Group items tagged

Clearly stated objectives as to what the students are expected to learn or do by the conclusion of the lesson. Asking open and closed-ended questions during direct instruction in order to check for understanding, engage, and assess.  I like to see my teachers randomly call on students so that they don’t get lost during the course of a lesson.  An emphasis is also placed on the lecture being only 10-15 minutes if necessary. A do-now or anticipatory set that motivates the learner, reviews prior learning, and makes connections to the new content being presented.  Students need to find meaning and relevancy in what they are learning or else they will be disengaged. Interdisciplinary connections. A variety of student-centered learning activities where students are afforded the opportunity to think critically, solve problems, work in cooperative groups, and create manifestations that demonstrate learning is taking place.  Students need to be actively involved in the learning process. Informal and formal means of assessment in which the students have a clear indication of their performance in relation to expected learning outcomes.  Rubrics or scoring guides should accompany any activity that is to be graded. The routine use of positive reinforcement to commend and praise students for taking risks, whether they are wrong or right.  A stimulating learning environment that promotes inquiry with student work proudly displayed.  Tied to this are classroom management techniques that afford all students the opportunity to learn. Effective technology integration. Teacher enthusiasm.  If teachers aren’t enthusiastic about the lesson or content then how can they expect their students to be? A closure activity that reinforces the objectives of the lesson.

announcing a similar initiative in April called Coursera.

but students who complete the classes don't earn university credit toward a degree. Instead they receive a certificate of completion, sometimes referred to as a badge.

one of the most significant factors in students’ success was their ability to participate in study groups. What the study reveals boils down to this: Understanding is socially constructed through interactions with others. This implies that we need to focus more attention on how we learn most effectively, and the signs point toward social interaction.

The centrality of group effort to human life means that anything that changes the way groups function will have profound ramifications for everything from commerce and government to media and religion.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that without diverse experiences and perspectives you won’t “have enough dots to connect and one ends up with very linear solutions without a broad perspective on the problem.” Social media exposes us to a galaxy of dots, and through education we can provide students with the tools to begin the connection process.

tips for safe social networking:• Learn about and use the privacy and security settings on social networks. Consider restricting access to your page to a select group of people—for example, your friends from school, your club, your team, your community groups, or your family.• Think twice before posting pictures you wouldn’t want your parents or future employers to see.• Be cautious about how much personal information you provide on social networking sites. The more information you post, the easier it might be for a hacker, thief, or stalker to commit a crime.• Install a security suite (antivirus, antispyware, and firewall) that is set to update automatically.• Use tools to manage the information you share with friends in different groups. If you’re trying to create a public persona as a blogger or expert, create an open profile or a “fan” page that encourages broad participation and limits personal information. Use your personal profile for trusted friends.• Let a friend know if he or she posts information about you that makes you uncomfortable.• If someone is harassing or threatening you, remove the person from your friends list, block the person, and report the incident to the site administrator.• Make sure that your password is long, complex, and combines, letters, numerals, and symbols. Ideally, you should use a different password for every online account you have.• Be cautious about messages you receive on social networking sites that contain links. Even links that look they come from friends can sometimes contain malware or be part of a phishing attack.• Be aware that people you meet online might be nothing like they describe themselves, and they might not even be the gender they claim.• Flirting with strangers online could have serious consequences. Because some people lie about who they really are, you never really know who you’re dealing with.

Consider for a minute a couple of the dynamics Web 2.0 brought us, frictionless communication, and instant access to any piece of information, picture, or video from any device 24/7.

With all of this opportunity, comes an increase in the need for responsibility, and ergo discretion.

With all these choices, and the consequences that come with them, we better learn the art of discretion, and figure out how to teach it to young people.  Fail that, and we will reap a generation that will be scarred by a billion cuts of bad technology augmented decisions…

But the apps shouldn’t be the focus of discussion. “That’s where the pedagogical practice comes to play, a thoughtful use of tool sets. Having the apps sitting on your phone on your desk in and of itself isn’t going to make you smarter, and it won’t make the classroom more anything,” she said. “It’s what you do with it, and how it’s supported, how teachers and students know to learn, to use those tools. It’s part of a complex nature of learning.”

computers cannot replace teachers. But the computer, she recognizes, can do some things a teacher cannot. It can offer personal feedback to a whole room of students as they work. And it can give the teacher additional class time to do more creative and customized teaching. “Combining Khan with that kind of teaching will produce the best kind of math,” she argued. “Teachers are more effective because they have a window into the student’s mind.”