21st Century Teaching and Learning, Part 1

Ruth Reynard discusses emergent skill sets for teachers, looking at different ways to engage digital native students and make teaching more effective:

“while we do not know enough about long-term affects on thinking and perception, we can make sure of the technical capabilities and work hard to develop in ourselves the instructional skills we need to meet students where they are in terms of expectations and familiarity. We can also become more critical ourselves in how we perceive our own disciplines and more mobile in how we distribute content and intentional in how we stimulate student response. While mobile technology is coming at us via communication demands, we can monopolize these technological advances and think through how we can use them for instructional benefit and effectiveness.”

Author: Ruth Reynard, T.H.E. Journal, 27th April 2008

Full article available here.

A Free Learning Tool for Every Learning Problem?

Zaid Ali Alsagoff posted a great list of free learning tools. Zaid has suggestions for almost every learning issue and below are some of them:

• Microblogging tool? Twitter
  
• Directory of edubloggers from around the world? International Edubloggers Directory
• Wiki tool? PBwiki
• Encyclopedia, which I can add to or edit? Wikipedia
• Audio recording tool? Audacity
• Tool to host my audio recordings? Odeo
• Tool to transform media into collaborative spaces with video, voice and text commenting? VoiceThread
• Tool to tell a story? Here are 50!
• Screencasting (recording) tool? Wink
• Hosted screencasting tool? Jing
• Mindmapping tool? FreeMind
• Tool to make screenshots from different browsers with one click? Browsershots
• Easy-to-learn 3D authoring software tool? Google SketchUp

See the full article here.

TeachMeet North East London 08 Event

FutureLab has posted up another Education & Technology event:

“19 May 2008
Redbridge Teachers Centre, Ilford

TeachMeet NorthEast London is a chance for education stakeholders to share effective, exciting and innovative uses technology in schools in an informal environment. If you come for the evening, then you can either present, or just listen to inspiring presentations on ICT in schools. People attending previous TeachMeets before have found them to be inspirational and a great form of CPD.”

According to the TeachMeet site you can also join the event via Flashmeeting and there is a Facebook page too.

Heated Debate on Game-Based Learning

Mark Oehlert, who owns and write the e-Clipping Blog, commented on a post today by Paul McNamara which has caused some heated debate “I wonder if maybe we should continue the debate about whether or not games are good for learning or maybe, here is an alternative…just shut up, accept the data and start really figuring out how to do it write and for PETE”S SAKE understand that design principles, ESPECIALLY design principles (except they aren’t really design principles are they Adriana? ;-))…are not crafted in stone and can and should change and that BY ALL THAT’S GOOD AND PURE the classrooms and instructor-led training were probably NEVER studied RE their effectiveness as learning environments but rather as production environments. I’m sure that the Romans thought their empire wold stand for all time as well and look what happened to them.”

The original post can viewed here and be sure to read the comments which currently run onto a second page. There are comments from people of varying ages and opinions and it is all well worth a read!

Meet the Sims

“The students were in a UW classroom laboratory using life-size — and fairly lifelike — computerized simulators, the latest technology trend used by universities to train students about real-world emergencies before setting foot in a hospital room.

The human patient simulators — SimMan, SimBaby and Noelle, a pregnant simulator for labor and delivery — each cost about $30,000. They can talk, breathe and can be programmed to simulate a host of illnesses, disorders or symptoms (or genders, for that matter — Mrs. Jones was actually SimMan), and can change symptoms in real time in reaction to a student’s interaction with them. ”

Author: Cherie Black, Seattlepi.com, 12th April 2008

Full article available here.

Digital Dissection

Digital dissection software to replace physical dissection in science classes:

“There is also a new technology called “digital dissection”. There are various computer dissection programs such as Drylab Dissections and Catworks that take students through an actual dissection using realistic graphics, as well as a full-motion video. Programs exist for many commonly used dissection specimens, including frogs, rats, earthworms, fetal pigs, and even cats.

Other programs, such as Digital Frog 2 and Visifrog, use high-quality computer animation to simulate an actual animal dissection. Animal rights organizations such as the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) applaud this new technology and have started free-of-charge loan programs through which schools can try out software.”

Author: Heather Clark, 11th April 2008

Full article available here.

Reaching Out With Your Conference

Dave Warlick provides advice for organising social networking for conferences:

“I would love to see more education technology conferences adopt this sort of out-reach. Conferences have never been an integral part of the job for most classroom teachers — and with budget cuts already starting to snip their way across the fabric of our education institutions, fewer educators will likely be packing up and driving or flying to the city convention hotel for three days of shared learning and energy-generating friction.

It’s all the more reason why education conferences need to shine more, to radiate ideas rather than rattle them in a box.”

Author: Dave Warlick, 2cent Worth Blog, 20th April 2008

Full article available here.

Are Schools Inhibiting 21st Century Learning?

Dave Nagel on Project Tomorrow Speak Up survey findings:

“Teachers were apparently even more enthusiastic about gaming, as 65 percent indicated that they thought educational gaming would be an effective tool for students with different learning styles and would help engage students in coursework. More than half said they’d like to learn more about educational gaming, and some 46 percent said they would “like to receive specific professional development on how to effectively integrate gaming technologies into curriculum,” according to the survey.”

Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, 19th April 2008

Full article available here.

See also Project Tomorrow website.

Games on the curriculum – Scottish schools

Daniel Livingstone wrote a post today regarding an article on game design being taught in Scottish schools. He provides some interesting responses to the curriculum guidelines. Worth a read.

“I spotted this intriguing piece earlier in the week -” ‘Games’ to be taught in Scottish Schools”
The article doesn’t reveal much in the way of details but claims:

Scottish schoolchildren are to be taught the basics of video game design as part of the country’s new national curriculum – dubbed the ‘Curriculum of Excellence’.

According to the Press Association, the move is to designed to ‘create the next generation of young programmers’.

Schools minister Maureen Watt unveiled the scheme … and added that the new lessons will teach children how to use computer software to create animations and feature films.”

See the full article here.

iWalkthrough™ – Great Schools Partnership

The Great Schools Partnership have developed the iWalkthrough™ tool for use in schools to observe teaching and acquire data for feedback:

“The tool allows administrators or other instructional leaders to make a five to ten minute classroom visit yet dial in on the instruction they witness. During the training process, observers are encouraged to observe in the room then record after they leave so as not to be a distraction to the students or the teacher.

To be effective, the Walk through concept must be done frequently, with observers visiting the classrooms multiple times. Because the device is convenient to carry and the process so time effective, administrators and teacher leaders can do a number of such visits to several different classrooms in the time it would have taken to do one such formal observation previously.

But it is later, after the data has been collected from a multitude of such visits and collapsed by the software that the device shines. The iWalkthrough can generate customized reports that easily sort, compare, and visually display a wealth of data.”

Author: Tom Hanson, OpenEducation Blog, 16th April 2008

Full article available here.