student-related

Gift giving ideas from Ian Byrd

On 12/16/2020, in education, parents/guardians, reading, student-related, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

Gift giving ideas from Ian Byrd

Excerpt:

Here are a few gift-giving articles I like to share every December:

HolonIQ North America EdTech 100 — from holoniq.com
HolonIQ’s annual list of the most innovative EdTech startupsacross North America.

This annual list helps to surface the innovations occurring across all parts of the market, and the teams who are supporting institutions, teachers, parents, learners and employers.

Raising Lifelong Learners #98: Enjoying literature with Kendra Fletcher [Kessler]

On 12/12/2020, in education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, pedagogy, podcasting, reading, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, writing, by Daniel Christian

Raising Lifelong Learners #98: Enjoying literature with Kendra Fletcher — from raisinglifelonglearners.com by Colleen Kessler

Excerpt:

Nearly every level of learning involves literature in some form, but the study of literature is really more than simply reciting plot lines or following themes. In this podcast, Colleen speaks with Kendra Fletcher, long-time homeschooler and teacher of all things literature, on how enjoying the study of literature helps our kids to see it’s importance for themselves and for humanity.

24 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2021 [Olster]

On 12/12/2020, in distance education, education, education technology, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, remote teaching and learning, society, sociology, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

24 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2021 — from linkedin.com by Scott Olster

Excerpt:

The remote classroom will get a much-needed upgrade
…
One key idea: making it easy for students to “sit” together at tables of two to eight learners, while an instructor’s lesson unfolds. Students can confer with table-mates without being heard by the larger group. Meanwhile, the instructor can explain things to all the tables at once, while still being able to visit specific tables to make sure everything is on track. Avida says educators prefer this model to the rigid constraints of other vendors’ breakout rooms, which were built to suit corporate needs.

Meanwhile, leading business-video players such as Zoom, Cisco’s WebEx, and Microsoft Teams are likely to move quickly to address the needs of the education market in 2021, too. (Microsoft also owns LinkedIn.) But Avida says Engageli has been filing lots of patents to protect its ideas, adding that its single-minded focus on education may help it move faster than other rivals for whom education is only a niche market. — George Anders

Campus Consolidation: America’s Higher-Ed Footprint Changes Amid Challenging Times [Diana]

On 12/09/2020, in Alternatives, business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, future of higher education, higher education, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Campus Consolidation: America’s Higher-Ed Footprint Changes Amid Challenging Times — from fierceeducation.com by Alison Diana

Excerpt:

Beset upon by students unable to afford tuition, the ongoing pandemic, competition between schools, and even some individual’s questioning of a degree’s value, college consolidation continues to reshape the secondary education landscape, and faculty careers in the process.

More than 90 nonprofit universities and colleges shut their doors or announced their intentions to close between January 2016 and February 2020, one industry estimate recorded. And more than 230 institutions, almost 10% of 2,300-plus researched over eight years, could close or merge, given the stressors they face, according to recently published book, The College Stress Test: Tracking Institutional Futures Across a Crowded Market.

In addition, 10% were deemed likely to close and 30% more were expected to struggle, according to Susan Baldridge, a professor at Middlebury College, who co-authored the book with Robert Zemsky, higher education division chair at the University of Pennsylvania, and Susan S. Shaman.

Marni Baker Stein on What’s Next For Higher Education — — from gettingsmart.com by Getting Smart Staff

Excerpt:

On this episode of the Getting Smart Podcast, we’re talking with Marni Baker Stein, Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Western Governors University (WGU).
…
For example, with regards to skills: WGU put together a skills architecture team alongside national competency networks. They then used EMSI, a common way to describe skills, to tag them to a competency and execute dynamic audits of performance.

“Learners desperately need education to organize itself around what they need it to become.”

Digital Credentials: A Better Way to Capture and Communicate Learning — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark, Rebecca Midles and Rashawn Caruthers

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

There is an invention opportunity to better credential units of learning, to open up individual learning pathways, to better communicate capabilities, and to reduce friction in talent transactions.

The pandemic is accelerating this shift to verified credentials. Enrollment in short-term credential classes increased by 70% over last year while freshman college enrollment dropped by 16%.

There are six opportunities to better capture and communicate learning.

The Opportunity for Personalized and Local Guidance — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark, Rebecca Midles and Rashawn Caruthers

Excerpt:

There is a big opportunity to create tools that complement advisor efforts to help learners better understand themselves, spot and try out possible futures, make informed decisions about what’s next, and persist through challenges.

5 things we’ve learned about virtual school in 2020 — from npr.org by Anya Kamenetz

Excerpts:

The digital divide is still big and complex.
Relationships are everything when it comes to keeping kids engaged remotely.
Digital teaching can be good, even great with the right support for teachers. But that’s far from the norm.
Hybrid models are extremely challenging.
Some kids are not learning much online. They’ll be playing catch-up in years to come.

DC: This is not right! When will there be justice?! We need to help Native American colleges, universities, & communities out!

On 12/04/2020, in Access to Justice (A2J), adjunct faculty, Amazon, Apple, business, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, economics, education, education reform, education technology, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, faculty/staff, faith, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, geography / geology, Google, health, higher education, history, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, Michigan, Microsoft, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, morals/values, new media literacies, online learning, platforms, policy, remote teaching and learning, society, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, telecommunications, ubiquitous learning, United States, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, youth, by Daniel Christian

The Digital Divide for Tribal College Students — COVID, CARES Act, and Critical Next Steps — from diverseeducation.com

Excerpt:

In this episode staff writer Sara Weissman shares a story that focuses on the digital divide for Native Americans by bringing in voices of tribal college leaders and their students during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Many don’t know but Native American colleges and universities have long struggled with the worst internet connectivity in the nation while ironically paying the highest rates for service. Hear first-hand how students from Diné College and other institutions are currently affected. Carrie Billie (Big Water Clan), President & CEO of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and Dr. Cynthia Lindquist (Star Horse Woman), President of Cankdeska Cikana Community College in North Dakota, break down the data and lay out critical next steps necessary to address the digital divide.

Many don’t know but Native American colleges and universities have long struggled with the worst internet connectivity in the nation while ironically paying the highest rates for service.

From DSC:
When will there be justice!? Let’s join in and make amends and provide the funding, concrete assistance, products, and services to Native American colleges, universities, and communities. Some potential ideas:

For the short term, could there be Loon balloons deployed immediately to provide free and stronger access to the Internet?

Could our Federal Government make amends and do the right thing here? (e-rate program, put Internet access in, make policy changes, offer more grants, other?)
Could Silicon Valley assist with hardware and software? For example:
- Can Apple, HP, Microsoft, and others donate hardware and software?
- Can Zoom, Adobe, Cisco Webex, Microsoft Teams, and others donate whatever these communities need to provide videoconferencing licenses?
Could telecom providers provide free internet access?
Could MOOCs offer more free courses?
Could furniture makers such as Steelcase, Herman Miller, and others donate furniture and help establish connected learning spaces?
How might faculty members and staff within higher education contribute?
How could churches, synagogues, and such get involved?
Could the rest of us locate and donate to charities that aim to provide concrete assistance to Native American schools, colleges, universities, and communities?

We need to do the right thing here. This is another area* where our nation can do much better.

* Here’s another example/area where we can do much better and make amends/changes.

Addendum on 12/7/20:

How to Implement Long-Term Remote Learning in a Rural Area— from techlearning.com by Ray Bendici

Distracted Minds: The Role of Tempo in Good Teaching — from chronicle.com by James Lang
To help students stay attentive in class, think like a conductor, and recognize that students need you to change the pace and the action.

Excerpt:

In this third installment of a series on distraction and attention in education — based on my new book, Distracted: Why Students Can’t Focus and What You Can Do About It — I want to draw inspiration from creative artists who have long counted it as one of their tasks to keep audiences attentive to works that stretch over long periods of time. Directors and playwrights, conductors and composers, all recognize the limited attention span of an audience, which is why they structure the work itself and its performance in particular ways.

The classroom is one of the only places where we expect humans in seats to maintain their attention through an extended, uninterrupted performance of an hour or more. I suspect that’s the case because we (the teachers) are able to keep ourselves fully engaged during the class period: We’re managing our slides, thinking about the next discussion question, writing on the board, and more. It’s all very engaging — for us — but not necessarily for our students.

From DSC:
I appreciated reading this solid article by James Lang — in it, he offers up some excellent points and suggestions. I would guess that the top reasons why these things don’t occur most offer are:

The design of a class takes time. Time is hard to come by. That’s why instructional design is very helpful but is sometimes put on a backburner…to the students’ detriment.
There aren’t enough Instructional Designers to go around.
Faculty don’t seek out Instructional Designers or, when an Instructional Designer is around, they may have a queue that’s way too long and they’ve become a bottleneck.

Some scenes from a wonderful, artistic, creative “Bitmoji Classroom” [Clay, Young, Thomas, Smith, Koch, & Verddugo]

On 11/29/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, animation, art, attention, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, Google, graphics, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, mathematics, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, professional development, reading, remote teaching and learning, science, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Our oldest daughter showed me a “Bitmoji Classroom” that her mentor teacher — Emily Clay — uses as her virtual classroom. Below are some snapshots of the Google Slides that Emily developed based on the work of:

Kayla Young (@bitmoji.kayla)
MaryBeth Thomas
Ms. Smith
Karen Koch
The First Grade Creative — by C. Verddugo

My hats off to all of these folks whose work laid the foundations for this creative, fun, engaging, easy-to-follow virtual classroom for a special education preschool classroom — complete with ties to videoconferencing functionalities from Zoom. Emily’s students could click on items all over the place — they could explore, pursue their interests/curiosities/passions. So the snapshots below don’t offer the great interactivity that the real deal does.

Nice work Emily & Company! I like how you provided more choice, more control to your students — while keeping them engaged!

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

From DSC:
I also like the idea of presenting this type of slide (immediately below, and students’ names have been blurred for privacy’s sake) prior to entering a videoconferencing session where you are going to break out the students into groups. Perhaps that didn’t happen in Emily’s class…I’m not sure, but in other settings, it would make sense to share one’s screen right before sending the students to those breakout rooms and show them that type of slide (to let them know who will be in their particular breakout group).

The students in the different breakout sessions could then collaboratively work on Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides and you could watch their progress in real-time!

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

$A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay$

A snapshot of a Bitmoji Classroom created by Emily Clay

Also see:

Educators Turn to Bitmoji to Build Community and Engagement — from edutopia.org by Emelina Minero
Both fun and practical, Bitmoji classrooms are adding some levity to fall planning this year.

3 educational websites for history and social studies [educatorstechnology.com]

On 11/28/2020, in digital learning, education, education technology, elearning, history, homeschooling/homeschoolers, platforms, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, youth, by Daniel Christian

3 educational websites for history and social studies — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Below are three websites we are featuring in our blog for the first time. These are platforms where teachers (and students) can access resources and teaching materials to help them with their history teaching (learning). We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback.

Building your own website is cool again, and it’s changing the whole internet — from protocol.com by David Pierce
Writers, creators and businesses of all kinds are looking to set up their own space online again. To do that, companies are trying to figure out how to deal with two very different internets.

Excerpt:

Websites are back. After years of being sucked into the vortexes of Facebook and Yelp pages, devoting their time to amassing Twitter followers and Instagram likes, creators and businesses alike have seen the benefits of hanging up their own shingle again. Legions of writers are setting up Substack newsletters. Millions of people and businesses are setting up shop for the first time online using Squarespace or WordPress. Wix reported 7.8 million new users in the last quarter alone, and more than 29% revenue growth.
…
Substack doesn’t see itself as a newsletter platform, or an email-based product. The company is fundamentally interested in fostering direct relationships between readers and writers, rather than let them be mediated by companies whose interests are not always aligned with either side.

The driving force behind all that growth? Thanks to a pandemic closing stores, keeping people at home and leaving a lot of people without jobs, the only way to move forward is to figure out the internet.

From DSC:
Though I really like WordPress — and this blog uses it — look at the stock performance in 2020 for Wix!

Our youngest daughter and I are going to set up a blog for her, as she loves to write. The idea was from her and my wife, but I love it! I think it’s highly motivating to her and she can have a voice…that she can share her writings with others. She’s got quite an imagination — so look out all! 🙂

Semicolon Bookstore & Gallery: Chicago’s only black woman-owned bookstore & gallery space

On 11/27/2020, in art, creativity, culture, digital photography, funding / grants, marketplaces, reading, society, story, storytelling, student-related, writing, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Our oldest daughter told me about this great/cool WIN-WIN situation here! I thought it was so cool, that I wanted to pass it along. What a great way to help communities, students, folks who want to read/write/produce art and more!

Powered by Bookshop: Supporting local, independent bookstores.

Chicago’s only black woman-owned bookstore and gallery space, Semicolon Bookstore and Gallery is committed to nurturing the connection between literature, art, and the pursuit of knowledge; while also using the power of words to better our community.

New York, NY – November 26, 2020 – The Intercept has published a video investigation by filmmaker Emily Cohen Ibañez on the impact of the switch to remote learning –– and the Coronavirus pandemic –– on students in an agro-industrial town (Watsonville, CA) and an affluent Bay Area suburb (Pine Hills, CA).

The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2020/11/25/remote-learning-school-education-covid/

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/7_YoSFNe2lM

“Life at Watsonville High was fast-paced, full of a lot of energy, a lot of really amazing students,” said Dr. Sara Roe, an English Learner Coach at Watsonville High. “Watsonville High is 98 percent Latinx, Latino, Latina. We are made up of a higher percentage of first-generation students. Socioeconomically, we’re predominantly a low-income area, so 100 percent of our students receive free and reduced lunch, and most likely, their parents or someone in their family has worked in the fields or is currently working in the fields.”

“If we thought then that kids had social, emotional challenges, their needs weren’t being met in particular ways,” said Dr. Roe, “If we thought there were issues then, I don’t think we could have ever imagined what the implications of going online would uncover for us in terms of issues for students.”

#digitaldivide #education #remotelearning #K12 #edtech #digitalequity

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