"Connected Learning" Connected Learning: Designed to ‘mine the new social, digital domain’ SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Citing an ever-widening gap between in-school and out-of-school learning experiences, a team of researchers today introduced a model of learning -- ‘connected learning’ -- that taps into the rich new world of information, knowledge, and online collaboration available to youth and learners. The connected learning model, which is anchored in a large body of research on how youth are using social media, the internet and digital media to learn and develop expertise, also seeks to respond to deepening fears of a class-based “equity” gap in education that, without intervention, is likely to be accelerated by disproportionate access to technology and new forms of knowledge sharing. Interest-powered...Research has repeatedly shown that when a subject is personally interesting and relevant, learners achieve much higher-order learning outcomes. ...and the embrace of three key design principles: S.
Khan Academy: Learning Habits vs. Content Delivery in STEM Education Email Share March 20, 2012 - by Guest Author 0 Email Share Co-written by David Castillo and Peter McIntosh Most math education analyses in urban high school classrooms focus on delivery of content: What content to deliver, when to deliver it, how to explain it, what textbooks to use, how much home work to assign, and more. As reform efforts have shifted to technology and online learning, we are still asking questions about content delivery in a different context: How to automate it, individualize it, manage it remotely, and deliver it without killing trees. Improving content delivery helped, but not enough Oakland Unity High School is a four-year (grades 9-12) public charter high school located in the tough urban neighborhood of East Oakland. In the summer of 2010, we conducted a diagnostic test with all incoming freshman to evaluate basic algebra and arithmetic skills. The number of students scoring below basic (approximately score of 40 percent) decreased from 77 percent to 28 percent.
The truth about flipped learning By Aaron Sams and Brian Bennett Read more by Contributor May 31st, 2012 Ultimately, flipped learning is not about flipping the “when and where” instruction is delivered; it’s about flipping the attention away from the teacher and toward the learner. A flipped classroom is all about watching videos at home and then doing worksheets in class, right? Consider carefully the assumptions and sources behind this oversimplified description. Many assumptions and misconceptions around the flipped class concept are circulating in educational and popular media. Assumption: Videos have to be assigned as homework. Although video is often used by teachers who flip their class, it is not a prerequisite, and by no means must a video be assigned as homework each night. Resulting misconception: Videos are just recorded lectures. For more news about flipped learning, see:Engaging Students with Flipped Learning Resulting misconception: Homework is bad; therefore a flipped class is bad.
Hyping classroom technology helps tech firms, not students Something sounded familiar last week when I heard U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski make a huge pitch for infusing digital technology into America's classrooms. Every schoolchild should have a laptop, they said. Where had I heard that before? The revolutionary technology being heralded in that statement wasn't the Internet or the laptop, but the motion picture. He was talking through his hat then, every bit as much as Duncan and Genachowski are talking through theirs now. Here's another similarity: The push for advanced technology in the schoolroom then and now was driven by commercial, not pedagogical, considerations. That should tell you that the nirvana sketched out by Duncan and Genachowski at last week's Digital Learning Day town hall was erected upon a sizable foundation of commercially processed claptrap. How much genuine value is there in fancy educational electronics? Does Duncan ever read his own agency's material?
Let the Games Begin: Entertainment Meets Education Video games, once confiscated in class, are now a key teaching tool -- if they're done right. Credit: Thomas Reis Kurt Squire knew something unusual was happening in his after-school Western civ program. His normally lackluster middle and high school students, who'd failed the course once already, were coming to class armed with strategies to topple colonial dictators. Heated debates were erupting over the impact of germs on national economies. His secret? Kids are not ambivalent when it comes to video games: They love them. But there's one kind of game that nobody's succeeded in making for the insatiable throngs of game groupies: a blockbuster hit for the classroom. Meanwhile, the video game world has blossomed into a gargantuan $7-plus-billion-a-year industry. Power Up Video games can do a lot of things that traditional teaching cannot. So far, the data looks promising. The increased popularity of video game consoles and online games has hurt the U.S. Credit: Point by Point Gone Shopping
Video Games Win a Beachhead in the Classroom Does this educational approach actually work? And is it something that can, or should, find its way into schools in other parts of the country? As we fret about the perils of multitasking and digital distraction in adult life, the question arises: should a school provide practice with or relief from those things? It is still too early to say. But the introduction of Quest to Learn is tied to a continuing and sometimes heated national dialogue about what skills today’s learners most need to prepare them for success in a rapidly evolving, digitally mediated world. SALEN IS 43, reddish-haired, hyperorganized and a quirky dresser. A game, as Salen sees it, is really just a “designed experience,” in which a participant is motivated to achieve a goal while operating inside a prescribed system of boundaries and rules. Salen, like many designers, views things in terms of their ideal potential and also the physical space they occupy. The traditional school structure strikes Salen as “weird.”
Closing the Loop in Education Technology Ed Tech Trends | Research Closing the Loop in Education Technology K-12 education isn't using technology effectively and isn't investing nearly enough in IT infrastructure to enable next-generation learning. That's the conclusion of a new report, "Unleashing the Potential of Technology in Education," which called for a greater financial commitment to education technology and the adoption of a holistic, "closed loop" approach to its implementation. Investment in Ed Tech The report, released this month by business strategy firm Boston Consulting Group, pointed to an analysis by market research firm Gartner showing that K-12 spending on technology was just 1.6 percent of overall spending--or about $9.2 billion in 2010--compared with sectors like professional services and healthcare that are devoting up to 6 percent of their spending on technology annually. "The education sector continues to devote a far lower proportion of its spending on technology than do other sectors.
Bringing Teachers Onboard with Tech Technology Trends | Q&A Bringing Teachers Onboard with Tech Ed tech adoption isn't about forcing new technologies on teachers or wearing them down in an effort to obtain grudging "buy in." On the contrary. And, he said, it doesn't hurt to give teachers some time share their successes with one another. Hurley heads up Next Vista for Learning, a project that provides free online media for educators and offers training on the use of video content in the classroom. David Nagel: There's resistance from some teachers when it comes to technology adoption. Rushton Hurley: Certainly some of this resistance is a function of leadership. Nagel: You have a number of suggestions for getting teachers on board with technology. Hurley: I don't believe that technology sits apart from effectively addressing such things as teamwork and morale. Nagel: Sometimes the teachers who resist a particular technology initiative are right to resist it. Hurley: The key is what is happening with student learning.