Group items tagged

Goal #3 Technology's Function: Personalization

Goal #1 Technology's Function: Reach

Goal #2 Technology's Function: Bells & Whistles Education's Goal: Engagement & Enthusiasm

Learning communities set goals about student learning and focus exclusively on the day-to-day work of teachers

“Adaptive technologies presume that knowledge can be modularized and sequenced,” says Watters, the education writer. “This isn’t about the construction of knowledge. It’s still hierarchical, top-down, goal-driven.”

e latest techno-fad, destined to distract administrators and upset curricula for a few years until the next one comes along. But there are two reasons why adaptive learning might prove more durable than that. The first is that the textbook companies have invested in it so heavily that there may be no going back. The second: It might, in at least some settings, really work.

“I like to think of analogies to other places where science and technology have had an impact, like transportation. We went from walking to horse-drawn carriages to Model Ts, and now we have jet planes. So far in educational technology, we’re in the Model T stage.”

CFY, conducted a pilot in 2011-12 that worked with teachers on incorporating blended learning into their classrooms. Our goal was not technological but pedagogical.

Envision these cycles as gears that are interlocked and running as one to drive student achievement and student ownership of learning. Neither of these cycles requires technology, but both are greatly enhanced by using technology.

Shifting Prominence of Each Gear from K-12

Not that this is a truly radical idea, Einstein understood this and stated ‘Education is not the learning of facts, it’s rather the training of a mind to think’.

If our goal is to teach students to swim we would not do so by pushing them into the sea, but we would also not expect them to learn to swim without ever getting into the water.

go back to trying to understand how we may best support our students achieve their potential and prepare for a world beyond our classrooms

when we say transformational learning experiences powered by technology, we are talking about authentic, project-based learning, where students have agency, ownership and commitment to a relevant and meaningful goal that allows them to use digital tools to take on roles of creators, problem solvers, and learner-teachers working with and alongside peers, instructors, and other mentors to accomplish something bigger than themselves.

We have to “re-train ourselves to become comfortable with sustaining our attention on a single goal and for young people, who may have never developed this skill, to learn the value and to appreciate the value and to even feel the value of sustained attention.”

we have to shift education from focusing mainly on the acquisition of knowledge (the central underpinning of most adaptive learning software today) to the development of learner states of being (affect, emotion, self-regulation, goal setting, and so on).

online videos as short and concise as possible, while still including all of the major points. In fact, five to ten minutes is the goal. Any longer than that and you run the risk of boring your learners or overloading them mentally.

Personal Learning Communities

the administration is going to be actively involved in the groups as participants with teachers still being the leaders. It’s their intent to be an equal participant in the process. Teachers have been asked to choose which of the four groups they would like to join. The topics are differentiated instruction, cross-curricular projects, teaching with technology, and school culture – character education. All are meaningful, current topic areas that are connected to our school and board’s SMART goals.

when it comes to the  specific task of helping students, what’s the best app in education?

What’s the goal of using technology? What do we want to have happen?

When technology is integrated intentionally with foresight and with intention of addressing specific growth-oriented goals, it increases the potential to help students learn, develop, and grow in unique ways

Teaching is a complex, multifaceted activity, often requiring us as instructors to juggle multiple tasks and goals simultaneously and flexibly. The following small but powerful set of principles can make teaching both more effective and more efficient, by helping us create the conditions that support student learning and minimize the need for revising materials, content, and policies. While implementing these principles requires a commitment in time and effort, it often saves time and energy later on.

Let’s ask, “What learning goals do my students have. What tools can help them learn these skills and content at a deep level?