Effective technology integration is achieved when its use supports curricular goals. It must support four key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. Edutopia, 2012 What strikes me most about the video above from Edutopia, is that it posits that technology is just a tool - one of the many we have our disposal and that our responsibility as educators is to use "whatever resources [we] have to the best of [our] abilities". I am lucky enough in that I have at my disposal: experience of working in a 1:1 environment for two years an ever-increasing knowledge about educational technology and how it might best integrate into the classroom stemming both from my experience but also from the learning I do to feed the burning desire to understand how best to use this growing tool a supportive school that encourages us to take risks and try new ways of...
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THIS INSTALLMENT OF SCHOOLS THAT WORK WAS PRODUCED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE DIGITAL LEARNING GROUP . © 2011 | THE GEORGE LUCAS EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Finding a Balance Assessment for me has two sides: what learners need to learn based on tests or exams and the skills that are equally important though less explicit in exam-terms. Whilst these should balance, there is a dichotomy at play. Stiggens, R. & Chappius, J. (2006) differentiate between assessment OF learning , which maps onto the first point above, and is assessment for grading, reporting and accountability purposes; and assessment FOR learning , which is more the latter point, and helps students learn and become engaged in self improvement. Both are important, though too often, stakeholders want results from external exams and this can often be at the expense of real learning. Life-long Learning Assessment is not an end in itself but a vehicle for educa...
Google Alerts and Your Organization's Digital Reputation What you need to know about social media.
In response to the discussion about "Solving an Instructional Problem through Technology?", I chose Smith-Vance's paper: 'Improving Vocabulary Fluency and Comprehension using Student Created Interactive Dictionaries' (Stone, 2011, pp. 128-144) because the acquisition, understanding and use of new vocabulary is a perennial issue for all learners and particularly those with English as an additional language (EAL). As an English teacher, I am constantly evaluating the merits of new technologies and applications to see if technology can offer a relative advantage over older methods (Roblyer and Doering, 2013). In the past I have used word banks, learners have created shared multilingual dictionaries, I have a word wall of laminated sheets organised by letter that learners are encouraged to add to, I have used Word Dynamo and Snappy Words and I often speak to other-language teachers to see if their methods can help. What I find is that the assimilation of new voc...
English Language Arts teachers are constantly fighting the battle to instil habits of reading and writing into learners who have so many other options of how to spend their leisure time. Exacerbated by the influx and availability of technology incessantly at the fingertips of many of today’s learners, it is becoming even harder to lure them towards print. When much of today’s youth inhabit an interactive multimedia-rich environment, its no wonder the printed page appears somewhat cold, lifeless and unappealing in comparison. Weil (1997) suggests that learners are “natives in a place that most adults are immigrants” and to foster a culture of reading and writing for these “digital natives” (Prensky, 2006), we need to move our thinking about reading, writing, literacy and books beyond the traditions of the printed page to engage and motivate our learners to read in a way that looks recognisable to them. Educators need to explore the future of fiction. This paper explores the educationa...