Group items tagged

"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."

Understanding the "Why" of any initiative should be a key step prior to implementation. Without a clear understanding of our "Why" how are we to judge the success of what we are implementing. How will we know which steps take us in the right direction if we have no concept of why we are journeying. In our implementation of ICT (Information & Communication Technologies) and now Digital Technologies, a lack of clarity on the matter of "Why" has often been the most significant challenge to success. 

"Epic-ed (US)  aims to empower digital transitions at all stages of development, including school leaders who are thinking about moving to ubiquitous computing environments, those who wish to implement ed-tech pilot projects, and those who are ready for full-scale implementation."

Critical thinking is a difficult concept to define in clear, objective terms. This can make it a challenging objective for teachers to implement and assess. The aim of this resource is to provide teachers with some tools to help clarify and communicate what critical thinking is and how it might be implemented as a teaching method.  This resource includes materials that can help teachers to engage their classes in critical thinking. The materials have been written with year 9 and year 10 students in mind, yet can easily be differentiated for students in years 8 and 11. The critical thinking introduction addresses what critical thinking is, where is applies in the curriculum and how to teach it. The teachers guide provides an overview of this resource in relation to the accompanying PowerPoint presentation.

This page contains a link to the Learning in the 21st Century: Taking It Mobile report. "This report identifies key findings from the Speak Up 2009 trends report and from interviews with innovative educators who are leveraging mobile devices for learning. Their stories illustrate emerging trends, implementation considerations and strategies for implementing mobile learning initiatives."

Student-centered classrooms include students in planning, implementation, and assessments. Involving the learners in these decisions will place more work on them, which can be a good thing. Teachers must become comfortable with changing their leadership style from directive to consultative -- from "Do as I say" to "Based on your needs, let's co-develop and implement a plan of action." This first of three posts on student-centered classrooms starts with the educator. As the authority, teachers decide if they will "share" power by empowering learners"

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

"ITSL, in collaboration with the Centre of Program Evaluation at the University of Melbourne are conducting a three-year process and impact evaluation of the implementation of the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers. The purpose of the Evaluation is to assess the usefulness, effectiveness and impact of the Standards on improving teacher quality. Over 6,002 respondents including teachers, school leaders, pre-service teachers and teacher educators participated in the 2013 National Survey. Initial analysis from the survey highlights the key findings below."

Cram, A., Hedberg, J., Lumkin, K. & Eade, J. (2010). Learning through Design and Construction in Multi-User Virtual Environments: Opportunities, Challenges and an Emerging Project. In Proceedings of Global Learn Asia Pacific 2010 (pp. 1185-1194). AACE. Retrieved from http://www.editlib.org/p/34325.

Hardware co-simulation is the easiest and simple process to make or check your algorithm implementation directly from MATLAB to FPGA. To get full explanation about it read this content.

Edudemic post "Symbaloo created by user lcobbs detailing 50 great classroom tools that are all easy to implement into just about any classroom. From Animoto to Prezi to Dropbox to Stixy (wait what?), there's a lot to check out."

I posted this on ICT and Pedagogy Diigo site. Great blog and heaps of digital tools we can still learn about, thanks. Many more to add to my toolbelt!

A list from the edudemic people listing "some of the best edtech reads out there, from essential texts on the subject to cutting-edge research, that will help you learn about and implement educational technologies and curricula that can truly benefit both you and your students."

This social media communications strategy has been created to assist teachers at Manor Lakes College in both implementing and utilizing specific means of social media in their learning and teaching programs.

On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future.  If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future. It is important to note that disabling Web History in your Google account will not prevent Google from gathering and storing this information and using it for internal purposes. More information at the end of this post.

A post from Alma Harris, Yong Zhao and Michelle Jones on the importance of developing contextual solutions. A reminder why things like IOI Process and the Modern Learning Canvas are so important as they offer a method for developing unique solutions.

"The annual Horizon report, released June 29 by the nonprofit New Media Consortium, examines the trends and technologies that will shape primary and secondary education over the next five years. It references libraries as being at the forefront of maker spaces, which are among 18 major trends that include the rise of STEAM education: the intersection and importance of science, technology, arts, engineering, and math. The Horizon Report broke down challenges to school technology adoption into three categories: "solvable," "difficult," and "wicked," representing a range of difficulty to implement over the next five years. The "solvable" problems reflect what many libraries are already doing, like focusing more on blended learning and STEAM. The "wicked" problems were far more dramatic: shifting toward deeper learning approaches and rethinking the role of school itself."

With each theme, partners bring in an assignment and one employee. As a tribe, together with that employee, we are going to work with knowledge, feeling and ideas. We are then presenting a real working solution for the assignment/challenge the partner brought in. We present this in a pitch, together with a quote and working plan. When the partner accepts the plan the students will work it out, for real. So by working on real life assignments four times a year we connect and implement the learning experiences into the assignment/challenge. Next to this we try to inspire and coach the Knowmads on working on their own ideas and projects.

"The Leap Ahead LLN ePortfolio and eSystems pilot report carried out by the Centre for ePortfolio Development is now complete. The project ran trials of over 1000 ePortfolio licences in schools, FE, HE and employees from 2007 to 2009. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/eportfolio/leapahead/ePFLLN.shtml  The following are available now:* Executive SummaryMain points from the full ePortfolio and eSystems report* Five PilotsePortfolios compared, evidence-based, postgraduate PDP, different sectors and levels, raising employees' aspirations* XCRI ReportThe LLN XCRI implementations in Notts & Derbys The full report will be available early July."

"The eSmart Schools model provides a rigorous, evidence-based framework for schools to implement whole-school culture and behaviour change relevant to the smart, safe and responsible use of communications technology. "