K-12 related

Doesn’t this look like a fun & engaging learning space? One that encourages collaboration?

On 03/02/2020, in active learning, attention, collaboration, communications, Daniel S. Christian, education, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, love of learning, maker movement, participation, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When I saw the learning space as pictured below, I couldn’t help but ask a couple of questions:

Doesn’t this look like a colorful, fun, engaging active learning space?
One that encourages communication and collaboration?

The natural light is wonderful. And the physical setup seems to let the students know that they will be collaborating with each other the second they walk into this learning space…and it does so without saying a word.

#heutagogy For those with some time to spare, here is my Keynote at the SOTEL Symposium in Auckland a couple of weeks ago. https://t.co/5xj9Km2q3s

— Stewart Hase (@stewarthase) February 29, 2020

Notes from Stewart Hase’s keynote (Feb 2020) — with thanks to Dr. Lisa Marie Blaschke in Germany for her Tweet on this

The commodification of education – turns out sausages
or
Are we creating more Greta Thunbergs?

Creating learning experiences where people are not sausages. Policymakers don’t get it. Practitioners do.

~11:00 mark –> Learner agency; have control over what they can learn about (inserted graphic from DSC below)

Heutagogy (self-determined learning)

…the learner is a partner (agent) in designing and realizing their own learning (Hase & Kenyon, 2000)

PAH continuum – Pedagogy –> Andragogy –> Heutagogy

Hobby – learned to do it but didn’t go to school for it. How did you go about learning it?

Listened to radio, watched YouTube videos, watched other people, trial and error, repeated activity, conversations/reflections/group learning, read books, break things down into smaller parts, seek out a mentor, exploring, testing hypothesis, fail, get stuck and find a way through

Kids know how to do heutagogy – very natural; self-determined learning.

~21:45 To what extent do we incorporate heutagogy into our classrooms?

Context and experience – the neurons you bring to the learning table
Competence and capability
Negotiated learning; let the learner contextualize stuff for you
Experiential learning
Flexible assessment
Chunking the learning
Chunk the assessment
Flipped classroom
Project-based learning

The learning leader: New skills

Happy with ambiguity – have to give up control and power
Have to trust people
Relationship oriented
Process not content oriented
Coach and guide
Scientist
Facilitator

Reflections on “Guides to help kids learn coding” [educatorstechnology.com]

On 03/01/2020, in career development, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, homeschooling/homeschoolers, K-12 related, learning, love of learning, programming, student-related, youth, by Daniel Christian

Guides to help kids learn coding — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Below is a collection of some of the best books to help your kids learn coding. Kids will get to learn the basics of computer coding through a wide variety of interactive visuals, engaging games and project-based activities. They will also get to experiment with different softwares and programming languages such as Python, Java, Scratch and many more. Links to the books are under the visual.

From DSC:
I don’t subscribe to the idea/expectation that every student should become a programmer and have extensive exposure to it. Why? Because:

It’s been my experience that programming requires a different kind of passion, a different way of thinking and processing information, a different way of problem-solving, a different disposition/makeup that many people (including myself) don’t have. This is one of the reasons why coders are often in such demand and are often paid so much — because the vast majority of people don’t want to do it (at least as programming exists today).
I’d like to see our students enjoy their learning. In fact, I’d like to see more emphasis on students enjoying their learning, and far less on grades. Given the new reality of lifelong learning, folks’ quality of life would increase if that were the case. To expect everyone to be able to code applications of some significance is an entirely different matter.

All that said, I do think it’s helpful for students to at least have some exposure to how to program — a basic understanding of coding and what are some of the things that are involved in that space. To have an appreciation of the process, some basic syntax, what’s possible, etc. would be helpful.

Introduction to programming classes should explain why programming is relevant, list some of the various languages out there, list some different kinds of applications that we use today, and provide some basic elements of programming. Perhaps students could create some very basic, fun things. This could wet some students’ whistles big-time, while helping other students come to the conclusion of, “Well, I tried it, but I don’t want to do this for a living.”

Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Year-End 2019 Edition [Menard]

On 02/27/2020, in Canada, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, higher education, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Year-End 2019 Edition — from listedtech-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Justin Menard

Excerpt:

With the release this week of MindWires’ Year-End 2019 report to subscribers (powered by our data), I thought it was time for us to look at updates on the institutional LMS market for North America’s higher education US and Canada). Note that MindWire’s coverage for the market analysis includes Europe, Latin America, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and surrounding island countries) as well as new coverage of the Middle East.

ACE receives ED funds to explore blockchain’s potential [Kelly]

On 02/26/2020, in Blockchain, career development, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, funding / grants, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, student-related, tools, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

ACE receives ED funds to explore blockchain’s potential — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

“This work is about exploring the potential of blockchain technology to give learners greater control over their educational records,” said Ted Mitchell, president of ACE, in a statement. “It’s about enabling more seamless transitions between and across K-12, higher education and the workforce. This initiative will explore how this nascent technology can break down barriers for opportunity seekers to fully unlock their learning and achievement.”

Helping grads tell their story: The case for extended transcripts [Midles]

On 02/22/2020, in career development, competency-based learning/education, consortiums, credentialing, education, education reform, education technology, higher education, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Helping grads tell their story: The case for extended transcripts — from gettingsmart.com by Rebecca Midles

Excerpt:

What is an extended transcript?
An extended transcript supplements a traditional list of course credits and grades. It could be as simple as a one-page addendum to the official transcript that includes additional endorsements such as certifications, badges earned and scholarships awarded.

An extended transcript can also include critical competencies demonstrated. ACT has assessments for cross-cutting capabilities like information literacy, collaborative problem solving, thinking and metacognition, and studying and learning, as well as behavioral skills such as self-regulatory and interpersonal skills. Adding recognized measures of certified work-ready skills to a transcript can differentiate a candidate.

“The teacher isn’t teaching and I’m having to teach myself the material” has three embedded misconceptions that need to be addressed. [Talbert]

On 02/18/2020, in active learning, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, universities, by Daniel Christian

Three thoughts on active learning and self-teaching — from rtalbert.org Robert Talbert
“The teacher isn’t teaching and I’m having to teach myself the material” has three embedded misconceptions that need to be addressed.

Excerpts:

First: Learning is a process, not an action that one person performs on another.
…
But in the end, an outside person cannot cause you to learn. This isn’t how learning works. Learning instead is a process that moves back and forth, sometimes focused on an instructor but other times focused on the learner or a group of learners together.
…
Second: Not being lectured to all the time is not the same thing as having to teach yourself.
…
Third: In any event, the skill of self-teaching is essential in college and needs to be developed.

But in general, we need to see — and we have work to do in communicating this to students — that self-teaching is a feature, not a bug.

Optimal Video Length for Student Engagement — from blog.edx.org by Candace Hazlett and Philip Guo

Excerpt:

In this first post, I’ll share some preliminary results about video usage, obtained from initial analyses of a few edX math and science courses. Unsurprisingly, students engaged more with shorter videos. Traditional in-person lectures usually last an hour, but students have much shorter attention spans when watching educational videos online. The graph below shows median engagement times versus video length, aggregated over several million video watching sessions:

From DSC:
If you have access to a tool like Canvas Studio, then you can probably extend the length of your videos if you are interspersing your videos with a healthy dose of interactivity — i.e., inserting quiz questions every few minutes.

Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy — from Iowa State University; with a shout out to Matt Miller for his blog posting entitled, “10 tips for lesson planning writer’s block” — where I saw this reference

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective [edutopia.org]

On 02/07/2020, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, assessment, faculty/staff, higher education, K-12 related, memory, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Making (low-stakes) practice tests more effective — from edutopia.org
Practice tests not only help surface gaps in knowledge—they also strengthen memory.

If your organization’s culture is all about maintaining the status quo:
* Your pursuit of lifelong learning needs to be in full gear
* Enhancing your personal learning ecosystem is critically important
…because given the rate of change, your organization may not be around for long.

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) January 31, 2020

Flipped Learning 3.0 [Flipped Learning Review]

On 02/01/2020, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, K-12 related, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

The January issue of FLR features an exciting new career path for frustrated Flipped Learning teachers. Yes, the first edition for 2020 is all about new trends and new directions Flipped Learning educators are pursuing as we move into the new decade.

Featured articles include:

Micro-Schools: An Exciting New Career Path for Frustrated Flipped Learning Teachers
It’s a New Decade: Time for a Flipped Learning Reality Check
2020: Taking Your Flipped Learning Effectiveness to the Next Level
It’s 2020: I’m Never Going Back
The Missing Link: Getting Flipped Learning Assessment Right
Frustrated With the Status Quo?
Flipped Learning To-Do List for 2020
Top 10 Must-Read Research Papers in January
Why I Want My Students to Struggle in Class This Year

Also see:

Live from Bett: What’s new in EDU–Free resources to boost engagement and collaboration — from the Microsoft Education Team on January 22, 2020

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In addition, on the day of a presentation, educators and students now can help every person in the classroom or audience understand what they’re saying by clicking on “Present Live.” Live Presentations enables every audience member to view the presentation on their own device, such as a laptop, tablet or phone. Each audience member can turn on live captioning and choose subtitles from more than 60 languages. They can even navigate between slides, so they don’t miss a single, important detail. The audience is engaged throughout the presentation and sends reactions in real-time. After the presentation, the audience can provide feedback on the content and delivery of the presentation, which educators and students can use to improve skills over time.

Live Presentations will be coming soon to PowerPoint for the web as part of Office Education, which educators and students can access for free. If you haven’t already done so, get started with Office 365 Education now.

From DSC:
Might this type of functionality be a solid component of a global, next generation learning platform? Hmmmm…

Does education really want student voice? Spoiler alert: The answer is no [Vest]

On 01/27/2020, in education, education reform, ideas, K-12 related, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Does education really want student voice? Spoiler alert: The answer is no — from gettingsmart.com by Jason Vest

Excerpts:

If you’re as lucky as I am to be in a state like Virginia positioning itself to transform schools, you probably hear these phrases a lot: “innovation,” “learner-centered,” and “student voice.” We use these to convey the importance of transforming pedagogy and letting students have more autonomy in their education. You won’t find a teacher on the planet that doesn’t genuinely want their students to be self-advocates, know how to manage their time and themselves better, or have richer learning opportunities. But at times there is a huge discrepancy in what we say we want our kids to do and be and what our system actually supports. My most successful teaching experience, one that earned national recognition by The Aurora Institute, happened during our school’s study hall period. There’s no way I could have just decided to scrap my main Civics class and buck the existing curriculum and state standards to teach a class on design thinking and entrepreneurship – even if the students and their families wanted me to.

Another phrase we always say is “we want students to be college and career ready.” In reality though, only if that means they do so in a way that is non-threatening to our existing power structures.
…
Let me be clear: As it currently stands, we have more policies, systems, and structures currently in place that hinder students than those that help them. Anyone that believes otherwise should talk to any of my students.

Soros urges world leaders to back his $1-billion Global Education Network — from chronicle.com by Dan Parks

Excerpt:

George Soros urged world leaders on Thursday to back his Open Society University Network, a $1-billion effort to integrate teaching and research across higher-education institutions worldwide to solve big problems.
…
The Central European University, which Soros founded, and Bard College will team up with Arizona State University and other institutions around the globe, according to a news release.

From DSC:
This is not an endorsement of the GEN nor do I have any perspectives to relay one way or another re: George Soros. I just find the idea of a global learning network/platform very interesting…and likely a piece of our future learning ecosystems.

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