Saturday, February 20, 2010
Thursday, February 11, 2010
YouTube Doubler at bavatuesdays/Touchstone for Other Class Uses
YouTube Doubler at bavatuesdays
"Could see that being a very effective way for thinking through video editing, which is a series of important choices that one learns through both practice and example—and one needs to learn right away that cutting and editing have become synonymous for a reason—you must cut, cut, and then cut your shots again. "This could also be a lesson to writers as well. Kill yer babies. Clip back the flush of verbiage. I can also see it as a way to promote creative presentation ideas in the classroom. And a simple but fun collaborative project to get students to work together.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
EBSCOhost: EYE ON RESEARCH: 'Value Added' Gauge of Teaching Probed
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EBSCOhost: EYE ON RESEARCH: 'Value Added' Gauge of Teaching Probed
- "value added" methods
- - post by tellio
- value-added assessments
- - post by tellio
- a "falsification" test
- For example, he asked, what effect do 5th grade teachers have on their students' test scores in 3rd and 4th grades?
- Because it's impossible for even the best teachers to have an impact on students' previous learning, Mr. Rothstein reasons, there should be no impact.
- value-added calculations are based on the assumption that students' classroom assignments are random,
- teachers' long-run effects on individual students and finds that they tend to decay or fade out after the first year.
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The study also found, as Mr. Rothstein did, that the teacher effects faded in their students' performance from one year to the next, which may be the more important issue, according to Mr. Staiger.
"When calculating the potential value of shifting the teacher-effectiveness distribution, we and others have typically assumed that the effects of a strong teacher persist in the children they teach," write Mr. Staiger and Mr. Kane, who is the faculty director of the Seattle-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's project on policy innovation.
- - post by tellio
- We still have the reliability problem,
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Saturday, January 16, 2010
Authentic Learning Group Diigo (weekly)
YouTube - I Need My Teachers To Learn 2.0.mov
Poignant song for our times.
Download the QT version here: http://kevinhoneycutt.org
Visit my sites for more stuff!
http://artsnacks.org
http://podstock.ning.com/
http://mysafesurf.org- - By Ginger TPLC
- My friend Rae helped me with this version!
Download the QT version here: http://kevinhoneycutt.org
Visit my sites for more stuff!
http://artsnacks.org
http://podstock.ning.com/
http://mysafesurf.org
Posted from Diigo. The rest of Authentic Learning group favorite links are here.
Friday, January 08, 2010
10 Ways To Learn In 2010: The eLearnin...
Let's get this party started.
Quotes:
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10 Ways To Learn In 2010: The eLearnin...
Here is a report I generated on Diigo after creating a Webslide Show.
Quotes:
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REdefining Work Context
Work context? Why not the art of defining knowledge and skill requirements? After all, we are talking about learning here, and training is obviously a part of that, right? Certainly, it is…and that is exactly the point of this writing – training is indeed a part of learning – and in some cases, only a very small part. Josh Bersin of Bersin & Associates referenced in July 2009 on the “The Future of the Business of Learning” webinar that training organizations spend upwards of 80% of their time and resources focused on formal training activities. He also noted that there was a dramatic increase in the use of informal learning. Training organizations will not keep pace with that trend unless their discovery efforts include the work context where informal learning opportunities surface.
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Thiagi's Newsletter for a New Year
Thiagi's Newsletters are full of fascinating and applicable ways to help students learn. Here are ten tips, but you need to go look at the article to get the good stuff. No, I don't have any reason to drive traffic there, just a desire to share really good, practical, and tested training advice. Here is the link.
Ten Exciting Ways To Waste Your Training Dollars
Ten Exciting Ways To Waste Your Training Dollars
1. Analysis and Planning
2. The Finish Line
3. Content is NOT king
4. Information Please!
5. Multimedia Spectacular
6. Passive Learning
7. Activity Abuse
8. Testing, Testing
9. Follow the Script
10. Beyond Smile Sheets
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Learning Credos are Teaching Manifestos
Dan Gilmour has some advice for journalism students on being a literate person ten years into the 21st century. More importantly, I think this 'advice' is a learning credo which means that it is also a teaching manifesto. I highly recommend reading the whole article. It is full of insight that can only come from having been a reflective participant for decades. This article is a year old and I am sorry I missed it when it came out. As usual the comments are thought provoking and humbling. The Berkman Center continues to provide a useful and interesting forum for new ideas prompted by our evolving digital ecologies. Their podcasts are a steady staple for my commute time: Audio and Video.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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Principles for a New Media Literacy – Center for Citizen Media
- Principles of Media Consumption: the principles come mostly from common sense. Call them skepticism, judgment, understanding, and reporting.
1. Be skeptical of absolutely everything.2. Although skepticism is essential, don’t be equally skeptical of everything.3. Go outside your personal comfort zone.4. Ask more questions.5. Understand and learn media techniques. -
Gillmor, D. (2008, December 12). Principles for a New Media Literacy – Center for Citizen Media. Center for Citizen Media. Blog, . Retrieved December 30, 2009, from http://citmedia.org/blog/2008/12/27/principles-for-a-new-media-literacy/.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Amish Web Sites and New Scientist Curmudgeons
This is not exactly an awe inspiring article, but the gist of it is that technology needs to be on tap, not on top. There is a value to curmudgeonry as long as it does not conflate its position with the Perennial One--capital T Truth. The argument made here is the same one that the Amish have wrestled with for centuries: how much technology is enough? They tend to draw the line where it diminishes family connection. Kevin Kelly's article on "Amish Hackers" puts this distinction another way. They distinguish between owning and using technology. Consider their rules when you, your company, your school, or your business is thinking about the next new new thing.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
The Amish are steadily adopting technology -- at their pace. They are slow geeks. As one Amish man told Howard Rheingold, "We don't want to stop progress, we just want to slow it down," But their manner of slow adoption is instructive.
- 1) They are selective. They know how to say "no" and are not afraid to refuse new things. They ban more than they adopt.
- 2) They evaluate new things by experience instead of by theory. They let the early adopters get their jollies by pioneering new stuff under watchful eyes.
- 3) They have criteria by which to select choices: technologies must enhance family and community and distance themselves from the outside world.
- 4) The choices are not individual, but communal. The community shapes and enforces technological direction.
Kelly, K. (2009, February 11). The Technium: Amish Hackers. The Technium. Retrieved December 29, 2009, from http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers_a.php.
Below is a quick summary of the New Scientist piece that inspired this post using Diigo's annotation features. All material is quoted with some connective language added to aid the reader.
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"THE age of melancholy" is how psychologist Daniel Goleman describes our era.
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Our lifestyles are increasingly driven by technology.
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Technology can be hugely useful in the fast lane of modern living, but we need to stop it from taking over.
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- the computer has become the centre of attention; it is the medium through which we work and play.
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adults and children increasingly believe that in order to belong and feel good about themselves, they must own the latest model or gadget.
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psychologist Tim Kasser of Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, has shown that people who place a high value on material goals are unhappier than those who are less materialistic.
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As one unhappy human-resource manager in a high-tech company put it: "They gave me a mobile phone so they can own me 24 hours a day, and a portable computer, so my office is now with me all the time - I cannot break out of this pressure."
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Psychologists generally believe that the lack of a clear separation between work and home significantly damages our relationships with loved ones.
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Modern society is in danger of swapping standard of living for quality of life.
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My prescription is self-determination theory, developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan of the University of Rochester in New York state.
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three vital elements
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First is autonomy
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It is easy to see how technology undermines autonomy, but also how to regain it. This may be as simple as switching off mobile phones during meals and family time, setting aside specific times to answer emails, and being available only when we choose to be.
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Second is a sense of competence
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being truly competent must be a continuation of our autonomy: knowing which activities are important to us and carrying them out in the most effectual way possible, making use of technology where applicable.
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The third factor is relatedness.
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Psychologists have found that the pivotal difference between happy and unhappy people is the presence or absence of rich and satisfying social relationships. Spending meaningful time with friends, family and partners is necessary for happiness.
- A added fourth factor is critical thinking.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Monday, December 28, 2009
The Innovative
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The Innovative Educator: Five Ways Innovative Educators Can Use Texting As a Professional Tool
- Five Ways Innovative Educators Can Use Texting As a Professional Tool
- Texting as an Efficient and Effective Communication Tool
- disruptive announcement system
- enables educators to communicate short, efficient messages to one another without robbing students of instructional time.
- Enhancing The Home-School Connection
- The Journal has an excellent article on how schools are using notification tools for more than emergency alerts. In fact some schools are using it in a way that can revolutionize parent involvement moving beyond basics using services such as TeleParent (thejournal.com/articles/22398 04/01/08)
- According to the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory study, “Students with involved parents are more likely to attend school regularly, earn higher grades, and have better social skills.”
- Free Audience Response System
- With Poll Everywhere everyone's voice can be heard by texting 99503 and texting in your vote just like they do on American Idol. No equipment needed or software to download within seconds educators have audience responses.
- SMS Tweeting from Your Phone to Gain a Collective Intelligence on Topics of Importance
- Twitter is a great tool for schools to use to share interesting and relevant information with the student body, staff, parents and family.
- Once you're set up, you can start tweeting your way into the microblogging community. Here are some ways you may want to use Twitter. 1) If school staff are attending a conference or professional development activity they tweet reflections, favorite quotes, or reactions to what they're learning. You can read how a group of school leaders did this at Leading By Example - Transforming Education for the 21st Century (http://tinyurl.com/leadbyexample). 2) School staff can tweet interesting announcements, updates, and activities at any time into the school account. This can be fed right into a school website providing the school community, parents, and more with an ongoing stream of updates about school happenings. See how one school does this at www.martavalle.org. 3) Use your class, library, or lab twitter account to share news and information with your students and teachers. For a great example of how this is done, follow Tracy Karas of Marta Valle High School in New York City at http://twitter.com/MartaVLibrary.
- Google SMS as an Educational Tool That Can Be Used Directly From Your Phone
- Editors note: Unfortunately, even as a Technology Innovation Manager, I have been cut off from using this innovative digital tool since October after a decision was made for NYC DOE employees that ALL TEXT MESSAGING capabilities for DOE account holders will be disabled. It was a NYCDOE policy decision to disable the text messaging feature from all DOE issued devices. The rational for the disabling this service is all devices provided are for DOE business related communication and this communication must be documented. It is also the DOE position that communication thru text messaging is primarily for “personal use." Upon further investigation I learned the service could be restored if a professional case was made for using texting. I made my case more than two months ago and still have no service.
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up | Edutopia
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Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up | Edutopia
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- Open 24 hours a day
- Customized educational experience
- Kids arrive at different times
- Students begin their formalized schooling at different ages
- Curriculum is integrated across disciplines
- Nonteachers work with teachers
- Teachers alternate working in schools and in business world
- Local businesses have offices in the schools
- Increased number of charter schools"
These are the fundamentals of the futurist's vision for education in the 21st century:
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I am astonished at the simultaneous niavete and common sense in this interview. Hard to describe. I have the anger that rises when I see an "expert" who it is utterly apparent never sets foots in a classroom yet I also see someone who is not in the least non-plussed by that. Worth a New Year's Read.
Citation:
Daly, J. (2009, December 23). Reshaping Learning from the Ground Up | Edutopia. Edutopia. Blog, . Retrieved December 23, 2009, from http://neo.glef.org/future-school?page=7#.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Teacher in a Strange Land: Online Grading: Treat--or Trick?
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Teacher in a Strange Land: Online Grading: Treat--or Trick?
A fascinating alternate take on how assessment (or the appearance of such) is the tail that waggeth the digital dog. It also introduces the idea of parents who "creep on their progeny". Before you go creepin' on the ol' proj consider the following quoted from the article.
Points to consider:
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- Expecting parents to track their children's grades--and do something about low grades or missing assignments--shifts responsibility for learning and monitoring the grade to parents. And guess what? It's the student's job to do that, not Mommy's.
- When parents are suddenly hawking their gradebooks, teachers feel compelled to put lots of numbers in the book, proving that they're organized and soldiering away, assigning lots of homework and giving lots of grades. My principal sent us a memo suggesting that we add at least one new grade per week, it being worrisome when parents see that several days have gone by with no grading.
- Some of those grades represent formative assessment: constructive feedback to students in the process of learning to master a concept or skill. Formative assessment is supposed to be non-punitive--information that helps a student improve. If curriculum is appropriate--in the sweet spot where it challenges, but builds on prior learning--then formative assessment will show lots of room for growth. Try explaining that to one panicked parent at a time
- Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. (Einstein said that, not me.) An online gradebook converts all assessment data to numbers. Because it's...digital. Sometimes, kids need coaching or commentary, not a comparative percentage. Sometimes, it's OK to paint a pumpkin, just to see how it turns out. You don't have to grade everything, to make it real or valuable.
- When parents are suddenly hawking their gradebooks, teachers feel compelled to put lots of numbers in the book, proving that they're organized and soldiering away, assigning lots of homework and giving lots of grades. My principal sent us a memo suggesting that we add at least one new grade per week, it being worrisome when parents see that several days have gone by with no grading.
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Citation:
Flanagan, N. (2009, October 31). Teacher in a Strange Land: Online Grading: Treat--or Trick? Teacher in a Strange Land. Blog, . Retrieved December 15, 2009, from http://teacherleaders.typepad.com/teacher_in_a_strange_land/2009/10/online-grading-treator-trick.html.
Artistic Insubordination: Ethics at Work (not Work Ethic)
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Artistic Insubordination: Ethics at Work (not Work Ethic) «
- The mirror in a middle school girls’ restroom is rusted to the point that one can not see her reflection. The Principal recognizes that not being able to primp properly before class is making girls tardy to class and affecting their learning. She asks the janitorial staff to replace the mirror. The district has a policy that mirrors are not replaced unless they are broken. The Principal calls the district to confirm, and promptly breaks the mirror with a hammer in order to solve this problem.
- Creative or Artistic Insubordination emerged as a concept in the 1970s, according to Eric Pitts, a graduate student in Counseling at Western Carolina University, to do the most amount of good, while minimizing the repercussions from superiors.
- Already presented at international conferences, with a head nod from the Executive Director of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA), their goal is to legitimize Artistic Insubordination as an alternative to teachers (and others) who want to “do good” rather than just “do no harm” through their work. Kappan Journal will publish an article on their research as well
- Many, nearly all bureaucratic structures are perceived by the citizenry as rigid, inflexible and unaccommodating.
- it is recognized by those in public servant leadership positions as an effective means of accomplishing things quickly that would otherwise take months or years.
- No Child Left Behind and the attitude of some state legislatures and governors has made creative insubordination a regular part of staying afloat in teaching.
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My question here is this: are there more examples of this out there and how could teachers use this to change draconian filtering policies, for example? Just asking. Guerilla teaching for our students? This isn't just about sticking it to the man, it is also about rising above groupthink and 'insane' institutional imperatives. There have to be reasoned approaches to why we do what we do in school. If they are not reasoned, then they are fair game for ridicule, for challenge, and for artistic insubordination.
Here is the article: http://www.filesavr.com/hanneli2009insufficientquestioningphideltakappan91365-69
Citation: Hannel, I. (2009). Insufficient Questioning. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(3), 65-69.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Wii Therapy for Special Needs Students
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Wii Therapy for Special Needs Students
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The
Wii can be used in special needs classrooms to:
- help students with their hand/eye coordination
- encourage students with physical disabilities to move, providing much-needed circulation to their limbs
- enable students to take part in virtual sports such as baseball, bowling, volleyball, golf and tennis
- aid students in gaining balance and coordination through virtual dance programs
- increase/develop the ability to concentrate for a long period of time
- motivate students to achieve goals
- help with problem-solving, reasoning, and communication skills- - post by tellio
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Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
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