Students' experiences and expectations of the digital environment Over the last few years, the technology-enhanced learning (TEL) community has made the student digital experience a central concern. Of course we still worry about getting the institutional systems and infrastructure right, but we know that students are using a vast range of tools – including their own devices and services – and that it's how they use these tools that matters. Now with the digital student project we have had a chance to look squarely at how the student experience is changing. As well as incoming expectations, Dave White and I reviewed studies of how students feel about their digital experience – about their course of study and about the digital environment more generally. What we discovered As we imagined, arriving students' expectations vary a great deal. Beyond these we saw a more varied picture. So general expectations are rising, but students are still unclear about how the technologies they use at university can help them to succeed. Spaces and places of learning
Digital Citizenship 10 Interactive Lessons By Google On Digital Citizenship YouTube has a firm place in the current classroom. From Khan Academy’s videos to YouTube EDU and beyond, there’s a reason all these videos are finding a home in schools. In an effort to help keep the ball rolling, Google just launched a set of 10 interactive lessons designed to support teachers in educating students on digital citizenship. A topic obviously quite close to Google’s heart. Google (which owns YouTube) built the lessons to educate students about YouTube’s policies, how to flag content, how to be a safer online citizen, and protect their identities. Below is a list of lessons, and the recommended flow for delivery. Or you can download the Full Teacher’s Guide or the Full Set of Slides in PDF. The killer feature for this curriculum is the extra features that come with each video.
What do students entering HE expect from digital technologies? When we come across new technologies or digital platforms for the first time in further and higher education (HE), how do we decide what the technology does or should do, and how we can use it to help us? In the digital student project we have been investigating incoming students’ expectations of the digital environment in HE. Institutions will be working to meet or manage expectations as hundreds of thousands of new students arrive in September but it’s no small task to build a picture of students’ hopes and aspirations when there are modules to rewrite and technology to update over the summer. Clearly experiences of digital technology while at school will be a major influence, so we have looked closely at the sort of technologies schools own and how they use it. In the classroom Coming to an understanding of the use of technology in schools wasn’t straight forward. Shifting model Digital technologies in HE
Focus on portfolios: 4 advantages of alternative assessment I’m happy to say that my school is currently dipping its toes into alternative assessment in the form of writing portfolios. Although I’m a big fan, it is the norm to view portfolios as a ‘non-traditional’ approach to judging performance. Nevertheless, portfolios, and alternative assessment methods in general, are frequently used in education to evaluate students based on objectives tailored to their learning needs. In contrast, traditional assessments such as multiple-choice exams estimate a learner’s improvement in content knowledge against other exam takers. As the sole criterion of improvement and/or competence, traditional testing can create faulty comparisons and overlook achievements. ‘Path by the river’ by @ALiCe__M from ELTPics 1. The portfolio process reviews a comparatively large body of a learner’s work, rather than a one off performance, to evaluate performance over a course of study. 2. 3. 4. How is it going? A few links
Teachers as leaders: Building capacity to serve ELs SmartBlogs SmartBlog on Education will highlight summer learning and enrichment for educators during June. In this blog post, advocate and author Ayanna Cooper explores professional development models for teachers of English learners. In an effort to improve outcomes for students identified as English learners (ELs) a number of initiatives, program models, standards and assessments, model curriculum units, etc., have been created, spearheaded, implemented and evaluated. Despite all of this, in some places, a complex step has been inadvertently missed: supporting teachers of ELs as leaders. One shot professional development sessions, although not supported by research as effective, still exist. Diverse and creative professional development offerings are imperative. The following scenarios are examples of approaches to professional development for educators of ELs. Scenario one: District provides on-going professional development for all educators of ELs. Scenario two: Scenario three:
OU Digital Tools: Connected Learning Infographic Thanks to Karen LaBonte, I learned about this amazing infographic about Connected Learning. You can see the jumbo-sized version of the graphic for details. I find it wonderful but overwhelming, so I decided to break it up into piece that I can cope with! These infographic snippets will give me plenty to reflect on in the days to come. :-) Connected Learning. Peer Culture. Openly Networked. Academic. Active Relevant Real-World Effective Hands-OnNetworked Innovative Personal Transformative Shared Purpose. Interests. Production-Centered. Collaborate Share Empowered Supported Space Knowledge Achieve Recognition Cross-Generational Expertise Diverse Mobilize Credit: Connected Learning Research Network and Digital Media & Learning Research Hub This Connected Learning Infographic is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
24 Questions to Enhance Students Reflective and Critical Thinking Skills August 31, 2014 Reflection is a fundamental skill from which is branched out all other thinking skills. Reflection is a form of meta-thinking, a process of deep contemplation and pondering. It is also the basis of critical thinking for we can not raise critical thinkers if we do not have good 'reflectors'. When students are taught the art of reflecting, they become independent learners who are engaged in a constant process of assessment and re-assessment of their learning needs and strategies. Reflection is all about questioning. Check the full graphic from this page. New York Compels 20 School Districts to Lower Barriers to Immigrants Twenty New York school districts found to be blocking access for undocumented immigrant children will be forced to modify their enrollment policies to break down illegal barriers to education, the state attorney general’s office said on Wednesday. A joint review by the State Education Department and the attorney general’s office found a broad pattern of intransigence on the part of districts that, despite repeated instructions from federal and state law enforcement agencies, continued to bar children based on their immigration status, said Kristen Clarke, the chief of the Civil Rights Bureau in the attorney general’s office. The resulting reforms, under agreements between Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman and the 20 districts, would compel them to stop asking for documents such as Social Security cards that effectively exclude undocumented children from school. Many of the 20 districts implicated, which are spread over 14 counties, are outside large cities. Ms.
What is a Relevant Educator? - Corwin Connect Contributed by Tom Whitby Education in America has been around for several hundred years now, going back to colonial times in the 17th century. Back then, teachers were not only content experts, but also models for moral standards for children. I imagine that the concept of applying “moral turpitude” as a condition of employment for a teacher started back then. Teachers had to uphold the highest of moral standards within their communities, or be terminated. Teachers back then were covered by a common law doctrine of “in loco parentis” which empowered schools, and thereby teachers, to administer corporal punishment (hitting or paddling) to any students whom they felt warranted punishment. Change came slowly to education. Technology slowly crept into schools. Educators were slow in adopting technology beyond the word processor. The picture I have attempted to paint in words is a common experience most educators and parents have experienced in their contact with education.
Excellent Tool to Create Rubrics for Your Class November, 2014 Rubistar is a great free web tool that teachers can use to create educational rubrics to use in class. By definition, a rubric according to Geidi Andrade, is "a document that articulates the expectations for an assignment by listening the criteria, or what counts, and describing levels of quality from excellent to poor". As a teacher you can create rubrics and use them for a variety of purposes. These include: grading students assignments, providing focused feedback on works in progress, preparing lesson plans and many more. " Rubrics can teach as well as evaluate. Rubistar is very simple and easy to use. Learning in the 21st Century To be able to engage and achieve in learning, students need to be fully aware of what e-learning is, and is not. The series of eight Learning in the 21st Century videos feature NZ tertiary students and tutors talking about their views and experiences of e-learning. The videos are an output of the Tertiary Educator Bulletins / Tertiary e-Learning Resources project, which synthesises and communicates findings from New Zealand Ministry of Education research into e-learning in tertiary education to date. Reassuringly, the students’ own unrehearsed accounts are aligned with the research findings. These videos are also available on YouTube - Contact the Ministry - tertiary.elearning@minedu.govt.nz Acknowledgements | Copyright Statement Acknowledgements Thanks to all who participated in the filming: Copyright Statement The material may be freely distributed for educational use.
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