Weekly Reflection: What is 21st century assessment? | Teaching the Teacher North and South magazine We hear a lot about 21st century learning in education. About how computers are going to revolutionize and personalize teaching and learning. In fact there’s even been a government inquiry into digital learning yet the elephant in the room is assessment. Last month North and South ran an article boldly stating that kids needed to take more control in the classroom from those pesky know it all teachers. Yet I often wonder if the problem might not actually be with our teaching practices but with our assessment practices. Perhaps the problem isn’t that the current crop of teachers aren’t innovative, but it is our national obsession with measuring learning that is squeezing innovative teaching practices. In an era where schools have their NCEA and National Standards results put up for scrutiny, I’m sure I’m not on teacher feeling the pressure between that amazing engaging curriculum and ensuring achievement gains as measured by standardized tests for students.
Tech_audit_tool This is a quick Technology Audit Tool that I have put together. It is for use in doing a quick audit of the level of technology use in the classroom. The tool uses the three levels of technology use that Bernajean Porter outlines in her 2002 paper. This is a snap shot of the use of technology in the classroom. Reference Grappling with Accountability 2002: Mapping Tools for Organizing and Assessing Technology for Student Results, Bernajean Porter Alan November - Education Technology Consultant Alan thrives on confirming and challenging educators’ thoughts about what’s possible in the world of teaching and learning. More than anything, he is a teacher at heart, with a wealth of experience teaching learners of all ages. Alan November is an international leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. “As an educator, sometimes all you need is inspiration to work harder for your students. Audiences enjoy Alan’s humor and wit as he pushes the boundaries of how to improve teaching and learning. Alan was named one of the nation’s fifteen most influential thinkers of the decade by Technology and Learning Magazine. Alan’s resume can be found here. Each summer Alan leads the Building Learning Communities summer BLC conference with world-class presenters and international participants.
Wikis - Educational Technology What are learning skills? | Thoughtful Learning K-12 The 21st century learning skills are often called the 4 C’s: critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating. These skills help students learn, and so they are vital to success in school and beyond. Critical Thinking Critical thinking is focused, careful analysis of something to better understand it. Analyzing is breaking something down into its parts, examining each part, and noting how the parts fit together. Creative Thinking Creative thinking is expansive, open-ended invention and discovery of possibilities. Brainstorming ideas involves asking a question and rapidly listing all answers, even those that are far-fetched, impractical, or impossible. Communicating Analyzing the situation means thinking about the subject, purpose, sender, receiver, medium, and context of a message. Collaborating Allocating resources and responsibilities ensures that all members of a team can work optimally.
The 21st Century Learning Initiative ~ Home Facilitating 21st Century Learning Taking a measure of ICT Integration. ICT is an abbreviation for Information and Communication Technologies. This is a vast variety of tools and technologies encompassing personal computing, the internet, phones, fax and everything inbetween.How do we take measure of ICT integration or implementation? 1. This is the physical and electronic tools and materials available to the teacher in the classroom. 2. Skills, I consider fall into two categories; Technical and Pedagogical. Brilliant learning and ICT integration often comes out of classrooms with one computer, facilitated by a teacher with passion and vision. 3. Does our curricula reflect 21st Century learning? An integrating curriculum (and drilling down into the integrating curriculum - subjects and unit plans), which support ICT integration are dynamic.
The 27 Characteristics of A 21st Century Teacher "21st Century Educator" is probably the most popular buzzword in today's education. There is a growing and heated debate whether or not to label educators as 21st century and each camp has its own concept and arguments, however, for me personally I see teaching in 21st century as having undergone a paradigmatic shift. This is basically due to the emerging of the " social web" and the huge embrace of technology and particularly the mobile gadgetry in our classrooms. It would be unfair to ignore these huge transformations and their impact on education. Having said that, we are sharing with you today this great infographic from Mia featuring the 27 ways to be 21st century teacher. courtesy of :
Blog Understanding Digital Children - Ian Jukes One element of my professional reading at the moment is reading through Ian Jukes “Understanding digital children (DK's) Teaching & Learning in the New Digital Landscape”. Ian looks at the difference between digital kids and teachers and the impact that this has on teaching and learning. At one point Ian summarises the differences between Native Learners (screenagers) and Teachers. We know that experience, like using a computer, will change the structure of our brain, This is a concept called Nueroplasticity. We also know that, the more intense the experience, the more profound the change. Our students, who often have a greater exposure to technology, are likely to be more nuerologically adapted, but adults can as easily be "Digital Natives". Media Exposure Mark Prensky - in his papers digital natives and Digital immigrants, highlighted the exposure our students have to different forms of media. Increasingly, the readings and research are converging towards the same point.
To what extent does Bloom’s taxonomy actually apply to foreign language teaching and learning? Bloom’s taxonomy of higher order thinking skills has acquired a mythological status, amongst educators. It is one of those reference frameworks that teachers adhere to with some sort of blind allegiance and which, in 25 years of teaching, I have never heard anyone question or criticize. Yet, it is far from perfect and, as I intend to argue in this article, there are serious issues undermining its validity, both with its theoretical premises and its practical implementation in MFL curriculum planning and lesson evaluation in school settings. Why should we be ‘wary’ of the Bloom taxonomy, as the ‘alarmist’ title of this article implies? Mainly because people forget or fail to consider that the Bloom Taxonomy was not meant as an evaluative tool and does not purport to measure ‘effective teaching’. In fact, the book in which the higher order thinking skills taxonomy was published is entitled: Taxonomy of Educational Objectives: The Classification of Educational Goals. Like this:
Instructional Technology - Region 10 Website Videoconference Services Videoconferencing Services Videoconference Bridging Content Capture, Archival and Streaming Video Scheduling and Help Desk Field Services and Support Training and Consulting Desktop / Device-based Videoconference services Requirements and Fees Professional Development Professional Development Information on Graduate Programs and College and University Guidelines Student Videoconferencing Students Dual credit high school courses High school courses in high need such as foreign languages Enrichment activities such as virtual field trips Project-based collaboration between classes Reggie's Robots utilizes VGo Robots to allow students to attend classes via interactive video conferencing while recovering from long-term illness, injury, or other factors requiring the student to be homebound or not able to be present in the classroom.
21st Century Learners Most of us have met them. If we teach in independent schools, higher decile schools or teach in more privilaged areas they are becoming increasingly common. Even the more short sighted of teachers can see them increasing as our future becomes increasingly electronic. So what are they? They are students who are shaped by their environment. but for those who by good fortune have had exposure for the entire of their lives to technology the effect is huge. So what is a Digital Native, a Digital Child, A Neo-Millennial or 21st Century Learner? It helps perhaps to look at a digital native in reference to someone we are familiar with: A teacher, who is more often than not, as Marc would describe them, a Digital Immigrant. Teens and the internet PEW Internet is an American organization researching the effect of the Internet on American life. Resources: Educational Origami - [[| Have our classrooms really changed that much?