Group items tagged

Andrew McCarthy's research skills site for the High School

Somewhere between kids' intuitive social savvy and their online behavior lies an opportunity for both parents and educators to teach responsible digital citizenship, and there are plenty of organizations dedicated to this task alone. Define the Line, a project of McGill University in Canada, was recently awarded a digital citizenship grant by Facebook to help further its work in creating materials to open dialogue about finding the line where joking crosses into negative or criminal behavior. The site includes videos and scenarios designed to enhance discussion of real-world digital topics. Common Sense Media recently launched a free digital citizenship curriculum categorized by age. The curriculum includes both paper-based and digital activities and teaches online safety and Internet research skills in combination with ethics.

Read about 'hidden efficacy' - why struggling can help us learn and learn better. Interesting metaphor here for teachers developing tech skills...

Have we given teachers an environment in which they have had an opportunity to continue to grow as professionals? Have we given them the autonomy to expand their knowledge/skills and take risk in the classroom?

The fact is that creating a quality infographic is not an easy task and not everyone can do it properly.  It takes design skills, time, a good computer program and patience to get it just right.  Unfortunately not everyone has those qualities and so as a result, a lot of infographics end up in the email trash bin.  But done properly, an infographic can be a really beautiful and informative thing, a feast on the eyes.

Rep. Bob Morris said he was disturbed by what he learned when he did a "small amount of web-based research" on the Girl Scouts. I'm not going to debate Morris's conservative positions, but I am going to call into question his digital literacy skills. The new media literacies we often discuss involve applying skepticism to information, learning how to review sources and look for bias, and the importance of fact-checking.

"Economically disadvantaged students, who often use the computer for remediation and basic skills, learn to do what the computer tells them, while more affluent students, who use it to learn programming and tool applications, learn to tell the computer what to do. Those who cannot claim computers as their own tool for exploring the world never grasp the power of technology...They are controlled by technology as adults--just as drill-and-practice routines controlled them as students."Source: Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education

Useful site for research skills and how to evaluate websites etc

"A survey of teachers who instruct American middle and high school students finds that digital technologies are impacting student writing in myriad ways and there are significant advantages from tech-based learning. Some 78% of the 2,462 advanced placement (AP) and National Writing Project (NWP) teachers surveyed by the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project say digital tools such as the internet, social media, and cell phones "encourage student creativity and personal expression." In addition: 96% agree digital technologies "allow students to share their work with a wider and more varied audience" 79% agree that these tools "encourage greater collaboration among students" According to teachers, students' exposure to a broader audience for their work and more feedback from peers encourages greater student investment in what they write and in the writing process as a whole. At the same time, these teachers give their students modest marks when it comes to writing and highlight some areas needing attention. Asked to assess their students' performance on nine specific writing skills, teachers tended to rate their students "good" or "fair" as opposed to "excellent" or "very good." Students received the best ratings on their ability to "effectively organize and structure writing assignments" and their ability to "understand and consider multiple viewpoints on a particular topic or issue." Teachers gave students the lowest ratings when it comes to "navigating issues of fair use and copyright in composition" and "reading and digesting long or complicated texts.""

Create a unit (re)design template and/or classroom walkthrough template that will allow educators to think about technology integration within the context of student agency and higher-order thinking skills steeped in important disciplinary concepts

Writing for brevity - an important skill 

"Global SchoolNet's mission is to support 21st century learning and improve academic performance through content driven collaboration. We engage teachers and K-12 students in meaningful project learning exchanges worldwide to develop science, math, literacy and communication skills, foster teamwork, civic responsibility and collaboration, encourage workforce preparedness and create multi-cultural understanding.  "

"Design that Matters (DtM), a 501c3 nonprofit based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, creates new products that allow social enterprises in developing countries to offer improved services and scale more quickly. DtM has built a collaborative design process through which hundreds of volunteers in academia and industry donate their skills and expertise to the creation of breakthrough products for communities in need. Our goal is to deliver a better quality of service, and a better quality of life, to millions of beneficiaries through products designed for our clients."

In The Teachers of 2030: Creating a Student-Centered Profession for the 21st Century (online magazine or PDF format), Barnett Berry invites policymakers and teacher leaders to rethink today's teaching policies by imagining the knowledge, skills and qualities teachers must have in the year 2030 -- just two decades from now. To support this discussion, Berry introduces the voices of 12 accomplished American teachers who are currently writing a book on the future of teaching.

"Opening Minds aims to help schools to provide young people with the real world skills or competencies they need to thrive in the real world. It is a broad framework through which schools can deliver the content of the national curriculum in a creative and flexible way so that young people leave school able to thrive in and to shape the real world. Opening Minds was developed by the RSA at the turn of the millennium in response to a belief that the way young students were being educated was becoming increasingly detached from their needs as citizens of the 21st century."

See, for example, the ToonBook reader -- in different languages.... "The initial phase of PGF is focused on K - 3 with emphasis on reading and writing skills. Over time, the site will incorporate the areas of science, mathematics, and other core areas, first at K -3rd grade level, and systematically expanding thereafter to encompass grades K - 8. This content will be state standards-based with the intent to include lesson plans, activities, classroom ideas, and incorporate assessment methodologies - all in an entertaining and fun atmosphere for kids.\n"

An argument for encouraging the positive criteria/skill of designing a document rather than prescriptive formatting requirements

"The Information Fluency Continuum provides a framework for the instructional aspects of a library program. The framework is based on three standards that form the basis for the skills and strategies that are essential for students to become independent readers and learners."

"  Step into Cyber Chris's muddy shoes and become a virtual gardener. On your journey, your watering skills and gardening knowledge will be put to the ultimate test.      To control Cyber Chris around the gardens, simply use the arrow keys on your keyboard. Water the dying plants by walking up to them and then press the spacebar. Cyber Chris will begin watering and the plant will grow. As you run out of water you will have to collect more.