Sir Ken Robinson on the Power of the Imaginative Mind (Part One) Ken: Good evening. Education reform is, I think, now the major global challenge, and I just wanted to share some thoughts with you then open this up for some conversation before we're done. Who's been to Las Vegas? All: Yeah. Ken: What is that? Don't be so literal. Thank you. They are to be seen wandering the streets, so you know, at your leisure see if you can spot some. The question is how? Please let me deal with this one first. I know eight-year-olds who are far smarter than some eighteen-year-olds in particular things. Narrator: For more information on what works in public education, go to Edutopia.org
'Our School Would Be Better Off Without iPads.' We go on and on about iPads, tablets, phablets, and just about every other piece of technology out there. But the discussion is slowly changing. It’s becoming less and less about how to deploy as much technology as possible. Instead, the discussion is shifting (luckily) back over to effectively connecting with students. Check out the recent post by George Couros to see what I’m talking about. So that’s why it was interesting to see a comment pop up on a recent post here on Edudemic about iPads . The comment is below. NOTE: Since a teacher’s name and school was included in the comment, I thought it might be useful to remove any personal or identifying information from the comment before raising awareness of it. I get that iPads can help students learn and it can open up new opportunities to learn.
Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) by Kay Oddone on Prezi Let’s Laugh! 10+ Resources & Activities for Inspiring Laughter in Your Class “Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity…When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.”~Gretchen Rubin April Fool’s day is around the corner and it’s a great time to get your students laughing while learning. Laughter is healthy and gets us to relieve the stress of language learning. Joke Mingle You can have students bring in jokes for any topic, grammar, or vocabulary you teach. Students memorize at least one of the jokes.Put students in pairs facing each other.Give them 30 seconds to a minute to tell their jokes.Blow the whistle. My Favorite Joke Have students present their favorite jokes to the class then discuss where they first heard the joke, who told them the joke, and why they think the joke is so funny. Corniest Joke Contest One of the ways to get your students laughing is to have them tell corny jokes. Jokes Across Cultures Have a discussion with your students about various types of jokes. Research a Joke Jigsaw Jokes
Orion Nebula-Mother of Creation#edcmooc I picked the Orion Nebula M42 as my background for 2 reasons:. one I liked the colors and two, Orion symbolized creation to the Mayans, MOOCs like myself and everyone else are perpetually in the creative phase.Credit original photo: Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Robberto (STScI/ESA) et al., recomposed by DL. Gabriel #edcmooc
5 Interesting Ways Schools Use iPads There are iPads flooding into just about every classroom and school these days. Or so it seems. Judging by the amount of interest from educators, students, and administrators, it’s easy to see that the iPad is a becoming a topic of discussion (at the very least) for many of us. Below are just a handful of examples but there are boatloads more. To Encourage History Discussions Bringing the past to life is a great reason to integrate technology into any classroom or lesson. To Bring Teachers To Rural Areas There’s a rural area of Sweden (Vindeln) that has seen iPads become a critical tool in filling teacher vacancies or simply bringing instruction to many areas not normally reachable by standard education systems. To Streamline Med School You may start seeing your doctor carrying around an iPad. To Enhance Learning For Students With Disabilities Some school districts are seeing an influx of grants for bringing iPads to students with disabilities. To Create Interactive Textbooks
Disrupting Higher Education (with images, tweets) · audreywatters Professor Diana Laurillard, University of London Remodeling higher education to harness technology the issues: global demand for higher education the aims of higher education the roles of technology-enhanced learning modelling MOOCs teachers as innovators global demand for higher education will double to ~200m per year, mostly from emerging economies UNESCO's millennium goals -- "not going to make it" every child completes a full 9 years of free education post-basic education expanded to meet needs for knowledge and skills teacher training needs we've never been able to get beyond the 1:25 staff:student ratio a quality education means nurturing the individual purpose: to inspire and enable individuals to develop their capabilities to the highest must we vastly increase number of teachers? to improve the quality and scale of higher education across the world -- "not to access to masses of data from desperate would-be students" "Venture capitalists are not spending $22m to nurture students" concealed MCQs
Being social in a MOOC | The MOOC Experience Social media and digital learning environments are now combined. As part of the MOOC experience, students are requested to join debates and course’s topics on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter or Google +. The idea is to go beyond the regular e-learning platform, or the virtual class – instructors want to encourage students to learn and share ideas where they feel most comfortable at. I believe this is a great thing about MOOCs. Not only we can learn everywhere, but it is also easier to be in touch professionals/students with similar interests. In the end of January, I had the opportunity to join one, EDCMOOC (made by students of E-learning and Digital Culture, provided by University of Edinburgh by Coursera) with more than 4,000 members from many different countries. In an article written in 2011 about the topic, researcher Rita Kop points out four main processes of the construction and development of Connectivism online: This is another interesting graphic. Like this:
Virtual Immersion: A Double Bind edcMOOC Artefact "Technology enhanced learning" Today's lesson, how to become extinct.Images from Corning's "A Day Made of Glass"www.flickr.com Our Chemical Selves: Although augmented learning through brain-machine interfacing may not yet be a reality, we are already forging strong connections between our brain and our computers just by the way we use them.angelatowndrow.blogspot.com.au Andy Mitchell's tagsexplorer: tracking connections between tweetchat participantswww.flickr.com edcMOOCers response to tweetchats was to look for connections, create narrative, ask how it made us feel. Desperately seeking the humanwww.flickr.com This artefact explores 2 themes. What it means to be human in the virtual world now and in the future is explored through a series of edcMOOC student artefacts which focus on twitter communication, through the ways in which the tweetchat conversations were interpreted. Anando Puratama's graphic shows few connections. Sounding out ideas, making sense of it all, thanks Andy!
How Video Games Change the Brain I am in an overgrown lot leaning against an eight-foot-tall shipping container. I look both ways, weighing my options. A man with an assault rifle is looking for me, just as I am looking for him. Hoping for a better vantage point, I run toward the abandoned car to my right. So ended my introduction to first-person-shooter video games. These striking findings have contributed to a shift in the national conversation about video games. Teaching is the critical word. So far the games shown to have the most potent neurological effects are the ones parents hate the most: violent first-person shooters. New Vision Bavelier stumbled on the subject of video games by accident. So Bavelier took the test. Bavelier reassigned Green to a new study that compared various aspects of visual attention in eight action gamers and eight nongamers. The action-game players were not more attentive from the start, the researchers determined. Sign up for Scientific American’s free newsletters. Big Thinkers
Looking Back to the Future! Seymour Papert - Teaching vs. Learning Education with an Emphasis on LEARNING not Teaching! Seymour Papert the Teacher Activist. :) "Nothing enrages me more than when people criticize my criticism of school by telling me that schools are not just places to learn math and spelling, they are places where children learn a vaguely defined thing called socialization. I know. I think schools generally do an effective and terribly damaging job of teaching children to be infantile, dependent, intellectually dishonest, passive and disrespectful to their own developmental capacities." “The role of the teacher is to create the conditions for invention rather than provide ready-made knowledge.” "I am convinced that the best learning takes place when the learner takes charge..."" “Our interest is really in Third World development. "[the children] become producers instead of consumers of educational software." Seymour Papert 1983 - Talking Turtles Documentary: Go visit for more! Seymour Papert at Bates College - 2000