Group items tagged

25 - 27 AUGUST 2013: Bialik College, in collaboration with the Harvard School of Education, is delighted to invite you to the 4th Cultures of Thinking Conference. The conference theme is: Telling Our Stories of Learning: Who are our students becoming as thinkers and learners as a result of their time with us? * How we can leverage the cultural forces that exist in our classrooms to constantly create an ever more powerful culture of thinking? * What are we doing as educators to provide rich opportunities for our students to develop as thinkers? * Who are our students becoming as a result of their time spent in this thoughtful learning environment? * Who are we, the teachers, becoming as a result of our time spent in this culture? How has it changed our role as teachers? * How can a culture of thinking be created, nurtured and retained across our classrooms, schools, and nation? The conference will commence with breakfast and a plenary session on the morning of Sunday 25 August. It will continue until Monday afternoon with plenary sessions with the Harvard educators each day and concurrent presentations and workshops with practising educators throughout the conference. Registration includes all plenary and concurrent sessions, breakfast Sunday morning, lunch and refreshment breaks on Sunday and Monday and a social function on Sunday evening. All sessions of the conference will be held at: Bialik College, 429 Auburn Road, East Hawthorn, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

"Video games are increasingly being used to educate children both inside and outside the classroom. Steam thought they'd jump on the bandwagon too, but they haven't created a new game. Oh no, kids will soon be able to play Portal in the classroom. Steam have created "Teach with Portals", a website that allows educators to sign up to gain access to an educational version of Portal 2 and the Portal 2 puzzle maker. The software uses realistic physics (just like the other Portal games) and inspires teachers and students to create their own puzzles, explore different worlds, and share custom lesson plans."

"Board games are the perfect classroom tools for helping students with critical thinking, problem solving, and more. But have you ever thought of transforming ordinary board games into ways to teach curriculum? "

"You want some great ed tech tools to use in your classroom? You got em'-50, to be exact! This article from Edudemic features an extensive list of some of the most awesome technological tools you can find for teaching and learning. There's lots to explore here, so have fun!""

"Nearly all are free and most are actually tools you're probably already using."

"Project-based learning (PBL) is a method used to cultivate learning and teach students 21st century skills. The idea is "built upon authentic learning activities that engage student interest and motivation," and "generally reflect the types of learning and work people do in everyday world outside the classroom" (pbl-online.org). During project-based learning, students are approached with a complex question, problem, or challenge, which they respond to through a lengthy process of analysis and reflection. These projects are carefully planned, managed, and evaluated-and in the end students have created a high-quality, meaningful product."

Infographic

Fantastic example of teacher librarian collaborating with classroom teachers to build exciting unit of work with great resources.

"While we've witnessed many effective approaches to incorporating iPads successfully in the classroom, we're struck by the common mistakes many schools are making with iPads, mistakes that are in some cases crippling the success of these initiatives"

"ClassBadges is a free, online tool where teachers can award badges for student accomplishments. Through your teacher account, you can award badges customized for your classroom or school. "

With many educational institutions choosing to use tablets for learning, it can be quite intimidating for teachers when faced with so many applications. The diagram below serves to illustrate that less than 20 core apps can play a significant part in the learning process and hopefully temper any trepidation.

"Mission 1) To engage millions of students in digital learning for mastering the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in school, college and careers in the global innovation economy. 2) To empower educators and school systems by enhancing their 21st-century capabilities and STEM learning and teaching opportunities. 3) To power up classrooms and turn them into networked design studios that motivate students to work harder and dig deeper into content and complex projects. Support for Globaloria is provided by forward-thinking government leaders, school systems, public, private, and corporate foundations."

"School librarians bring pedagogical order and harmony to a multi-media clutter of information by crafting challenging learning opportunities, in collaboration with classroom teachers and other learning specialists, to help learners use the virtual world, as well as the traditional information sources, to prepare for living, working and life-long learning in the 21st Century"

"This classroom guide is intended to inspire and expand your thinking about effective assessment for project-based learning. The tips are organized to follow the arc of a project. First comes planning, then the launch into active learning, and then a culminating presentation. Reflection is the final stage"

"Creativity is all about ideas, not software. The software you use in your classroom should amplify your students' creativity, not inhibit it. Our easy-to-use, yet powerful, scrapbooks will unleash your students' creativity like you couldn't imagine. There are no limits to what they can create on Beeclip EDU. "

Watch, Talk, Produce:a starting point for thinking about Twitter in learning.