but the learning objectives must come first and then the right online content, or tool to create the content, must be chosen to ensure the best fit to enable learners to achieve the required learning objectives. The
consumers of mass media can come to believe that the world is more dangerous than it actually is through constant exposure to violent imagery or commentary
That “off” switch is becoming more important in the social media age, experts say. Seeking out information to ascertain one’s personal safety is a biological imperative, but so is a tendency to overdo things. Much of the solution will depend on people becoming aware of their own satiation points, Hodson says.
Tough choices must be made regarding what to pare back in order to allow for more appropriate areas of focus
we need to infuse “themes” — important lenses such as global literacy, environmental literacy, information literacy, digital literacy, systems thinking, and design thinking
Higher-order skills such as the “4 C’s” — creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration4 — are essential for deeply learning knowledge as well as for demonstrating understanding through performance.
Character is about how we engage in the world.
Meta-learning is the awareness of one’s own learning and cognitive ability. Having such an awareness is the best hedge against continuous changes.
Historical inertia has been a large deciding factor when it comes to curriculum design, at the policy/process level.
we must keep two key questions before us at all times: Is education relevant enough for this century? Are we educating students to be versatile in a world that is increasingly challenged and challenging?
There’s always going to be a demand for an adult to be leading child instruction. They’re needed for the feedback piece, or the compassion piece, or the guidance piece. Besides, parents will want that; they feel most comfortable with that.
The program has to be mission-driven.
Right now, we’re in a murky, gray area when it comes to blended learning. In 20 years, we’ll have some tried and true methods. Right now, it’s just messy. And schools have to be okay with messy, with not smooth.
“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.”
“Unlike some younger tech startups, we don’t think the goal is to replace the teacher,” says Laster, the company’s chief digital officer. “We think education is inherently social, and that students need to learn from well-trained and well-versed teachers. But we also know that that time together, shoulder-to-shoulder, is more and more costly, and more and more precious.”
When it comes to technology – something so ingrained in our daily lives – what if we stop asking “why” and start asking “how”? What if we told stories about solutions instead of failures?