The worst thing a teacher can say is: "who's going to teach me how to do that?" Teachers are teachers and should be able to teach themselves what they need to know. If they can't then they probably shouldn't be teaching. You want a teacher who can keep up. There are networks of other educators out there that can connect you with new skills. Professional development doesn't have to be something that is done to teachers - it can be just ongoing conversations they're having with other professionals that they're learning from every day.

This paper describes the findings of an exploratory, qualitative case study and examines problems and impediments faculty members encountered in blended learning environments in Turkish Higher Education system. A total of 117 faculty members from 4 universities responded to 8 interview questions. Findings were based on content analyses of interview transcripts. The results show that faculty members' problems with blended teaching resulted in the identification of three inductive categories: instructional processes, community concerns and technical issues. The eight themes emerged from these three categories include the following: (1) complexity of the instruction, (2) lack of planning and organization, (3) lack of effective communication, (4) need for more time, (5) lack of institutional support, (6) changing roles, (7) difficulty of adoption to new technologies and (8) lack of electronic means. This study indicates that teaching blended courses can be highly complex and have different teaching patterns, which, in turn, impacts successful implementation of the blended college courses.

For schools the concept of a learning organisation should make perfect sense, after all learning is our core business, or it should be. Perhaps that almost three decades after Peter Senge identified the importance of learning within organisations the idea is only now gaining traction in schools tells us something about the approach taken to learning and teaching within schools. With an increased focus on the development of professional learning communities as a response to the complex challenges that emerge from a rapidly changing society, it is worth looking at what a learning organisation requires for success.

"ur Best Practices in Virtual Worlds Teaching Guide produced by University of Derby and Aston University in collaboration and funding from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network and JISC is now available in soft and hard copy. The guide features tips and advice on setting up teaching in virtual worlds using problem-based learning methods. It's designed primarily for those teaching Psychology, humanities and the social sciences but will be useful to anyone starting out teaching using virtual worlds. "

"Bill Murray approaches the teaching-learning system as a game in which students, teachers, and others play various roles. He wonders whether the game itself encourages cheating, and suggests that teachers could restructure the game so that cheating is less rewarding and less likely."

Fascinating essay about assessment and cheating, and how teachers have created this situation.

Learning should always be an active process and a two-way partnership between teaching and learning. In essence, learning and its counterpart exist as a vibrant dialogue between individuals whose role in the relationship is continually transformative. I'd like to explore this thinking further.

"Project-based learning is centered on the learner and affords learners the opportunity for in-depth investigations of worthy topics. The learners are more autonomous as they construct personally-meaningful artifacts that are representations of their learning. This article examines the theoretical foundations of project-based learning, particularly constructivism and constructionism, and notes the similarities and differences among implementations, including project-based science (Blulmenfeld et al., 1991), disciplined inquiry (Levstik & Barton, 2001) and WebQuests (Dodge, 1995). In addition, an anatomy of a model case will be considered using a WebQuest example developed by the author, describing seven characteristics common among the various implementations of project-based learning. Finally, practical advice and recommendations for project-based learning are discussed, including beginning slowly with the implementation, teaching students to negotiate cooperative/collaborative groups and establishing multiple forms of performance assessments."