From DSC:
1) To start out this posting, I want to pose some questions about “The Common Core” — in the form of a short video. <— NOTE:  Please be sure your speakers are on or you have some headphones with you — the signal is “hot” so you may need to turn down the volume a bit!  🙂

With a special thanks going out to
Mr. Bill Vriesema for sharing
some of his excellent gifts/work.

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DanielChristian-SomeQuestionsReTheCommonCore-June2013

 

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Having asked those questions, I understand that there is great value in having students obtain a base level of knowledge — in reading, writing, and basic math.  (Should we add keyboarding? Programming? Other?  Perhaps my comments are therefore more appropriate for high school students…not sure.)

Anyway, I would be much more comfortable with moving forward with the Common Core IF:

* I walked into random schools and found out which teachers the students really enjoyed learning from and whom had a real impact on the learning of the students.  Once I identified that group of teachers, if 7-8 out of 10 of them gave the Common Core a thumbs up, so would I.

* The Common Core covered more areas — such as fine arts, music, drama, woodworking, videography, photography, etc.    (Just because STEM might drive the economic engines doesn’t mean everyone enjoys plugging into a STEM-related field — or is gifted in those areas.)

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2) Secondly, here are just a few recent items re: the Common Core:


 

Good Read: Who’s Minding the Schools? — from blogs.kqed.org by Tina Barseghian

Excerpt: (emphasis DSC)

For those uninitiated to the Common Core State Standards, this New York Times article raises some important questions:

“By definition, America has never had a national education policy; this has indeed contributed to our country’s ambivalence on the subject… The anxiety that drives this criticism comes from the fact that a radical curriculum — one that has the potential to affect more than 50 million children and their parents — was introduced with hardly any public discussion. Americans know more about the events in Benghazi than they do about the Common Core.”

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The Common Core Standards

 

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Editorial: Make the Common Core standards work before making them count — from eschoolnews.com by Randi Weingarten
AFT President Randi Weingarten calls for a moratorium on the high-stakes implications of Common Core testing until the standards have been properly implemented.

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How to train students’ brains for the Common Core — from ecampusnews.com by Meris Stansbury
Excerpt:

According to Margaret Glick, a neuroscience expert and educational consultant at the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE), the Common Core State Standards and the accompanying assessments will cognitively require more than past standards. “They will require a deep understanding of content, complex performances, real-world application, habits of mind to persevere, higher levels of cognition and cognitive flexibility,” Glick said during “The Common Core State Standards and the Brain,” a webinar sponsored by the Learning Enhancement Corporation.

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Common Core testing will require digital literacy skills — from ecampusnews.com by Dennis Pierce
Excerpt:

It also will require students to demonstrate certain digital literacy skills that go beyond the core curriculum, observers say. These include technology operational skills such as keyboarding and spreadsheets, as well as higher-order skills such as finding and evaluating information online. And many observers have serious concerns about whether students will be ready to take the online exams by the 2014-15 school year.

 

Minn. moves ahead with some Common Core education standards — from minnesota.publicradio.org by Tim Post

 

Carry the Common Core in Your Pocket! — from appolearning.com by Monica Burns

Excerpt:

Whether you are a parent or educator, you have likely heard the buzz around the Common Core Learning Standards. Here’s the deal.

Across the United States schools are adopting these national standards to prepare students for college and careers by introducing rigorous content to children in all subject areas. The standards cover students in Kindergarten through Grade 12 in English Language Arts and Mathematics. The Common Core Standards app by MasteryConnect organizes the CCLS for students, parents and teachers with mobile devices.

 

 

Addendum on 6/19/13:

Addendum on 6/27/13: 

 

ClearSlide acquires SlideRocket to expand its rich presentation capabilities for sales teams — from ClearSlide.com — with special thanks going out to Mr. Cal Keen, Tech. Integration Specialist at Calvin College,  for the heads-up on these tools

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Founded in 2006 and with more than one million users, SlideRocket reinvented presentations by adding interactive capabilities like video, audio, rich media, and analytics in a hosted platform to elevate storytelling and deliver tangible results.

“SlideRocket has always been focused on helping teams communicate ideas more effectively,” said Chuck Dietrich, vice president and general manager, VMware. “Bringing SlideRocket’s creative presentation production capabilities to the ClearSlide platform gives our collective customers much more power through the full sales process, from content creation to closing the deal.

 

From DSC:
These tools might also benefit those in higher ed as well, as it’s all about the ability to craft a message using multiple kinds of media and to engage an audience with that message.  So we see here another example of tools that are helping develop/leverage digital literacy.  They also involved interactivity, analytics, and storytelling — things that those of us working within higher education (especially with hybrid and online-based learning) should be interested in.  (For those involved with K-12 and higher ed, note the need for creativity here.)

 

 

 

 

imgZine-Feb2013

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From DSC:
Hmmmm…I wonder how this might apply to education? Will we move more towards personal brands vs. institutional brands?

Lumify Movie Studio hits 3.0, brings full-featured video editing to iPhone — from maclife.com by J.R. Bookwalter

 

LumifyMovieStudio-Jan2013

Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. Requires iOS 5.0 or later.
This app is optimized for iPhone 5.

 

From DSC:
I have not tried this, but it looks very interesting…feedback anyone?

 

Specialty classroom technologies — from centerdigitaled.com

  • Kristy Chapman | Special Education Director | Union County | Board of Education, GA
  • Kyle Li | Full-time Game & Learning Instructor | School of Art, Media, and Technology | Parsons, The Newschool for Design, NY
  • Moses A. Ojeda | Principal (I.A.) | Thomas A. Edison Career & Technical Education High School, NY
  • Denise Spence | Magnet Lead Technology Teacher | Academy for Technology Excellence | Academy for Digital Excellence | Academy for Game Design and Programming Excellence | Dunbar High School, FL

Session was moderated by Tom Ryan, Ph.D. | Sr. Fellow, Center for Digital Education | Former CIO, Albuquerque Public Schools

Resources

 

Example slides:

 

Converge-1-17-13FullSteamAhead

 

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Converge-1-17-13-3

 

 

Converge-1-17-13-4

 

Converge-1-17-13-5

 

Converge-1-17-13-6

 

Converge-1-17-13-9

 

Converge-1-17-13-10

 

Converge-1-17-13-12

 

Converge-1-17-13-13

 

Converge-1-17-13-14

VideoScribe HD by Sparkol — with thanks to Sue Gorman (@sjgorman) whose post on Twitter said, “VideoScribe HD -create Fast Drawing videos…awesome!”
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sparkol-jan2013

 

 

Tagged with:  

The hottest IT skills for 2013 — from itstrategynews.com

Top 4 traits of “future proof” employees, according to 1,709 CEOs — from forbes.com
What should you look for as you recruit new hires in 2013? As an employee yourself, what traits will serve you best in the years ahead?

Excerpt:

Late last year IBM conducted interviews with 1,709 CEOs around the world, and published the results in a white paper titled “Leading Through Connections.” It’s a fascinating look at how business leaders are reacting to recent convergence of digital, social and mobile technologies, known by many as the “connected economy.”

From DSC:
How are K-12 and higher ed doing on developing this type of employee?

Also see:

 

Apple TV and the transformation of web apps into tablet and TV dual screen apps — from brightcove.com by Jeremy Allaire

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Excerpts:

Importantly, designers and developers need to shed the concept that “TVs” are for rendering video, and instead think about “TVs” as large monitors on which they can render applications, content and interactivity that is supported by a touch-based tablet application.

The key concept here is that this pervasive adoption of TV monitors is the tip of the spear in creating a social computing surface in the real world.

Specifically, Apple has provided the backbone for dual screen apps, enabling:

  • Any iOS device (and OSX Mountain Lion-enabled PCs) to broadcast its screen onto a TV. Think of this as essentially a wireless HDMI output to a TV. If you haven’t played with AirPlay mirroring features in iOS and Apple TV, give it a spin, it’s a really exciting development.
  • A set of APIs and an event model for enabling applications to become “dual screen aware” (e.g. to know when a device has a TV screen it can connect to, and to handle rendering information, data and content onto both the touch screen and the TV screen).


[Jeremy listed several applications for these concepts:  Buying a house, buying a car, doctor’s office, kids edutainment, the classroom, retail electronics store, consuming news, consuming video, sales reporting, board games.]

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Also see:

 
From DSC:
Graphically speaking — and approaching this from an educational/learning ecosystems standpoint — I call this, “Learning from the Living [Class] Room.

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The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

 

Learning from the living room -- a component of our future learning ecosystems -- by Daniel S. Christian, June 2012

 

 

Related item:

Three steps to improving your tech literacy — from onlineuniversities.com by Justin Marquis

Excerpt:

For anyone who lacks confidence using today’s advanced information and communication technology, overcoming the fear of failure and the unknowns of the digital world can be a daunting task. I regularly teach introductory technology classes to adults returning to college to get a degree or enhance their career options with a new credential, and this fear of technology is the biggest obstacle that these individuals face in learning to use computers in ways that will make them more productive and more attractive candidates for employment.

Fortunately there are no obstacles to learning about technology that can’t be overcome with a positive attitude and some perseverance. Here are three steps that you can take to improve your tech literacy and become more confident using computers.

Rich Colosi and His Amazing Video Classroom!

 

 

10 ideas for classroom video projects  — from educationaltechnology.ca by Alec Couros

Excerpt:

If you follow my Twitter-stream, you know that I spend a lot of time viewing, collecting & sharing videos. In this post, I share ideas on certain types of videos that I’ve gathered and how educators might use related methods or styles to engage students in constructing and deconstructing media while becoming critical consumers and producers of digital media.

 

Also see:

  • Chris Anderson – How web video powers global [innovation] — from innovationexcellence.com
    Excerpt:
    TED’s Chris Anderson says the rise of web video is driving a worldwide phenomenon he calls Crowd Accelerated Innovation — a self-fueling cycle of learning that could be as significant as the invention of print. But to tap into its power, organizations will need to embrace radical openness. And for TED, it means the dawn of a whole new chapter.

“Hollywood will be destroyed and no one will notice,” Wales said. But it won’t be Wikipedia (or Encarta) that kills the moviemaking industry: ” Collaborative storytelling and filmmaking will do to Hollywood what Wikipedia did to Encyclopedia Britannica,” he said.

— quote from Jimmy Wales to Hollywood: You’re Doomed (And Not Because of Piracy) at wired.com by Ryan Singel

© 2024 | Daniel Christian