My students learn about writing mostly as they are writing. They learn very little from a failing grade, except that they can’t write.
Because I have access to their documents so early, I learn much more about my students’ writing and the issues that they need to overcome. This positions me for better teaching. It positions the students for better learning. That’s a win-win.
Revision History feature, GDocs tracks and preserves all edits to a document
if K-12 wants discontinuous, substantive improvement in student achievement, then it needs to change its pedagogical practices to better exploit the affordances of the computer
Critical thinking, creativity, communication, and collaboration can all happen in the absence of the digital element. It is when we recognize through our instructional preparations that a real need for these technology tools becomes necessary, instead of merely nice.
The learners must do the learning. We need to make sure that learners are able to work within an environment that helps them do this. In other words, our job as teachers is to create the conditions for success.
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 will education embrace as an institution that change is the only constant in our world, and constant flexibility and adaptation are what will be needed from our organizations, educators, and students?