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The Power of Educational Technology: 9 Common Principles for 21st Century Schools
Principles for 21st century schools like rewarding risk taking and teaching empathy. I don't think I've seen anyone else put empathy on their list of 21st century skills, and I'm not quite sure how you teach it.
SpeEdChange: Refusing Free, Depriving Students
Why do schools refuse to use free and open source software options, even when those options would improve accessibility for students? Ignorance? Fear? Politics? Probably some combination of all three.
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If an electrician was too afraid of electricity to touch a wire, he'd be an electrician no more. So if an educator is afraid of the information and communication technologies of his/her age, then he/she can no longer be an "educator" in any meaningful way.
Alice and Kev
Digital storytelling using the Sims 3, telling the tale of a homeless father and daughter. Really great emotional work with both the images and the writing.
Will at Work Learning: New Research Report on Using Culturally, Linguistically, and Situationally Relevant Scenarios
Research on how to support learning with scenarios that are relevant to the specific situation. Even though this is explicitly about workplace training, the major recommendations could be adapted for instructional design in education contexts too.
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Utilize decision-making scenarios. Consider using them not just in a minor role—for example at the end of a section—but integrated into the main narrative of your learning design.
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Determine the most important points you want to get across AND the most important situations in which these points are critical. Then, provide extra repetitions spaced over time on these key points and situations.
Only for MY Kid
1998 article by Alfie Kohn on barriers to progressive changes in education, with some proposals for better approaches for working with parents to help them see the benefits
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McClaren, who looks back on what happened from his new
post several states away, says he made "two fatal assumptions" when he
started: "I thought if it was good for kids, everyone would embrace it,
and I thought all adults wanted all kids to be successful. That's not
true. The people who receive status from their kids' performing well in
school didn't like that other kids' performance might be raised to the
level of their own kids'."
Inside Higher Ed: The Impact of Dropping the SAT
Want to improve diversity at a college without spending a lot of money? Drop the requirement for SAT or ACT as part of admissions.
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These models suggest that any move away from the SAT or ACT in competitive colleges results in significant gains in ethnic and economic diversity. But the gains are greater for colleges that drop testing entirely, as opposed to just making it optional.
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The findings appear to confirm what SAT critics have said for years: that reliance on the SAT in college admissions favors applicants who are white and/or wealthier than other applicants.
Role Models in Educational Technology on Ada Lovelace Day | Janet Clarey
Extensive list of women in educational technology, including many bloggers. A number of new names for me here.
Designing for Social Justice
Short PDF ebook (60 pages) on using user-centered design and technology to promote social justice in learning
ZaidLearn: 27 Inspiring Women Edubloggers
Zaid Ali Alsagoff responds to the discussion about his previous edublogger list being male-dominated (22-3) with a list of women edubloggers. Also check the comments, especially Janet Clarey's explanation of why this discussion matters (with 10 full APA citations--gotta love it).
Groups Vs Networks: The Class Struggle Continues ~ Stephen's Web ~ by Stephen Downes
Transcript of a talk about the differences between groups and networks. Downes situates networks between individuals and groups, as a place where individuals are associated and connected but more diverse than groups. Interesting ideas for assessment and supporting diversity.
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Those of you who've taken political science know that all of human history in political science is the division between the individual and the state. Right? The person and the group, right? And these are the two divides. And the whole purpose of politics is to find some sort of accommodation for them or if you're Ayn Rand, to favor the individual and ignore the group.
And it seems to me that networks offers that middle way. Networks offers that path that isn't the individual and isn't the group, doesn't force you to choose between the individual and the group. -
But more or less, a group is a collection of entities or members according to their nature or their feature or their properties or whatever, their essential nature, maybe, their accidental nature, maybe, whatever, but according to their nature. What defines a group is the quality the members possess in common and then the number of members in that group. Groups are about nature, they're about quality, they're about mass. They're about number.
A network, by contrast, is an association â I use that word very precisely â an association of entities or members where this association is facilitated or created by a set of connections between those entities. And if you say, "Well what is a connection?" A connection is merely some conduit along which a signal can run. Well, that clarified it, didn't it? What defines a network is the nature and the extent of this connectivity. The nature and the extent to which these individuals are connected together. - 3 more annotations...
Main Page - Social Justice Wiki
Collection of student research on social justice organizations in New York City. Created with a wik: each time the professor teaches the class, more organizations will be added to the growing resource.
SpeEdChange: Left Behind
Looking at the resistance to change in education and the need for 21st century skills, with an intriguing perspective on how this connects to our attitudes about ADHD, Asperger's, and other cognitive disabilities.
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This is why - I think unconsciously - so many academics and educators resist contemporary ICT so fiercely. Accepting these new technologies means that the advantages they were taught to prize in themselves - their study habits, their ability to focus, their willingness to depend on authoritative sources and to observe classroom rules - might prove to be their undoing. And the disadvantages they despised in others, ADHD for example, processing information via pictures instead of the abstraction of text as another, the disadvantages that have been labelled as pathological "disabilities," might prove to be advantageous in this new world.
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That ADHD kid might be far better in front of multiple monitors with a dozen windows open and 15 tabs going in Firefox than the professor and former high school valedictorian who is really uncomfortable if a TV is on while she is reading. That Asperger's kid who processes images efficiently might be far better at analysing changing maps than the text-dependent historian.
- 1 more annotations...
Online Tutoring e-Book 6 - Culture and Ethics - Facilitating Online Learning
Although this is written specifically for online tutors, much of the information and advice applies to online facilitators as well. The authors examine cultural differences in the online learning environment, including how diversity affects language, written text, images, metaphors, communication style, and online presence. Appendix B is a chart comparing different linguistic groups and cultures.
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- Is it easier to work across cultures free from visuals cues, which tap into our prejudices?
- Is it harder without visual cues so that we miss sensitive cultural cues?
- Just how do we maximise the diversity and respect for cultures while tutoring online?
Some of the key questions revolve around how culture is, or is not, experienced online:
- Is it easier to work across cultures free from visuals cues, which tap into our prejudices?
Web-based Learning Design: Planning for Diversity
2002 summary of research on how diversity affects online learning, focusing especially on Hispanics. Includes differences in communication due to culture, including differences between different Hispanic populations (i.e., Mexico isn't the same as Guatemala). Also notes that Hispanics are often on the wrong side of the digital divide and may have less prior experience with technology, therefore exhibiting fewer characteristics of the net generation.
JALN: Does one size fit all? Exploring Asynchronous learning in a multicultural environment
Small-scale study of cultural differences in an asynchronous learning environment, focusing on high and low context cultures. Includes a comparison of student perceptions of online learning based on their cultural background. High and low context learners both saw advantages to online learning, but their reasons differ.
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Because computer mediated communications is language (specifically, written
word) dependant, it is subject to the constraints of low/high context
cultural patterns [46]. As indicated earlier, the
role of language is to carry meaning, and interpretation is an integral
part of culture. Language is one means of establishing context among participants
of a particular culture group. In low context cultures, language must
be specific and well defined, to provide the contextual definition in
which to interpret the communication. On the other hand, in a high context
culture language may be vague, lacking the specificity of the low context
culture, as the environment within which communication takes place clarifies
the specific meaning of language [36, 41].
Thus language plays a key role in the communication process. A key issue
determining the success of computer mediated communication is the encoding/decoding
by which that communication is done. Given that computer-mediated communication
is a textual (electronic) rather than a visual (face-to-face) medium,
meaning must be carried by the language itself rather than relying on
the environmental context as the means of communication and/or interpretation.
Given this relationship, because the language of communication is English,
low context communication is presumed, thus perhaps disadvantaging those
whose cultural background relies on high context communication. -
Interestingly,
low context participants concentrate on the participation environment,
while high context participants concentrate on their individual work/effort
and/or skills in the discussion. - 1 more annotations...
An Inclusive Approach to Online Learning Environments: Models and Resources (PDF)
22-page article on designing for diversity in online learning. Examines how cultural differences can affect learning and shares culturally inclusive instructional design models. Table 1 on page 6 compares high-context and low-context learning (such as how formal student-teacher relationships are).
Designing for Diversity Within Online Learning Environments
The author argues that constructivist learning environments where multiple perspectives are respected and there is no single "right "answer" are better for encouraging diversity. The ideas for instructional design for diversity are more theory-based than practice-based, but this has some interesting concepts.
"The major advantage of this learning model is that one of its key design goals is to encourage students to bring multiple perspectives to questions/cases/problems/issues and projects as part of their learning. This approach to learning views diversity as a strength to be exploited rather than a problem to be solved."
absolutely intercultural!
- Educational podcast on intercultural topics - christyinsdesign on 2007-01-10
ParentCentral.ca - News & Features - Where teachers learn diversity
Article from the Toronto Star on integrating diversity in teacher education programs, therefore fostering a sense of respect for diversity in the classroom. Nice example of integrating diverse perspectives in geometry using Moroccan tiles, plus community involvement through parent computer training.
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And before they set foot in a classroom, student teachers must examine their own cultural identity – race, gender, social class, even sexual orientation – so they are aware of the bias they may bring to a classroom.
"Our research shows who you are impacts how you deal with children, so the worst thing is to act colour-blind," said Solomon, whose urban diversity program has graduated more than 1,000 teachers over the past 14 years, many of whom have gone on to school leadership positions in the field of equity.
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"Teachers need to know more than the 3 R's; if you don't know the community your students live in – the social, the racial dynamics – you won't be as effective," said Solomon.
Getting Results
Free online professional development course for community college instructors from WGBH & the League of Innovation. You can follow a linear path or skip around to the parts you want. Content includes diversity, active learning, technology, and assessment.
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Universal Design for Learning: Accessibility and Diversity in the Brandeis Classroom
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