ISTE 2010 and Assorted Professional Learning Links

From an Oz blogger: Judy O'Connell thoughts on excellence at ISTE

David Warlick on another "R"

Reflections entitle "The Digital Generation" by Kristina Peters on one of the sessions she attended.

Reflections by Angela Maiers.

... and for our general professional learning ...

The networked student model for construction of personal learning environments: Balancing teacher control and student autonomy. Drexler, W. (2010).

I like this nifty google search graphic

Evaluating Website Content and Services for Student Access (1)

I have already posted some tips on this topic. Read them here:

Evaluating online products

Students registering to use web2.0 tools at school

Teachers need to maintain the currency of their professional skills and knowledge to effectively evaluate websites in the context of online learning for students of various ages.

I am thinking of an expanded checklist of criteria beyond reliability, authenticity and so on.

Today, it is also about: service, product, free now, games, login, over 13, sharing functionailty, adult/mature content, violence, parent role and and many more too infrequently considered aspects of a website.

"Potentially objectionable" is a key concept to explore.

I am formulating further comments about the wide range of issues relevant for this post. 

A work in progress.

Professional Learning - Who is Responsible?

An interesting post by Doug Woods has stirred me to action again.

He has a post entitled:
“Do we really need to explain to teachers why they should be using technology in their lessons?”

Better, he writes: "What may be lacking in some teachers is the knowledge of ‘what’ technology to use or ‘how’ it can be used."

His post is actually about training, I mean "professional learning".

My view remains, it is the responsibility of each teacher to maintain quality, effective practice by engaging willingly and proactively in relevant professional learning.

Online Safety - More about the Key Concepts (6)

This is a topic that will just keep on going. New programs and ideas to manage ever-more challenging issues.

Schools put safety curbs on student web access - filtering rules and appropriate supervision.

Reporting on the McAfee Report and the online life of teens with a post by Larry Magid.

Yahoo gives views about how parents protect children online.

This website gives parents tips on how to protect children who play online games. I hope this site is available now, it was down when I last checked.

Now for some thoughts on employee safety and enterprise security:

Malware threats via social networking websites.

Putting policy to support business use of social media.


I hope these links are all new.  There is a fair amount of revisiting of effective programs.

Professional Learning - How to make a difference [2]

Read this post on conjunction with my DER series.

Denise Loft's wiki that supports her mentoring and professional learning programs.

Melissa Giddens has worked extensively on OneNote in her school. Here, she is moving forward with a broader and more intensive program of professional learning.

Many NSW teachers are exploring creative ways to motivate colleagues and encourage thinking about quality teaching practice.

Breakfast and lunch sessions are a practical start.

Professional Learning - How to Make a Difference

This is the type of post that we all want to read.

Bianca Hewes at Davidson HS is doing some very thoughtful work, read professional learning with staff at the school. Her model, which is pushing the DE Revolution forward in an authentic way,  is worth replicating

All things DER - an update for principals in the Hunter by the prolific and passionate Phillippa Cleaves.

Models for Learning and Teaching - Is either or realistic? My question in relation to Darcy Moore's latest post. Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future.

Ubiquitous devices, ubiquitous learning and ubiquitous education posted by Steven Wilson by Jorge Reyna

From Ollie Bray in Scotland a post on digital technology- children and young people.

Finally, another insight into a well-known thinking tool - the SOLO Taxonomy

Professional Learning - Opportunities to Engage with Change (2)

Many posts and articles can be put under this umbrella term.

Ben Jones has written a thought-provoking post - If we can't teach ourselves, who can we teach?

New York Times magazine on effective teaching ideas - as series of videos.

Worst practice in ICT use in education from the World Bank blog.

Being aware when caution is need-questions about online chat 

May be follow-up posts.

Professional Learning - Opportunities to Engage with Change (1)

There are so many interlocking elements of any plan to refocus or change teaching practice.

Bianca Hewes speaks about presenting to her colleagues at a recent School Development Day.

It is even more a must now for teachers to be able to effectively evaluate for learning a wide range of website content and services.

More about the Iowa 1:1 laptop initiative. Worth keeping an eye on their wikispace too.

I have posted before about this very valuable resource - digital literacy toolkit.

Always worthwhile revisiting posts by Sue Wyatt, here is a letter to parents of Year 6/7 about their children blogging and the expectations she has about effective practice.

Look at for more in this series.

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (4)

This series looks like continuing for a while.  Blog and twitterati always have something to say about teaching and learning.  Again, this one is a bit of a mishmash of posts, links articles, I feel are relevant.

Microsoft guides for teachers

A teacher wiki full of resources.

ReadWriteWeb has an article: Do kids read blogs? New study aims to confuse. 

Hooked on Thinking.

Finally, from Dianne Mackenzie, Information literacy is the basis for all learning

NSW Public Schools - Critical Elements of Curriculum Design (1)

A useful extract from: Curriculum Support for teaching in English 7-12. Volume 14, No.4, 2009

This overview is an extract from a segment in this publication relating to programming for Gifted and Talented students. It is in fact the template for effective programming for all students.

Curriculum design
"The design process should first specify what students are to achieve. The BOS syllabuses determine the scope and sequence of learning, and before a unit of work begins, teachers should decide how they will know whether students have achieved the outcomes. The syllabus outcomes are the minimum that students are expected to achieve, and can be modified or extended to meet the learning needs of gifted and talented students. If the outcomes are modified, the teaching and learning activities and assessment must also
be modified.

The second element of curriculum design is the NSW Quality Teaching (QT) model, which is a generalised model of pedagogy based on teacher effectiveness research (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2003). The dimensions of the QT model, Intellectual quality, Significance and Quality learning environment, need to be interpreted in the light of the needs and characteristics of gifted and talented students.

The third element of curriculum design is the use of curriculum models such as those of Bloom (1956), Maker (1982) and Williams (1993), which provide ideas for the modification of curriculum content, instruction, students’ products and learning environments to develop engaging and challenging activities. "

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (2)

This post is a bit of a mish-mash of links on topics that I feel are linked to this braod issue.

Effective teaching and learning - quick start guides provide an introduction to a range of practices.

Report from the learning and the brain conference

Teachers are learners too - an interesting blog post.

Transforming Learning ... No, Really an interesting post by Will Richardson.

Adobe Creative Commons resources released after the recent Adobe Leaders Conference.

Paul Wilson prezi for a School Development Day provides inspiration for teachers to update their practice.

Our children telling us how they want to learn. Links to the recent Kaiser Foundation Report.

An initiative from Calgary, Canada: High schools aim to have every pupil using a laptop

Classroom set-up tool another interactive from Scholastic.

"Wolfram|Alpha is a free online computational knowledge engine that generates answers to questions in real time by doing computations on its own vast internal knowledge base."
Check out the educators page.

The issue of who leads with school libraries

Teaching only to where the teacher feels comfortable.

Social networking in schools - benefits v risks

Check the hype - there's no such thing as "cyber"


I have put this post together over time.  Please let me know of any dead links.

Teaching and Learning in a Digital World (1)

This collection is an assortment of posts, articles and websites that have an interesting bearing on the broad topic of "effective teaching and learning". Everyone has many and diverse views.

A FutureLab project on Digital participation, digital literacy, and school subjects: A review of the policies, literature and evidence

A useful collection of teacher resources created by the Education Department of Victoria

The Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) collection of professional learning videos.

Project Based Learning wiki -practice and theory

Talkin' about igeneration

A slideshare presentation by Pip Cleaves on. Her motto of Connect, Collaborate, Create has considerable power for leaders and learners using social media to inspire change.

Citizenship in the digital age

Teen blogging a good thing, study suggests

Wikipedia relaunch - easier to navigate, search and edit ... reports ReadWriteWeb

Look out for more in this topical issue.

Evaluating websites for "classroom" use: What classroom is that?

Recently, jomcleay tweeted:
Thanks to all who answered with their thoughts about twitter, some really good ideas. Now question is Twitter for classroom? Edmodo?

This tweet and many tweets and blog posts before have finally prompted me to comment on this issue.

Teachers have always reviewed and assessed the suitability of resources of any kind including websites before they use them in the classroom.

In the case of websites that offer login services, it is absolutely vital, that teachers use a checklist of criteria to assess each product or service, before they "direct" students to register or even use during school hours. Some of the critical issues include:

• being very clear about what is suitable for the age-groups you teach
• looking for interactive resources and adaptable lesson ideas from reputable sources. They are in no short supply for educators.
• being fully aware of the risks of using a service website that may reduce the potential benefits
  
• reading and understanding any age eligibility requirements in the Terms of Service or Privacy statements
• understanding the opportunities for and implications of student "sharing" attached to all the features and functionality of service websites.
  

... a short list to start ...

Finally, these articles touch on some of the relevant issues for educators wanting to engage students with the most powerful content and social media services for learning across all subjects.

Wikipedia fit for the classroom.

Is social media just for kids?

Facebook - To filter or not to filter?

Districts change policies to embrace Twitter, Facebook.

Assorted:

Blended learning - NSW CAP initiative

http://trichorder2.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-stood-at-crumbling-edge.html

New literacies and ambiguity a great overview by Doug Belshaw

Look out for my next post on the key concepts and language for teachers to understand when reviewing digital resources for student access.

Effective Teaching and Leading for a Digital Revolution

Every principal needs blog

Use of OneNote by Tami Brass

Kids search more from Joyce Valenza

A Prezi on google search tricks

Same schools, new tools

Digital natives variation in internet skills

Effective practice in a digital age

Effective Teachers

Banish the Powerpoint Curriculum - tips for effective presentations

Vast list of teaching strategies to use in all aspects of teaching

Education Eye- mapping innovations form FutureLab

Top 10 technology tips for new teachers.

Effective Teaching using Online Resources and Services

http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25774/5-Questions-for-Planning-Successful-Web-Based-Activities/

http://blog.learningtoday.com/blog/bid/25777/3-types-of-web-based-instructional-activites-w-examples/

The problems of changing teaching (custom and) practice.

UK article: Education secretary warning to incompetent teachers.

My January Learning 2010 - Reflection on Productivity

During January 2010, I produced 75 posts.

The flurry of literary and digital activity actually began when I started holidays on 18 December. First I finished a couple of "draft" posts that I had in the pipeline for a couple of months. Too busy to get it together.

My January posts consisted of :

1. Blog This! links to useful articles and posts.
2. Various reflections - mine and others.
3. Thoughts on effective teaching and professional learning
4. The language we use and words I would like to avoid
   
5. Several series of posts:
   

• DERNSW- laptops for learning and "i" devices,
  
• My School - improving achievement at home and around the world
• IWB and related technology
  

I was pleased with what I achieved and will make a review of each month's learning a feature of my work.

Teachers or Teaching? Both Matter.

The flesh and blood person in the classroom is important. Effective teaching practice must be endorsed and delivered by this person.

That is what matters and makes a difference.

Technology, it's about the teachers not the tools.

Why certain teachers do jump out of the technology pot.

Focus on the facts. A post on the need for teacher reflection and change.

You mean the teacher still matters a post by Jeff Utecht.

Baffled educators: free and failing.

A blog post reference, by @gregwhitby to the now much tweeted article " What makes a great teacher?

Key Skills, Literacies, Capabilities ...

Five Simple Skills | Betchablog:

Chris Betcher wrote;

"There always seems to be a lot of talk about the need for more teachers to embrace “21st Century skills”. Of course, there’s a lot of discussion about what these “21st Century skills” actually are. Many people have debated and discussed this issue, asking the question of what exactly should today’s learners know in order to function in the “21st Century”.

I’m sure there are a whole lot of really good answers to these questions that dig deeply into effective pedagogy and the deeper philosophy of education. This post is not about those things."

This post stimulated some thinking on my part. I noted that Chris Betcher listed the following:

I can only agree with ONE of Chris' list and that is "learn to search". I have posted on this topic previously in many references to the effective use of the full power of google search.

His decision to include basic photo and video editing, use html editor and learn to think in hyperlinks does not match most skills that I would consider vital for effective teaching and professional learning in this the second decade of the 21st century.

I do not use the term " 21st century skills". That horizon is another 9 decades to live through and to my mind it is impossible to predict skills essential for 2020 living let alone 2090 living.

After effective searching, I would include:

• deep knowledge of effective teaching practice suitable for digital learning
  
• a willingness to keep on learning professionally through relevant networks
  
• the capacity to reflect on teaching practice and professional learning through short blog posts, wiki references or ...
  
• technical knowledge and skills that facilitate online, multimedia student learning

Hard to stop at 5 ...

#FETC and #BETT2010 Conference Reflection

I enjoy saving the hashtag search and following key global education and edtech conferences on Twitter as they come around.

BETT in the UK is one of the biggest and best. FETC is a useful lead in to NECC/ISTE

FETC Link-o-Rama offer a list of tools to try recommended at the conference.

You BETTer – You BETT! a post by @bevevans22

So far that's it ...

Effective Teaching Strategies - A World of Ideas

Work in Progress. Not very useful so far ...

Daniel Willingham on Learning Styles
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/answer-sheet/daniel-willingham/the-big-idea-behind-learning.html

http://dcps.dc.gov/portal/site/DCPS/menuitem.3d9831ab117a6a932c69621014f62010/?vgnextoid=c2d5e7319d562210VgnVCM2000002a0511acRCRD

Effective Teaching Strategies - Connecticut

This website based on the work of Robert Marzano et al is a useful overview of strategies from "Classroom Instruction that Works"

Apple's Challenge Based Teaching materials.

Direct and Explicit Instruction, Virtually!

Interesting website on assessment strategies from Alaska

Autonomous learner model for programming.

A useful site for a explanations of a range of instructional strategies.