Category: Uncategorized

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Makerspace at your school?

Did you know that 1,000 high schools across the country will open “Makerspaces” in the next four years? If you don’t know what that is, check out Lasers, 3-D Printers, And Robots: The New Shop Class.

The project, an offshoot of O’Reilly Media’s popular Maker Faires and co-sponsored by a grant from DARPA, is described as “sort of a mashup of a shop class, a computer lab, an art class, and maybe a bio lab.” The project’s goal is to get more kids more interested in STEM fields by giving them more opportunities to get their hands dirty.

Do you have a Makerspace in your school?

Sylvia

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Easy Does It? Not Always…

Emerging research suggests that, contrary to what students may think, material that’s easy to understand is not always easy to learn—and working harder can help them hold on to what they’ve learned.

This Education Week article summarizes several research studies on “stability bias” – where people confuse things that are easy to process with things that are easy to remember.

The stability bias works both ways: Not only do students give too little credit to effective study strategies that feel more difficult, but they can give more weight to ineffective strategies that make content feel easier to learn.

Frustration in students is a sign of learning, not a sign that the material is too hard or the teacher should “simplify” things for students.

Sylvia

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Announcing the Wolfram Education Portal

From the press release:

Wolfram Offers Next Innovation in Education Technology with Wolfram Education Portal

Champaign, Illinois–January 18, 2012–Wolfram today announced the launch of the Wolfram Education Portal, providing teachers and students alike with a new way to integrate technology into learning.

The Wolfram Education Portal, available at education.wolfram.com, comes equipped with dynamic teaching tools and materials such as an interactive textbook, lesson plans aligned to the common core standards, and many other supplemental materials for courses, including Demonstrations, widgets, and videos, all built by Wolfram education experts.

“Wolfram has long been a trusted name in education, as the creators of Mathematica, Wolfram|Alpha, and the Wolfram Demonstrations Project,” says Crystal Fantry, Senior Education Specialist at Wolfram. “We have created some of the most dynamic teaching and learning tools available, and the Wolfram Education Portal offers the best of all of these technologies to teachers and students in one place.”

The Education Portal, currently in Beta, contains full materials for Algebra and partial materials for Calculus, but will continue to grow and improve. Wolfram plans to expand the Education Portal to include community features, problem generators, web-based course apps, and the ability to create personalized content.

Wolfram developed the interactive textbook by working with the CK-12 Foundation, a nonprofit organization with the mission to produce free and open-source K-12 materials aligned to state curriculum standards and customized to meet student and teacher needs. The available Algebra textbook takes CK-12’s Algebra I FlexBook and makes it dynamic with Wolfram technologies, including Wolfram|Alpha widgets, Wolfram|Alpha links, interactive Demonstrations created in Mathematica, and the Computable Document Format (CDF).

Sample widget

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Will these new tech supplies get used? Yes!

Many times in schools technology supplies are purchased – then sit in closets unused. Why the waste? They were purchased with all good intentions, but no one at the school really has the time or inclination to put the plan into action!

But here’s the antidote…

TechYES/GenYES program receives new supplies (News from Stillwater CSD)

Students with new supplies“December 8, 2011 – Mrs. McBride’s TechYES/GenYES students will be able to help improve technology throughout the district even more, thanks to a new donation of supplies.

The class received a new video camera, web cam, business card stock, t-shirt iron-on paper and laminator from Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery County BOCES. A special thank you to Todd DeSoto, who presented the class with the new supplies.

The students are currently planning projects to utilize the new tools.”

I guarantee this – these will not go to waste. How do I know? Because these TechYES and GenYES students have been taught to help teachers and their peers use technology in every classroom, and they take their jobs seriously!

Why not put the energy, passion, and enthusiasm of your students to use in your school. TechYES and GenYES are tried and true models of real student engagement and leadership, ready for all schools to adapt and hit the ground running. Online tools, professional development, and curriculum give you everything you need for one school, a district, or a whole state!

Generation YES supports all our schools with commitment, pride, and passion – we would love to work with you!

Sylvia

PS Want something different? Check out our projects website for some ideas for large scale grants and unique technology implementations that focus on student leadership.

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Point/Counterpoint: Is the digital native a myth?

In Learning & Leading (ISTE’s magazine) this month – Point/Counterpoint: Is the digital native a myth? featuring ME in a “debate” with Marc Prensky, the most famous source of the terms “digital native” and “digital immigrant”.

I argue that indeed, both these terms are myths, and damaging ones at that. Marc counters. But considering that neither of us actually saw the other person’s argument, the “point/counterpoint” isn’t really there. It would have been interesting to have more back and forth, but that’s the limit of print, I guess.

Here’s how I kicked it off –

Digital native and digital immigrant are catchy phrases, no doubt. The slogans capture the ease with which young people accept technology that baffles many adults. But the observation that children appear more comfortable with digital devices offers little insight into how computing can actually transform the learning process. Catchy phrases should never be confused with guiding principles for education.

If the intent behind the cliché was to inspire adults to develop new fluencies and respect the competence of young people, the result has been the opposite. These terms imply a generational divide that has resulted in educators throwing in the towel.

Read the rest, and Marc Prensky’s counterpoint!

Sylvia

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Kid Power

Kid PowerKid Power: The Oak Hills Local School District’s eKIDs program reverses traditional student/teacher roles in the pursuit of technology knowledge.

We love to see our schools get the recognition they deserve!

“When I heard about the program, I wanted to do it,” says Allie Schaefer, a Bridgetown seventh-grader who joined eKIDs in August, at the start of the 2011–2012 school year. “Usually, teachers teach kids. But with eKIDs, the kids teach the teachers. That’s pretty cool.”

Read more >>

Sylvia

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In Praise of Tinkering – Time magazine online

Time Magazine online : In Praise of Tinkering: How the decline in technical know-how is making us think less

Annie Murphy Paul has written an opinion piece about how tinkering is essential to learning – and I’m quoted! How cool is that?

“If we want more young people to choose a profession in one of the group of crucial fields known as STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — we ought to start cultivating these interests and skills early. But the way to do so may not be the kind of highly structured and directed instruction that we usually associate with these subjects. Instead, some educators have begun taking seriously an activity often dismissed as a waste of time: tinkering. Tinkering is the polar opposite of the test-driven, results-oriented approach of No Child Left Behind: it involves a loose process of trying things out, seeing what happens, reflecting and evaluating, and trying again. As Sylvia Martinez, a learning expert who spoke about the value of tinkering at a meeting of the National Council of Women in Information Technology earlier this year, puts it: “Tinkering is the way that real science happens, in all its messy glory.””

Paul, the author of Origins: How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives is at work on a book about the science of learning

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Cybersafety – do fear and exaggeration increase risk?

Larry Magid, co-director of Connect Safely.org has created a very effective slideshare about how exaggerating the risk of being online actually increases the real risk.

This is perfect for a back to school presentation – it is clear, jargon-free, and aimed at parents.

Do fear and exaggeration increase risk?

View more presentations from Larry Magid
Be sure to view this slideshow all the way to the end, where Larry gives examples of “positive norming” as an alternative to fear-based messages about cybersafety and cyberbullying. Positive norming is when facts are presented about what most people do – and most people do not bully or engage in risky online behavior. Focusing on behavior that is NOT the norm makes it seem like it’s more prevalent than it actually is.
As Larry points out:
  • People, especially youth, can benefit from positive images and role models
  • Creating a culture of respect actually can lead to respect
  • Respectful behavior truly is normal. Most kids do not bully

Sylvia

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TECHSETS – A great school tech support resource

TECHSETS is a great website and set of resources for school-based technology support folks in California. But thanks to the magic of the Interwebs, it’s available to all!

Looking for any of these?

  • Sample technology division org charts, job descriptions, and job description builder
  • Tech plan builder
  • Training and staffing ideas
  • Training skills matrix
  • K-12 ed tech planning and deployment guides
  • How to include students in tech support (we helped with this!)
  • Planning and funding guides
  • Grants and Job Board
  • Daily news feed customized for IT and tech support in schools

A few of these resources are specific for California, but some of them might be just what you need.

Enjoy!

Sylvia

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The flipped classroom – join us for a free webinar

Scott McLeod of CASTLE is hosting a free webinar on the ‘flipped classroom.’

Despite its now-famous Dan-Pink-sponsored affiliation with our esteemed colleague, Karl Fisch, is the ‘flipped classroom’ a true innovation or just a new label on the old stale wine of lectures? Is it something we should be encouraging or discouraging? If it has benefits, are they worth the accompanying drawbacks? Please join us for a lively, 1-hour online discussion about the ‘flipped classroom.’

WHEN: June 15, 2:00pm to 3:00pm Central Standard Time (Chicago).

WHERE: https://connect.extension.iastate.edu/flippedclassroom [enter as a guest]

WHO: An all-star lineup of educators who have been writing and thinking about this topic lately!

What do I think about the “flipped” classroom? I wrote a bit about it in my series on Khan Academy.

Hope to see you there!