למידה, אינטרנט ... ומה שביניהם

only middle schoolers in north Texas. Above average and mentally gifted middle schoolers, but still 4 years from the “real world” and the ability to be treated like our voice is worth listening to.

Could children, using the internet, have a dramatic impact on the world around them? Could they influence public opinion, and make a mark on their world?

Perhaps I should’ve seen what was coming, but it still caught me off-guard. Their question to me was simple enough, though:

“Can we try it?”

We honestly don’t know what will happen to this video after being posted or if anything will happen at all. What we do know is that we do need change in our education, and that’s what this is all about.

Today's questions don't have just one answer

Our opinions are the answer

I think that when the video originally came out and the initial push to make it known by the students trickled off without apparently “catching” beyond their local community, disappointment was the general feeling. Being the digital generation, we viewed that Youtube hit counter as a marker of our success. When it started tapering off before we even crossed the 2,000 line, I think we were frustrated.

תוויות: פני החינוך, פרסום

As has been mentioned countless times by countless observers, there is little if anything in P21’s Mission Statement and accompanying selection of skills that has anything to do specifically with the 21st century. I fear that more than anything, the board’s weak statement only serves to undermine much of the valuable work we educators and educational technologists have accomplished independent of P21.

תוויות: הרהורים

News report sez Internet interferes w/ teen sleep. Duh. So does school. Probably more so. Yet, which one will we try to stop?

... video gaming and Internet use were associated with less sleep among teens, but TV watching was linked to slightly increased time in bed.

My main gripe is that so many "studies" of Internet use and youth are from this odd "impersonal" point of view that feels as if it doesn't belong to a person. These studies sound as if written by people who were never young. Don't they remember what it was like being young? Or were researchers all tossed out of the womb at age 50, deprived of anything like youth themselves, and forever more critical of those who are young?

I've been working in the field of Internet safety for 17 years, and the deeper I get into it, the more I realize that Internet safety for kids and teens isn't about the Internet or really even about safety.

תוויות: התנהגות ברשת

Where we are today is a lot better place in terms of discussion, but not in terms of results compared to 10 years ago. What we’re doing now is building a system empowered by technology with a huge infusion of private capital aimed at bringing a total delivery system. Eventually, we’ll have far fewer teachers who are paid much more. Education would be data-driven, customized, will engage kids, differentiate instruction, and value human capital in a different way. What we’re doing now is trying to reform a broken delivery system rather than create an effective delivery system.

תוויות: סטנדרטים, פני החינוך

elected to conduct an academic study to measure the impact of digital textbooks.

it will have more technology, more curriculum materials, and more instructional support.

90.5% of students using iPads are testing as proficient or above on benchmark tests, compared with 60% in other classes.

Educators say students who use the touchscreen devices for class appear to be more engaged in their studies. Students can view their school work anywhere and email their teachers anytime.

Savannah showed how she can draw with her finger on the iPad screen or circle an answer on a quiz.

It's so convenient and fun to use, she said, that "I can study while I'm helping my mom make dinner."

in the future all classes will be using iPad-like, mobile learning devices – not paper-based textbooks – for learning.

תוויות: למידה, ספרי לימוד, iPad

Decades of research show strong and consistent links between high-quality arts education and a wide range of impressive educational outcomes. (p. vi)

... due to budget constraints and emphasis on the subjects of high stakes testing, arts instruction in schools is on a downward trend. Just when they need it most, the classroom tasks and tools that could best reach and inspire these students – art, music movement and performing – are less available to them. (p. vi)

Most strikingly, arts-engaged low-income students are more likely than their non-arts-engaged peers to have attended and done well in college, obtained employment with a future, volunteered in their communities and participated in the political process by voting. In the many types of comparisons that Catterall tracks, arts-engaged low-income students tend to perform more like average higher-income students. (p. 18)

We certainly learned that while national leadership and more federal resources for arts education are critically important, a singular new national program would not necessarily be the most effective way to advance arts education. (p. 11)

תוויות: אמנויות

much of what we actually do has nothing with either “instructional technology” or instruction.

Simple. It’s anything that students use to develop and enhance their learning. Or, in the words of our school board, students should “use technology to access, communicate, and apply knowledge and to foster creativity”.

students have fewer and fewer tools for all that creating, communicating, and collaborating we say we want the kids to be doing.

תוויות: טכנולוגיה, שימוש בבתי ספר

Sometimes I wonder if we're encouraging students to self-market rather than engage in meaningful interaction. Sometimes it seems that students are encouraged to post only their best work, ask only the best questions, avoid anything remotely offensive on their Twitter and keep their Facebook squeeky clean.

Adolescents need to experiment socially. Ever worked with teenagers? Their ups are way up and their downs are way down and they can be brutally honest in a way that adults often curb. They are figuring out relationships. They are engaged in friendships with training wheels.

Asking students to "be nice" might be great in managing liability, but it fails to reach them at their level and ultimately it fails in the purpose of education. If I want students to become honest, ethical critical thinkers, I'm not sure the model needs to be Mr. Rogers.

תוויות: אתיקה

An understanding that online teaching is its own discipline.

A perception that online teaching is a mode of instruction, a venue, an alternative, the future, or a field of knowledge that begins with technology instead of pedagogy.

תוויות: אקדמי, בלוגים, מחקר

While connectivism begins with the individual, it stresses the growth of connections and connectedness in learning and knowledge. Self-directed learning explains the attributes of learners who learn at their own pace and interest. Is that sufficient to describe our knowledge needs today? I don’t think so.

To address the information and social complexity of open courses, learners need to be network-directed, not self-directed learners. Social networks serve to filter and amplify important concepts and increase the diversity of views on controversial topics. This transition is far broader than only what we’ve experienced in open courses – the need for network-centric learning and knowledge building is foundational in many careers today.

Most importantly network-directed learning is not a “crowd sourcing” concept. Crowd sourcing involves people creating things together. Networks involve connected specialization – namely we are intelligent on our own and we amplify that intelligence when we connect to others. Connectedness – in this light – consists of increasing, not diminishing, the value of the individual.

תוויות: למידה, מכוונות עצמית, רשתיות

I’ve left plenty out here to save space, but the point is these students have left a mark, a legacy that will survive their graduation to middle school and beyond. Not only have they done community service that effects their community, but they have participated globally and left the archive for others to ponder and I hope improve on. Most importantly they have vastly improved their writing, research, communication and numerous other skills along the way. They were only held back by my limitations and the limitations of the system.

תוויות: כלי ווב 2.0, למידה, שימוש בבתי ספר

I informed my students today of my possible trip by having them spend 15 minutes researching the Space Shuttle Endeavour (which I managed to mis-spell “Endeavor” … which they happily informed me as their search began). Once they had learned a bit I explained what might be happening. They were pumped!

Message in this for our students. Space is hard. ... but keep on problem solving until it happens.

Things can happen that disappoint us. Sometimes that disappointment can make us angry, frustrated and even fearful. But in my experience that disappointment often changes later. Things happen and we get to do what we missed later. Or because we couldn't get that or do that we get to do something else instead. Think about a time that you were disappointed about something you couldn't get or do, but later things worked out or you got over it. Write about a time that you were disappointed. Tell what you were disappointed about and what happened afterwards.

A waste of time? Hardly. My trip made people where I’m from more aware of what school could become. Our local paper did a short article, and although I was supposed to Skype in an interview (the usual “convention effect” bogged the internet to a crawl) I did do a phone interview with a TV station as well. Even before I left on my trip I was asked by teachers and parents to explain what I was doing and what educational impact it could possibly make ... so I had those conversations too.

תוויות: פני החינוך, שימוש בבתי ספר