l discussions on this CR 2.0 forum as well about technology curricula for schools.)
So, what should kids aged 10-14 be taught by way of technology apps/tools in schools?
I think the question is better answered if we rephrase it to - What skills can kids aged 10-14 develop through technology apps/tools? In my view the 4Cs provide an excellent guideline to develop the curriculum -
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity &
Critical Thinking
I’d like to preface my list of candidates tools and/or specific applications that could be considered, by underscoring the need for embedding the learning of specific technology tools in authentic tasks and integrating it in projects/assignments/artifacts that are part of the curriculum of core subjects such as Science, Language Arts, Maths and Social Studies. Technology taught stand-alone as a separate “subject” is neither necessary nor beneficial. The idea that technology is a “tool” can only be impressed on students when it is taught as a tool to achieve a larger purpose.
The other thought that I’d like to voice for consideration is the need to include elements of computer science rather than simply restricting the Technology/Computer Studies curriculum to the learning of software applications. This would mean exposure to the ideas of algorithms, data structures and data management. Programming is of course an important part of this, but programming alone is a narrower goal that does not cover all the elements of computer science that children could get exposure to, even at an early age. Such instruction may have to be cleverly designed and appropriately disguised (a la Randy Pausch’s “head fake”) so that kids have fun learning relatively difficult concepts.
Enough rambling, and on to specific themes/tools... (Note that there are free alternatives to almost all proprietary ones that I mention here). I will try and organize this into a table at some point.
Google Docs, Sites (Communication, Collaboration)
Blogging & Podcasting (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity)
Wikis (Communication, Collaboration)
Publishing - Publisher (Communication, Creativity)
Photo/Video uploading & sharing ((Visual) Communication, Collaboration)
Audio Editing- Audacity (Communication, Creativity)
Image Editing - Photoshop, Fireworks (Communication, Creativity)
Movie making/Digital Story Telling - Movie Maker, PhotoStory, iMovie (Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking)
Concept-Mapping - CMap, FreeMind, Inspiration, many others (Critical Thinking)
Presentation tools - Powerpoint, Google Presentations, Slide Share (Communication, Collaboration)
Programming - LOGO, Star LOGO, Scratch, Squeak, Drape, Alice, Visual Basic/C++, C, (Critical Thinking, Creativity)
Web Design, including HTML (Collaboration, Creativity)
3-D Modeling - Google SketchUp (along with Google Earth) (Creativity, Critical Thinking)
Game Creation - Game Maker, Scratch, Squeak (Creativity, Critical Thinking)
Animation - Flash (Creativity)
Spreadsheets - Google Spreadsheets, Open Office or Excel (Critical Thinking)
Databases & Information Organization - Access, SQL Server (Critical Thinking)
I think this is a fairly exhaustive list. These tools can be taught at the appropriate grade level and even in multiple grades through some sort of a spiral curriculum (building on basic skills taught in an earlier grade).
I'd love to get your feedback and thoughts on this...Thanks!
[Cross-posted on Education Musings]…
Ok, so if you were in my presentation Project Based Learning: Portals into the 21st Century, you know that we barely scratched the surface in the information. Congratulations for being a…
ser/besmartonair/live Let's get started with Edu Hangouts Help , Live, of course! Both me and+Jennifer Scheffer are convinced that #Hangouts - especially live#HangoutsOnAir - can become a game changer in education. We figured we could make all the stupid mistakes On Air so that you guys can skip them :) On top of that, we might be able to offer some guidance and perhaps answer a question or two as well about Hanging Out Live. The Questions & Answers app is already loaded so you can hit the big 'Play' button in the main video window and type in a question! We'll do our best to pick some of those (if we get any, that is..) As usual, it might be a good idea to take a look at the Happy Hangouts Check List at http://bit.ly/HappyHangouts and we will most probably also, later on, dig deeper in some of the topics in this doc. Show hosts: plus.google.com/+NiiloAlhovaara plus.google.com/+JenniferScheffer See you On Air!…
's a very general description of what we're doing made to fit within the 1000 character limit we were given.
The six of us have been doing a lot of research and user studies-talking to teachers, students, and parents to see where their values lie and what types of software would be most helpful to them. To add to that, we have an engineering bias which has been reinforced by much of the reading we've been doing on technology in education. This results in a very strong belief on our part that students need to have the technology that they use in their daily lives integrated with the learning environment that they are in. Thus, we would be doing two main things. We would incorporate technology into the learning environment by
1. acting as an aggregator that would bring some very useful web tools to the fingertips of students (things like google docs, digg, and wordpress blogging)
2. giving students a different medium (one that they likely already use in their daily lives) to actively (even passively) learn in.
3. giving teachers a simple and intuitive way to integrate this technology into their assignments
We would also be serving as a platform to increase and enhance communication between teachers, students, and parents. For students, in addition to keeping their schoolwork and study aids/information all in one place online, this would act as a social network in which students, teachers, and parents would be able to communicate. We understand that there are many security concerns with something like this, and we are in the process of addressing exactly how those interactions would need to occur so that security would not be an issue.
We've come up with a lot of ways to do this thus far, and right now we're in a stage where we're further defining ourselves and getting ready to throw out some designs of a few of the core features we expect to have. Keep in mind that all of these features and designs will be tested against the teachers, parents, students, and administrators at a few schools that have agreed to help us out with this project. We're still in a stage where we're very open to feedback and adjustments in our direction.
For a much shorter description, think blackboard/moodle, only
a. web-based so that individual teachers can sign up and use the site,
b. web 2.0 so that the site looks cleaner and is more intuitive - somewhere people /want/ to go when they're online
c. a different slant (which I've explained above), where we don't try to do everything and anything as blackboard does. We want to start out by doing just a few things, and do them well.
I'd love to have a conversation with you about this if you're still interested in the finer details of the project. More advice is always welcome!…
Added by Alyshia Olsen at 12:35pm on December 30, 2008
sons I dislike broad purchases of IWBs for schools is that many teachers are stuck in a one way transmission style of teaching (PowerPoints, worksheets, read these pages). For them to be better teachers, not just better users of IWBs, they need to change their entire pedagogical style. This is especially challenging for entrenched teachers, and even new teachers who are used to the "see the PowerPoint, read the article, write the paper" style of teaching prominent among college professors.
I was fortunate to have a professor in one of my programs who helped me get away from this model and some other bad habits early in my teaching career. He pointed out that just because you did a neat activity with students didn't mean it actually helped them learn. The activity needed to have purpose. During the course, I'd show him some things that I'd taught the previous year and he'd comment "...bells and whistles Mike, bells and whistles." I've carried this statement with me throughout my teaching career and think about it anytime I have a new idea. With this in mind, I offer my rebuttal to your 3 points above.
1. Great activity, but the same thing could be accomplished with any rear projection system, iboard or not. It could also be accomplished with an old fashioned overhead projector. One could also put the computer image on a tv screen with a wiimote setup for the tracing. The IWB just adds some bells and whistles.
2. Doesn't dragging the corner of a picture make it bigger or smaller the same as swiping two fingers does? If I want to scroll down a page, can't I just use the scroll bar? If that isn't good enough for you, there is an iphone/itouch app out that lets you control your computer screen with the device. Multi-touch for $200 instead of $2000. (Wiimotes do multitouch too, though I agree it wouldn't be practical.
3. Why not have students work on individual computers to collaborate on a project. You could buy 10 netbooks for the price of a single IWB, use Voicethread (free), google docs education edition (free), or make podcasts (free) and have 10 students work on a single project at the same time - together. Examples here, here, here, and here.…
ste instituto ellos analizadon diez idiomas, el ingles, francés, español, aleman, portugués, coreano, chino, ruso, Indones, y Arabe para describir cual lenguaje se escuchaba mas positiva. De este los estudios resultados que el español mexicano es mas positiva o mas feliz de los otros lenguajes que ellos usaron para el estudio. ellos se dedicaron por viendo el comunicación de textos en GoogleBook, Twitter, New York Times, Google WebCrawl, letras de canciones, y hasta los subtítulos de películas. los que han quedado en segundo fue el portugueses y por ultimo el ingles. este resultado fue en favor al español mexicano porque era mas fácil de aprender, mas frecuente, tiene mas significado y que tiene una forma diversificada.
Para mi yo creo que esto es cierto porque aquí en los Estados Unidos el español de México se puede ver en el sur del país y mucha gente de hablante ingles dicen las palabras que ellos escuchan de los hablantes quien habla el español. estos palabras fáciles se les queda en los hablantes de ingles y eso convierte a los Estados Unidos como un país de dos idiomas el ingles y el español. También esto ocurre porque mucha gente de hablantes español viene mas de México. Yo como mexicano también me doy cuente que el español mexicano es un idioma muy chistosa un una buena manera porque el léxico del español mexicano suenan para mi mas fácil de decir y de entender su significado. Cuando yo fui en Mexico todo la gente se hablaban en manera positiva y también usaban palabras que se me escucho como algunas palabras del ingles.
http://mexico.cnn.com/salud/2015/02/19/el-espanol-de-mexico-el-lenguaje-mas-feliz-del-mundo-segun-un-estudio…
ne-Leo-Teaching-and-Learning-Across-the-Globe
Emerging technologies are enabling exciting and innovative ways to connect, collaborate and create with others across the world. Anne Mirtschin, a secondary teacher of a small rural prep to year 12 school in, Hawkesdale, Australia and Lorraine Leo a primary teacher in a larger school in Boston, USA met on Classroom2.0 and shared each a passion for global education and immersing technology in the classroom.
Their classes have been able to connect successfully in both synchronous and asynchronous times. A variety of tools have been used for connecting and collaborating. From simple emailing of images for classroom use, collaborative voicethreads, google docs, videoconferencing etc through to the empowering virtual classroom (DiscoverE and Blackboard Collaborate) where students have shared festivals, their passions, location etc in real time. These virtual classrooms have included a blend of different age groups, from 5 to 86 year olds, a mix of educational tiers eg students, teachers, university professors, research scientists, pre-service teachers and a mix of participants from up to five continents in the one e-classroom.
Read the chapter to discover more about this four year old friendship and the way it has impacted on their classrooms and learning within and beyond those classrooms.
Do you see this as a typical classroom of the future and something that can be achieved by many? Have you used similar or different tools for connecting and collaborating on a global scale? Do you have experiences to share with us. How important do you see global education to be? How can innovative use of technology empower learning further?…
K-12 Educators, Administrators
Short Session Description(one line): Learn how Web2.0 technology is completely changing the learning spaces of the traditional, physical classroom - virtual, global, digital.
Full Session Description:
Technology is changing learning spaces. They are becoming virtual, global, 24/7 and mobile. The ‘cloud’ enables learning that can be more relevant and engaging for our digital students.
This session will look at some of these changing spaces. Classroom stories will be shared, illustrating how technology can be used to bring in experts, global students and educationalists to the physical and virtual classroom. These stories include lunchtime classes with an author from New York, students from Malaysia and USA learning together in the one virtual classroom and the magic of web conferencing/videoconferencing for classroom purposes. The hardware required, web2.0 tools used and the steps and procedures required will also be discussed.
Websites / URLs Associated with Your Session:A short youtube clip summarizing my classroom.My blog, globalstorytelling
Here is the link to my presentation (note this is a similar one to the one that I prepared, but the actual one did not load into Blackboard Collaborate correctly, so this existing presentation on slide share was app shared.The google doc with site links etc referenced to in the presentation. It has a section for any questions that you might have, or just add your comments or questions below. Thanks
…
This is my assignment for posting to an educational blog. I chose to write about my thoughts, ideas, and issues presented and discussed in this course, “Online Communication and Collaboration in the…
Added by Deb Morton at 10:27am on December 8, 2009