Some thoughts and links on education items that I have enjoyed:
Sir Ken Robinson:
This presentation at TEDTalks in 2006 has been with me for a few years now and it is one that still gets me to think about how schools work for our children.
Frank Furedi
Let’s give children the ‘store of human knowledge’
A look at the importance of education and the fact that it does not change just because technology is changing at this torrent pace.
Yet the main reason education often is not educating is because it finds it difficult to give meaning to human experience. Time and again, curriculum specialists inform us that because we live in a world of rapid change, the conventions and practices of the past have become outmoded, outdated or irrelevant. Present educational fads are based on the premise that because we live in a new, digitally driven society, the intellectual legacy of the past and the experience of grown-ups have little significance for the schooling of children.
Link to article
Yet the main reason education often is not educating is because it finds it difficult to give meaning to human experience. Time and again, curriculum specialists inform us that because we live in a world of rapid change, the conventions and practices of the past have become outmoded, outdated or irrelevant. Present educational fads are based on the premise that because we live in a new, digitally driven society, the intellectual legacy of the past and the experience of grown-ups have little significance for the schooling of children.
Link to article
Arthur Benjamin:
Always interested in math teaching ideas.
Greg Thompson:
"We can’t create a thriving, innovative, creative, vibrant learning environment and pair it with common standards supported by textbooks and assessed by standardized tests. The two ideas are diametrically opposed. To waste time and money attempting to force these two into a relationship would be as futile as Romeo and Juliet’s parents trying to keep them apart."
Greg Thompson gives a quick comment on this issue at his post below. Something worth considering as we look at less money in the budgets and the perceived need to "paint our school with data" to see how we are doing. Stop the insanity!
Link to article
Greg Thompson gives a quick comment on this issue at his post below. Something worth considering as we look at less money in the budgets and the perceived need to "paint our school with data" to see how we are doing. Stop the insanity!
Link to article
Clarence Fisher: Remote Access Blog
This is from a post that I refer to often as I work with technology in my classroom. Fisher has this and much, much more that he shares about his teaching on his blog. Explore it when you have a moment.
I’m concerned with information.
How does information come into your classroom? Who controls it? Who gets to find it and mandate it for use?
A lot of the work I’ve done this year focuses on getting quality information from global sources into my classroom and for my students to use on a daily basis.
Here’s a few idea to consider:
1.) RSS is your friend.
2.) Get flickr and Youtube unblocked! These are the greatest places to find entry points for kids. Have someone interested in Brazil? Bali? Berlin?
3.) Find podcasts you can recommend to your class and have your students subscribe to them. Most of the kids in my class have ipods or other mp3 players which they are surprisingly happy to populate with content that you are talking about in class.
4.) Make friends with Global Voices Online. You will never ever regret it.
5.) Build global collaboration into assignments. My students have worked on basic things like researching a country as part of completing the required social studies curriculum. In order to take advantage of some of the information out there, I require students to get in touch with people who live in other places. This may be as simple as leaving a comment on a blog, a video or a picture. But requiring students to do this builds global contact into assignments.
6.) Keep a current list of other classrooms around the world who are blogging on your class blogroll. Regularly recommend people from other classes who are writing things that are interesting that your own students might want to read.
7.) Talk to your students. Once your students know that you want them thinking, listening, watching and learning about the world, they will begin to watch for new ideas they can bring into class and work with.
I’m concerned with information.
How does information come into your classroom? Who controls it? Who gets to find it and mandate it for use?
A lot of the work I’ve done this year focuses on getting quality information from global sources into my classroom and for my students to use on a daily basis.
Here’s a few idea to consider:
1.) RSS is your friend.
2.) Get flickr and Youtube unblocked! These are the greatest places to find entry points for kids. Have someone interested in Brazil? Bali? Berlin?
3.) Find podcasts you can recommend to your class and have your students subscribe to them. Most of the kids in my class have ipods or other mp3 players which they are surprisingly happy to populate with content that you are talking about in class.
4.) Make friends with Global Voices Online. You will never ever regret it.
5.) Build global collaboration into assignments. My students have worked on basic things like researching a country as part of completing the required social studies curriculum. In order to take advantage of some of the information out there, I require students to get in touch with people who live in other places. This may be as simple as leaving a comment on a blog, a video or a picture. But requiring students to do this builds global contact into assignments.
6.) Keep a current list of other classrooms around the world who are blogging on your class blogroll. Regularly recommend people from other classes who are writing things that are interesting that your own students might want to read.
7.) Talk to your students. Once your students know that you want them thinking, listening, watching and learning about the world, they will begin to watch for new ideas they can bring into class and work with.
Kiran Bir Sethi:
This, also from TEDTalks, caught my eye recently and has allowed me to reflect upon the ability that we all, especially children, have in taking a positive step in a direction that is of interest or concern to us. I Can!
David Warlick: Learning Lifestyle
This is a link to a blog post that David Warlick looks at trying to create a "learning community".
Chris Lehmann: Principal SLA - Philidelipha
One of the best I have found. This is a 5 min speed talk about what school's should look in one man's opinion. I return to this when I need some direction on what a school needs to look like. Link here
Alan November: Learning and technology
Alan provides a very accessible presentation on learning in the 21st century and what is might mean for us as educators and learners.
Gary Stager: My Hope for School
Gary Stager, an internationally recognized educator and consultant, has spent twenty-six years helping teachers on six continents make sense of their roles in the age of personal computing and schools more constructive places for children.
Folk School: The Old Democracy School
Krogerup lies in Humlebaek - an old fishing village - 35 km north of Copenhagen and 8 km south of Elsinore. The dining room is straight out of the great manor park. If you go upstairs to the lecture hall dolls Sound and Sweden up from the east. To the west, the extension of the park will Krogerup forest opened by a long avenue of lime.
School principal the first decade was Hal Koch. Current superintendent is Rikke Forchhammer. Each year, the College Krogerup a Hal Koch Award.
School principal the first decade was Hal Koch. Current superintendent is Rikke Forchhammer. Each year, the College Krogerup a Hal Koch Award.
