Voices from the Learning Revolution
Here you’ll find stories about connected and shifted learning. Meet our Voices and be part of the revolution. Subscribe to our newsletter, posts via RSS or posts via email
What My Connected Students Taught Me about Motivation
When we read about engaging students in the classroom using technology and social media, authors often leave us with the impression that this work will flow gentle as a stream. When talking about motivation and learning in school, grit is most often left out of the conversation. Yet Dan Pink tells us the best predictor of success is grit, defined as perseverance and passion for long term goals. When we found the right authentic project, my 9th grade English learners showed they had the grit to write a 200pp collaborative book!
read moreHS Student Team Writes How-To Guide for Connected Learning
Written by a team of 27 students at Norway’s Sandvika High School (Oslo, Norway), Connected Learners is a 220-page compendium of stories, advice and how-to articles designed to help high school teachers and their students around the globe shift from classrooms that are isolated and teacher-centered to digitally rich environments where learning is student-driven and constantly connected to the global internet.
read moreHale@home: Easing Student Transitions via Online Learning
In this fascinating account of online learning, Michael Valentine, the director of Hale@home, describes a 21st century solution to a traditional dilemma – how to prepare rural boys for transition to a large urban independent school in Perth, Australia.
read moreScaffolding Quadratics: 2 Things My 8th Graders Taught Me
We’re studying quadratics in my 8th grade class. Even the name can strike fear in the heart of the most competent adult. I didn’t want it to be that way for my math kids. I wrote a good lesson plan and then I let students help me modify it. Essentially, they “taught” me how to teach them better through the interaction and feedback we gave to each other during the learning process. We built the scaffold together.
read moreReflections on Virtual Integrity
Integrity is a key virtue for today’s culture, says Sister Geralyn Schmidt, education technology coordinator for the Diocese of Harrisburg (PA). “In today’s world, each of us who has a digital footprint makes two impressions: one in the real world and one in the virtual world. The words and attitudes that we use in both arenas must match. When we achieve this, we become someone whom others can truly rely upon.”
read moreDigital Literacy: Find Free (and Legal) Images for Your Classroom
There’s a lot of confusion among educators about how images and other content published online can be used. Teacher Jen Carey tells how she and her students are avoiding copyright violations, learning digital literacy and accessing millions of free and legal-to-use images.
read moreStudent Creativity: the Importance of License and Limits
Teacher and instructional leader Margaret Haviland considers the value to students of exploring creativity within limits and the need to give them license to freely pursue their creative urges within those limits.
read moreThe Ultimate Education Reform: Messy Learning & Problem Solving
If we can teach kids to solve messy problems before they graduate, they might have better luck solving messy problems when they start running the world, says teacher and instructional technology leader Tim Holt. Problem-Based Learning could be the final education reform.
read moreTwitter Chat on Standardized Testing
This twitter chat is now over. Please click here to read the transcripts from the chat. Thanks! PLP’s new Twitter 101 eCourse includes a live Twitter Chat experience. To give participants a true feel for the fast paced and fun nature of twitter chats, we want to open up this live chat to everyone! The Twitter Chat will be this Sunday, April 21st at 8PM Eastern and will feature the hot-button topic of Standardized Testing. Discussions will include: Tips and tricks for preparing students to perform their...
read moreiPad Summit 2: Innovations in Learning
While the theme of the second iPad Summit centered on the Apple device,” it was educational theory, not the hardware, that was the focus,” says participant and live blogger Jen Carey. “The conference gave priority attention to innovations in learning, and that’s what made it a worthwhile experience for me.”
read moreAbout
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