William Gaskins - Bookmarks

“open book exam” concept into allowing students to use resources that take them beyond the boundaries of the classroom and enable them to draw on outside sources - the web, other books, their own personal networks - using whatever tools they choose - mobile phones, computers, iPods, PDAs, etc - in order to be assessed on their learning
not that our students should be able to respond correctly to the things they were specifically taught in school. The real skill is that they should be able to respond appropriately to things that they were NOT specifically taught at school. We need to prepare them not to know answers, but to solve problems. And in a world where many of the problems to be solved have not yet even been identified as problems, how do we prepare children for this future that does not yet exist?
I need a doctor who can think holistically, use intuition effectively, connect seemingly unrelated ideas, find current research and communicate with other expert practitioners to get the answers I need.
If that means they need to Google for an answer, call someone for a second opinion, or grab the manual to look something up, then that ought to be ok. It’s about getting the problem solved and if they need to use their resourcefulness or contacts or tools to solve the problem then so be it.
using the tools at their disposal to find effective answers to the problems they are being asked to solve.
I keep reading comments in the feed that talk about how it was not like this when they were a kid, about how the system of rote learning worked for them (as though the world is still the same), about how we need to teach kids to pass exams because that what universities expect (and the rest of the world?)
Many of my students seem to have the impression that having the ability to look something up in their information rich world is enough. But finding the correct answer is only the beginning. Why is it a correct answer? Is it the best correct answer? Are you certain the answer you found truly is correct?
Critical reflection on the learning process is the future. Some will adapt early, others eventually and others will never. No biggy in that.

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South Carolina Technology Proficiency System

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more fromeportfolio.ed.sc.gov

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K12 Online Conference 2008 | Week in the Classroom“Wiki Collaboration Across the Curriculum”

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The Tempered Radical: Does Congress REALLY Back 21st Century Learning?

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BBC NEWS | Technology | US to back 21st century learning

Tags: 21st, bbc, ict, technology on 2008-08-23 and saved by 12 people -All Annotations (0) -About

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The US Congress has given the go-ahead for a new centre to explore ways advanced computer and communications technologies can improve learning.
American businesses know that they need a well-educated workforce to face growing competition from China, India and Europe.
People assumed that the explosion of innovation in information tools in business and service industries would automatically move into classrooms.
Education is falling further and further behind the rest of the economy and we have to rethink our basic approach to helping people learn,
learning scientists and educators have known for years that people learn faster if education can be personalised and if students are motivated by seeing how their knowledge can help them solve problems they care about.
oday's generation is very comfortable with using tools like iPods and computers and gaming, but when they go into the classroom none of that is there and there is this sense of an opportunity we are just not grasping,
centre will concentrate on understanding how to use technology to help everyone learn in a more effective and interesting way that makes that knowledge stick.