Group items tagged

What is school for?

School was invented to create a constant stream of compliant factory workers to the growing businesses of the 1900s. It continues to do an excellent job at achieving this goal, but it's not a goal we need to achieve any longer.

Collaboration in the past was limited at best, due to the costly restraints of time and space. Districts needed to pay for travel and provide time away from the job, which limited the amount of collaboration possible. This excluded a great number of educators who could not be replaced if absent from the classroom.

Technology has provided us with the ability to communicate, curate, collaborate, and (most importantly) create with any number of educators, globally, at any time, and at very little cost.

victims of its dated mindset: if it was good enough for me, it's good enough for the kids. The idea of collaboration requires a mindset of believing there is room to learn and grow. It is also a belief that we are smarter collectively than individually.

greater challenge, the researchers wrote, is in expanding teachers' knowledge of new instructional practices that will allow them to select and use the right technology, in the right way, with the right students, for the right purpose.

Google Docs. The application's power to support collaborative writing and in-depth feedback, however, was not being realized. Teachers were not encouraging group-writing assignments and their feedback focused overwhelmingly on issues such as spelling and grammar, rather than content and organization.

experts seem to agree on: so-called "job-embedded" professional development that takes place consistently during the workday

Ultimately the importance of technology or its absence pales in comparison to the importance of a teacher's attitude, effort, and success. More opinionated academics and nonacademics alike need to view teachers in action and see whether they connect with their students and get the job done. Some of these wonderful and successful teachers will have beautifully planned and integrated technological endeavors, and some will have a whiteboard, chalkboard, or a circle of desks in the center of the room.

Creating is not only at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy, it is a critical skill needed for the advancement of our society.

Curating is a skill needed to sift through the mountains of new content created every day.

A key component of creative class jobs is collaboration

Teachers have one of the most difficult jobs out there. As an educator, you have to manage a classroom of boisterous students, organize heaps of data, stay up–to–date with current events and plan lessons day in and day out. In today’s technologically linked world, the ability to use web applications is at your advantage as an educator, and we are here to tell you the best tools to use.

Our challenge is to find ways to teach our children how to navigate the rapidly moving digital present, consciously and reflectively.

the "one life" perspective says the opposite, that it is precisely our job as educators to help students live one, integrated life, by inviting them to not only use their technology at school, but also talk about it within the greater context of community and society.

The tie that binds us to our ancestors is that both ancient and digital-age humans crave community

Parents who try to secretly monitor their kids' online activities are wasting their time and should use an approach that builds trust and allows for conversation, says a psychologist who has studied texting, social networking and other online pursuits.

"Your job then is to learn and to assess, and to now use your parent radar to see if there might be any problems."

teachers’ jobs will also be quite different from the way they look today—and if we do this right, they should not just be different, but they should also be a whole lot better, as it liberates them in many exciting ways.

research evidence that actually training students in thinking about thinking - what scientists call metacognition - actually can work.

metacognition is, really, managing your own learning to make sure you’re actually using your brain in the most effective possible way

we are learning is that students have tremendous insights into their own learning from a very early age

Android/Honeycomb-optimised apps in the market have been estimated at anywhere between 50 and 100, compared to iPad’s 65,000 (the number released by Steve Jobs in March). Another major issue, also not covered, is the fact that perhaps Apple is still winning in the user experience stakes.