WebDocs: http://www.webdoc.com/documents/C4E00402-4630-0001-D6ED-2A40E46BC4F0. I created one in a few minutes. It is similar to Glogster, but I think it is easier to use.
Showing posts with label 21st c education; technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 21st c education; technology. Show all posts
05 August, 2011
23 July, 2011
22 July, 2011
How Finland became an education leader
How Finland became an education leader
The final point of the article really hit home:
"How did Finland manage to elevate the role of teacher in the eyes of the population to something that is not just an honorable profession, but a revered profession, whereas in the United States, teachers are so regularly denigrated?"
The final point of the article really hit home:
"How did Finland manage to elevate the role of teacher in the eyes of the population to something that is not just an honorable profession, but a revered profession, whereas in the United States, teachers are so regularly denigrated?"
"They really think about teachers as scientists and the classrooms are their laboratories. So, as I mentioned -- every teacher has to have a masters degree, and it's a content degree where they're not just taking silly courses on education theory and history. They're taking content courses that enable them to bring a higher level of intellectual preparation into the classroom. That's the first point.
The second point is that they've defined professionalism as working more collaboratively. They give their teachers time in the school day and in the school week to work with each other, to continuously improve their curriculum and their lessons. We have a 19th century level of professionalism here, or worse, it's medieval. A teacher works alone all day, everyday, and isolation is the enemy of improvement and innovation, which is something the Finns figured out a long time ago. Get the teachers out of their isolated circumstances and give them time to work together."
19 July, 2011
17 July, 2011
Isaac Asimov on Computers and Education (1988)
View part 2 of a three part Bill Moyers interview of Isaac Asimov in 1988. A summary of Asimov's thoughts follow. Through computers, each child can have an individualized education that was in the past was only accessible to the wealthy. If all children have access to computers, the creative minds of children will not be stifled by our current system of education. Students will be guided by teachers on how to access common knowledge, and to interact with others students. All students can enjoy personal learning, and people of all ages can become learners. Most people seek good sense, clarity, and truth (Saul Bellows in Herzog). Things are changing so fast, that we must embrace change.
16 July, 2011
More on Cell Phones in Learning Environments
Listen to this video. All classrooms should follow model 2 in the CNN Video. I agree "we need to take control" before they take control of us, and if teachers are the leaders, we can take charge of the distraction of cell phones. Notetaking, videos, reinforcing lessons, even tweeting. Think of all the money we will save, NO PAPER. This can lead to a new revolution if we teach the students to experiment and use the mobile devices in an educational manner. Assessments, 140 Word Historical Tweets, Mobile Handheld Apps for Social Studies, and so much more. I truly believe handheld apps and smartphones use in classrooms hold the key to motivating our students. We must join them and find ways to utilize the tools they already use or lose.
Policy makers need to realize teacher work 24/7 to keep up with 21st century changes. Our teaching colleges need to do the same. Our young teachers need to be in the top 10% of their classes, the Finland model. We need to pay our teachers salaries aligned with professionals, then we will begin to see change.
Meanwhile many of us continue to enrich during our free time, often forsaking our own family time for our students. Each year my main goal is to MOTIVATE students. If I wait for district money to alleviate the challenges, I fall behind. Cell phones just might be the key.
Policy makers need to realize teacher work 24/7 to keep up with 21st century changes. Our teaching colleges need to do the same. Our young teachers need to be in the top 10% of their classes, the Finland model. We need to pay our teachers salaries aligned with professionals, then we will begin to see change.
Meanwhile many of us continue to enrich during our free time, often forsaking our own family time for our students. Each year my main goal is to MOTIVATE students. If I wait for district money to alleviate the challenges, I fall behind. Cell phones just might be the key.
09 July, 2011
Cell Phones in Learning
One answer to educating students to become 21st century learners, is finding ways to integrate cell phones in learning. Most students have smart phones, but the question is how can we convince our policy makers that they really can be used as learning tools? Resources ~ From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning
Even the NASSP has issued a policy notice about mobile and social technologies in schools (May 2011): http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=Using_Mobile_and_Social_Technologies_in_Schools
Even the NASSP has issued a policy notice about mobile and social technologies in schools (May 2011): http://www.nassp.org/Content.aspx?topic=Using_Mobile_and_Social_Technologies_in_Schools
Using Mobile and Social Technologies in Schools
Purpose
To promote student learning through the use of mobile learning devices and social media in instruction that further prepares students to be active, constructive participants in the highly connected world in which they already live and will soon work.
Issue
The rapid growth in the use of social media and mobile devices has created both a crisis and an opportunity for school leaders. Unfortunately, many principals first became aware of social technologies under unpleasant circumstances, such as conflicts stemming from social media exchanges. And school leaders would often be paralyzed by cyberbullying and sexting incidents for which guidance was often inadequate and contradictory. It's no wonder that school leaders responded by attempting to eliminate the use of mobile and social media in schools.
Yet as mobile and social technologies become ubiquitous, attempts to block them are increasingly ineffective. For example, in schools that prohibit cell phones, 54% of students still report sending texts during the school day (Lenhart, 2010). And it's the rare student who can't do an end run around Internet filters with a simple proxy server. More importantly, as mobile devices become more powerful and more affordable, their potential for enhancing student learning has come into clearer focus. Social networking sites provide platforms for student creativity by enabling them to design projects using words, music, photos, and videos. In recent years, there has been explosive growth in students creating, manipulating, and sharing content online (National School Boards Association, 2007). Recognizing the educational value of encouraging such behaviors, many school leaders have shifted their energies from limiting the use of these technologies to limiting their abuse. As with any other behavior, when schools teach and set expectations for appropriate technology use, students rise to meet the expectations. Such conditions allow educators to focus on, in the words of social technology guru Howard Rheingold (n.d.), educating “children about the necessity for critical thinking and [encouraging] them to exercise their own knowledge of how to make moral choices." One process for creating the necessary conditions is reported in From Fear to Facebook, the first-person account of one California principal who endured a series of false starts to finally arrive at a place where students in his school were maximizing their use of laptops and participatory technologies without the constant distractions of misuse (Levinson, 2010). Other similar processes and programs are emerging, and they all share a common theme: an education that fails to account for the use of social media tools prepares students well for the past, but not for their future.
Nowhere is the vision for the use of mobile and social technologies more clearly articulated than in the National Educational Technology Plan (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). The plan describes new models of teaching and learning in which students and teachers are virtually connected to one another, to colleagues, to fellow students, and to a variety of resources that maximize opportunities for anytime-anywhere learning. With a 2015 deadline for realizing this model, the mandate for school leaders is clear: we must overcome our fears and other obstacles to get students connected in school. Fundamentally, this means ensuring that each student has a connectible device—a tablet, a netbook, a laptop, or a smartphone—and further engaging students in the creation of responsible-use policies so that they can access social technologies without unreasonable obstacles.
NASSP Guiding Principles
School leaders should:
Lenhart, A., Ling, A., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010). Teens and mobile phones. Retrieved from the Pew Internet and American Life Web site.
Levinson, M. (2010). From fear to Facebook: One school's journey. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
National School Boards Association. (2007). Creating and connecting: Research and guidelines on online social—and educational—networking. Retrieved from www.nsba.org.
Rheingold, H. (n.d.). New media literacy—Lesson 1: Vision of the future—Part 1. Retrieved from the MasterNewMedia Web site.
U.S Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by technology: National educational technology plan 2010. Retrieved from www.ed.gov.
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Adopted by the NASSP Board of Directors, May 2011
To promote student learning through the use of mobile learning devices and social media in instruction that further prepares students to be active, constructive participants in the highly connected world in which they already live and will soon work.
Issue
The rapid growth in the use of social media and mobile devices has created both a crisis and an opportunity for school leaders. Unfortunately, many principals first became aware of social technologies under unpleasant circumstances, such as conflicts stemming from social media exchanges. And school leaders would often be paralyzed by cyberbullying and sexting incidents for which guidance was often inadequate and contradictory. It's no wonder that school leaders responded by attempting to eliminate the use of mobile and social media in schools.
Yet as mobile and social technologies become ubiquitous, attempts to block them are increasingly ineffective. For example, in schools that prohibit cell phones, 54% of students still report sending texts during the school day (Lenhart, 2010). And it's the rare student who can't do an end run around Internet filters with a simple proxy server. More importantly, as mobile devices become more powerful and more affordable, their potential for enhancing student learning has come into clearer focus. Social networking sites provide platforms for student creativity by enabling them to design projects using words, music, photos, and videos. In recent years, there has been explosive growth in students creating, manipulating, and sharing content online (National School Boards Association, 2007). Recognizing the educational value of encouraging such behaviors, many school leaders have shifted their energies from limiting the use of these technologies to limiting their abuse. As with any other behavior, when schools teach and set expectations for appropriate technology use, students rise to meet the expectations. Such conditions allow educators to focus on, in the words of social technology guru Howard Rheingold (n.d.), educating “children about the necessity for critical thinking and [encouraging] them to exercise their own knowledge of how to make moral choices." One process for creating the necessary conditions is reported in From Fear to Facebook, the first-person account of one California principal who endured a series of false starts to finally arrive at a place where students in his school were maximizing their use of laptops and participatory technologies without the constant distractions of misuse (Levinson, 2010). Other similar processes and programs are emerging, and they all share a common theme: an education that fails to account for the use of social media tools prepares students well for the past, but not for their future.
Nowhere is the vision for the use of mobile and social technologies more clearly articulated than in the National Educational Technology Plan (U.S. Department of Education, 2010). The plan describes new models of teaching and learning in which students and teachers are virtually connected to one another, to colleagues, to fellow students, and to a variety of resources that maximize opportunities for anytime-anywhere learning. With a 2015 deadline for realizing this model, the mandate for school leaders is clear: we must overcome our fears and other obstacles to get students connected in school. Fundamentally, this means ensuring that each student has a connectible device—a tablet, a netbook, a laptop, or a smartphone—and further engaging students in the creation of responsible-use policies so that they can access social technologies without unreasonable obstacles.
NASSP Guiding Principles
- Education should prepare students to be active, constructive participants in a global society.
- Technology-enhanced instruction has the capacity to engage students deeply in their work, connect them with countless resources, and allow them to collaborate across time and space.
- Schools should provide a student-centered, personalized, and customized experience for all students—a fundamental tenet of the Breaking Ranks school improvement framework.
- Schools should advocate and model values that are essential in a civil and democratic society.
- Learning can take place only when students feel free from violence and harassment.
- Schools should offer meaningful roles in decision making to students to promote student learning and an atmosphere of participation, responsibility, and ownership.
School leaders should:
- Encourage and model the appropriate and responsible use of mobile and social technologies to maximize students' opportunities to create and share content..
- Lead the conversation around connectivity and involve students in the creation of policies.
- Incorporate the responsible use of mobile and social technologies into acceptable-use policies.
- Promote one-to-one access to connectible devices, including students’ own devices, to allow for anytime-anywhere learning.
- Incorporate cyberbullying and sexting prevention guidelines into the student code of conduct.
- Participate in and provide teachers professional development on the effective use of mobile devices and networking in schools.
- Articulate clear technology policies that have sufficient latitude for schools to connect electronically without fear of retribution or undue consequences.
- Provide technical and financial support to schools that aspire to connect students and adopt one-to-one programs.
- Reduce Internet filtering to maximize student access to online learning tools and to provide opportunities to exercise judgment in the selection of those tools.
- Provide a funding stream to ensure broadband infrastructure and mobile learning devices for all students.
- Enact reasonable, enforceable policies on cyberbullying, sexting, and other forms of electronic harassment that clarify the legal liability of school officials.
- Engage school leaders in the conversations that inform policies that are designed to curtail and punish online harassment.
Lenhart, A., Ling, A., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010). Teens and mobile phones. Retrieved from the Pew Internet and American Life Web site.
Levinson, M. (2010). From fear to Facebook: One school's journey. Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education.
National School Boards Association. (2007). Creating and connecting: Research and guidelines on online social—and educational—networking. Retrieved from www.nsba.org.
Rheingold, H. (n.d.). New media literacy—Lesson 1: Vision of the future—Part 1. Retrieved from the MasterNewMedia Web site.
U.S Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology. (2010). Transforming American education: Learning powered by technology: National educational technology plan 2010. Retrieved from www.ed.gov.
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Adopted by the NASSP Board of Directors, May 2011
08 July, 2011
Social Bookmarking
My Diigo account is ceslobodnik1.
First, I am going to miss our blog conversations. Even though I will try to keep it updated, I know that August and school will interfere. However, I will require that my students contribute to a course blog this year. I am also in a course with Iearn, http://media.iearn.org/projects a global collaborative where we are creating a unit with teachers from around the world.
I have learned so much from this course, and all of the new knowledge is extremely useful and practical.
I also know that we need to advocate for technology for our students. Many of the applications, especially Diigo, promote literacy. If students have access to technology in schools, we will be able to use the Web2.0 tools in the classroom. Many of our students have smartphones, but no computers at home. In order for us to teach students about 21st century literacy, our legislators must support our goals for funding technology.
Social bookmarking has so many possibilities. The collaborative piece is beautiful. I had used Diigo in the past to keep track of my own research, but had never joined a group or shared. My newest group, very interactive, and very informative, is http://groups.diigo.com/group/history-teachers. If you know history teachers who love technology, I recommend it. One of the members introduced me to http://www.animaps.com/#!home, where google maps can come alive. It is in the beta stage, but I surely will require my students to complete an assignment on this site. One can add markers, create videos by adding shapes and lines and images. It is so cool!
Teachers could use Diigo to more readily share and learn professionally. If anyone is in FIRST and needs a PD or Leadership activity, this would be a great idea. There are so many possibilities. Maybe we can start our own PLN as well. I am sure I will see many of you in other technology courses.
First, I am going to miss our blog conversations. Even though I will try to keep it updated, I know that August and school will interfere. However, I will require that my students contribute to a course blog this year. I am also in a course with Iearn, http://media.iearn.org/projects a global collaborative where we are creating a unit with teachers from around the world.
I have learned so much from this course, and all of the new knowledge is extremely useful and practical.
I also know that we need to advocate for technology for our students. Many of the applications, especially Diigo, promote literacy. If students have access to technology in schools, we will be able to use the Web2.0 tools in the classroom. Many of our students have smartphones, but no computers at home. In order for us to teach students about 21st century literacy, our legislators must support our goals for funding technology.
Social bookmarking has so many possibilities. The collaborative piece is beautiful. I had used Diigo in the past to keep track of my own research, but had never joined a group or shared. My newest group, very interactive, and very informative, is http://groups.diigo.com/group/history-teachers. If you know history teachers who love technology, I recommend it. One of the members introduced me to http://www.animaps.com/#!home, where google maps can come alive. It is in the beta stage, but I surely will require my students to complete an assignment on this site. One can add markers, create videos by adding shapes and lines and images. It is so cool!
Teachers could use Diigo to more readily share and learn professionally. If anyone is in FIRST and needs a PD or Leadership activity, this would be a great idea. There are so many possibilities. Maybe we can start our own PLN as well. I am sure I will see many of you in other technology courses.
03 July, 2011
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