I actually had a student recently who wrote a paper arguing that education would become worthless in ten years. Depending on your definition of "education," I'm not so sure he was wrong.
This link has been bookmarked by 175 people . It was first bookmarked on 21 Oct 2008, by Heather Dowd.
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16 Oct 14
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16 Jul 11
Anna MelloFrom Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able: Learning in New Media Environments
education teaching learning technology Michael_Wesch students
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Most blamed technology, though for very different reasons. Some simply suggested that new technologies are too distracting and superficial and that they should be banned from the classroom. Others suggested that students are now “wired” differently. Created in the image of these technologies, luddites imagine students to be distracted and superficial while techno-optimists see a new generation of hyper-thinkers bored with old school ways.
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Texting, web-surfing, and iPods are just new versions of passing notes in class, reading novels under the desk, and surreptitiously listening to Walkmans. They are not the problem. They are just the new forms in which we see it. Fortunately, they allow us to see the problem in a new way, and more clearly than ever, if we are willing to pay attention to what they are really saying.
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While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods.
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knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation. In short, they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms.
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And that’s what has been wrong all along. Some time ago we started taking our walls too seriously – not just the walls of our classrooms, but also the metaphorical walls that we have constructed around our “subjects,” “disciplines,” and “courses.”
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Fortunately, the solution is simple. We don’t have to tear the walls down. We just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world, and begin working with students in the pursuit of answers to real and relevant questions.
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20 Jun 11
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31 May 11
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How did institutions designed for learning become so widely hated by people who love learning?
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06 Dec 10
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24 Jul 10
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disengagement
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It was the unquestioned assumption that “getting by” is the name of the game. Our students are so alienated by education that they are trying to sneak right past it.
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Last spring I asked my students how many of them did not like school. Over half of them rose their hands. When I asked how many of them did not like learning, no hands were raised.
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Created in the image of these technologies, luddites imagine students to be distracted and superficial while techno-optimists see a new generation of hyper-thinkers bored with old school ways.
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While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation. In short, they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms.
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We can acknowledge that most of our students have powerful devices on them that give them instant and constant access to this cloud (including almost any answer to almost any multiple choice question you can imagine). We can welcome laptops, cell phones, and iPods into our classrooms, not as distractions, but as powerful learning technologies.
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10 Jul 10
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08 Jul 10
Bill MatriellezSource of one of the videos commented in my blog 42
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10 May 10
Giorgio BertiniIn spring 2007 I invited the 200 students enrolled in the “small” version of my “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” class to tell the world what they think of their education by helping me write a script for a video to be posted on YouTube. The result
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04 Apr 10
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all too pervasive yet narrow and naïve assumption that to learn is simply to acquire information
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times I feel desperate for their attention. I rush to amuse them with jokes and stories as I swing, twist, and swirl that gyromouse, directing the 786,432 pixels dancing points of light behind me, hoping to dazzle them with a multi-media extravaganza.
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cruising Facebook, instant messaging, and texting their friends
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Our students are so alienated by education that they are trying to sneak right past it.
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We love learning. We hate school. What’s worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning.
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today there is something called “the real world” which is foreign and set apart from our schools. When somebody asks a question that seems irrelevant to this real world, we say that it is “merely academic.”
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the wisdom to know when to turn it off.
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25 Feb 10
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20 Feb 10
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18 Feb 10
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Add Sticky Noteso alienated by education that they are trying to sneak right past it.
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What kind of environment is this in which “overthinking” is a problem?
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04 Feb 10
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02 Dec 09
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Tom Daccord"In spring 2007 I invited the 200 students enrolled in the “small” version of my “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” class to tell the world what they think of their education by helping me write a script for a video to be posted on YouTube. The result was the disheartening portrayal of disengagement you see below. The video was viewed over one million times in its first month and was the most blogged about video in the blogosphere for several weeks, eliciting thousands of comments. With rare exception, educators around the world expressed the sad sense of profound identification with the scene, sparking a wide-ranging debate about the roles and responsibilities of teachers, students, and technology in the classroom."
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02 Nov 09
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29 Oct 09
Claude Almansi"There are many faculty around the world who have enthusiastically embraced the challenge to bring meaning and significance back into the classroom. I hope that they will comment here and enrich us all with their ideas. If you are interested in the specifics of how I attempt to solve the significance problem in the large class featured in the video and discussed in this post, check out the World Simulation, a project in which students explore the dynamics of how the world works in order to create a simulation recreating the past 500 years of history and exploring 100 years into the future. I discuss the project and my use of technology in detail in A Portal to Media Literacy, available on YouTube, and in the essay, “Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance.”"
wesch britannica youtube students education learning teaching Michael_Wesch web2.0
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16 Aug 09
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09 Aug 09
Eric Calverthttp://mediatedcultures.net/worldsim.htm
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Some time ago we started taking our walls too seriously – not just the walls of our classrooms, but also the metaphorical walls that we have constructed around our “subjects,” “disciplines,” and “courses.” McLuhan’s statement about the bewildered child confronting “the education establishment where information is scarce but ordered and structured by fragmented, classified patterns, subjects, and schedules” still holds true in most classrooms today. The walls have become so prominent that they are even reflected in our language, so that today there is something called “the real world” which is foreign and set apart from our schools. When somebody asks a question that seems irrelevant to this real world, we say that it is “merely academic.”
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We can acknowledge that most of our students have powerful devices on them that give them instant and constant access to this cloud (including almost any answer to almost any multiple choice question you can imagine). We can welcome laptops, cell phones, and iPods into our classrooms, not as distractions, but as powerful learning technologies. We can use them in ways that empower and engage students in real world problems and activities, leveraging the enormous potentials of the digital media environment that now surrounds us.
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03 Aug 09
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30 Jul 09
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Mecca SadlerArticle written by the professor who produced the video where college students hold up written statements about themselves & today's learners.
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28 Jul 09
Philippe Scheimannuseful article , I need to finish it and look at this 'famous clip' that had 1 million viewers
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05 Jul 09
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01 Jul 09
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19 Jun 09
Daryl BeresThe room is nothing less than a state of the art information dump, a physical manifestation of the all too pervasive yet narrow and naïve assumption that to learn is simply to acquire information, built for teachers to effectively carry out the relatively simple task of conveying information. Its sheer size, layout, and technology are testaments to the efficiency and expediency with which we can now provide students with their required credit hours.
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02 Jun 09
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28 May 09
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empower and engage students in real world problems and activities, leveraging the enormous potentials of the digital media environment that now surrounds us. In the process, we allow students to develop much-needed skills in navigating and harnessing this new media environment, including the wisdom to know when to turn it off. When students are engaged in projects that are meaningful and important to them, and that make them feel meaningful and important, they will enthusiastically turn off their cellphones and laptops to grapple with the most difficult texts and take on the most rigorous tasks.
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27 May 09
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including the wisdom to know when to turn it off. When students are engaged in projects that are meaningful and important to them, and that make them feel meaningful and important, they will enthusiastically turn off their cellphones and laptops to grapple with the most difficult texts and take on the most rigorous tasks.
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the kids better turn those things off now and pay attention!
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10 Apr 09
Matthew DanielMike describes his new program and rational
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05 Apr 09
Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation. In short, they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms.
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Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation. In short, they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms.
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31 Mar 09
stafford GregoireThe solution.
Fortunately, the solution is simple. We don’t have to tear the walls down. We just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world, and begin working with students in the pursuit of answers to real and relevant questions.
When we do that we can stop denying the fact that we are enveloped in a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where the nature and dynamics of knowledge have shifted. We can acknowledge that most of our students have powerful devices on them that give them instant and constant access to this cloud (including almost any answer to almost any multiple choice question you can imagine). We can welcome laptops, cell phones, and iPods into our classrooms, not as distractions, but as powerful learning technologies. We can use them in ways that empower and engage students in real world problems and activities, leveraging the enormous potentials of the digital media environment that now surrounds us. In the process, we allow students to develop much-needed skills in navigating and harnessing this new media environment, including the wisdom to know when to turn it off. When students are engaged in projects that are meaningful and important to them, and that make them feel meaningful and important, they will enthusiastically turn off their cellphones and laptops to grapple with the most difficult texts and take on the most rigorous tasks.
There are many faculty around the world who have enthusiastically embraced the challenge to bring meaning and significance back into the classroom. I hope that they will comment here and enrich us all with their ideas. If you are interested in the specifics of how I attempt to solve the significance problem in the large class featured in the video and discussed in this post, check out the World Simulation, a project in which students explore the dynamics of how the world works in order to create a simulation recreating the past 500 years of history and exploring 100 years into the future. I discuss the project and my use of technology i -
18 Mar 09
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16 Mar 09
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12 Mar 09
Terry McAndrewArticle around that popular video of today's students
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11 Mar 09
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03 Mar 09
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27 Feb 09
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06 Feb 09
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13 Jan 09
Marielle PalomboCultural anthropologist Michael Wesch offers a provocative analysis of the mismatch between today's schools and today's students and discusses its implications for teaching.
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09 Jan 09
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08 Jan 09
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22 Dec 08
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18 Dec 08
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11 Dec 08
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10 Dec 08
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We don’t have to tear the walls down. We just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world,
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03 Dec 08
Mark BlairThe solution.
Fortunately, the solution is simple. We don’t have to tear the walls down. We just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world, and begin working with students in the pursuit of answers to real and relevant questions.
When we do that we can stop denying the fact that we are enveloped in a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where the nature and dynamics of knowledge have shifted. We can acknowledge that most of our students have powerful devices on them that give them instant and constant access to this cloud (including almost any answer to almost any multiple choice question you can imagine). We can welcome laptops, cell phones, and iPods into our classrooms, not as distractions, but as powerful learning technologies. We can use them in ways that empower and engage students in real world problems and activities, leveraging the enormous potentials of the digital media environment that now surrounds us. In the process, we allow students to develop much-needed skills in navigating and harnessing this new media environment, including the wisdom to know when to turn it off. When students are engaged in projects that are meaningful and important to them, and that make them feel meaningful and important, they will enthusiastically turn off their cellphones and laptops to grapple with the most difficult texts and take on the most rigorous tasks.
There are many faculty around the world who have enthusiastically embraced the challenge to bring meaning and significance back into the classroom. I hope that they will comment here and enrich us all with their ideas. If you are interested in the specifics of how I attempt to solve the significance problem in the large class featured in the video and discussed in this post, check out the World Simulation, a project in which students explore the dynamics of how the world works in order to create a simulation recreating the past 500 years of history and exploring 100 years into the future. I discuss the project and my use of technology i -
20 Nov 08
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17 Nov 08
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13 Nov 08
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Integrating technology into the classroom is window dressing on a more fundamental shift in “education”. Technology enables a more self-directed learning that is in conflict with the relationship between the teacher and the student. The real solution would be to upend the industry of the University and move to a more self-directed approach to learning that discards with the tyranny of psychometrics.
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11 Nov 08
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10 Nov 08
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Have you ever considered that students “just want to get by” because they don’t really want to take your class.
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But I must admit that I enjoy teaching a large class of 400, many of whom enter the class for a requirement, because it gives me an opportunity to reach out to them with insights and transformative experiences that they are highly unlikely to stumble across in self-directed study.
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07 Nov 08
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06 Nov 08
Rem PalpittWhen we do that we can stop denying the fact that we are enveloped in a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where the nature and dynamics of knowledge have shifted. We can acknowledge that most of our students have powerful devices on them that give t
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03 Nov 08
Tania ShekoIn spring 2007 I invited the 200 students enrolled in the “small” version of
my “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” class to tell the world what they
think of their education by helping me write a script for a video to be posted
on YouTube. The result was the disheartening portrayal of disengagement you see
below. The video was viewed over one million times in its first month and was
the most blogged about video in the blogosphere for several weeks, eliciting
thousands of comments. With rare exception, educators around the world expressed
the sad sense of profound identification with the scene, sparking a wide-ranging
debate about the roles and responsibilities of teachers, students, and
technology in the classroom.education Michael_Wesch students britannica learning teaching 21stcenturylearning internationalplp21
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02 Nov 08
In spring 2007 I invited the 200 students enrolled in the “small” version of my “Introduction to Cultural Anthropology” class to tell the world what they think of their education by helping me write a script for a video to be posted on YouTube.
ict students_voice e-learning onderwijs onderwijsveranderingen youtube web2.0 technologie
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Gabriela GrosseckThere are many faculty around the world who have enthusiastically embraced the challenge to bring meaning and significance back into the classroom. I hope that they will comment here and enrich us all with their ideas. If you are interested in the specifi
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31 Oct 08
Guttorm HA Vision of Students Today (& What Teachers Must Do) - M. Wesch utdjupar og kommenterer A vision of students today
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30 Oct 08
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29 Oct 08
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Add Sticky Note
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teh new technology for (old) story telling -Can the iPod be used as a new platform for listening to / learning from others?
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The problem is not just “written on the walls.” It’s built into them
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Hundreds of students would soon fill the chairs
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Add Sticky Noteonly be one person in this room to be heard
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the inequivocal voice of the ONe who is payed to know and show (off) he/she knows.
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narrow
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naïve assumption that to learn is simply to acquire information
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teachers
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carry out the relatively simple task of conveying information
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no match for those blaring iPods
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students cruising Facebook, instant messaging, and texting their friends. The students were undoubtedly engaged, just not with me.
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Add Sticky Notegetting by” is the name of the game
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Yeap - school is a game and if you learn teh rules you can get by - the more strategies u develop, the easier it get to get by the rules. The challenge of school is not to learn, it is to test and push those rules...(guess exam questions, memorize exam answers - do the minum to get the credit - get that damn roll of paper - certificate=prize - at the end of the game.
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What kind of environment is this in which “overthinking” is a problem?
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What’s worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning
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We love learning. We hate school
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Texting, web-surfing, and iPods are just new versions of passing notes in class, reading novels under the desk, and surreptitiously listening to Walkmans
-
our classrooms have been fundamentally changed
-
Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found
-
they tell us that our walls no longer mark the boundaries of our classrooms
-
we started taking our walls too seriously
-
our students struggle to find meaning and significance inside these walls
-
We just have to stop pretending that the walls separate us from the world
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Add Sticky Notebegin working with students in the pursuit of answers to real and relevant questions
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reality learning
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we can stop denying the fact that we are enveloped in a cloud of ubiquitous digital information
-
nature and dynamics of knowledge have shifted
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most of our students have powerful devices on them that give them instant and constant access to this cloud
-
We can welcome laptops, cell phones, and iPods into our classrooms
-
but as powerful learning technologies
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engage students in real world problems and activities
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Heidi CalmaThis is a great article that discusses why students zone out and get by and how we can engage them.
Public Stiky Notes
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