Power Up with Powerful Learning Press!

This week, we’re helping celebrate the launch of Powerful Learning Press — a unique publishing venture from Powerful Learning Practice LLC — by giving away a free interactive eBook that we believe will inspire more educators to become connected learners. The 22 helpful articles in Powering Up first appeared here in our Voices from the Learning Revolution group blog.

Live from the First iPad Summit

Teacher Jen Carey left the first iPad Summit, held at the Harvard Medical School, with three takeaways: the iPad is just a remarkable piece of hardware; iPad implementation requires large-scale professional development; and if iPad implementation doesn’t redefine the way educators use technology to create and perform tasks, it’s not worth the investment.

I used to think…

I used to think I was a pretty good teacher. Now I realize that I did the best I could with the knowledge I had, but my classroom was woefully inadequate for many of my students. I failed to equip them with what they needed. I now believe my students are competent to show me what they need, if only I take the time to listen and ask authentic questions. I’m becoming a better teacher by giving up a lot of what I used to think.

Teaching in the Age of Siri

Short of banning smartphones (a short-term solution, at best), I think the evolution of AI services like Siri means that the problems I pose for my 8th grade math students will have to shift from a focus on finding the answer as the endpoint — to a greater focus on analysis. OK, you have the answer but so what? What does that answer mean in a real-life situation?

And I wonder how teachers in other content areas might have to rethink their teaching and assessment strategies, with Siri at our students’ beck and call?

Venturing into Project-Based Learning

“I’ve been reading about Project Based Learning for some time now,” writes international teacher-blogger Jenny Luca, “and struggled trying to find a way to integrate this kind of pedagogy into my regular English classroom practice.” This year Jenny and her teacher teammates included a 3-week PBL experience in their unit on Romeo and Juliet. “This has been one of the most rewarding activities I’ve been involved in this year. I’m invested in it and I can feel that passion for what I do apparent when I’m interacting with the students.”

Straddling the Natural & Digital Worlds

My daughter’s world and that of my students is dominated by digital media. Within this new world is an abundance of knowledge, networking and possibilities that none of us yet completely understand. I know there is wealth here. Yet sometimes it seems that the screens are blocking our kids’ awareness of natural phenomena, in the same way I become distracted from friends and family when I have an iPad in front of me.