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Digital native A digital native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction of digital technologies and through interacting with digital technology from an early age, has a greater understanding of its concepts. Alternatively, this term can describe people born during or after the 2000s, as the Digital Age began at that time; but in most cases, the term focuses on people who grew up with the technology that became prevalent in the latter part of the 20th century and continues to evolve today.[citation needed] Other discourse identifies a digital native as a person who understands the value of digital technology and uses this to seek out opportunities for implementing it with a view to make an impact. This term has been used in several different contexts, such as education (Bennett, Maton & Kervin 2008), higher education (Jones & Shao 2011) and in association with the term New Millennium Learners (OECD 2008).
Sylvia Guinan, Author at Official WizIQ Teach Blog in Teaching Online, Various A Teacher For All Seasons What is a teacher for all seasons? On a superficial level, a teacher for all seasons is always fresh, authentic and relevant, while on a deeper level it refers to being a teacher of conscience....
The Science Behind Happify Want to feel happier? Let science show you the way! Learn about the happiness-boosting strategies from groundbreaking research in positive psychology. What is Happiness, Anyway? always learning Note: this is the first in a series around my professional learning goal at YIS (more below) At most international schools (and probably most schools in general), each year teachers are asked to create one (or several) goals for the year. In some cases, I’ve had to create three: a personal goal, a team or department goal, and a goal related to a school-wide initiative. Although I always have many ideas for things I want to improve or explore each year, I often find the creation of these types of goals a little artificial. For starters, I pretty much always select a goal I know I will be able to accomplish – something that’s basically part of my job, but maybe a little bit above and beyond.
Three Helpful Tools to Add to Your Classroom Blog The start of the new school year is when I get lots of requests for helping people set up new blogs for their classrooms. Beyond the normal elements of built into your chosen blog platform, there are three things that I almost always recommend that teachers add to make their blogs a true online hub for communication. #1. Google Calendar. By creating a public calendar and embedding it into your blog you can share all kinds of helpful information that will stay in a visible location on your blog at all times. I will often include in my calendar an outline of upcoming lesson plans, assignment due dates, and school events. Brainfriendly learning methods, tools, environments and communities. How much can we actually teach students for exams without being exam-oriented? Wherever we go in professional development the reality of teaching to the test always crops up as something to avoid or get around somehow. Yet, we want our students to achieve high standards and we want them to have qualifications. For me, it’s a matter of teaching BEYOND the test. ********************************************************** Exposing them to real English before they ever see exam-type structures, whilst getting them used to such structures in fun, stress-free environments is a great way to raise competency well before exam deadlines loom ahead.
Lesson plans – a waste of time? I realise I haven’t written anything for this blog for quite some time, so I’m really glad that a recent conversation on Twitter about observations and lesson plans with @ashowski and @getgreatenglish, who following our chat wrote a post too, motivated me to write a new post. The conversation was prompted by a blog post by @ashowski which you can read here. In a nutshell, Anthony argues that from the point of view of the observer a thorough lesson plan is essential as comparing it with the decisions made by the teacher during the lesson can “reveal the most interesting features of the teacher’s pedagogic abilities”.
Best of the Best: Top 100 Web Resources for Educators Best of the Best: Top 100 Web Resources for EducatorsAn Internet Hotlist on Educator Websites created by Deborah B. Ford, Director of Library OutreachJunior Library Guild Introduction | Content Resources | Collaboration | Global Education | Time and Money Savers | Digital Resources | Worth the Money
Connectivism, Networked Learning and MOOC Edgar posted on Facebook ”Learning may reside in non-human appliances”, how can you explain this?” Hi Steve, I have been thinking of this principle since 2008, and still think that it could be up to one’s interpretation. How would you define “reside”, “non-human appliances”? And what sort of learning are we referring to?
Larry Ferlazzo’s English Website There are many pages on my main website, and they have nearly 8,000 categorized links appropriate for English Language Learners. The best place to start exploring is the Main English Page. You can read an overview about each section of my website on the Teacher’s Page. This page also has many links specifically useful to teachers. You can also go directly to each page of my website: Why teach empathy? To mark World Refugee Day on 20 June 2015, the British Council's Emily Reynolds looks at why empathy is so important and how teachers can help children develop the ability. What it means to empathise How would I respond if I were in that situation? What's it like to be in that person's shoes? Instructional Technology Sites Instructional Technology Center for Educational Technologies Connecting Students--provides elementary teachers with quality content oriented web sites,educational interactive sites, and Internet ready lesson plans.
Best edtech blogs I put out a request to readers to share the best education-related books that they had read over the past year. The books could have been published earlier and the only requirement was that you had read them sometime this year. I posted a similar piece last year: The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2008 Many readers shared their favorites, and they’re all included in this post. I have to apologize, though, that because there were so many contributions, I haven’t had time to send individual emails thanking each person who took the time to leave a comment — that’s what I usually do.
Why online teaching liberates ESL teachers Inspired by her talk at Innovate ELT, guest blogger Jaime Miller of English Success Academy looks at the reasons and pluses for getting into teaching online. During one of the mini-plenaries at Innovate ELT 2015, in Barcelona, Spain, Duncan Foord referenced a fear in the industry: that EdTech will render teachers obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth, and I say that with five years of experience teaching ESL online, and three years of sourcing 100% of my income from private Skype exams lessons for TOEFL iBT (without touching services like iTalki, WizIQ, or CourseEra). As our industry moves forward, teaching will inevitably change – but teachers will remain as essential as they always have been. At Innovate ELT, I opened a discussion of the future of teaching ESL online with an observation about many English teachers and expats around the world: Today, we work in the world… but we live online (through social media).