The Learning Revolution
Weekly Update
May 13th
Nine tenths of education is encouragement.
- Anatole France
The Learning Revolution Project highlights our own "conference 2.0" virtual and physical events and those of our over 200 partners in the learning professions. 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 these conversations will be critical to framing and preparing for the learning revolution starting to take place.
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Zixtech Organization Our Mission is to improve the inhabitants, Community, organizations. Zixtech Organization is concerned with issues of entrepreneurship, ICT, Community development, empowering grassroot organizations, health and social work in Cameroon and Africa. We aim to provide the needed life line to help people improve their lives in Cameroon especially in rural communities. We identify their problems and seek possible ways to address them. We aim to support people who are marginalized in the communities, be it due to physically handicapped, the elderly, people with mental illness, people with albinism and needy children. We aim to create awareness and educate the community on issues affecting the well-being of their communities which includes communal hygiene, HIV/AIDS pandemic, recycling and climate change. More information at http://www.zixtechorganization.org/.
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All events are listed in US-Eastern Daylight Time. To become an event partner and have your events listed here, please email admin@web20labs.com.
- Tuesday, May 13th at 3:30pm #EdTechMonth: Deepen Your Knowledge about Technology Implementation Planning, Enhance your technology implementation plan using best practices recommendations from PowerUp WHAT WORKS. Read more at http://powerupwhatworks.org/page-puww/powerup-your-school. Join the session here.
- Wednesday, May 14th at 4pm Free BrainPOP Webinar: BrainPOP Educators - Our Latest and Greatest , BrainPOP Educators is better than ever, and we’re dedicating an entire webinar to show off its newest features. Explore its most valuable resources, from lesson plans and standards alignment to support videos and more. You’ll leave this webinar armed with tools to optimize your BrainPOP subscription in the classroom. Join here.
- Wednesday, May 14th at 9pm Teachers Teaching Teachers, Weekly conversations hosted by EdTechTalk, a collaborative open webcasting community. For more information, click here.
- Thursday, May 15th at 3:30pm #EdTechMonth: Personalize Your ELA Professional Development, Learn how to personalize your professional development around English Language Arts and technology using PowerUp WHAT WORKS. Read more at http://powerupwhatworks.org/page-puww/ela-instructional-strategies. Join the session here.
- Thursday, May 15th in Indianapolis, IN CoSN - 2014 Indiana CTO Clinic, This year's Indiana CTO Clinic will focus on "Constantly Learning. Courageously Leading." Join us Thursday, May 15 and Friday, May 16 from 8-4! The first day of the program will focus on the Technology Leader Toolkit, and the second will shift to Technology Leader Strategic Practices. More information here.
- Saturday, May 17th at 12pm CR20 LIVE Weekly Show - Aaron Maurer Featured Teacher, Classroom 2.0 LIVE is an opportunity to gather with other member of the community in regular "live" web meetings. Follow #liveclass20 on Twitter and visit http://live.classroom20.com for weekly details.
- Sunday, May 18th at 8pm I Have a Question EdTechWeekly, Weekly attempt to crowdsource answers to education questions from our community of communities. Tag your questions #eduquestion or post them on our Facebook page or Google+ community.
- Monday, May 19th at 8pm TL News Night LIVE!, This is a LIVE show presented in news show format featuring a Wrap up of “This Month in School Libraries” and deeper discussion of topical school library issues with special guest experts. Did we mention it was LIVE? Tune in here.
- Tuesday, May 20th at 1pm CoSN Webinar Series - Over the Horizon: Results from the2014 Horizon K-12 Report, Join us for a sneak preview of the much-anticipated “2014 Horizon Report K-12 Edition,” being released this summer. Join the founder of the Horizon Project who will discuss the six emerging technologies that will have the biggest impact on learning in the one to five year horizons. Learn how to use the Horizon Report Toolkit for your own strategic planning and professional development. Learn more and register here.
- Tuesady, May 20th at 2:30pm American Federation of School Administrators - Webinar: Protecting Student Privacy, Schools are relied on to provide students with a safe and secure learning environment. Increasingly, protecting sensitive student information is a vital part of keeping students safe. Recent education reforms, along with advances in technology, have greatly increased the amount of personal student data that schools are required to collect and monitor. While this data can be used very positively, it must also be protected. Join us for a webinar discussion on these critical issues! You will hear from experts in media and technology, school administrators, and policymakers about student privacy issues and important steps administrators can take to protect student data and keep schools safe. There will also be time for Q & A at the end. This webinar is provided with the support of the U.S. Department of Education and Common Sense Media. Learn more and register here.
- Tuesday, May 20th at 3:30pm #EdTechMonth: Learn About Differentiated Instruction and UDL; Personalize Your PD, Explore ways to use differentiated instruction and UDL principles to personalize your professional development. Read more at www.PowerUpWhatWorks.org. Join the session here.
For a full calendar of all upcoming events and conferences, click here.
- Future of Museums, July 24th, 2014
Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals will be accepted between now and July 21st for the Future of Museums conference. This free, online event will give those of you who work in the museum and archives fields an opportunity to share your passion for the future of museum services, spaces, and innovations. Conference strands include Bring Your Own Device, Location-Based Services, Crowdsourcing, and Makerspaces. Please see the call for proposals and consider submitting your proposal soon!
- Library 2.014, October 8th + 9th, 2014
Upcoming deadlines: Presentation proposals will be accepted between now and October 1st for Library 2.014. This fully online, participatory conference presents a unique opportunity to showcase the excellent research and work that you do every day. How does your library manage digital collections? Is your library mobile friendly? Do you have a story to tell about maker spaces? Your participation as a presenter will steer the global conversation about the future of libraries. Please see the call for proposals and conference strands and consider submitting your proposal soon!
- Global Education Conference, November 17th - 22nd, 2014
Upcoming deadlines: The call for proposals for the 2014 Global Education Conference are now open. Proposals can be submitted from May 1st until November 15, 2014, and we will begin accepting proposals June 1st. Please see the conference strands and consider submitting your proposal soon!
Stephanie Sandifer from the
Learning Revolution Conference - on "Mobile Learning Among the Museums of Houston, Texas: A Blended & Personalized Learning Environment Leveraging Community Resources for Improved Learner Outcomes"
http://youtu.be/fCAqBCF4bqo
Dave Hallmon from
Reinventing the Classroom - on "A Framework for eLearning"
http://youtu.be/7HHR3xWPGCM
Dawn DuPriest from
Reinventing the Classroom - on "Authentic Learning in Math through Computer Coding"
http://youtu.be/dBqSCaj7YmU
Top Learning Tech Stories of the Week from the NMC/Horizon Project Navigator.
- How Technology is Set to Transform India's Fragmented Education System
- What Teachers Need to Know about the New Creative Commons 4.0 License
- Unshackled and Unschooled: Free-Range Learning Movement Grows
- 'Flex Model' Education Builds Student Independence Through Flexibility, Support
- Turning Teacher-Student Roles Upside Down
- The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever
- Academy or Art U Students To Design UI for NASA
Classroom 2.0
- Teacher Motivation in Urban Schools. Classroom 2.0 member and doctoral candidate, Jacek Polubiec, is looking for participants for a study that will look at motivation among urban school teachers. Share this call for participation with your colleagues so that Jacek can get some great material for his project! Learn more about participating here.
Education Revolution Google+ Community
- Shifting Paradigms in Education. Giorgio Bertini shares his recent article about the paradigm shift he recognizes in the field of education. Bertini argues that we must use "systemic thinking" to develop and sustain major changes in the current educational model. Check out Education for an Emerging Society and share your feedback with Giorgio. How do you think the emerging paradigm will take shape?
- New Educational Game from MIT: The Radix Endeavor. Any math and science teachers looking to gamify their lesson plans? MIT has added a new game to their growing list of Massive Open Online games. Radix, as it’s known, is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards for biology, focusing on topics like genetics, evolution, ecology and human body systems. In math, the game is aligned to the Common Core and has particular focuses on algebra, probability and statistics, as well as geometry. MIT's Education Arcade plans to release a beta version of the game on September 4th - mark your calendars so you can sign up and try it out. Thanks for sharing, Christothea!
Reinventing the Classroom
- Augmented Reality: Where We Are, and Where We're Going. If you missed out on Jeff Piontek's session at the Reinventing the Classroom conference, be sure to check out the recording. We had a lot of fun learning about the possibilities for learning and living using avatar reality, and Jeff has generously shared some of his favorite links and tools with us here: London Tube System AR, Blue Mars Avatar Reality, Crytek Engine, AR Sight Seeing, Avatar Reality Program Videos, Learn AR, GE Wind and Turbine AR, Iron Man Mask AR, BMW AR System, and AR History Program - Intelligent Tourism. Be sure to bookmark these links, there are some amazing examples here! Educators, library and museum program coordinators, and learners will be able to imagine some very cool applications for avatar reality. Thanks for sharing, Jeff!
I've noticed a trend in some of the keynote talks for our virtual conferences: presenters who are not using slides at all. I remember noticing a similar shift some years ago from slides with lots of content to more visually-oriented presentations, usually with a large image and a key word or two on each slide. My sense of this progression is that it reflects keynote speakers often telling a story more than presenting facts and figures. Perhaps with an increasing number of opportunities to present because of online venues, they are increasingly comfortable focusing on the story they are telling--and where slides become unnaturally restrictive or feel too deliberate.
So very much of learning, versus memorization, is tied up with story. As we learn, we seek to create a story that explains the information we see before us. Our curiosity drives us to gather information, to understand it, and to place it into context. I read or see something that interests me, it drives me to want to know more, and as I gather additional information and understanding, a story takes shape that allows me to place the new information into the context of my thinking, or often stretches my thinking in such a way as to reshape previous ideas or beliefs. The mental framework that I ultimately build around this new knowledge is the result of a story-building process.
I think we naturally recognize the importance of this process. With my new story or framework, I can start to tell you what I have learned, but I know that you haven't had the experiences or been exposed to the information that I have, and so I start to tell you in a way that I think will spark your curiosity. You ask me questions, I tell you more. You go through a similar process and construct your own story--which will almost certainly be slightly, if not significantly, different than mine.
The danger in teaching is to assume that the story we have constructed must be memorized by someone else. This is in part because we don't do a good job of distinguishing between learning that is memorization and learning that is comprehension and driven by internal curiosity. Ours is an era of computer technology, with systematic sequencing of tasks, and with accumulating data which is stored in "memory;" what a different concept of learning that imagery produces for us than when most learning was from manual tasks that were learned through the tutoring of others.
The fallacy of linearity is to believe that the story we actively constructed of cause, effect, and influence when trying to understand something will have an equal benefit to another person (a student) when our conclusions are memorized. It's easy to forget that we explain linearly, but we don't learn linearly. Students who are good at memorizing will do well when we ask this of them, but they are not the ones who will discover the most important knowledge. I remember talking at a conference held at Google, and saying that our system of education leaves all but the brightest feeling that they are not good learners. Quickly after I finished some student interns at Google came up to me and said, "Even though we were seen as the brightest ones on our schools, because we got there knowing how to game the system, we actually also left school not actually feeling confident as learners." Wow.
As much as I love to read the great reports that come out about learning, schools, and educational technology, I often think we make mirror this fallacy of linearity with teachers. For those who got together, did the research, asked the interesting questions, and then worked together to understand something about students and learning, I'm sure that was a great experience. However, when you give the results to educators and ask them to implement, but don't involve them in the process themselves of looking at the data, asking their own questions, and then building their own understandings and plans (you just want them to implement your conclusions), then you're treating them like robots and not like people. This is why I think it's so important to build learning communities and plans as locally as possible, and why I think it's so important to involve stakeholder groups in doing so. And this is why I think the learning revolution will come from using the incredible technologies of the Internet to connect and share and build together--and not from large-scale data collection, tracking, and system-building.
See you online!
Steve
Steve Hargadon
www.stevehargadon.com
