Group items tagged

"Take a twenty minute period in my life as evidenced below. I read a blog post found in my Reader feed, which leads me to a link on YouTube, that leads me to a quote, which leads me to the person who stated the quote, to find a link on their Twitter profile, only to find another article on something that I would have never found myself. I could go on from there, and I eventually will, but it is just amazing how one item, leads to another, and another, and so on. That is how learning should be; continuous, connected, and meaningful. If I wasn't interested in what was under the first link, I would have found another"

"Yes, food and clothing and blankets are necessary for survival. But so are the conversations, connections, and sense of community that come from real people sharing with other real people. Those are things we're losing as we distance ourselves from each other in large organizations and efficient modes of communication - as our digital lives overwhelm our in-person ones. We don't have to lose them - after all, organizations are made of people. But the more we act like employees, operating to get the job done as efficiently as possible, the less human we become. Sharing supplies and stories with neighbors is inefficient. Maybe Mike and Kelly will end up with things on their porch that they can't use and can't give away. Maybe they weren't the people who needed the supplies the most. "

"Participate in this activity for students to explore current issues using social media. Do Now is a weekly activity for students to engage and respond to current issues using social media tools like Twitter. KQED aims to introduce 21st Century skills and add value to learning through the integration of relevant local content and new media tools and technologies. Do Now gives students a chance to practice civic engagement and digital citizenship skills while they explore ways to connect topics in their classes to the present day. Here's a breakdown of how Do Now works: Do Now activities are posted every Friday evening at kqed.org/donow. There's a brief intro to the topic and a media resource that can be played directly on the website. At the top of the activity, there's a question for students to respond to after they go through the intro and media resource to deepen the understanding of the topic. Students should then respond to the Do Now either in the comments section on the website or they can tweet their response (each student must create a Twitter account)."

The main landing page for the Mindshift KQED Do Now mini-projects that ask kids to take positions on important topics after reading through supporting materials about the topics.

"The immediate, logical answer to the question of blocking people on Twitter is this: Do it whenever you feel like it. After all, it's your account, and it's not like the Twitter Police are going to come after you. Not yet, anyway."

"As more and more educators join Twitter, the number of ideas for using Twitter in schools grows. A simple Google search for Twitter in Education will bring up many resources worth exploring, and I encourage you to do so, but for those of you who are short on time, here are a few resources to get you started:"

"Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies-from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms-are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups. Twenty-first century readers and writers need to "

"Of course, you don't have to be a drunk, a thief or a bitter failure for this to backfire. Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you're on Candid Camera, because you are."

"Publishing is not evolving. Publishing is going away. Because the word "publishing" means a cadre of professionals who are taking on the incredible difficulty and complexity and expense of making something public. That's not a job anymore. That's a button. There's a button that says "publish," and when you press it, it's done."

"Today's math curriculum is teaching students to expect -- and excel at -- paint-by-numbers classwork, robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them. In his talk, Dan Meyer shows classroom-tested math exercises that prompt students to stop and think."

"It's hard to quantify the value of Twitter. I just hopped back on a few days ago and it feels . . . odd, like I'm the awkward guy who came back to the party after leaving to hang outside alone for awhile. I kind-of expected to write a post about being back, where I described how much better life was without Twitter. The truth is that I missed it. No, I really didn't miss "it" at all. I didn't miss hashtags and 140 character limits. But I missed the people. I missed the teachers who, despite the separation of space, have become my friends. I missed the community. "

"However, it wasn't long before I discovered hashtags (specifically #edchat) and my tweeting developed a purpose. It was an opportunity to "discuss" and share information related to my profession. With the presence of an authentic audience, I became more engaged, grew my professional learning community, and started this blog."

"Lainie Rowell describes the simple yet brilliant way that kids are managing overwhelming amounts of information and learning outside of school. "

"That's the premise of the Right Question Institute and a new book by its co-directors Dan Rothstein and Luz Santana. The book, Make Just One Change: Teach Students to Ask Their Own Questions, documents a step-by-step process to help students formulate and prioritize questions about nearly everything. Coming up with the right question involves vigorously thinking through the problem, investigating it from various angles, turning closed questions into open-ended ones and prioritizing which are the most important questions to get at the heart of the matter."

This is a great source for Edu Blogs updated daily: "Announcing the Teach100!" http://t.co/zHaULcFf #Edchat

"There's been ample discussion in K-12 classrooms recently about the quality, or lack thereof, of students' online research skills. Such concerns came to a head late last year when a national survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project indicated that 60 percent of teachers believe digital technologies make it hard for students to distinguish between credible and noncredible sources online. But here's something you probably didn't know: One of the best and most robust resources for teaching digital literacy can be found on one of the Web's most persistent trouble spots: Google."

"The aim of the Instagram Project is to challenge you to communicate a concept from A Raisin in the Sun through the use of visual images. You will choose a theme/concept statement from the statements we generate or address in our Socratic Seminar at the end of the play. Once you have chosen that statement, you will produce a series of photos that you will post to Instagram in the form of a photo essay. The requirements are as follows:"

"Many schools say that too many people focus on "test scores", yet how often do we share (in engaging ways), the stats that are really important to many of our community. Wouldn't a video like this for a school year, or broken up into semesters and terms, share some REALLY important stats that many miss out on that goes beyond showing our kids as "test scores"? For example, how much has your school raised to serve others? How many hours of coaching and practice have happened? How many hour have been spent doing musicals or plays (in Canada, these are most often voluntary hours)? What is your school doing to lead in your community? The thing that I want to be careful of though is that schools aren't necessarily sharing stats like, "How many books we have read?" and then forcing kids to read for "numbers" as opposed to interest. But with that being said, wouldn't this be a cool project for schools to take on? I know that many schools share a lot of evidence through a large document, but I think that there is a certain appeal to creating a video."