School Reform & Student Diversity: Case Studies of Exemplary Practices for LEP Students
Case studies of several schools helping ELL students.
italki - Language Exchange and Learning Community
This site helps connect people to learn languages. You can find a partner to practice your skills through IM, VOIP, etc. Also includes a Q&A and resources section.
An educational technology dead end? | BlogHer
An online instructor explains her problems with Sakai and with LMSs in general
FREE -- Federal Resources for Educational Excellence
Portal for teaching resources from multiple US government sites--NASA, DOE, etc. Lesson plans and some primary source material are included.
21st Century Skills
enGauge framework for 21st century digital literacy skills
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills - Framework for 21st Century Learning
Framework for digital skills, broken into 4 areas
- Core subjects & 21st century themes
- Learning and Innovation Skills
- Information, Media, & Technology Skills
- Life and Career Skills
YouTube - A Vision of K-12 Students Today
A synthesis of information from several videos, including Michael Wesch's "Vision of Students Today" and Karl Fisch's "Did You Know." The style is similar to Wesch's video, where students hold up signs with text. This isn't so much new or innovative as a great example of a remix of content for a specific audience, focusing more on K-12 teachers.
Learning Technology: A Framework for Assessing Learning Outcomes in Online Business Simulations
Extensive paper evaluating the success of three business simulations based on both learning demonstrated within the simulation and learning transfered to real world skills
CyberBee
The Adventures of Cyberbee are lessons and curriculum resources for using primary sources in K-12 classrooms. Includes some copyright lessons too.
Instructional Technology Resources: Digital Denizens
Instead of Prensky's simple dichotomy of digital native vs. digital immigrant, this author provides additional categories depending on technology use and attitudes rather than age. Includes a quiz for determining where you fit (I'm a digital addict).
Edublogs search
Custom Google search limited to education blogs and related sites, created by Stephen Downes
Recap: Women in the edublogosphere 2007 | Janet Clarey
Janet Clarey's extensive list of women edubloggers, with descriptions of why she enjoys reading them. When Janet started blogging last year, she felt there was a lack of female voices, so she started looking for and linking to great blogs written by women.
The Art of Building Virtual Communities (Techlearning blog)
Two models for understanding roles in online communities: 4L (Linking, Lurking, Learning, Leading) and 4C (Consumer, Commentor, Contributor, Commentator). Also includes some questions and ideas about what makes healthy online communities.
21st-Century Workforce: T.H.E. Journal Online
Looking at skills current graduates are lacking: critical thinking, problem solving, communication. The emphasis on NCLB and standardized tests means less emphasis on these deeper and necessary skills. The solution proposed is to make the curriculum more relevant by integrating these skills throughout.
What's Wrong With This Picture?
Explains how TTWWADI (That's The Way We've Always Done It) affects decisions. One example is how modern rail widths are based on ruts from Roman chariots from 2000 years ago. Any real change in education (or any organization) has to fight against TTWWADI.
Weblogg-ed » Local Connections and Global Connections
Will Richardson, about the Educon 2.0 conference. Great quote about technology from Chris Lehmann. One of Will's insights is that although we often talk about technology in terms of global connections, the connections within the local community also benefit from technology integration.
As Chris says often, “Technology is not additive; technology is transformative.”
Finally, the one real head twister that I got yesterday was during Chris’s own session when he was talking about how his thinking is moving away from the “having kids publish globally to the world” product piece of all of this a “let’s focus on the process of community building and publishing within the walls” approach.
The culture of sharing and participation that is created within the local community is more important almost that making those connections outside.
Innovate: Online Teaching and Classroom Change: The Trans-Classroom Teacher in the Age of the Internet
Research on teachers doing both face-to-face and online teaching. 75% of the teachers said that teaching online improved their face-to-face teaching. Course design and communication changes were most common, but some teachers also added multimedia.
Education Week's Digital Directions: Finding Online Science Sources
Descriptions of several good resources for online science materials, including NSTA's SciLinks and the National Science Digital Library
elearnspace: Community
Collection of resources for online learning communities and communities of practice from George Siemens
SEDL Product: Creating a Professional Learning Community: Cottonwood Creek School: Issues About Change, Volume 6, Number 2
Creating professional learning communities in K-12 schools
Creating Learning Communities
Resources, discussion lists, and an online book about creating learning communities, especially communities of "self-learners"
Learning Communities - Monograph
Overview and examples of learning communities, plus steps for getting started
Creating Passionate Users: Ten Tips for New Trainers/Teachers
Kathy Sierra, from 2005, arguing that simply having taken a lot of classes doesn't make one a good teacher or trainer ("I'd make a good brain surgeon, because I've HAD brain surgery.") However, she also argues that motivated people can be self-taught.
But with that out of the way, nobody needs a PhD (or in most cases -- any degree at all) in education or learning theory to be a good teacher. Just as there are plenty of great software developers and programmers without a CompSci degree. People <i>can</i> be self-taught, and do a fabulous job, for a fraction of the cost of a formal education, but they have to be motivated and they have to appreciate why it's important.
Cooperative Learning
Benefits and activities using cooperative learning. The activities assume a face-to-face classroom, but could be adapted for online learning.
BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Google U
Jeff Jarvis asks what the disaggregated university would look like, with students and professors both picking and choosing the best of what they wanted.
Start here: Why should my son or daughter have to pick a single college and with it only the teachers and courses offered there?
Similarly, why should a professor pick just from the students accepted at his or her school? Online, the best can pick from the best, cutting out the middleman of university admissions.
Once you put all this together, students can self-organize with teachers and fellow students to learn what they want how and where they want. My hope is that this could finally lead to the lifelong education we keep nattering about but do little to actually support. And why don’t we? Because it doesn’t fit into the degree structure. And because self-organizing classes and education could cut academic institutions out of the their exclusive role in education.
Big6: An Information Problem-Solving Process
Information and technology literacy model plus curriculum for K-12 through higher ed. Can be used as a problem solving model too. Includes 6 stages: task definition, information seeking strategies, location & access, use of information, synthesis, and evaluation.
Additional connectivism resources and discussion
Resources on connectivism, including transcripts of the presentations from the 2007 Online Connectivism Conference
growing changing learning creating: Relying on inner teachers
Looking at changing education and giving learners control of their own learning, letting their "inner teachers" guide them.
When we assume each student has an inner teacher within their minds, we will stop interfering with the discovery, cultivation and trust building with that inner teacher. The inner teacher will come to the fore of the students learning experiences and and reconfigure how they picture learning occurring. Problems with a particular learning challenge or patterns of learning efforts will get worked out between the student and the inner teacher who already knows what the underlying problems are.
When immersed in learning from everything that happens, people will appear very fascinating to each other. No two people will be the same and offer so much more to explore as their mysterious nature captivates other learners. The process of getting learned about by others-- will give each a feeling of being understood. A context of mutual respect, insight and acceptance will dramatically reduce the urge to get attention, get even or act out frustrations.
» Thinking ’bout Linking Bud the Teacher
Reflections on how writing for online is different than writing for text. How do we teach connective writing that uses the full potential of what real blogging can be, as opposed to just "writing with blogs"?
21st Century Learning: We Got Your Back
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach starts with how Skype is a disruptive technology, explaining conversations with Al Upton (miniLegends' teacher). She transitions into what it means to be a teacher leader in the 21st century and mentions research on the long-term learning benefits of innovative teaching.
These are the roles of a 21st Century educator: Teacher as leader, Teacher as writer, Teachers as 21st Century literacy activist.