Designing Personalized Learning Experiences The phrase “personalized learning” gets tossed around a lot in education circles. Sometimes it’s used in the context of educational technology tools that offer lessons keyed to the academic level of individual students. Other times it’s referring to the personal touch of a teacher getting to know a student, learning about their interests and tailoring lessons to meet both their needs and their passion areas. As with most education jargon, the phrase isn’t fixed, but it usually connects to the idea that not all students need the same thing at the same time. It implies choice, multiple pathways to learning, many ways to demonstrate competency and resists the notion that all students learn the same way. Educator Mia MacMeekin has put together a clear infographic highlighting some of the ways teachers design “personalized” curriculum.
Play FREE Online Strategy and MMO Games | Plarium.com Online Flashcards EDUCATIONAL MAKERSPACES | Teacher Librarian Editor’s Note: This article, reprinted from the June 2014 issue of Teacher Librarian: The Journal for School Library Professionals, is a thoughtful and insightful examination of the philosophy and pedagogical underpinnings of the maker movement. The authors’ analysis and argument are strong, and the benefits they tout are inspiring. The authors will follow up with two more articles on the maker movement which will be published in the next two issues of Teacher Librarian. To download a PDF version of this article, click here. Educational makerspaces (EM) and maker education (ME) have the potential to revolutionize the way we approach teaching and learning. In practical terms, educational makerspaces are the ideal environment for maker education. Makerspaces outside of the educational environment are adult playgrounds for thinking and whimsical construction. The maker education approach to learning is highly individual yet lives within certain boundaries. Invite curiosity. Inspire wonder.
Jose Rodrigues - Be a Warrior in Sparta: War of Empires... The Key To Learning: Knowing How Learning Works What’s the key to effective learning? One intriguing body of research suggests a rather riddle-like answer: It’s not just what you know. It’s what you know about what you know. To put it in more straightforward terms, anytime a student learns, he or she has to bring in two kinds of prior knowledge: knowledge about the subject at hand (say, mathematics or history) and knowledge about how learning works. Parents and educators are pretty good at imparting the first kind of knowledge. In our schools, “little emphasis—if any—is placed on training students how they should go about learning the content and what skills will promote efficient studying to support robust learning,” writes John Dunlosky, professor of psychology at Kent State University in Ohio, in an article just published in American Educator. Teaching students good learning strategies leads to improved learning outcomes, writes lead author Helen Askell-Williams of Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia.
How the Maker Movement Is Moving into Classrooms The Maker movement is a unique combination of artistry, circuitry, and old-fashioned craftsmanship. Certainly, learning by doing or "making" has been happening since our ancestors refined the wheel. Don’t treat making as a sidebar to an already overtaxed curriculum. As you investigate the principles behind teaching STEAM via making, you'll see sound research from many educators throughout history, including Jean Piaget who, in 1973, wrote: [S]tudents who are thus reputedly poor in mathematics show an entirely different attitude when the problem comes from a concrete situation and is related to other interests. In 1972, Seymour Papert predicted what many complain is the state of today's apps and programs for modern students: [T]he same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased toward its dumbest parts, namely the kind of rote learning in which measurable results can be obtained by treating the children like pigeons in a Skinner box. Maker classrooms are active classrooms.
Jose Rodrigues - Like #Riplaki , Play #Soldiersinc... PEEL project for enhancing effective learning The Project for Enhancing Effective Learning (PEEL) was founded in 1985 by a group of teachers and academics who shared concerns about the prevalence of passive, unreflective, dependent student learning, even in apparently successful lessons. They set out to research classroom approaches that would stimulate and support student learning that was more informed, purposeful, intellectually active, independent and metacognitive. The project was unfunded and not a result of any system or institution-level initiative. PEEL teachers agree to meet on a regular basis, in their own time, to share and analyse experiences, ideas and new practices. The original project was intended to run for two years at one (secondary) school, however the process of collaborative action-research, the developments of so many new ideas for practice and the changes in classroom environment all proved very rewarding for the teachers. How does PEEL work? PEEL Resources What does it look like? What are the results? 6. 1.
Teaching Coding in Class: 17 Apps to Try November 17, 2014 Today as I was going through my bookmarks, I come across this excellent visual created by Sean Junkins where he features a bunch of powerful apps to help you teach coding in the classroom. Unfortunately, the visual does not render legible enough when turned into large infographic. So instead, I am sharing with you the apps featured in it. I really like how Sean Junkins arranged these apps into different categories which will help you target different areas in the teaching of coding. Enjoy 1- Learning the basics A- Daisy the Dinosaur Learn the basics of computer programming with Daisy the Dinosaur! B- Move The Turtle Move The Turtle is an educational application for iPhone and iPad that teaches children the basics of creating computer programs, using intuitive graphic commands.2- Video tutorials Udacity courses are taught by industry experts from Facebook, Google, Cloudera and MongoDB. C- Khan Academy This is the official iPad app of the popular Khan Academy platform.
TouchPal Keyboard Take command of your Android device's touchpad keypad with a Perfect and smart Keyboard for android. You can customize the look of the keyboard with eight different themes and add additional functionality to your device. Perfect Keyboard lets you use custom dictionaries, control background and text colors, and adjust the keyboard's vibration density. In short, Perfect Keyboard allows you to setup your Android phone or tablet's touchpad keyboard so that it works best for you. Note: Perfect Keyboard works only on Android 2.2 and up Detailed Specifications: Tips: #Change Appearance and Themes:To change appearance go to settings -> appearance #About "collecting data" warning message:That warning message is a part of the Android operating system, and it appears whenever a third party keyboard is enabled. Please report your bugs via email . reviews:AndroidTapp:Perfect Keyboard is an excellent keyboard replacement application user reviews: Ben:Very good keyboard!
Mastery Learning and Content Creation on the iPad By Heather Parris-Fitzpatrick In this era of testing , it’s a good time to reflect on the elements of Mastery Learning as an instructional model and see how it may benefit the 21st century English Language Learner. ESL students of every proficiency level can benefit from this approach. ELLs routinely participate in standardized assessments that are designed for native language speakers. With the iPad and a mastery learning approach students can create dynamic and entertaining multimedia presentations that can be used as alternative assessments that inform instruction. Most mastery learning concepts come from Benjamin Bloom who coined the term. Bloom introduced the concept based on the premise that even though students have various learning rates and modalities, if teachers provide the necessary time and appropriate learning conditions, nearly all students can reach a high level of achievement. Guskey, T.