10 Ways to Teach Innovation Getty By Thom Markham One overriding challenge is now coming to the fore in public consciousness: We need to reinvent just about everything. Whether scientific advances, technology breakthroughs, new political and economic structures, environmental solutions, or an updated code of ethics for 21st century life, everything is in flux—and everything demands innovative, out of the box thinking. The burden of reinvention, of course, falls on today’s generation of students. So it follows that education should focus on fostering innovation by putting curiosity, critical thinking, deep understanding, the rules and tools of inquiry, and creative brainstorming at the center of the curriculum. This is hardly the case, as we know. Move from projects to Project Based Learning. Teach concepts, not facts. Distinguish concepts from critical information. Make skills as important as knowledge. Form teams, not groups. Use thinking tools. Use creativity tools. Reward discovery. Be innovative yourself. Related
Some Assumptions of Capitalism | Alan Duval A shorter one this week… There are two (or three, depending upon how you count them) aspects of any debate that I have had about economics and capitalism in particular that seem to get the average libertarian or free-market capitalist’s hackles up. To the degree that these questions do get that individual’s hackles up, a satisfactory answer is seldom forthcoming. These are, 1) Scarcity and Infinite Growth, and 2) the definition of Value. This is not meant as an in-depth analysis, merely as a discussion starter… see you in the comments section. Image from Island Breath Scarcity When I say “Scarcity” I’m not talking about the book by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir, though that is up soon in my reading stack, and I am broadly meaning what the book is about. The employment market is subject to the same demands as any other commodity market: supply and demand. At least one, probably three, and potentially all five speak to life choices regarding career, and the impact of that choice. Value
4 Unique Principles Of Student-Centered Learning - TeachThought by TeachThought Staff A Definition of Student-Centered Learning In our view, student-centered learning is a process of learning that puts the needs of the students over the conveniences of planning, policy, and procedure. Like any phrase, “student-centered learning” is subjective and flexible–and only useful insofar as it ultimately supports the design of learning experiences for students. With that in mind, here are 4 principles of student-centered learning to consider as you design curriculum and instruction. 4 Principles Of Student-Centered Learning Space CreativeDynamicMobileEmotionally safeCognitively agitating Place That honors their historyThat stirs their enthusiasm & curiosityThat they connect with in fundamentally “non-academic” waysThat reflects their needsThat they believe they can impact Voice In assessment & curriculum forms (e.g., PBL)That grows as their understanding doesThat reflects who they really areIn classroom conversationsIn local community & around national& global events
6 Ways to Honor the Learning Process in Your Classroom Roughly put, learning is really just a growth in awareness. The transition from not knowing to knowing is part of it, but that's really too simple because it misses all the degrees of knowing and not knowing. One can't ever really, truly understand something any more than a shrub can stay trimmed. There's always growth or decay, changing contexts or conditions. Yes, this sounds silly and esoteric, but think about it. In fact, so little of the learning process is unchanging. Design, engineering, religion, media, literacy, human rights, geography, technology, science -- all of these have changed both in form and connotation in the last decade, with changes in one (i.e., technology) changing how we think of another (i.e., design). And thus changing how students use this skill or understanding. And thus changing how we, as teachers, "teach it." The Implications of Awareness The implications of awareness reach even farther than that, however. The Learning Process: From Theory into Practice 1.
The 2010s Have Broken Our Sense Of Time This is one of those places you go for Instagram. The Manhattan Bridge looms, immediate and substantial, over a cobblestone street, framed on either side by a pair of old brick buildings; if you’re standing in the right spot, you can see the Empire State Building through one of the bridge’s uprights. Imagine a woman, young and ambivalent, staring into the middle distance, white sneakers aglow in the dawn, bridge overhead. This area of Brooklyn, once home to abandoned factories and warehouses, now hosts an annual festival for $3,000 German cameras. A couple weeks ago in New Mexico, a few thousand people in suburban Albuquerque were waiting for the president, the one show we’re always watching. The time between when you enter a Trump rally and when he finally concludes can be long. Eventually, to kill time, people at the Santa Ana Star Center did the wave. “Is there any place more fun and exciting,” the president asked later that night, “than a Trump rally?”
50 Blended Learning Resources For Teachers [Updated For 2019] 100 Of The Best Blended Learning Resources For Teachers [Updated For 2019] by TeachThought Staff The following is a compilation of some of our favorite blending learning resources for teachers in 2018 and 2019. Blended Learning Resources: Examples, Ideas, Benefits, and Definitions 1. The Definition Of Blended Learning 2. 12 Different Types Of Blended Learning 3. 4. 6 Ways Teachers Are Using Blended Learning 5. 10 Drivers Of Blended Learning 6. 10 Steps Towards Creating A Blended Learning Program 7. 50 Of The Most Popular Online Courses Of All-Time TeachThought Recommended Blended Learning Resources: Learning Management Systems for K-12 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. TeachThought Recommended Blended Learning Resources: University Resources & Free Open Courseware 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. edX Open Courses 28. 29. 30. 31. 33. 34. 35. A portal for the best online courses–links, reviews, information, etc. 36. ipl2 (Internet Public Library) 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. eBooks Directory 42. 43. 44.
Education Week This post is by Libby Woodfin, a former teacher and school counselor and the director of publications for Expeditionary Learning. It's not as easy as you might think. Teachers have many tools at their disposal that can facilitate deeper learning--long-term projects, hands-on activities, and, often, new technologies. You'll often find find deeper learning in that context, but not always. You also may find deeper learning in the context of a more traditional classroom environment. So how do you know if it's deeper learning? With the right set of instructional choices, students take control of their learning. Deeper instruction that challenges students In the video we see students wrestling with the themes in Macbeth--not unusual in high school English classes. Challenge is at the heart of deeper instruction. Deeper instruction that engages students Engagement is not a gimmick; it doesn't require shiny objects (e.g., technology) to make it happen.
Toxic Nostalgia Breeds Derangement So much of the culture feels stuck. Social media creates a sense of eternal present; things that happened two weeks ago feel like half-forgotten history. Internet technology, once imbued with futuristic idealism, has become a source of destruction and dread. Fashion has turned back to the 1990s, which was itself a time of nostalgia for the 1970s. Cinemas are full of remakes. At least when the Sex Pistols screamed “No future,” they were sublimating nihilism into art. “It’s like we went too far. In “This Is Not Propaganda,” Pomerantsev quotes Gleb Pavlovsky, a political strategist who was once an influential adviser to Vladimir Putin, and who recognized, early on, how the end of universalist visions of progress would lead to amoral relativism. To move beyond this horrible moment, we’ll need to reform the algorithms that turn YouTube into a machine for radicalization and make Facebook an accessory to ethnic cleansing. So much of the culture feels stuck. “It’s like we went too far.
7 Unique Flipped Classroom Examples: Which Approach Is Best for You? Share lectures with video before class, and dedicate class time to activity and discussion. At first, the flipped classroom sounds fairly straightforward. Looking closer, however, it soon becomes clear that from this basic premise springs many unique and interesting forms. EducationDive.com has highlighted 16 examples of flipped classrooms in action, teaching students ranging from elementary scholars to doctoral candidates. Most surprising in all those examples? Flipped Classroom Examples Many of the examples EducationDive shares illustrate unique models of how a teacher can invert their class. 1. Students are assigned the “homework” of watching video lectures and reading any materials relevant to the next day’s class. 2. Teachers assign lecture videos, as well as any other video or reading related to the day’s subject — think TED Talks, YouTube videos, and other resources. 3. 4. 5. This model adds a new element to help students learn — each other. 6. 7. Download your free copy today!
Less Is More: The Value of a Teacher's Time This past weekend, I had the privilege of being part of a panel at the Maryland State Education Association's Education Policy Forum with 2014 National Teacher of the Year Sean McComb, Maryland Teacher of the Year Jody Zepp, and educator-turned-influential radio host Marc Steiner. We convened in front of policymakers, superintendents, and other thought leaders. It sounded title-rific until we actually started talking about the profession we love and lead. One of the first questions we were asked was: "If you could build a school, what would it look like?" The Unseen Work Yet the best investment that seemed most tangible to the policymakers right in front of me was time. If I started a school right now, I would restructure school time nationwide. Seats shifted, because the talking points always fall into similar arguments: Students need more time with teachers. More Time to Plan Some of the effective uses of time that I've seen include: A Better System
Jane Jacobs and the Problem of Monstrous Hybrids I recently finished reading Systems of Survival. Written by Jane Jacobs, who is best known for her 1961 masterpiece The Death and Life of Great American Cities, it's a meditation on what she calls the "moral syndromes" that drive human societies. Jacobs uses the term "syndrome" not in the medical sense, but in the more generic sense of "things that go together." There are two basic strategies for survival: taking and trading. That is, we can forcibly take what we need from other people, or we can trade what we have (including our labor) for things we need. Jacobs argues that each of the two strategies for survival has a corresponding "moral syndrome"—a cluster of related values that define virtuous behavior for people who survive in that fashion. Jacobs argues that society needs both syndromes because it needs both a government and a private sector. The key insight of the book is that problems arise when the two syndromes are mixed. I recently finished reading Systems of Survival.
Bloomin' Apps This page gathers all of the Bloomin' Apps projects in one place.Each image has clickable hotspots and includes suggestions for iPad, Android, Google and online tools and applications to support each of the levels of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy.I have created a page to allow you to share your favorite online tool, iOS, or Android app with others. Cogs of the Cognitive Processes I began to think about the triangular shape of Bloom's Taxonomy and realized I thought of it a bit differently.Since the cognitive processes are meant to be used when necessary, and any learner goes in and out of the each level as they acquire new content and turn it into knowledge, I created a different type of image that showcased my thoughts about Bloom's more meaningfully.Here is my visual which showcases the interlocking nature of the cognitive processes or, simply, the "Cogs of the Cognitive Processes". IPAD APPS TO SUPPORT BLOOM'S REVISED TAXONOMYassembled by Kathy Schrock Bloom's and SAMR: My thoughts