On 03/03/2010,
in game-changing environment, innovation, K-12 related, smart classrooms, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Date: Monday, March 22nd, 2010
Time: 1 p.m. West Coast / 4 p.m. East Coast
Duration: 60 minutes
Sponsors: Lightspeed Systems
Join us for this visionary Webinar featuring ed-tech thought leader Alan November to find out how you can leverage your investment in technology to transform the culture of teaching and learning in your district. You will learn how to realign goals and create a vision that can outlast any change in the technology–for a collaborative, empowering, and global classroom environment. Join our Webinar to learn how to use technology to create more motivating experiences for students:
- Authentic audiences – Create opportunities for students to present their ideas to others, taking advantage of authentic, global audiences with technology such as Skype.
- Learning by teaching – Allow students to actively contribute to the educational process by teaching each other and creating their own tools.
- Collaborative classrooms – Enhance learning by using technology to develop participatory learning opportunities and engaged, communicative students.
Also, learn how Steven Halper is safely using Web 2.0 tools in his district to enhance teaching and learning environments and motivate students. He will describe the needs his district and challenges his district faced in terms of Web 2.0 adoption–and will share how he has met with innovative solutions.
Original posting from:
http://scherlund.blogspot.com/
Note:
I have some very different viewpoints re: slide #6; please see my posting “The death of a question“.
On 02/23/2010,
in budgets, education technology, funding / grants, K-12 related,
by Daniel Christian
The 2011 Budget makes a strong commitment to technology that transforms how educators teach and how students learn. The President strongly believes that technology, when used creatively and effectively, can transform education and training in the same way that it has transformed the private sector. It makes a broad array of Department of Education programs, including the $500 million “Investing in Innovation” Fund, eligible for technology-related investments, encouraging the infusion of educational technology across a broad range of programs in order to improve teaching and learning, and build the capacity at the State and local level to support better uses of technology for efficient and effective transfer of knowledge.
Potential for Transformative Impact:
Last year, the President released A Strategy for American Innovation, highlighting the role of technology in educating the next generation. The strategy outlined the role that educational technology could play to improve our quality of life and establish the foundation for the industries and jobs of the future. For example (emphasis below from DSC):
- Online learning can allow adults that are struggling to balance the competing demands of work and family to acquire new skills, and compete for higher wage jobs, at a time, place and pace that is convenient for them. It can also improve access to a quality education for students in underserved areas.
- Digital tutors can provide every student with immediate feedback and personalized instruction, providing them with the information needed to diagnose and correct errors, and providing challenging instruction.
- Digital learning environments can generate a large volume of data that, if analyzed properly, will support “continuous improvement” by providing rich feedback to learners, teachers, curriculum designers, and researchers in the field of learning science and technology.
- “Games for learning” that are compelling and engaging have the potential to increase the attentive time on task that students engage in learning. Massive multiplayer games can support the social and team-based dimensions of learning.
- Simulations, such as a flight simulator for pilots or a “digital human” for medical professionals can allow students to engage in hands-on learning.
- Open educational resources can be shared, adapted, re-mixed, and re-used.
- Technology can increase parental involvement, provide new opportunities for students with disabilities and for English Language Learners, allow teachers to participate in “communities of practice,” and enlist professionals and retirees as online mentors.
On 02/23/2010,
in education technology, K-12 related, personalized/customized learning, student-related,
by Daniel Christian
The Online Learning Imperative: A Solution to Three Looming Crises in Education — from all4ed.org by Governor Bob Wise with assistance from Robert Rothman
Excerpt:
CRISIS #2: The funding cliff—declining local, state, and federal revenues mean changing the education content-delivery model
Faced with a declining revenue base, any enterprise must make a choice: continue doing the same with less and hope to weather through, or innovate and institute changes that result not only in survival but in growth (emphasis DSC). Public education and the U.S. automobile industry face a common challenge: declining revenues and lackluster results. In the case of the auto industry, the consumer has finally said that the end product is not acceptable. This raises the bar even higher, forcing companies to operate with less revenue while also improving outcomes.
Some might argue that a rapid expansion of education funding could accelerate improvements in outcomes. The reality is that the current economic recession has taken the issue of continually increasing revenues off the table (emphasis DSC). The only issue for policymakers is how to apply limited funding in a more cost-effective manner that also boosts student outcomes—in short, a reengineering of how education is delivered (emphasis DSC).
Also see:
Press release: First school system in Idaho to require online learning — from Virtual High School Meanderings blog
Currently Michigan, Alabama and New Mexico require all graduating students statewide to take an online course. Sugar-Salem is the first district in Idaho to adopt such a policy.
From the Product Review section at Amazon.com
In Education Nation author Milton Chen draws from extensive experience in media—from his work on Sesame Street in its nascent years to his current role as executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation—to support his vision for a new world of learning. Presented in five parts and divided into “module” chapters, this book examines the ways in which K-12 learning can be revolutionized through innovative reform and the use of technology.
Due in large part to new technologies, over the last few decades we’ve witnessed a huge shift in how we imagine teaching and learning. A good example is the educational revolution sparked by Sesame Street—which in its first season had a goal of teaching preschool-age children the numbers 1 to 10. At the time, experts dismissed it as an unrealistic goal since many kindergarten students were having trouble mastering this simple counting. Yet the research proved that preschool-age children learned those skills and many others directly from the TV screen. Now Sesame Street’s curriculum teaches the numbers from 1 to 40. In today’s digital age the number of new ways to teach and learn is ever-expanding and includes: television, Google, YouTube, TeacherTube, Facebook, iPhones, video games, GPS devices, open source textbooks, interactive whiteboards; and there are countless examples of ways technology positively impacts student learning—from voice-recognition software that helps children learn to read to translation tools that help teachers communicate with non-English speaking parents. As a result of constant innovation, learning is no longer limited by traditional confines and we’re quickly moving beyond students tied to their chairs, desks, and textbooks—and teachers locked away in classrooms (emphasis DSC).
On 02/12/2010,
in K-12 related, online learning,
by Daniel Christian
