Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Learning Revolution - Week's Free Events - Reinventing the Classroom - Library 2.014 - The Real 1:1 - Reclaim Learning

The Learning Revolution
Weekly Update

April 1st


A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people. It is a never failing spring in the desert.
- Andrew Carnegie

The technologies of the Internet and the Web are reshaping where, when, and from whom we learn--and even how we think about learning. The Learning Revolution Project highlights our own virtual and physical events and those of our more than 200 partners. We also highlight good conversations about learning taking place between educators, learners, leaders, and others from the school, library, museum, work, adult, online, non-traditional and home learning worlds. The Internet is shifting the boundaries of these worlds, and we believe that as they increasingly overlap and integrate they will be critical to framing and preparing for the learning revolution starting to take place.

To subscribe to this newsletter, please sign up at http://learningrevolution.com/.


Updates

  • Reinventing the Classroom. Ever since I started Classroom 2.0 I've looked forward to holding an event specifically about Ed Tech in the classroom. Thanks to Promethean (who are also sponsoring Hack Education and ISTEUnplugged.com this year!), we're pleased to announce and issue the call for proposals for Reinventing the Classroom. Please visit the new conference website at http://www.ReinventingtheClassroom.com/ and we hope that you'll consider attending and/or presenting just one month from now on May 1st!
  • Library 2.014 Call for Proposals Now Open. The call for proposals for the fourth annual Library 2.0 conference - Library 2.014 - also opens today. This two-day, free online conference is designed to foster collaboration and knowledge sharing among information professionals worldwide. Please see the conference strands and the call for proposals for more information. Mark your calendars for October 8th and 9th -- we look forward to seeing you there!
  • #RSCON5 MiniCon Kicks Off Sunday. Join us this Sunday, April 6th, for a sneak peek at RSCON5 with our first Reform Symposium MiniCon! We'll get started at 9:30am EDT with the opening ceremony and a musical performance by Jason Levine, followed by keynote superstar Steven Anderson. Next up will be one hour of Inspire Presentations, and the fun and fast-paced Technology Smackdown before the closing ceremony at 1pm EDT. Look for details on the website and follow #RSCON5 to see what we're up to!
  • National Geographic Announces Geo-Educator Community. National Geographic has announced the official launch of its new community for educators, the Geo-Educator Community. The Geo-Educator Community provides a space for geo-educators to share resources, collaborate on projects, learn from each other and give support. National Geographic defines a geo-educator as an educator working to improve young people’s understanding of the world. Geo-educators can join the community through a variety of online platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and the secure educator site, Edmodo (www.geo-educatorcommunity.org). The community already hosts vibrant discussion ranging from getting students outside, involved in community service projects, and connected to classrooms around the world. Geo-educators are also engaged in serious discussion on how to implement geo-education across the country and around the world. Learn more at www.geo-education.org.

Partner Spotlight


CommonSenseMedia

Common Sense Media Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology. We exist because our nation's children spend more time with media and digital activities than they do with their families or in school, which profoundly impacts their social, emotional, and physical development. As a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization, we provide trustworthy information and tools, as well as an independent forum, so that families can have a choice and a voice about the media they consume. More information at http://www.commonsensemedia.org/.

Interested in becoming a Learning Revolution Partner? Please fill out a Partner Application today.

One Week Calendar

All events are listed in US-Eastern Standard Time. To become an event partner and have your events listed here, please email admin@web20labs.com.

  • Wednesday, April 2nd at 4:30pm BrainPOP Refresher, Freshen up on the BrainPOP basics with this overview webinar. We'll take a tour of our sites and newest features, sharing a wealth of tips and best practices for getting the most out of your subscription and engaging your students. A perfect webinar for veteran users and new subscribers alike! Join here.
  • Wednesday, April 2nd at 7pm Student-Centered Learning: Make the Shift!, The Common Core State Standards require students to think critically and be effective consumers and producers of information and media. In other words, they can’t just passively receive learning. They have to be able to actively create it too. This ISTE webinar will focus on ways teachers can create active, student-centered, digital age classrooms that help students meet the Common Core and ISTE Standards. Registration and fee information here.
  • Wednesday, April 2nd at 9pm Teachers Teaching Teachers, Weekly conversations hosted by EdTechTalk, a collaborative open webcasting community. For more information, click here.
  • Thursday, April 3rd at 8pm #Globaledchat, Topic: Building a Global Citizenship Program at Your School. Join us for this live Twitter discussion. We would love to hear your experiences integrating global education in your classrooms and at your schools!
  • Saturday, April 5th at 12pm CR20 LIVE Weekly Show with Erin Klein, We are so excited to have Erin Klein as our Featured Teacher! Erin is a 2nd grade teacher in the Cranbrook Educational Community, Bloomfield Hills, MI. She will be sharing some of her fantastic classroom projects and teaching ideas in this inspirational, jam-packed show. Besides her amazing student-centered classroom Erin is an education technology expert and a master of project based learning. In her blog, Kleinspiration, Erin shares strategies and tools to help educators create transformational schools of the 21st century. Classroom 2.0 LIVE is an opportunity to gather with other member of the community in regular "live" web meetings. Details to join the webinar at http://live.classroom20.com. Follow us on Twitter: #liveclass20
  • Sunday, April 6th at 9:30am - 1pm RSCON5 MiniCon, We will feature musical guest Jason Levine, keynote speaker Steven Anderson, a technology smackdown event that anyone can sign-up for, and eight mini-presentations that highlight RSCON4 and give you a sneak peek at what to expect at our annual Reform Symposium Free Online Conference (RSCON5), that will take place July 11-13th, 2014 and feature 60+presentations, 2 plenaries, 10 keynotes, student presenters, and much more. Learn more here.
  • Monday, April 7th at 4pm Teaching Digital Citizenship in an iPad Classroom, If you have iPads, you know that teaching digital citizenship is more important than ever. With the tablet classroom in mind, Common Sense Media, well-renowned for their digital citizenship curriculum and resources, now offers resources for teaching digital citizenship in an iPad classroom. Participants will learn about two resources that teach students to be safe, responsible, and respectful in a digital world: 1) Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum in interactive eBooks, and 2) Digital Passport. Learn more here.
  • Monday, April 7th at 8pm TL Virtual Cafe - Libraries and the 1:1 School: Final Nail in the Library Coffin?, Learn about the role of libraries and librarians in a 1:1 school. Hoover High School librarians and administrator(s) will discuss the successes, pitfalls, and follies involved in launching a 1:1 iPad program for our 9-12 grade school of approximately 3000 students with an emphasis on the role of the library and librarians in this process. Join here.

For a full calendar of all upcoming events, click here.


Deadlines

  • Learning Revolution Conference Online, April 24th - 25th, 2014
    Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals are being accepted between now and April 15th for the inaugural Learning Revolution Conference Online. The conference strands include Learning Theory, Learning Practice, Learning Science, Learning Spaces, and Technology & Learning. Please see the call for proposals and submission instructions here. Don't miss out on a great opportunity to connect about learning!
  • Reinventing the Classroom, May 1st, 2014
    Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals will be accepted between now and April 25th for Reinventing the Classroom. Conference strands include Teaching with Technology, Student Devices, Online Learning, Subject Specific Ed Tech, Creative Ed Tech, Web 2.0 & Social Software, and Administrative Support. Please see the call for proposals and submission instructions here.

Highlighted Recordings


Mike Lawrence & Mike Muir from the School Leadership Summit - on "Reclaim Your School's Teacher's Lounge - Develop Educational Entrepreneurs!" and "Leading Beside: Change that Sticks"

Lawrence-Muir
http://youtu.be/aZsnxoVTOYo

Kelly Mendoza from the School Leadership Summit - on "Making a Better World: Digital Citizenship Resources for K-12"

Mendoza
http://youtu.be/ohu7RcKZid4

Karen Blumberg & Rekha Puri from the Global Education Conference - on "LINEglobal - Gateway to India"

blumberg-puri
http://youtu.be/C-NCJdZybug

NMC Navigator Top Ten

Top Learning Tech Stories of the Week from the NMC/Horizon Project Navigator.
  1. Penn State Students Plan a Landing for Their Lunar Lion
  2. Oculus founder says Facebook deal will make virtual reality cheaper and better
  3. Twitter launches inaugural European #MuseumWeek
  4. 7 Fabulous iPad apps to create short animations for your flipped classroom
  5. 3D Printed Skull Saves Young Woman's Life
  6. Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel for iPad Apps
  7. How to Reinvent Project Based Learning to Be More Meaningful
  8. The Company Reinventing How To Learn A New Language
  9. Museum's iBook contest gets kids talking tech
  10. How You (Or Your Students) Can Use Stop-Motion Animation in Your Classroom

Conversations

Classroom 2.0
  • Classroom 2.0 Ning Users: Your Feedback Wanted!. One of our very favorite Classroom 2.0 members and leaders, Peggy George, is asking for your participation in a great reserach project that's being spearheaded by Rose Arnell. Rose has chosen to focus her doctoral research on the Classroom 2.0 community and is looking for survey participants who fit the following criteria: Must be a K-12 teacher, have been a Classroom 2.0 member for 1 year or more, and have contributed in some way to the Ning community. Does this sound like you? Please let Rose know you're interested by filling out this questionnaire.
  • Common Core Writing Prompts. Karen Cameron has shared an excellent resource for writing assignments in the Common Core classroom. Writing Prompts is a Tumblr page that includes hundreds of informal writing prompts, each prompt comes with an accompanying photo and a brief explanation of how the prompt fulfills Common Core Standards. Bookmark this page for writing inspiration. Thanks, Karen!

Education Revolution Google+ Community
  • Creating Learning Objectives in eLearning Environments. Christopher Pappas shares this article on avoiding the pitfalls of poor instructional design, i.e. using an LMS/CMS as a document repository with a built-in discussion forum. The article outlines important questions that you should answer before jumping into the design process, and then gives you examples of how to map course activities onto your proposed learning objectives. Great read for those of you who are using online learning tools. Thanks, Chris!
  • Why Your School Board Matters. Laruie Corzett shares this recent article from the Atlantic that discusses the impact of the school board on the quality of education in local communities. Findings of the study showed that schools who have individuals with a keen interest in student learning serving on the school board (not surprisingly) showed higher academic performance. Interestingly, these board members oftentimes are not people with a background in education. This study has sparked a lot of conversation in the education community. Join the conversation here.

Submit a Video or Quote

We'd like to feature a user submitted video each week. Get creative! Post your short video answer to the question: What does the learning revolution mean to you? We'll be highlighting one video each week, and sharing the rest on our YouTube channel. You need to include #learningrevolution in the title of your YouTube video.

OR

Do you have a great quote on education? Send us your favorite education quote to add to our collection and we'll be sure to give you a shout out in our next newsletter.

Kudos

We had a great time at the second annual School Leadership Summit last week. If you missed out, you can always check out conference keynotes and highlighted speakers on YouTube and check out even more sessions on the recordings page. We always appreciate the feedback that we receive from conference participants, and would like to share some of those comments here. Thank you!

  • Rediscovering the leader in me!
    -Piyush Maru
    India
  • It's really exciting to tune in to this PD opportunity and still be in my building where I can be available as needed.
    -Alexandra Anderson
    Manassas, VA
  • A model of future professional development.
    -Dana Nistor
    Romania
  • GREAT interaction among participants...highly thought provoking presentations thus far that have facilitated that interaction!
    -Cynthia Cornwell
    Virginia
  • So glad it is happening and is so accessible!
    -Jen Wyld
    Oregon, USA
  • Great conference. Love the format, the tools, the sharing. I never stop learning from these events and how simple Steve and others make this seem.
    -Randy LaBonte
    Victoria, Canada
  • This summit has allowed me to hear a wide variety of topics/presenters that I would never have had an opportunity too.
    -Kristin Gunson
    Eugene, Oregon

Final Notes

I've been reading a lot on the history of modern public education, and am struck in particular by changes in the late 1800's that began to explore the scientific measurement of mental processes, essentially creating the field of psychology. The idea that the scientific method could discover psychological cause and effect in the same way that it had in the physical world has been enormously attractive, and in many ways has born both compelling fruit and controversy. The advent of propaganda, or the use of emotions and symbols to influence behavior, was so effective that we take modern marketing techniques to manipulate our decision-making for granted, and it's hard to deny the power that they wield. On the other hand, seeing human behavior as largely (or even sometimes, solely) determined by outside influences can blind us to something that is much harder to measure: individual agency. That conscious decision-making and self-determination are harder to measure does not mean that they don't exist, but they are less quantifiable, and therefore less compelling to the kind of public policy-making that depends on broad measuring and sound-bite results. By shifting the way we view the mind, we have also shifted how we view education--from promoting individual competencies that allow students to become good thinkers and decision-makers, to stimulus-response activities that we use to influence students to learn specific skills or information that we believe society will need from them. While the former would create the capacity for innovation and engagement in the difficult tasks of life and culture, the latter train only for compliance and lead away from true creativity and creation.

Which interestingly leads me to a sort-of tongue-in-cheek motto I'd like to put on a t-shirt: "The Real 1:1 Program is Building Relationships." If we measure our education by tests and grades, we see standardization as the path to where we currently are; however, if we measure our education by finding areas of life where we both care and are competent to contribute to making a difference in the world, we likely measure our education by moments when individuals opened our eyes to something important, or trusted us to take on a responsibility, or challenged us to do something we didn't think we could, or took the time to help us see something that we were previously unable to. That these activities are harder to measure doesn't mean that they are any less important than the easily measurable--they are often much more so. As my dad used to say, "Because we cannot measure the things that have the most meaning, we give the most meaning to the things we can measure."

There is another dangerous outcome of intellectual or behavioral measurements as our only yardsticks, and it is one that is hard to say out loud: that some students are more likely to succeed than others, and therefore deserve more time and attention. Religious schools that believe in the inherent worth and value of every individual tend to not let go of the desire to find and explore the good in every child. Intriguingly, school systems that are born from arguments of the economic benefits to a country from strong educational programs, often take the same approach to bringing every student to their highest potential. When we do not believe in every individual's unique value, religious or economic, we test, measure, and then find that some significant percentage of our students (and teachers?) are failures. We cannot afford that, financially, spiritually, or culturally.

Gandhi used the symbol of the spinning wheel to encourage regular Indians to take back their economic destiny (to spin their own thread and make their own clothing). Somehow we must find a similarly compelling story for education that recognizes its value to both the individual and the society, but starts with empowering and building the skills of each individual. Somehow we must reclaim learning from the domain of measurement and stimulus-response policy-making, and remember the importance of agency, individual worth, self-direction, and relationships to true learning.

See you online!



Steve
Steve Hargadon
www.stevehargadon.com

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