I found this sketch and thought it listed all the "buzz" words that describe a 21st Century student. It scares me to think that our philosophy of education is taking a turn and our system is not keeping up. The catch phrase will not be "No Child Left Behind" but "WHO" will be left behind? Learning communities who do not catch the vision will not be able to compete. I think the sentence that sums up the whole article is "the best thing we can teach our children is how to teach themselves." It is the same as the Chinese Proverb that states, "Give a man a fish and he won't be hungry for the day, TEACH a man HOW to fish and he won't go hungry for life." I think it is imperative we engage our students in how to suceed in real life and technology is part of that.
Assignments
• Day 1
Read the Horizon Report (2008).
Post a blog on what technological trend you feel will become most prevalent in K12 learning within 5 years and why.
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 2
Please watch both of the Sir Ken Robinson videos linked below. Then post two slides on the shared presentation: 1) one way schools kill creativity, and 2) one way schools foster creativity.
Do schools kill creativity?
Creatively Speaking
• Day 4
Assignment 1 - Wikipedia - see post below.
Assignment 2 - Colliding Forces - see post below.
• Day 5 and Day 6
Live Broadcast - post a response to the blog below on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Day 7 and Day 8 - Surprise.....
Your assignment is optional - you will receive credit whether you email me yes or no, but you do have to email me. I do not believe in zeros, nor in failure as an option. However, you get what you put in, so I encourage you to say yes....;-)
If you email me yes, here's what you are committing to. Give me your email address at work, what grade level or content area you teach, whether you are an administrator, whatever. What school you are at and a short resume/introduction of yourself. I will leave your name and contact anonymous until I find another teacher/educator/administrator in PVUSD who might like to work with you on REACH, and in turn you with them. I will make an intitial email introduction of each of you to the other - from there, you are on your own to put into practice the communication, collaboration and creativity of 21st century teaching and learning, using information technology to bridge time and space constraints.
REACH (Real Experiences Advancing Childhood Humanities) is an initiative our district is implementing with other educators/administrators outside of our walls. We are connecting students/teachers/administrators, from differing classrooms, differing schools, cities, states, countries, using technology to communicate/collaborate/create in whatever ways possible and appropriate to postively impact student learning - totally up to you and your PVUSD counterpart on what you think would be useful - how big, how small, how deep, how thin, is up to you.
It does not have to be high tech, with tons of technology - in fact, the technology is not the point - learning with and about others is, being creative and taking a risk is the experience. One simple internet connection and a Google account can do wonders (you should now know that), to connect students, teachers, administrators, whatever. I suspect your kids, your school will be richer for the adventure and you will cross into something I believe is profound and necessary in education - REACH'ing beyond the walls......
So, if you want to REACH, give me the details and I will personally try to connect you with an appropriate counterpart. Then, you have the opportunity to extend your coursework learning into actual practice - the point of taking a class. Email me yay with details, or nay. What I wish for you is to REACH beyond this ASU class, throw optimism into the wind and see what emerges in your participatory networking experience.
Jeff......
Read the Horizon Report (2008).
Post a blog on what technological trend you feel will become most prevalent in K12 learning within 5 years and why.
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 2
Please watch both of the Sir Ken Robinson videos linked below. Then post two slides on the shared presentation: 1) one way schools kill creativity, and 2) one way schools foster creativity.
Do schools kill creativity?
Creatively Speaking
(see Rules of Engagement)
• Day 3
Assignment 1 - See Blog entry on Web 2.0 Directory below for instructions.
Assignment 2 - See Blog entry on P21 Skills below for instructions.
• Day 3
Assignment 1 - See Blog entry on Web 2.0 Directory below for instructions.
Assignment 2 - See Blog entry on P21 Skills below for instructions.
• Day 4
Assignment 1 - Wikipedia - see post below.
Assignment 2 - Colliding Forces - see post below.
• Day 5 and Day 6
Live Broadcast - post a response to the blog below on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)
• Day 7 and Day 8 - Surprise.....
Your assignment is optional - you will receive credit whether you email me yes or no, but you do have to email me. I do not believe in zeros, nor in failure as an option. However, you get what you put in, so I encourage you to say yes....;-)
If you email me yes, here's what you are committing to. Give me your email address at work, what grade level or content area you teach, whether you are an administrator, whatever. What school you are at and a short resume/introduction of yourself. I will leave your name and contact anonymous until I find another teacher/educator/administrator in PVUSD who might like to work with you on REACH, and in turn you with them. I will make an intitial email introduction of each of you to the other - from there, you are on your own to put into practice the communication, collaboration and creativity of 21st century teaching and learning, using information technology to bridge time and space constraints.
REACH (Real Experiences Advancing Childhood Humanities) is an initiative our district is implementing with other educators/administrators outside of our walls. We are connecting students/teachers/administrators, from differing classrooms, differing schools, cities, states, countries, using technology to communicate/collaborate/create in whatever ways possible and appropriate to postively impact student learning - totally up to you and your PVUSD counterpart on what you think would be useful - how big, how small, how deep, how thin, is up to you.
It does not have to be high tech, with tons of technology - in fact, the technology is not the point - learning with and about others is, being creative and taking a risk is the experience. One simple internet connection and a Google account can do wonders (you should now know that), to connect students, teachers, administrators, whatever. I suspect your kids, your school will be richer for the adventure and you will cross into something I believe is profound and necessary in education - REACH'ing beyond the walls......
So, if you want to REACH, give me the details and I will personally try to connect you with an appropriate counterpart. Then, you have the opportunity to extend your coursework learning into actual practice - the point of taking a class. Email me yay with details, or nay. What I wish for you is to REACH beyond this ASU class, throw optimism into the wind and see what emerges in your participatory networking experience.
Jeff......
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2 comments:
What a powerful statement, "The best thing we can teach our children is how to teach themselves". I believe this statement sums up what good teaching really is. It's not teaching Algebra, it's teaching students how to learn about Algebra and why, then how to teach themselves. It's not teaching them how to write well, but how to learn the process of writing well and why. Life-long learning, the joy of learning, and why in today's globalization we not only need to know how to compete, but more importantly how to collaborate will yield omnipotent citizenship (global and otherwise). Practices of leveraging the internet and information technology, for collective wisdom, mash-ups, and access to anything appropriate, any time, anywhere for any reason will generate participatory communities of learning and life - like Socrates in the 21st century.
The topic of who will/might be left behind, is a troubling one - always has been in education, learning and societies. I am hopeful that the ubiquitous nature of technology will minimize elitist tendencies. Movements such as Open Education Resources, Open University and Web 2.0 might just do it.
I agree with both Paula and Jeff, we should be teaching our kids "how to learn" unfortunately I think that most teachers feel that they cannot do that, as they are restricted (with so much emphasis on "teaching to the test" and yes, even I have encouraged this type of behavior - out of fear of not making federal madates or requirements). I also think that it requires more skill to teach someone how to learn and to be patient with them than it does to just do it for them or provide hoops for them to jump through.
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