Making Connections
Take a look at this short video. So I saw this video on Twitter yesterday (thanks to Alec Couros and Steve Ransom). It really spoke to me. Connections are so important. Watch the video again and look at the different emotions on the faces of the folks. Now take the idea of connecting and turn it virtual. The point is social networking is less about networking and more about social. Twitter isn't the only way that happens. The point is, we can't go through our professional careers alone. So take a risk like the folks in the video. Go out and hug the bear.
Why ICT must be a key part of the school curriculum « Malcolm Bellamy's Lifelong Learning Blog
Posted on December 29, 2011 by malbell I have just read a really interesting post by Dan Barker in the Huffington Post United Kingdom edition. The post is titled “Decline and Fall: The UK’s Shocking IT Education Record”. It follows the recent Ofsted report on ICT education in schools. In the post, Barker, a professional software developer, bemoans the fact that U.K. schools have a terrible record when it comes to teaching ICT skills. This is a young I.T. professional who is only too aware of the place that ICT skills have in the current world economy. His final paragraph is perhaps the most concerning for us: “The good news is that the problem is apparently now moving up the political agenda, with Michael Gove, the education secretary, admitting recently that he thought that computer science needed to be taught more in schools. Like this: Like Loading... Filed under: Digital Technology, The 21st Century school Tagged: | ICT, Information and communication technologies in education, Ofsted
Collection of eLearning Tools | A&H: Technology Enhanced Learning
Learning is becoming: dynamic, real-time, social, mobile, local, fluid, peer to peer, gamified. The future will require more resilience. “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” – Alvin Toffler. Teachers are filters for the current information tsunami. “The problem is not really information overload, but filter failure.” – Clay Shirky. Tools like the ones below are redefining the relationships between us and data/information, teachers and learners, work and play and enabling the re-imagination of education as interactive / online / accessible / ubiquitous. Over 2,000 tools for learning and working in education and the workplace LINK20 Must-Have Educational Resources For All Teachers LINKScreenr web-based screen recorder LINKSculptris is a 3D sculpting software LINK12 Tech Tools That Will Transform The Way You Teach!
Dear Email, it’s over: A breakup letter for the Digital Age
Dear Email, We made it through the holidays together, but I think we both know that our relationship just isn’t working. As hard as this is to say—it’s over—we have to break up. First let me just say, E, I will always have feelings for you, and you know you’ll always have a special place in my heart. It was such an exciting time. Once I graduated, you even helped me get my first job. Then things started to change between us. Also—and I know I said I forgave you for this—but remember the time you sent me that really bad virus and I lost everything on my computer? These days, at work and at home, you’ve become really hard to control. There are some things about you I can never change. Although you’re not harming trees, you’re costly in other ways. You should also know that I become involved with someone new. I know this is painful for you. I wish you all the best. Sincerely, Andrea A version of this letter first appeared on the author’s blog Brie Moon.
How do we make our schools fit to face the 21st century? | Education | The Observer
The Observer panel, chaired by Yvonne Roberts: Guy Claxton, professor of learning sciences; Sue Street, inner city school teacher; Melissa Benn, journalist and campaigner; Rachel Wolf, education adviser; Peter Hyman, teacher and former political strategist. What is education for in the 21st century? Rachel Wolf The best thing that schools can do now is make sure people have the core of knowledge and skills and ability to decide what they want to do with their lives. Guy Claxton Education means learning to think for yourself, learning to make and repair friendships, learning to see other people's points of view, learning not to be frightened of uncertainty or difficulty. Unfortunately the system, whether it be in a free school, an academy or a comprehensive school, seems to comprehensively neglect the development of those qualities in the obsession with exam results. Peter Hyman I think we're preparing children for the middle of the 20th century and not for the 21st. Peter Hyman I agree.
STEM 4 Kids
The social capital of accreditation in higher education (#change11)
[Image retrieved from 25 January 2012] Following from this week’s post “The selfish giant and the unlocking of the gates of higher education” and the discussions that followed from it; I realised that there is more to the issue of accreditation than is often on the table (whether a banquet table at one of the elite universities, or a kitchen table in a far-off place of which the World Bank and those responsible for university rankings have not heard of). This discussion arises from discussions around the “Unlocking the gates”. How and why leading universities are opening access to their courses”, one of the readings in this week’s MOOC. I don’t dispute that some open courseware experiences and moocs are on the same and often higher standard than accredited courses at higher education institutions. So why does accreditation (still) matter to thousands of students registering for accredited courses and programmes? Like this:
Attachment disorder: The families struggling to stay in control | Society
On a good day, Amy Robson's 14-year-old stepson James is just like any other teenage boy – he'll happily regale you with the latest footie scores or challenge you to a game on the PlayStation at his home in Cumbria. But on a bad day, the same teenager has been known to threaten classmates, attack teachers and even defecate in the classroom. Two years ago James was diagnosed with attachment disorder, something that occurs when the attachment between a child and a care-giver is not formed during early childhood. It was brought on by his chaotic start in life, when he lived in a violent household with an alcoholic mother. James was eight by the time his father was granted custody of him. "We hit a crisis point [last year] as we just weren't getting any help," Robson says. Studies have shown that children displaying attachment problems in early life usually go on to have behaviour problems. Hayley Morgan is concerned that her 13-year-old adopted son Jon will go to prison.
