The following ===> infographic <=== covers the topic of social media and how it affects our content.
Would you imagine how social networking would be if there were no websites in the calibre of Stumble Upon, Twitter, Reddit, Digg, and Facebook ? I don't think we will have the same easy and instant access to the information as we do now.
We should be so thankful to those people behind the creation of such tools especially when we measure their importance and benefit in education.
The needs of the twenty-first century demand new approaches to learning. Today, student success requires skills for collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and problem solving, and these skills are increasingly becoming a focus in both K-12 and higher education settings. But twenty-first century learning needs to be much more if we are to expect young people to both navigate an unknown and complex future and meet the challenges that accompany it.
We need change-makers, people who will redefine problems, inspire new ideas, take informed risks, and never stop learning. Change-makers implement and evolve solutions that aim to better the individual and the whole, be it a classroom, a school, a community, or a society. This is the approach of a designer and the focus of this publication.
Design touches all aspects of our world. As this publication shows, designers work to impact the human experience, and they generally do this with particular mindsets that encourage looking at challenges as opportunities for design. Four mindsets typically guide the behavior of a designer: human-centered, collaborative, optimistic, and experimental. Designers also often act in a particular way, following a process that helps them generate and evolve ideas, beginning with problem-defining and empathy, using synthesis and prototyping to develop strategic ideas, and ending with implementation.
Taken together, how designers think and act make for design thinking, a human-centered approach to creative thinking and problem solving. Thinking and acting as a designer and, in turn, employing design thinking are powerful ways to encourage people to become change-makers in education.
"Taken together, how designers think and act make for design thinking, a human-centered approach to creative thinking and problem solving. Thinking and acting as a designer and, in turn, employing design thinking are powerful ways to encourage people to become change-makers in education." (WISE - IDEO, 2017)
Taken together, how designers think and act make for design thinking, a human-centered approach to creative thinking and problem solving. Thinking and acting as a designer and, in turn, employing design thinking are powerful ways to encourage people to become change-makers in education.
Most educational leaders believe adaptive learning will make a positive impact on higher education, and preliminary data has confirmed their suspicions. According to a recent white paper by Education Growth Advisors (EGA), a partnership between Arizona State University and Knewton saw an 18 percent increase in pass rates and a 47 percent decrease in withdrawals in math courses, saving the university an estimated $12 million. Tutorials presented by Smart Sparrow in an engineering course at the University of New South Wales led to a 55 percent decline in drop-out rates.
While acknowledging that the whole concept of self-determination – or ‘Google learning’ as it has been called, pejoratively, in certain circles – is fraught with the potential for missing the point, being distracted into rabbit warrens or just getting bad information, we would like to emphasise that this is only a potential.
===> Any learning theory is only as good as the way in which it is applied and worked through, and we have seen it produce highly successful results where correctly applied, in the right circumstances. <===
Watch this space for chapter and verse, as we will soon be publishing case studies of several recent programmes that feature high levels of learner self-direction.
Learners are changing, learning is changing – and heutagogy can give important clues about rebalancing the burden of responsibilities and permissions in an always-on, networked, instructorless, post-course world.
Learning to create, manage and promote a professional learning network (PLN) will soon become, if it’s not already, one of the most necessary and sought after skills for a global citizen, and as such, must become a prominent feature of any school curriculum.
Collaboration can be both a formal structure for learning activity but also an underpinning framework for engagement and fostering life-long learning. Learning networks are part the new learning ecosystem and should be recognised and supported.
“Out of Your Mind” by Alan Watts (1915-1973) brings you six complete seminars that capture the true scope of this brilliant teacher in action.
Part 1 – The Nature Of Consciousness Part 2 – The Web Of Life Part 3 – The Inevitable Ecstacy Part 4 – The World Just So Part 5 – The World As Self Part 6 – The World As Emptiness
On these superb, digitally restored recordings, you will delve into Alan Watts’ favorite pathways out of the trap of conventional awareness, including:
- The art of the controlled accident – what happens when you stop taking your life so seriously and start enjoying it with complete sincerity - How we come to believe the myth of myself that we are skin-encapsulated egos separate from the world around us, and how to transcend that illusion - Why we must fully embrace chaos and the void to find our deepest purpose - Unconventional and refreshing insights into the deeper principles of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Western philosophy, plus much, much more
Teachers and parents are using Minecraft, a video game popular with children, to help teach science, history, languages and ethics.
by Nick Bolton
"A study by S.R.I. International, a Silicon Valley research group that specializes in technology, found that game-based play could raise cognitive learning for students by as much as 12 percent and improve hand-eye coordination, problem-solving ability and memory.
"Games like Minecraft also encourage what researchers call “parallel play,” where children are engrossed in their game but are still connected through a server or are sharing the same screen. And children who play games could even become better doctors. No joke. Neuroscientists performed a study at Iowa State University that found that surgeons performed better, and were more accurate on the operating table, when they regularly played video games.
“Minecraft extends kids’ spatial reasoning skills, construction skills and understanding of planning,” said Eric Klopfer, a professor and the director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Scheller Teacher Education Program. “In many ways, it’s like a digital version of Lego.”
"Mr. Gray, an educator in his second year of teaching in New York City wrote out his resignation letter and left it on his desk. As a final measure, he chose to attend a Renewal and Restoration Retreat for Educators provided by The Inner Resilience Program – a nonprofit organization started right after September 11, 2001 to help teachers in Lower Manhattan begin to heal and recover from the tragic events of that day. He felt he had nothing to lose. “I was so tired of trying to balance the pressures I was feeling, I wanted to quit. After the retreat I went home and ripped up the resignation letter sitting on my desk. I found that place in me that knows why I wanted to be a teacher in the first place.”
"What allows an educator to stay strong, creative and connected to purpose amidst adversity while another to burn out and leave the field of education altogether? What inner resources do students, teachers and administrators draw upon in order to respond to moments of profound crisis and uncertainty in schools? Are schools preparing our children for a life of tests or the tests of life? For more than a decade, these are the questions the Inner Resilience Program has been grappling with. Mr. Gray, one of many educators in this country was teetering on the edge of burnout and happened to attend one of our retreats at the right time for him. But every day several gifted teachers leave the field of education due to the immense stresses they face. In fact, the modal year of experience in the American teaching force today is only one year – and the average years of experience have dropped by over 30% in the last decade."
The curriculum is not just the “stuff” that students must learn to be knowledgeable and skilled in a particular discipline. It’s about more than just content.
Sociologists of education argue that “curriculum” is a highly ideological hybrid discourse. This means that it includes implicit ways of knowing, ways of doing and ways of being – as well as content.
A new study lends credence to what you’ve probably always suspected: social media is having a pretty negative effect on teenagers — Instagram and Snapchat being the worst culprits. The study, published today and called “Status of Mind,” was conducted by researchers for the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK. The researchers surveyed 1,479 British youths ages 14-24, asking them how they felt the different social media networks effected their mental health. They took in several factors such as body image, sleep deprivation, bullying, and self-identity.
The results suggest the two worst social media networks for kids are Instagram and Snapchat, as they had terrible scores for body image, bullying, and anxiety. Twitter and Facebook weren’t much better, though. YouTube was the only one that apparently inspired more positive feelings than negative ones.
A new study lends credence to what you’ve probably always suspected: social media is having a pretty negative effect on teenagers — Instagram and Snapchat being the worst culprits. The study, published today and called “Status of Mind,” was conducted by researchers for the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK. The researchers surveyed 1,479 British youths ages 14-24, asking them how they felt the different social media networks effected their mental health. They took in several factors such as body image, sleep deprivation, bullying, and self-identity.
The results suggest the two worst social media networks for kids are Instagram and Snapchat, as they had terrible scores for body image, bullying, and anxiety. Twitter and Facebook weren’t much better, though. YouTube was the only one that apparently inspired more positive feelings than negative ones.
For years, Finland has been the by-word for a successful education system, perched at the top of international league tables for literacy and numeracy.
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Pasi Silander, the city’s development manager, explained: “What we need now is a different kind of education to prepare people for working life.
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“Young people use quite advanced computers. In the past the banks had lots of bank clerks totting up figures but now that has totally changed.
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“We therefore have to make the changes in education that are necessary for industry and modern society.”
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Subject-specific lessons – an hour of history in the morning, an hour of geography in the afternoon – are already being phased out for 16-year-olds in the city’s upper schools. They are being replaced by what the Finns call “phenomenon” teaching – or teaching by topic. For instance, a teenager studying a vocational course might take “cafeteria services” lessons, which would include elements of maths, languages (to help serve foreign customers), writing skills and communication skills.
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More academic pupils would be taught cross-subject topics such as the European Union - which would merge elements of economics, history (of the countries involved), languages and geography.
The world around us is not labelled or divided in categories, then why is academic content? Can we not relate topics and elaborate meaning on the basis of relationships and intertwined data?
I wonder if this would work in the U.S.? Also, in Finland, students do not take standardized tests until the end of high school (Zhao, 2012, p. 111), so thankfully, perhaps the drill and kill process is diminished.
Vygotsky’s earlier concept of mediation, which encompassed learning alongside others (Zone of Proximal Development) and through interaction with artifacts, was the basis for Engeström’s version of Activity Theory (known as Scandinavian Activity Theory). Engeström’s approach was to explain human thought processes not simply on the basis of the individual, but in the wider context of the individual’s interactions within the social world through artifacts, and specifically in situations where activities were being produced.
In Activity Theory people (actors) use external tools (e.g. hammer, computer, car) and internal tools (e.g. plans, cognitive maps) to achieve their goals. In the social world there are many artifacts, which are seen not only as objects, but also as things that are embedded within culture, with the result that every object has cultural and/or social significance.
Tools (which can limit or enable) can also be brought to bear on the mediation of social interaction, and they influence both the behavior of the actors (those who use the tools) and also the social structure within which the actors exist (the environment, tools, artifacts). For further reading, here is Engeström’s own overview of 3 Generations of Activity Theory development. The first figure shows Second Generation AT as it is usually presented in the literature.
Many times when we learn we use many tools. They may be our minds or they may be outside objects. This is how we put them together and use it for the better.
The Activity theory helps in understanding other factors that will have an impact on the a students's/ learner's thought pattern. Activity Theory gives clarity as to who is doing what? How are they doing it? Finally why are they doing it?
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is aware we live in a connected world. Americans wear Fitbits, have Nest thermostats, use automated light systems from companies like Belkin and Philips, even have televisions that predict what they want to watch. But in a new report, the FTC has a warning: Existing privacy regulations don’t really cover the Internet of Things, and the Commission doesn’t really trust device manufacturers to do the right thing—or even be aware of the risks of collecting all that data.
In a staff report issued this week, the FTC warned that makers of connected health, home, and transportation devices could potentially leave their users vulnerable to data hacks. Most of all, the FTC is concerned that private information will be used to jack up users' insurance rates or deny them access to loans.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is aware we live in a connected world. Americans wear Fitbits, have Nest thermostats, use automated light systems from companies like Belkin and Philips, even have televisions that predict what they want to watch. But in a new report, the FTC has a warning: Existing privacy regulations don’t really cover the Internet of Things, and the Commission doesn’t really trust device manufacturers to do the right thing—or even be aware of the risks of collecting all that data.
In a staff report issued this week, the FTC warned that makers of connected health, home, and transportation devices could potentially leave their users vulnerable to data hacks. Most of all, the FTC is concerned that private information will be used to jack up users' insurance rates or deny them access to loans.
In this briefing paper, the SOLIDAR Foundation, together with its members and partners, presents a closer look the state of play in 12 EU Member States regarding education and lifelong learning. It was completed with national and European recommendations to support education as a driver for inclusion, participation and lifelong learning inside and outside formal education systems.
To fight against inequalities in education and to counteract social distress, we need sound policies and investment in the development of education...
In this briefing paper, the SOLIDAR Foundation, together with its members and partners, presents a closer look the state of play in 12 EU Member States regarding education and lifelong learning. It was completed with national and European recommendations to support education as a driver for inclusion, participation and lifelong learning inside and outside formal education systems.
To fight against inequalities in education and to counteract social distress, we need sound policies and investment in the development of education...
As cities build sensors and data systems into infrastructure, a team of innovative engineering students developed a "smart stick" to transform the urban experience for visually impaired people.
As cities build sensors and data systems into infrastructure, a team of innovative engineering students developed a "smart stick" to transform the urban experience for visually impaired people.
Author David Price writes: "If schools are coming into direct competition with the learning opportunities available in the informal social space, it has to be said that this is a pressure, which barely registers within the political discourse.
In the following pages, Price describes three cases across the globe — in London, Sydney, San Diego — that have mapped a vision that answers the questions above. Here’s what they have in common:
- By insisting that their teachers and mentors share their learning, all three have de-privatized teaching and learning.
- By opening up the commons, and by designing workspaces without walls, they have brought Edison’s ‘machine-shop culture’ into education.
- By bringing into the commons, experts, parents and investors, they have given an authenticity to the work of their students that is impossible to simulate in an enclosed classroom.
- By modelling collaborative working to their students they have fostered the peer learning which is at the heart of ‘open’.
- By emphasizing adult and real-world connections, they ensure that students are preparing for the world beyond school by being in that world.
- By making their expertise and intellectual property freely available, they have created high demand from their peers and ensured that knowledge travels fast.
- By seeing technology not simply as an aide to learning but as the imperative for change, they ensure that their programs are relevant to societal needs and societal shifts.
- By trusting in their staff and students, and by giving them freedom and responsibility in equal measure, they have fostered a culture of learning that rewards respectful challenge, shuns unnecessary deference, and therefore constantly stays in motion.
Por muitas razões, uma postura de maior envolvimento, compartilhamento, comprometimento e autonomia, faz todo sentido para tornar o ensino mais efetivo e atraente.
European Commission - Press Release details page - European Press release Brussels, 25 September 2013 Commission More than 60% of nine year olds in the EU are in schools which are still not digitally equipped.
"Can ICT redefine the way we learn in the Networked Society? Technology has enabled us to interact, innovate and share in whole new ways. This dynamic shift in mindset is creating profound change throughout our society. The Future of Learning looks at one part of that change, the potential to redefine how we learn and educate. Watch as we talk with world renowned experts and educators about its potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression."
Jim Lerman's insight:
A particularly thought-provoking video due to the outstanding people chosen to speak in it. It was produced by Ericsson in 2012, so it is relatively current. Appearances by Stepehn Heppell, Sugatra Mitra, Seth Godin, Jose Ferreira, Lois Mbugua, Margaret Kositany and Dephne Koller. Well worth the time to watch. Think about what setting you can show this in and the types of conversations that it can stimulate.
"Creating a safe recreation space for teens; protoyping a recyclable lunch tray; setting up a water delivery system to guard against urban fires; building a public awareness campaign to combat hunger. These are just a few of examples of the types of tasks students are taking on when they participate in the Design Learning Challenge, an effort to get students to figure out how to solve real-world problems in their communities.
"Combining project-based learning, with an emphasis on the arts and design thinking, this academic competition now in its third year — a partnership between the Industrial Designers Society of America, or IDSA, and the National Art Education Association, or NAEA — has more than 750 students participating this year."
I have rescooped this resource from @Rebecca White as it is a great resource for teaching the Design and technology strand and incorporates sustainability. The website focuses on design thinking, 21st century learning skills, design learning research, curriculum frameworks, project based learning and engaging today’s students. It links with the Australian Curriculum for technology including design technology as it is build student computational thinking by getting them to create and evaluate projects which aims towards creating preferred futures.
This is the background information for competitions that are coordinated between designers and educators to promote students thinking about how to solve real world problems using design. There are links provided to sample problems and challenges suited for Prep to Year 4 levels as well as more in depth concepts for high school students, such as designing jobs for 2050. Interesting read and plenty of information to be explored.
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