March+Videos

March Videos

Eight Shifts For Every Curriculum Will Richardson, Powerful Learning Practice This session began with a provocative quote by Stephen Downes ([]) “We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that **an education is something that we create for ourselves.”** Richardson told the story of Mark Klassen, the same young man he featured in //Personal Learning Network.// Klassen exemplifies how education is changing. He aspires to be a cinematographer and is doing so by using online networks.

Audience discussion: What do we conceive as learning? Learning is new ideas, applying knowledge, willingness to make mistakes, ah ha moments, etc. None of this is/can be assessed. “Productive learning is the learning process, which engenders and reinforces **wanting to learn more.** Absent wanting to learn, the learning context is unproductive or counterproductive.” Seymour Sarason //And What Do YOU Mean by Learning?// Learning outside the school day has changed, but our schools have not. (Mobile. Networked. Global. Collaborative. Self-directed. Inquiry based. On demand. Transparent. Lifelong. Personalized. Creative. Open.)

Richardson then discussed the shifts he sees occurring today: 1) Do Talk to Strangers. Richardson says 98% of his learning network is made up with strangers. You can learn a great deal from those outside your immediate circle. We need to practice that and teach students how to do that safely. 3) Collaborate with others. Share your materials with others. (e.g. Slideshare has countless materials that are free and can help teachers.) 4) Managing information: “21st Century readers and writers need to be able to ‘manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information.’” Richardson contends that students are illiterate when they graduate because this is not taught. We need to learn how to filter information and manage it. He recommended Evernote, his ‘storehouse’ of information. 5) Be a Crap Detector with Attention Literacy. Who should we trust and how do we determine authority? (Klout and Tweet examples were discussed in the discussion of determining why we need to become our own authority on subjects and question their truthfulness.) Focus and limit time on assignments. 6) Follow Your Passions. People online are great avenues for learning more about our interests/passions and teachers can bring that back to their students. (Mockingjay webpage was created by three students who did not know each other but loved the book.) 7) Learn to Learn. “In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” Eric Hoffer [Richardson says today’s school assessments test what is in students’ heads, rather than if they know how to learn.] Consider the concept of Khan Academy. Content is everywhere. The question is, **Are we creating learners? The reality of the moment is that our students are/should be the best at choosing the teacher that is right for them.** 8) Solve Problems … Quietly and Creatively. Our testing seeks an answer, not how to collaboratively solve problems. Our problem: How can we change schools? How do we make learning?

Recommended reading: the National Education Technology Plan draft //Learning Powered by Technology.//

http://itechspec.wikispaces.com/ All+Things+Google Anita Harris, along with two other panelists, is part of a technology consortium that collaborates regularly, advocating for technology. John Hendron & Bea Cantor (Goochland County Public School), (the other panelists) have been using Google since 2005. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Google is now widely recognized as the world’s largest search engine – a free service ….”
 * Google Apps for Learning, Teaching, and Productivity ( ** Anita Harris and John Hendron, Bea Cantor)

Hendon briefly discussed some of the Google services: Search, Desktop Search, Ads, Gmail, Google Earth, Google News, Google Enterprise. Newer ones include Google Apps, Google Instant (they own YouTube). He went on to discuss **Google Goodies:** Google Book Search, Google Maps, Google Search Options, Google News & Archive, Google Squared, Google Reader, Google Insights, Google Trends, Google Mobile Search, and Google Apps for Education which included Deployment for Teachers and Deployment for Students.

Some of the new ones that Hendron and Cantor also summarized follow: ([] for searching books, track reading [] - current road conditions/traffic, individuals can add place marks and personalize maps which is ideal for students to collaborate on a project (public or private projects)  [] - options to search by (real) time, media, blogs/social networks (could investigate personal perspectives), and videos/images. This allows the user to back in time as well. Investigate the sidebar for all the possible things that can be search. Incredible search options!!! Regarding Google images, teachers must teach citizenship about using Google images.  [] - Note that no human had any part in gathering this information. (A nice feature – the RSS feed can be bookmarked to check if there are any updates to a subject.)  [] - Google Squared is a great tool/**launching pad** to do comparisons, beginning research on a new topic, and validating your data. (E.g. Compare prices of cameras before buying one. Select three national parks and report on them). Results can be exported to create a spreadsheet. Once students have data, the information can be used for doing higher order learning. [] - message transcription, recorded calls, one phone number will ring multiple numbers, voice mail (sometimes garbled) with a log of calls. This may not be appropriate to provide students with this. [] - This provides a quick visual aid to start conversation in the classroom and where in the world topics are important and predict (e.g. flu outbreaks). (Inquiry based learning).

Check out Mindsets for the 21st Century: Unleasing Leadership Potential in Students (mentioned during chat).