Best Document Cameras for Teachers — from echlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the ultimate document camera for classroom use and beyond with this guide
Lights, Camera, Action! 5 Ideas for Student-Created Video Assignments — from barbihoneycutt.com by Barbi Honeycutt, Ph.D.
Excerpt:
Here are 5 ideas for student-created videos. I hope these ideas inspire you to mix up your assignments and assessments to increase student engagement and improve learning.
Judith [Dutill] mentioned that students’ knowledge of and comfort with communicating by video is a 21st century skill that we need to prepare them for.
Better Questions in the Classroom Lead Students to Think Harder—and Learn Deeper [Bradbury & Berlin]
Better Questions in the Classroom Lead Students to Think Harder—and Learn Deeper — from edsurge.com by Staci Bradbury and Rebekah Berlin
Excerpt:
The takeaway here is that teachers should ask questions and design tasks that require students to engage in effortful thinking. This “teacher action,” as we like to call it, is one of the ways in which Deans for Impact has operationalized the vast body of research about how people learn in a way that teachers can use.
Also see:
Before providing evidence to support that claim, a quick recap of our organizational journey. Two years ago, we launched the Learning by Scientific Design (LbSD) Network to begin the vital—albeit challenging—work of redesigning how teachers are prepared. This effort is informed by principles of learning science and taking place in what is now a network of 10 educator-preparation programs across the country. More than 70 faculty are working with us to change the arc of experiences that teacher-candidates receive as they prepare to become teachers.
Potential unfulfilled: COVID-19, the rapid adoption of online learning, and what could be unlocked this year — from christenseninstitute.org by Thomas Arnett
Excerpt:
The foundational tenets of conventional instruction hinge on uniformity and compliance. Schools and classrooms, by and large, need students to conform to a common set of requirements in order for cohort-based learning to work. Unfortunately, nearly all students struggle to one degree or another to fit conventional instruction’s norms.
For example, conventional instruction requires students to show up to school ready to learn at times dictated by the school schedule, but for some students, life gets in the way. Conventional instruction moves all students through content at a uniform pace, but not all students master content in the time allotted. And conventional instruction often obliges students to sit and work or sit and listen for large portions of the day, yet some students struggle to sit quietly for extended periods of time. Fortunately, online learning offers the ability to replace many of these systemic rigidities with greater adaptability to students’ needs.
From DSC:
The above excerpt brings the image (below) back to my mind. The image represents our educational systems’ ways of never stopping or slowing down for anyone. They leave the station at such and such a time and then they move at a very face pace for everyone. There’s no stopping them — regardless of whether a student has mastered the content or not.
A LIFETIME OF LEARNING — from continuum.uw.edu
Excerpts:
The 60-year curriculum is the modern approach to a lifetime of learning. Getting a degree, getting a job and never setting foot in a classroom again are not today’s reality.
A discussion paper from the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years, the need for new tech skills will accelerate. We will also need people who will develop, innovate and adapt those technologies. The paper asserts that, right now, 80% of the workforce doesn’t have the skills for most of the jobs that will be available in the next five to 10 years.
From DSC:
It would be good to integrate more vocational types of pathways/items in here as well.
Best YouTube Sites and Channels for Education — from techlearning.com by Diana Restifo
Take advantage of the fantastic free educational videos YouTube provides.
Excerpt:
How to Watch YouTube Videos Safely
New accessibility features for students and teachers using Chromebooks — from educatorstechnology.com
Excerpt:
Are smaller class sizes without the pitfalls possible? Pandemic pods make the case [Jochim & Pillow]
Are smaller class sizes without the pitfalls possible? Pandemic pods make the case — from crpe.org by Ashley Jochim and Travis Pillow
Excerpt:
Pandemic pods were borne by necessity as families faced urgent needs for childcare and remote learning support. But they also offer fresh solutions to an age-old education problem: how to dramatically lower class sizes without diluting teacher quality and falling into traps that have snared traditional class size reduction efforts.
By leveraging pandemic innovations in student support, school systems recovering from the COVID-19 crisis may be able to recreate the high level of individual attention students saw in successful pandemic pods.
As one pod educator told us: “This is probably the most professionally satisfied I’ve been in my entire career. . . . Being able to be one-on-one and form relationships with kids. I can tell you every single one of their strengths, I can tell you their weaknesses. . . . I’ve never been able to do that before in my life, except with my own child, and that’s super powerful.”
From DSC:
I really appreciated this part too: “Learning pods brought new adults—including families and community-based organizations who hosted pods—into the process of supporting student learning.” It’s even more of a community-based effort…a new meaning to the use of teams. 🙂
40 Ideas For Using FlipGrid In The Classroom — from teachthought.com
From DSC:
I put together a short listing of some solid tools for working with multimedia on the Mac. There are many more out there, but these should do the job(s) for you…especially Telestream’s ScreenFlow.
The Future of Social Media: Re-Humanisation and Regulation — by Gerd Leonhard
How could social media become ‘human’ again? How can we stop the disinformation, dehumanisation and dataism that has resulted from social media’s algorithmic obsessions? I foresee that the EXTERNALTIES i.e. the consequences of unmitigated growth of exponential digital technologies will become just as big as the consequences of climate change. In fact, today, the social media industry already has quite a few parallels to the oil, gas and coal business: while private make huge profits from extracting the ‘oil’ (i.e. user data), the external damage is left to society and governments to fix. This needs to change! In this keynote I make some precise suggestions as to how that could happen.
Some snapshots/excerpts:
From DSC:
Gerd brings up some solid points here. His presentation and perspectives are not only worth checking out, but they’re worth some time for us to seriously reflect on what he’s saying.
What kind of future do we want?
And for you professors, teachers, instructional designers, trainers, and presenters out there, check out *how* he delivers the content. It’s well done and very engaging.
From DSC:
One of our daughters — who just graduated from college with a degree in Early Education — told me about a fun tool for classroom management. It’s called ClassroomScreen.com. I just thought I’d pass it along in case you want to try it out!
“Support your class activities, stimulate engagement and help your students get to work by using the intuitive tools of Classroomscreen.”
She also mentioned:
- Slides.go — Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates to boost your presentations
- Teacher TikTok — elementary teacher, classroom resources
Why Professors Should Ask Students For Feedback Long Before the Semester Is Over — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig
This article is part of the guide Better, Faster, Stronger: How Learning Engineering Aims to Transform Education.
Excerpt:
About a month into each semester, Gayle Golden sets aside a little time to ask her students about their learning.
The journalism instructor at the University of Minnesota keeps the process simple, with brief questions similar to these:
- What should keep happening in this class?
- What should we start doing in this class?
- What should we stop doing in this class?
Golden collects the results, which students give anonymously, then studies the feedback and makes a list of all the information she’s received. During the next class period, she discusses the findings with her students. She tells them which suggestions she plans to put into practice, which recommendations she can’t act on, and why.
From DSC:
Speaking of feedback…
I think it would be good to have our students journal about their learning — integrating their notes, readings, experiments, lectures, etc. Students could check in on these 3 questions for example.
And in the (potentially) digital process, they could also submit a form to their faculty member to answer the question:
- What do I want my professor to know about my learning experience today?
Such a question could be electronically delivered to the professor on any given day. This type of feedback loop would provide real-time, formative feedback to the professor as well as help the students develop their metacognitive skills.
I would think that such a process could also be used within the K-12 realm, including homeschoolers.
Also from edsurge.com, see:
- How to Use Podcasts in Teaching — by Bonni Stachowiak
- To Support Black Male Teachers, A Nonprofit is Paying Off Student Loans — by Jeffrey R. Young
- Millions of Students Are Still Without WiFi and Tech—Why Haven’t Policymakers Stepped Up? — by Mary Jo Madda
Town Hall Recap: AI in Education — from GettingSmart.com
Find out some of the ideas and questions in their recap blog and you can see the links that were shared during the event here.
Getting Smart Town Hall | AI in Education: The Impacts of Exponential Technology on Teaching, Leading and Learning from Getting Smart on Vimeo.
3 Education Trends to Watch for the Upcoming School Year — from techlearning.com by Dr. Kecia Ray
Education trends in the year ahead include micro lessons, integrated whole classrooms, and reconsidering assessments
Excerpts:
The study was conducted at the university level but can apply to all levels K-20. Polling, response apps, small group instruction, collaborative activities, and peer instruction are some of the effective strategies identified in active learning.
Thinking about classroom design as having all the necessary technologies — interactive panels, individual devices for students and teachers, integrated software, integrated hardware solutions, accessible high quality digital content, interactive applications — along with a teacher who is well equipped to design classes that incorporate effective instructional strategies will yield high performing students, no matter who you are teaching!