…with the focus on the learners, which can certainly include the teacher. This is the conceptual infrastructure, presented in educator Jackie Gerstein's User-Generated Education blog, for using tech in the classroom. How does it play out? More emphasis on learners and learning, using technology to facilitate that. Starting when a class first meets. Literally – as in everybody really meeting each … [Read more...] about A class as a team of co-learners
school
Now there’s YouTube designed for school
Because most schools block entire social media sites in an effort to keep out inappropriate content, they also block all the perfectly appropriate and even educational content on the social Web. That goes for YouTube too, of course. But "YouTube has a vast library of content, much of which can be used for educational purposes," PC Magazine reports, so Google launched YouTube for Schools, which … [Read more...] about Now there’s YouTube designed for school
To bring learning back into school
This is a mashup of a blog post and a retweet. I'm basically retweeting (Twitter users' term for reposting someone else's tweet because you think it's worth your own followers' attention) educator and author Will Richardson's March 2011 TEDxNYED talk in case you missed it. At about 1:30 into Will's 14-min. talk, he mentions 17-year-old professional cinematographer Mark Klassen in Ontario. Here's … [Read more...] about To bring learning back into school
Students’ PLNs: Great social media use!
This is what it's all about: young people using social media to their intellectual and professional advantage well before they're out of school – and with school helping them with that! What's the "this" I'm referring to? A USATODAY story about teachers, librarians, and media specialists helping students develop their own personal learning networks, using Twitter as the most common tool (this is … [Read more...] about Students’ PLNs: Great social media use!
Why videogames are good for learners
As a gamer – to some extent, not entirely, but enough – you're master of your own fate, and when you're not, you can find help. You're not only in an environment, you're in an experience too – one that changes as you work and conquer problems and keep getting better. So it's progressive but self-paced – but also social, so less boring than purely self-paced. There are rules, but they're like … [Read more...] about Why videogames are good for learners