Class size: What research says and what it means for state policy — Brookings Institute
On 05/13/2011,
in 21st century, budgets, digital learning, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, game-changing environment, hybrid learning, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, library / librarians, mobile learning, online learning, student teaching/teacher education, teachers,
by Daniel Christian
Excerpt from introduction (emphasis DSC):
Three factors are driving this new interest and enthusiasm for digital learning by educators. First, teachers and administrators are increasingly become technology-enabled themselves, using emerging technologies such as mobile devices, online classes and digital content to improve their own productivity. This development of a personal value proposition with the technology is propelling educators to think creatively about how to leverage these same tools in the classroom. Second, students and increasingly parents are demanding a different kind of learning experience and that is forcing even the most reluctant teachers and administrators to re-evaluate their perspectives about the value of technology within learning. As noted in prior Speak Up national reports, students have a very clear vision for 21st century learning. Their preference is for learning environments that are socially-based, un-tethered and digitally rich. Parents are also supportive of this new learning paradigm and as we noted in our first Speak Up 2010 report (released in April 2011) the emergence of a new trend of parental digital choice is an indication of this unprecedented support level. And schools and districts are waking up to this new trend. Concerns about parents’ capability to, for example, enroll their children in non-district provided online classes are compelling many districts to start virtual schools themselves. The third factor, the economy, and its resulting financial pressures on school and district budgets, has created a sense of urgency to more fully investigate how technologies can help educators meet their instructional goals with less expense.
All three factors converging at the same time has opened up a new window of possibilities for achieving the promise of technology to transform education. Evidence of this shift in perspective and vision by educators is noted in some comparative Speak Up findings over the past few years.
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This report is the second in a two-part series to document the key national findings from Speak Up 2010.
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In this companion report, “The New 3E’s of Education: Enabled, Engaged, Empowered – How Today’s Educators are Advancing a New Vision for Teaching and Learning,” we explore how teachers, principals, district administrators, librarians and technology coordinators are addressing the student vision for learning around three key trends. These trends have generated significant interest in the past year at conferences, in policy discussions and within our schools and districts: mobile learning, online and blended learning and digital content.
While each of these trends includes the essential components of the student vision of socially-based, un-tethered and digitally-rich learning, they also provide a unique backdrop for investigating the role of educators to engage, enable and empower students through the use of these emerging technologies.
• Role of Librarians and Technology Coordinators: To enable student use of the emerging technologies through their planning, support and recommendation responsibilities.
• Role of Classroom Teachers: To engage students in rich, compelling learning experiences through the effective use of these technologies in the classroom.
• Role of School and District Administrators: To empower both teachers and students to creatively envision the future of digital learning, and to provide opportunities for exploring the elements of a new shared vision for learning.
On 05/05/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, education reform, education technology, hybrid learning, K-12 related,
by Daniel Christian
Online learning begins to explode into mainstream in blended schools — from Disupting Class posted by Michael Horn
This week, Innosight Institute, where I am the executive director of the education practice, released a landmark report, titled The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of Emerging Models, which profiles 40 different operators leading the rise of K-12 blended learning.
Across America a skyrocketing number of K-12 students are getting their education in blended-learning environments. Over 4 million K-12 students took at least one online course in 2010, according to Ambient Insight, and this space is growing now by a five-year compound annual growth rate of 43 percent—much faster than the growth of charter schooling or other K-12 education reforms, for example. And the majority of this growth is occurring in different types of “blended learning.”
Also see:
- The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of emerging model
and the report itself by clicking the graphic below
On 05/04/2011,
in education reform, pace of change, productivity / tips and tricks,
by Daniel Christian
Schooling past “sell-by” date says Education Fast Forward — from agent4change.net by (emphasis below from DSC)
Bill Hicks sat in on the second gathering of Promethean’s influential global education think tank
Jean-Yves Charlier
It was billed as a debate on “Productivity in Education”, but the second Education Fast Forward global forum ended with near-consensus on a radical proposition: that, when it comes to maximising the potential of students, schooling as we know it is well past its sell-by date.
The conclusions of the 32 distinguished innovators taking part in the live online debate from 19 locations across six continents, differed only in the degree to which they would change or replace existing structures.
Introducing the event, Promethean’s CEO Jean-Yves Charlier underlined the urgency of the issue: “It’s obvious the world has profoundly changed with the recession,” he said, “and while governments race ahead to fix problems created in the short term, I think we all agree that education has to be a fundamental pillar for economic growth in future. So this debate about the effectiveness and efficiency of education systems is a very important one.”
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“In the past perhaps it was OK for education to move slowly… but the world is changing more quickly than education itself,” he said. The recession made change all the more crucial – but at the same time it would be more difficult to convince the decision-makers in government to invest in change: “Yet unless we get that magic way forward, people will say we can’t afford it. I’m worried we don’t get to the point where we can convince people this is achievable.”
On 05/04/2011,
in 21st century, active learning, assessment, education reform, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, global / globalization, ideas, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, love of learning, morals/values, motivation, participation, play, policy, political science, presentations, project-based learning, real-world assignments, relationships, society, sociology, staying relevant, story, storytelling, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teaching & learning, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
John Hunter on the World Peace Game — TED March 2011 — my thanks to Mr. Joseph and Mrs. Kate Byerwalter for this great presentation
About this talk
John Hunter puts all the problems of the world on a 4’x5′ plywood board — and lets his 4th-graders solve them. At TED2011, he explains how his World Peace Game engages schoolkids, and why the complex lessons it teaches — spontaneous, and always surprising — go further than classroom lectures can.
About John Hunter
Teacher and musician John Hunter is the inventor of the World Peace Game (and the star of the new doc “World Peace and Other 4th-Grade Achievements”).
On 04/28/2011,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, dangers of the status quo, digital learning, education reform, expectations, future of higher education, game-changing environment, K-12 related, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, student teaching/teacher education, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
On 04/06/2011,
in change, dangers of the status quo, education, education reform, education technology, engagement / engaging students, K-12 related, love of learning, passions, pedagogy, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
Some presentations:
From DSC:
A couple of my take-aways from Will’s presentation:
We need life prep, not test prep.
We need a “different” system vs striving to make the current system “better”.
Also see:
Also see the TEDxNYED Speaker Lineup:
- Don Buckley, Co-Host
- Sylvia Martinez, Co-Host
- Rinat Aruh
- Steve Bergen
- Patrick Carman
- Luyen Chou
- Brian Crosby
- Maria Fico and John Ellrodt
- Lucy Gray
- Heidi Hayes Jacobs
- Dennis Littky
- Morley
- Stacey Murphy
- Will Richardson
- Alan November
- Gary S. Stager
- Samona Tait
- Homa Tavangar
On 04/05/2011,
in budgets, business side of he, cost of getting a degree, education reform, face-to-face, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, vision/possibilities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Not that I’m on board with everything here…but the following excerpt from Rethinking colleges from the ground up — from the World Future Society by Thomas Frey — is worth reflecting upon; and so are some of the questions listed at the bottom of this posting.
(NOTE: You may need to be a member to access this article in its entirety; emphasis DSC)
So What’s Changed
The obvious question to start with is simply, “What’s changed?”
Why is it that an education system that has produced some of the world’s top scientists, engineers, and business executive is no longer good enough to serve today’s young people?
The answers can be found in the following five areas:
- From information poor to information rich
- Fierce competition
- The cost to benefit ratio is changing
- New times require new intelligence
- Shift from individual intelligence to group intelligence
The following are but a few of the reasons why changing times demand different solutions…
…
Colleges are being pushed in a number of directions but the big dividing points will be oriented around in-person vs. online, and for the in-person side of the equation, doing the things in-person that cannot be done through online education.
Also see:
- Education and the New Normal — The WorldFuture 2011 Education Summit | July 7-8, 2011 | Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, Vancouver, BC, Canada
What does the “new normal” of shrunken classroom budgets, greater reliance on information technology and the ongoing science and math skills shortage mean for the future of education? Join fellow futurists this summer in Vancouver to solve these and other questions during our two-day WFS-exclusive Education Summit. This year’s speakers include FUTURIST magazine authors Maria H. Andersen, David Pearce Snyder, and Tom Lombardo among many others.
Sessions include:
- Defining the “New Normal” for Education
- Education as a Service
- Where’s the “Learn This” Button?
- Learning in Depth: A Simple Innovation That Can Transform Schooling
- A New Education Vision: Reinventing School-to-Employment Systems for Knowledge-Based Global Economies
- The New Tech Network
- Jump-Start Your Career as a Foresight Educator
- Reinventing Educational Activism by Creating Linkages: Technology, Content-Driven Collaboration, and Financial Literacy
- A New Century: A New Instructional Paradigm
- Educating the Wise Cyborg of the Future
- Deconstructing the Education Monopoly in the United States
- Futurists and the Future of Education
WorldFuture 2011 Education Summit: $295 for WFS members/$345 for nonmembers. Learn more and register here.
On 03/29/2011,
in 21st century, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, learning theories, student teaching/teacher education, teachers, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
Originally saw this at:
The Educator’s PLN- posted by Chris McEnroe on 3/28/11
Also, very relevant here is the following posting from Arne Duncan at ED.gov blog:
- The Changing Face of American Education
(Cross-posted from the White House Blog)One of the greatest challenges facing our country is the coming retirement of more than 1 million baby-boomer teachers. This challenge has presented us with a once in a lifetime opportunity to help reshape education in America by recruiting and training the next generation of great American teachers.
Teaching is a rewarding and challenging profession where you can make a lasting impact. Teachers have a positive influence on students, schools, and communities, now and into the future. Schools across the nation are in need of a diverse set of talented teachers, especially in our big cities and rural areas, and especially in the areas of Math, Science, Technology, Special Education, and English Language Learning.
That’s why the department launched the TEACH campaign — a bold new initiative to inspire and empower the most talented and dedicated Americans to become teachers. We know that next to parental support, there is nothing more important to a child’s education than the quality of his or her teachers.
Many of you are already thinking about becoming teachers. The TEACH campaign provides tools at your fingertips to navigate the academic and professional requirements that will credential you to succeed as a teacher in one of our schools. TEACH.gov features an online path to teaching and over 4,000 listed, open teaching positions.
Also see:
- Four Characteristics of Successful Teachers — from Faculty Focus by Maryellen Weimer
On 03/24/2011,
in 21st century, digital learning, education, education reform, innovation, lifelong learning, teaching & learning,
by Daniel Christian
21st century education requires lifewide learning — from Harvard Business Review by Chris Dede
I have decided to spend the remainder of my career helping to replace industrial era schooling with educational structures better suited to our 21st century, global, innovation-based economy. This sweeping goal of total educational transformation may seem overly ambitious for someone whose work centers in learning technologies. However, in my research I consistently find that new media are at the heart of innovative models for education: contributing to the obsolescence of traditional schools/universities as educational vehicles, while simultaneously empowering new forms of learning and teaching.