ISTE Series Features BYOD

The new ISTE series targeting online and hybrid learning features three books, which will be available in January 2014. The books help educators with design fundamentals, putting designs into action, and learning about trends and technologies.  Prices range from $73.40 for ISTE members to $104.85 for non-members. Individually, the books are $34.95. Topics covered include: aligning learning assessments to learning objectives, using practical tools with students, interpreting laws, using instructional strategies, using game-based theories of learning, managing large classes, making use of virtual worlds, and much more.

The Future for Teachers

Marc Prensky, best known for his advocacy of games in education, refers to the traditional curricular subjects—math, English, science, and social studies— as MESS.  In the future teachers, Prensky suggests, will be teaching “motivation, respect, empathy and passion” because, although technology can do a good job of teaching content, it doesn’t do so well with personal qualities.  Prensky calls educators today, the last pre-Internet generation and tells us that we need to prepare our students for the future by stressing “effective thinking, effective action, effective relationships, and effective accomplishment.” —And he believes we shouldn’t  “judge the new generation based upon our old ideas and beliefs.”

Tech and Curriculum Development

In a poll of readers of SmartBrief and EdTech, teachers were asked what types of resources they used when developing curriculum.  Over 80% of teachers responded that they used online resources for developing core subject courses. Textbooks were used about 15%, with software programs, coming in at 4%. Only about 5% of the teachers in the poll said they did not use online resources in curriculum development.

As for how teachers share what they do in curriculum development, most suggested in-person meetings over professional networks and social media.

 

Does Tech in Education Help Students Learn?

Carnegie Mellon University wants to know how educators can best use technology with their students, and to find out, the university has announced the Simon Initiative, called the “world’s largest database on student learning.” Researchers at Carnegie Mellon will use the data to find out what are actually the best practices in using technology in the classroom. Most educators are convinced that technology in classrooms works well in helping students learn. We see it every day in our schools; The Simon Project is designed to use a multitude of data to prove that we are right.

The project proposal has the following goals: “sharing rich data globally, helping teachers teach, acceleration innovation and scaling through start-up companies . . . .” This will be an interesting project to watch, since its outcomes will certainly be of use to all our schools, PK-college.

Curriculum First: Tech and the Web

On Monday, November 18^th, from 1 to 2 p.m. EST, Education Week will present the Webinar, “A Curriculum-First Approach to Technology and the Web”. The program will focus on Del Mar Union School District’s (San Diego) curriculum-implementation strategy and its use of Chromebooks for Education. If you are interested in this topic but cannot attend the Webinar, you can access “on demand” Webinars, which are archived on the Education Week site for up to four months from the streaming date.

EDUCADE: Lesson Plans & Teaching Tools

EDUCADE Beta is an online community designed to help you create what you want for your students and share your work with other educators. You’ll need to sign up to create lessons, resources, and materials, but it is free. You can search for lessons by subject, tool type, topic, and platform, or you can enter a keyword. Available lessons will be listed, along with a summary of each. Lessons include objectives, Common Core alignment, resources, 21^st Century skills, step-by-step guides, and more. As an example of what’s available at EDUCADE, take a look at the lesson featuring electrical engineering for Grades 4-9. It uses MaKey MaKey circuit board kits. Impressive.

Schoology for Learning Management & More

Schoology, a CODiE Award winner, helps teachers and administrators put easy-to-use tools to work to develop their own educational communities. The system encourages collaboration and integrates nicely with other platforms like Google Apps, Moodle, Blackboard, Turnitin, etc. It allows schools to put all content in one easily accessible place. edshelf reviews call it “Facebook-like in appearance and navigation” and an “unbelievable classroom tool”.  Schoology includes different levels of pricing and is free for basic management and administrative features. A limited admin plan is free for schools and includes privacy controls, word filters, and data import and export. Schools and districts interested in advanced management and administrative features should contact Schoology for pricing.  This program is getting a host of great reviews by teachers who use it.

Cell Phones, Browsing the Web, & eMail: Distractions for Teachers?

It’s difficult to fight the urge to check email, text messages, social networks, and/or app info on our cell phones, computers, and other digital devices. Although, schools often have rules against teachers making and answering personal calls while they are teaching, we all know it happens. Browsing the Web and checking personal or school email and messages are distractions we need to avoid while teaching. Some of us are so obsessed with checking our email and smart phones that this “need” interrupts lessons and takes time away from working with students. Administrators who suffer from these digital obsessions are often distracted from the running of their schools.

Peter DeWitt in his Education Week article, “Do You Check Your School E-Mail Too Much”, reminds us that if we read and respond to parent email when we receive it at home, on vacation, late at night or early in the morning, parents “will get the idea” that we are available all the time, “any day... any night”. Of course, sometimes it’s necessary to look and respond, but most of the time it’s better to resist.

 

Monster.com lists making too many personal calls and excessive Web browsing as two of the top ten ways to get fired from a teaching job.

Redesign the Human Body & Other Projects

Shawn Cornally, who helps run a competency-based high school in Iowa, appreciates “nucleators”. His “nucleators” are objects, ideas, or tasks that encourage students to take off with design. In his blog, Cornally discusses integrating design into subjects like social studies and biology.  Students might be charged with designing a utensil for eating spaghetti, printing their utensil on a 3D printer, and then living with it for a week. Some might think of ways to redesign the human body so that it will be more efficient in today’s world.  Cornally is “digging the idea of fundamental design quanta....”

Tough Teachers

The Wall Street Journal article, “Why Tough Teachers Get Good Results,” is an excellent piece for us to read and discuss. Over the years, there has been much discussion about exactly what motivates students and what ignites creativity. Janice Lipman, the article’s author, suggests that maybe we aren’t where we should be in education because of teaching methods that follow “the kinder, gentler philosophy that has dominated American education over the past few decades. The conventional wisdom holds that teachers are supposed to tease knowledge out of students, rather than pound it into their heads.” Lipman backs up her call for stricter discipline and unyielding demands with research and with her eight-part manifesto: “1. A little pain is good for you. 2. Drill baby, drill. 3. Failure is an option. 4. Strict is better than nice. 5. Creativity can be learned. 6. Grit trumps talent. 7. Praise makes you weak. 8. ....while stress makes you strong.”

Lipman says that one of her toughest teachers taught students how to fail and how to get themselves up and going once more.

What do you think? Is it an either or—nice or tough?