Deeper Learning: Highlighting Student Work
A student self-portrait from Ron Berger's student work portfolio Photo credit: Ron Berger I travel with a heavy suitcase. Over my 35-year career as a public school teacher and educator at Expeditionary Learning, I have been obsessed with collecting student work of remarkable quality and value. The student work in my giant black suitcase is exemplary -- beautiful and accurate, representative of strong content knowledge and critical thinking skills -- but it's not from "exceptional" students. Student self-portrait Photo credit: Ron Berger When I work with educators around the country and pull this work out of my suitcase, it changes the vision of what is possible when students are allowed, compelled and supported to do great things. Every time I present this work and discuss it with teachers and school leaders, I reminded that the choices we make about how to use time in school are often the enemy of quality or value. Seeking Value Student-designed Greenprint Austin's Butterfly The Greenprint
Learning Theories Every Teacher should Know about
Have you ever asked yourself what learning theories you know about and which ones you feel more connected to and apply in your teaching ? Generally speaking, theories inform and guide practice in any content area and a learning theory is a set of concepts on how people learn. It is more or less an investigation of the strategies and the underlying cognitive processes involved in learning. The educational field abounds in learning theories to the extent that it becomes hard to draw clear boundaries between some of them. The graphic I have for you below provides a clear categorization of the learning theories you need to know as a teacher and educator. courtesy of edudemic
Infographic: 9 Ways Digital Learning Tools Function
In late 2012, digital learning tools are exploding in popularity. Some of that is due to the inherit interest new “stuff” promotes. But some of it is due to the ability of technology to empower each individual learner with information access, just in time learning, powerful learning simulations, and access to a network of peers and collaborators worldwide. The best part? 9 Ways Digital Learning Tools Function VIA Learning: PersonalizationMotivationPersistence THROUGH Schools: ProductionSimulationCollaboration BY Enhanced Access: AccessAccelerationOptions The infographic below from gettingsmart.com also lists many of these ideas while offering to several real-world examples of schools putting digital learning tools into action at the classroom level.
Why We Need to Redefine Intelligence - HBR IdeaCast
An interview with Scott Barry Kaufman adjunct assistant professor of psychology at New York University and author of Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined. Download this podcast SARAH GREEN: Welcome to the HBR IdeaCast from Harvard Business Review. SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN: Thank you. SARAH GREEN: So I thought we would just start with why redefine intelligence? SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN: Yeah, it’s a great question. But what I’ve done in trying to look at all different kinds of minds and ways that we can achieve success in the real world once we get out of school, and the importance of things such as inspiration, and motivation, and engagement in something that personally interests you– what I started to notice was a repeating pattern over and over again. It’s almost like there’s a lot of intellectual capacity hidden in a lot of people. SCOTT BARRY KAUFMAN: I absolutely will. So they may be adding another intelligence. What I argue for is the shift to the personal developmental level. All this stuff.
Deeper Learning
Rahil Maharaj explains that attending Impact Academy, an Envision school in Hayward, California, has given him the inspiration and confidence to work hard and apply to college. Watch the video >> 0 To succeed in the future, students will need to know how to analyze, collaborate, and innovate. But our education system isn’t as effective at preparing them as it could be. Watch the video >> 0 “In order to prepare young people to do the jobs computers cannot do we must re-focus our education system around one objective: giving students the foundational skills in problem-solving and communication that computers don’t have.” – Frank Levy and Richard J. Murnane, “Dancing with Robots”. Learn more >> 0 Tiana Alba-Lanzerin prepares to present her graduation portfolio at an Envision high school in San Francisco, California. “I provide students with the opportunity to ask the questions, to become captains of their own learning.” What is deeper learning? Learn more >> Learn more >>
Connected Learning Principles
We are living in a historical moment of transformation and realignment in the creation and sharing of knowledge, in social, political and economic life, and in global connectedness. There is wide agreement that we need new models of education suited to this historic moment, and not simply new models of schooling, but entirely new visions of learning better suited to the increasing complexity, connectivity, and velocity of our new knowledge society. Fortunately, we are also able to harness the same technologies and social processes that have powered these transformations in order to provide the next generation with learning experiences that open doors to academic achievement, economic opportunity, and civic engagement. What would it mean to think of education as a responsibility of a distributed network of people and institutions, including schools, libraries, museums and online communities? At the core of connected learning are three values:
