Group items tagged

Earlier this year a group of teachers I work with explored the 'Eight Cultural Forces' identified by Ron Ritchhart of Harvard's Project Zero. In doing so we decided to focus on our use of the term learning instead of the word work. Our goal was to bring our language choices into the spotlight and explore how a more deliberate focus on learning might alter the culture of our classrooms. Two terms later this focus persists and it is worth reflecting on the effect that this has had.

Some universities are beginning to focus on a big-picture view of technology: making learning resources available in multimedia, integrating technology from design to delivery, using mobile technologies, and increased focus on network pedagogy. Blackboard (and LMS' in general) have been able to present the message that "you need an LMS to do blended and online learning". To counter this view, the edupunk/DIY approach to learning has produced an emphasis on personal learning environments and networks.

What is the difference between blogging and curation if they are both about finding and sharing great content?  According to Deanna Dahlsad at Kitsch-Slapped, is the focus. While bloggers often cover anything that interests them as the are online where as curators are characterized by a strong focus on a specific topic.  

This year is the fiftieth birthday of Harvard's Project Zero, a research project designed to explore the nature of thinking and learning and from this suggest pedagogies which align with what we know about the mind. For its birthday celebration Project Zero shared insights from its five decades of research with presentations from Howard Gardner, David Perkins, Shari Tasman, Steve Seidel and Daniel Wilson. The presentations revealed the changing nature of the work of Project Zero from its early days and focus on arts education to its current position as a research organisation with broad interests across education but with a focus on thinking, understanding and the workings of the mind.

Learning to learn, do not be afraid of the exam. In fact, success in examinations depends on the craft and the way students learn. Identify the correct way of learning. You need to choose the best and suitable for learning or studying. Focus on all subjects. Discipline yourself and resist the negative requirement.

Learning to learn, do not be afraid of the exam. In fact, success in examinations depends on the craft and the way students learn. Identify the correct way of learning. You need to choose the best and suitable for learning or studying. Focus on all subjects. Discipline yourself and resist the negative requirement.

Video in the Classroom was founded in 2003 by Mathew Needleman to focus on video production in the elementary grades. The site was recently relaunched to showcase the work of elementary educators from across the country and provide additional how-to information, additional links, and a complete redesign.

Video in the Classroom was founded in 2003 by Mathew Needleman to focus on video production in the elementary grades. The site was recently relaunched to showcase the work of elementary educators from across the country and provide additional how-to information, additional links, and a complete redesign.

Moodle site that has content for RobotC programming for NXT robots. Seems to have a Robocup competition focus.

Moodle site that has content for RobotC programming for NXT robots. Seems to have a Robocup competition focus.

"This site has been created to support the Virtual History Centre - a 3D virtual world for Victorian Students which is designed to support immersive learning. It has been developed by the History Teachers' Association of Victoria, the Public Record Office of Victoria and the State Library of Victoria and was funded by the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development's Fuse Project. "

Virtual World History project: Port Nepean, Victoria. This virtual world has a history focus and is supposed to be interactive.

Virtual World History project: Port Nepean, Victoria. This virtual world has a history focus and is supposed to be interactive.

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.

The maker movement and with it maker-centered learning brings new possibilities and challenges into the classroom. It has spawned makerspaces and students are busy designing and making products. The danger with all this frenzied making is that it is very easy to miss the point, to focus on the product and not the journey.  

Making, Maker Centred Learning and STEAM fit neatly alongside Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) for many schools. Commonly this approach includes a constructivist view of knowledge and teachers seek to establish conditions which allow students to explore questions and ideas with greater independence than may occur in the traditional classroom.  Learning becomes a collaborative partnership between teachers and students with a clear focus on a learner centric approach.

Behind the rhetoric and politics, education is about the outcomes it achieves for its learners. More than being about the nuances of technology, learning space design, curriculum structures and pedagogical practices schools should have effective answers to questions that focus on what they hope to achieve for their learners. How we answer this question should then dictate the measures we utilise to achieve these goals and it is to these ends that we must apply our efforts.

Twitter has become so much more than the "I'm hungry" kind of service. It contains 140's of what we are. This content is hidden somewhere behind the small avatar and last tweets in a user's timeline. We are here to make it visible.  We take a bag of tweets, analyze them, and create a profile page which show-casts the person behind them. Currently we focus on behavior patterns, Famous words, Top Followers, Links, Replies, Songs, Pictures and Check-ins. 

"As educators look for new ways to teach digital literacy or the use of digital technology to find, organize, comprehend, evaluate, and create information, some are turning to social media to help advance the concept in the college classroom. BUT.....colleges leveraging social media to improve digital literacy must focus on students' current use of social media and then find ways to interface those activities with the curriculum."

The ABC's Four Corners program last night 'A Revolution in the Classroom', was a genuine attempt to re-focus public attention away from the old public vs private school debate and on to the core challenges of schooling.  I don't believe quality learning and teaching in public, private or independent schools is a revolution but rather a necessary requirement in today's world. 

Aimed at those in further and higher education who design and support learning, the guide draws on recent JISC reports and case studies to investigate how the emergence of new and more powerful technologies together with an increase in personal ownership of these technologies are changing the way we connect, communicate and collaborate, and how these changes can benefit learning. The focus of this guide is on emerging practice rather than emerging technology.

Links to the apps used in the activities published an eBook titled Hot Apps 4 HOTS: A Guide to Using Free Apps to Support Higher Order Thinking Skills by Lisa Johnson and Yolanda Barker. The book includes nine step-by-step activities that focus on each level of Bloom's taxonomy and includes loads of links to further resources.

"Librarians and academics all over the world are up in arms. They're angry and they're making their displeasure known-they're as mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore! Why? They're protesting over the cost of academic journals and access to knowledge. And the focus of their anger is the handful of international publishing companies who control the lion's share of the academic publishing market."

This website is part of a three-year project inviting teachers from around the world to tell the stories of learning unfolding in their classrooms.  These writings combine action research, assessment documentation, and personal reflection with a focus on thinking and learning.