Group items tagged

In the past 10 years, perhaps nothing has changed more than the relationship between teachers and the information being distributed in their classrooms.

information scarce environment, the main form of instruction was a lecture

new economy of information has freed teachers from their role as “font of knowledge” and allowed them to become chief analyzer, validity coach, research assistant, master differentiator, and creator of a shared learning experience.

Possession of facts is not learning. What is an important skill is the ability to sift through abundant information, identify what is valid and meaningful, then use it to create meaning and express it. This is why student creation is so important in the new economy of information.

The increasingly available classroom technology and the growth of student 1:1 initiatives means that students not only have access to abundant knowledge, but also the ability to create and express their learning in powerful and creative ways.

“It” is a transformed reality where access to new tools, abundant content, and vast networks simultaneously

no one – no one – really understands the full implications of what these devices and spaces have on the future of our children. So what are our *obligations* in all of this as administrators, parents, and educators?

It is no longer enough that we educate only to the standards of the traditional literacies. If students are to survive, let alone thrive, in the 21st-century culture of technology-driven automation, abundance and access to global labour markets, then independent thinking and its corollary, creative thinking, hold the highest currency.

Sync teaching using technology is valuable because the analogous method of sync teaching without technology is effective. The appropriate enabling technology, especially when combined with the “abundance of engaging and flexible learning resources on the Internet,” becomes a way to amplify a tried and true method.