Third edition of Teaching at a Distance is now published — from tonybates.ca by Tony Bates
Excerpts:
The book has been up-dated to take account of the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning, and with more emphasis for those in k-12 education to balance the post-secondary focus.
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20 Things To Remember About Forgetting — from theelearningcoach.com by Connie Malamed
What Causes Us To Forget
Excerpt:
Even though we use it all day and night, we are usually not aware of our memory’s processes until they fail. Yet remembering and forgetting are crucial aspects of learning. In learning design, it’s important to know what causes us to forget. Here are some key facts about the forgetting process that relate to learning, instruction and creativity.
Jigsaw Explorer — Free Online Jigsaw Puzzles for Students — from educatorstechnology.com by Med Kharbach, PhD
Excerpt:
Jigsaw Explorer is a website that offers a wide variety of online jigsaw puzzles that you can use with kids and students in and out of class. Jigsaw Explorer also allows you to create your own puzzles based on your photos and you can share these puzzles with others via email or through social media websites.
Help All Students Be Seen: Five Tips for Stronger Connections — from blog.edmentum.com by Amy Collins
Excerpt:
I began to challenge myself to set aside my preconceived boxes for them and see each one as a person—complex, with parts they reveal to the world easily and parts they hide. As I did this more and more, I was amazed at how my strategies needed to change in order to truly see each student and make those strong connections that lead to more effective learning. In this blog post, I hope to share some thoughts on how to adjust your own thinking to see the true student within.
An excerpt from Eva Keiffenheim’s recent Learn Letter| learning science to make the most of your mind
Resources for Evidence-Based Teaching
Are you an educator who wants to improve teaching? This website can be a great help. You can access proven, practical and free educational articles on psychology, assessment, behavior, and social-emotional learning. One of my favorite articles include 6 high-impact teaching strategies.
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This YouTube Star Says AI Will Become a Creative ‘Collaborator’ With Students — from soundcloud.com by Jeff Young and Taryn Southern
Description:
Taryn Southern is a pioneering YouTuber who these days experiments with how cutting edge tech might transform human expression. She’s recorded a pop album that she co-wrote with some AI code, for instance, and she’s created a digital clone of herself that she can use to make videos for her popular YouTube channel. Here’s what she sees coming for education.
#convergence #AR #VR #MR #AI #blockchain #HCI #Metaverse
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Teacher shortage? Here’s one way around it — from edcircuit.com by EdCircuit Staff
Excerpt:
After seeing the teacher shortage first hand in China, Jessie Sullivan and Isla Iago launched an innovative new start-up that teaches children how to read and write through YouTube – without the need for adult expertise or attention. Since the release in July, the start-up called See Say Write is already being used by schools, homes, and children’s charities in seven different countries.
[Administrator Tips] Sharing the Benefits of Virtual Learning with Homeschooling Families — from blog.edmentum.com
Excerpt:
One of the long-lasting results of the pandemic is the number of ongoing virtual learning programs that have been created, allowing schools to retain students who found that they need or prefer to learn in a virtual environment. Another segment of students who have been increasingly turning to online learning is homeschoolers.
Virtual learning programs offered through the school district have a great deal of benefits to offer homeschooling families. Promoting these benefits and showing families that a district virtual program offers the best of both worlds can help bring families back from independent homeschooling.
While there certainly are differences between traditional homeschooling and online schooling, it is helpful to point out the similarities and benefits so that homeschooling families can make an educated decision about the options available to them.
Addendums on 8/22/22:
Teaching Broke My Heart. That’s Why I Resigned. — from edsurge.com by Natalie Parmenter
After 10 mostly-good years in the classroom, the 2021-22 school year was enough to push Natalie Parmenter out.
Excerpts:
This is how the last year of teaching went for me. As I sized up each day, hardly anything on my to-do list involved nurturing and guiding my kindergarteners. I was always completing tasks for other people—school leadership, district leadership, state officials—at the expense of the students in my care.
School boards have kicked things into overdrive to make up for lost time. Teachers have been accosted with endless professional development training, increased testing, and frequent surveys. There’s always been a degree of this in education as the pendulum swings back and forth, but last year, it reached a boiling point.
…
They say teaching is “a work of the heart,” and indeed, it is. But it became increasingly difficult to love that work as my heart hardened last year, and as all the bits of joy I once felt from my job were chipped away.
PROOF POINTS: Researchers say cries of teacher shortages are overblown — from hechingerreport.org by Jill Barshay
Schools are going on pandemic hiring sprees and overstaffing may be the new problem
Excerpt:
The stories are scary. The teaching profession, according to CNN in early 2022, was “in crisis.” The Wall Street Journal reported in February 2022 that burned out teachers were exiting for jobs in the private sector. House lawmakers in Washington devoted an entire hearing to “Tackling Teacher Shortages” in May 2022. And on Aug. 3, 2022, the Washington Post printed this headline: “‘Never seen it this bad’: America faces catastrophic teacher shortage.”
But education researchers who study the teaching profession say the threat is exaggerated.
“Attrition is definitely up, but it’s not a mass exodus of teachers,” said Dan Goldhaber, a labor economist at the American Institutes for Research (AIR), a nonprofit research organization.
Are teachers leaving the classroom en masse? — from vox.com by
The chaotic debate over this year’s teacher shortages, explained.
Excerpts:
In Texas, teachers are deserting the classroom at high rates, with Houston alone reporting nearly 1,000 vacancies in early August. In Maryland, more than 5,500 teachers reportedly left the profession in 2022, leaving Baltimore with an estimated 600 to 700 vacancies going into the fall.
Department of Education officials in Pennsylvania are calling that state’s shortage a “crisis,” and experts there say the state will need “thousands” of new teachers by 2025.
Kansas is facing what has been called the most severe teacher shortage it has ever had: about 1,400 teaching jobs are unfilled. In Florida, there are about 8,000 teacher vacancies, up from 5,000 at the start of school last year. The shortage is reportedly also dire in other states, including Nevada, California, Illinois, Arizona, and Missouri. Some experts say that even school districts that don’t usually face shortages are struggling with vacancies, and it’s hard to hire teachers even for subjects that are typically easy to fill.
But is it actually happening? The US does not collect timely, detailed national data about teacher employment, so it’s difficult to definitively conclude whether there is a national teacher shortage going into the 2022-23 school year. That has led to practitioners, education policy experts, and union leaders talking past one another.
Three Ways to Prepare for and Successfully Land a Student Internship — from emergingedtech.com by Amy DiBello
Excerpt:
So how does one overcome those feelings in order to get the position and prepare for their future? By taking the knowledge they’ve gained in their coursework along with a strong work ethic, great attitude and finally, displaying a very intentional desire to serve in order to be an asset to the organization. Interns who display these traits and show their commitment to carrying out an organization’s overall mission will no doubt prove to be an invaluable asset and find success in their first internship role. Following are three practical steps that will ensure you are fully prepared to find, secure and succeed in your first internship.
Burned-out employees are ‘quiet quitting’ their jobs: What to know about the trend — from goodmorningamerica.com
Excerpt:
With the pandemic blurring the lines between work and home, people like West are using quiet quitting as a way to set more boundaries between their professional and personal lives.
The new form of “quitting” sees people keeping their jobs, but mentally stepping back from the burdens of work — for example, working the bare minimum number of hours and not making their jobs an important center of their lives.
From DSC:
While I’m not advocating “quiet quitting” at all, it does relay an element of what’s happening in the workplace, at least in the United States.
Teacher shortage? Here’s one way around it — from edcircuit.com by EdCircuit Staff
Excerpt:
After seeing the teacher shortage first hand in China, Jessie Sullivan and Isla Iago launched an innovative new start-up that teaches children how to read and write through YouTube – without the need for adult expertise or attention. Since the release in July, the start-up called See Say Write is already being used by schools, homes, and children’s charities in seven different countries.
Addendum on 8/22/22:
Workforce: Evolve or Become Extinct — from educause.edu
Addendums on 8/23/22:
Lacking Bus Drivers, Schools Make Tough Calls on Transportation — from edweek.org by Evie Blad
Excerpt:
Eighty-six percent of respondents to a nationally representative survey of school and district administrators conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in July said they don’t have enough candidates to fill open bus driver positions.
Teacher Pay Penalty Reaches Record High. What’s at Stake? — from edsurge.com by Emily Tate Sullivan
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
For decades—indeed, almost every year since the EPI first began documenting the teacher pay penalty in 1996—the pay of teachers has slipped further behind that of their non-teacher counterparts, adjusted for education, experience and demographics.
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Teachers in the U.S. earn about 76.5 cents on the dollar compared to similar professionals who have bachelor’s degrees, according to an analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
Yale Study: Vast Majority of High Schoolers Unhappy at School — from fee.org by Kerry McDonald
The Yale findings echo previous conclusions about young people’s attitudes toward school.
Excerpt:
Most high school students are not happy at school. A new study by Yale researchers finds that nearly three-quarters of high schoolers report negative feelings toward school. The study surveyed more than 20,000 high school students in all 50 US states and found widespread dissatisfaction at school across all demographic groups, with girls reporting slightly more negative emotions than boys. According to Yale co-author Zorana Ivcevic,
It was higher than we expected. We know from talking to students that they are feeling tired, stressed, and bored, but were surprised by how overwhelming it was.
From DSC:
If you were to have polled him during his ninth through eleventh-grade years, our son would have been one of the very disgruntled students going through high school. His senior year was spent doing exactly what he wanted to be doing — and he was much happier, more engaged, and more motivated to learn the material. He was also around an entirely different student body his senior year — where students were there because they wanted to be there and they were all pursuing their craft.
Fast forward a couple of years, and he actually enjoyed a good deal of his learning experiences this summer and he’s really looking forward to his film and acting classes this fall. It’s amazing the amount of energy and determination/interest that gets unleashed when the motivation is intrinsic.
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Also from fee.org by Kerry McDonald:
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9 Digital Etiquette Tips — from techlearning.com by Lisa Nielsen
Teaching proper digital etiquette to students starts with modeling it
Excerpt:
It’s undeniable that the pandemic changed the way we teach, learn, work, and live, but when some people returned to in-person learning and their schools, it seemed they could use some advice on digital etiquette for the new, and extremely connected, world in which we are now operating. This is a world where at any time you may be meeting or teaching in-person, via video, phone, or a combination thereof at the same time.
While adapting was easier for some, others could use a bit of help. For those people, you may want to share or discuss these tips with them.
A Guide To Design Thinking For Kids — from edtechreview.in by Saniya Khan
Excerpt:
The concept is active and inclusive. What’s more, children embrace design thinking with enthusiasm. Across the globe, schools are embracing design thinking as a new way to learn and increase student participation. It should be on our education agenda. Of course, this is more complicated than standard repackaged evaluations. However, conceptual thinking gives children golden opportunities for commitment and creativity, two prerequisites for true learning.
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How Accredible Makes Learning Credible — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark
Key Points
Excerpts:
Learners store credentials in their Accredible wallet and can incorporate them into their LinkedIn profile.
To increase the value of credentials, Accredible launched Spotlight Directory which allows issuers to provide a home base for people that hold their credentials. For example, the Hootsuite Certified Professionals Directory showcases everyone that has earned a Hootsuite credential.
The faster the world of work changes, the more the transcripts lose signal value and the more we need finer grained and more dynamic ways of communicating capabilities.
Tom Vander Ark
Addendum on 8/22/22:
What parents should say to teachers (according to teachers) — from washingtonpost.com by Elizabeth Chang
Excerpt:
“Parents are often surprised by stories of other parents’ treatment of teachers,” wrote Margaret Flaherty, 42, a high school English teacher at a public school in Byfield, Mass. “When I share some of the things parents have said or written to me, mouths go agape. They can be mean. Very mean. And we are so tired. Start with assuming good intentions and take it from there.”
5 Fantastic Ideas for Collaboration Projects — from cultofpedagogy.com by Jennifer Gonzalez
Excerpt:
One challenge teachers face in creating these opportunities is thinking up ideas for good projects. So I sent out a tweet asking for teacher-tested projects that went well and got students actually collaborating, not just dividing up the work. From those responses I chose five examples, and I’m presenting them here as broader project concepts — the goal is to give you five different options that you can customize for your content area. For each one, I’ve also offered a quick description of the technology the teachers in the examples used to facilitate their work.
The examples offered here may or may not contain equal amounts of criticality and agency; they were not submitted with those ideas in mind. I’m adding this challenge not as a commentary on the examples, but rather a nudge to get you thinking along those lines for your own projects.
Along the lines of ideas and pedagogies, also see:
Promoting Student Choice & Voice Through Meaningful Assessments — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dene Poth
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Student choice and voice in learning are essential. It is important that we provide a variety of opportunities for our students to develop skills in ways that meet their specific interests and needs. We need activities and tools that will help students to develop content-area knowledge and skills, while also developing essential social-emotional learning (SEL) skills to best prepare them for their future.
From DSC:
I agree!
2022 CHLOE 7 Report (Changing Landscape of Online Education) — from qualitymatters.org
The seventh installment of the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report, produced by Quality MattersTM and Eduventures®, offers an overview of the current state of online learning in higher education as well as insights into its future development. The report was compiled by surveying chief online officers (COOs) at two- and four-year colleges and universities — the professionals best situated to assess the current state of this ever-developing field.
Also relevant/see:
Online Education Is Booming, but Colleges Risk Lapses in Quality, Report Says — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
Excerpt:
A survey of more than 300 officials at American colleges shows many are planning for long-term growth in online education, but few are consistently evaluating the quality of their mushrooming course lists.
According to a newly released report on the survey’s findings — by the nonprofit group Quality Matters and Encoura’s Eduventures, a higher-education-market research firm — more than 90 percent of the “chief online officers” surveyed said they expect the typical traditional-age undergraduates on their campus would be taking courses in some kind of hybrid format by 2025. That’s a stark departure from just three years ago, before the pandemic, when 20 percent of such undergrads took hybrid courses.
Is Higher Ed Really Ready to Embrace Hybrid Learning? — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig
New study shows colleges may need to hire more digital experts and better prepare students to learn online.
Excerpt:
The future of higher education will bring more hybrid learning models—but colleges may not yet have the staff and systems they need to scale up high-quality programs that blend in-person and online experiences.
So believe chief online officers at U.S. colleges, according to a new survey of more than 300 such leaders published today by Quality Matters and Encoura Eduventures Research. It’s the seventh edition of the Changing Landscape of Online Education (CHLOE) report.
