Mind Dump
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Jul 26

Quit arguing about semantics

by Scott McLeod
If we keep arguing about the little stuff and not the ideas, it will take a long time to get from where we are to where we need to be in education. The idea of PLN’s is taking people from places of isolation to places of expanded thinking. We cannot keep saying no to everything without offering alternatives and expect things to change on their own. Rather than spend time arguing semantics, we need to address real issues.
Tom Whitby via http://tomwhitby.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/whats-in-a-name/

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Filed under  //  edtech   social media  

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Jun 1

A Student Speaks: "It Is Exciting to Come to School Again"

by Scott McLeod
attending school turned into a thing that we students HAD to do instead of something we wanted to do; much like taking out the trash or staying home on a Friday night
via http://derondurflinger.blogspot.com/2010/06/student-post-it-is-exciting-to-come-to.html

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Filed under  //  edtech   education   laptops   learning  

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May 20

You're getting bored just reading this, aren't you?

by Scott McLeod

Sitting and listening can be boring. Really boring. Thirteen years of mandatory education, followed, for many, by four or more years of higher education. Then company meetings, professional seminars, continuing education so you can get promoted and go to even more, even longer meetings and seminars. You're getting bored just reading about it, aren't you?

Most people don't give much thought to all the years they spent sitting and listening as children. They're just glad it's over. But if we're trying to educate children who have at their disposal an ever broadening spectrum of consumer technology, even as they contend with ever decreasing attention spans, the time-tested methods are no longer sufficient.

via http://thejournal.com/Articles/2010/05/19/From-Instruction-to-Construction-Rethinking-the-Classroom-Model-with-Globaloria.aspx?p=1

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Filed under  //  edtech   gaming  

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May 17

Smartboards just make the old model way more expensive

by Scott McLeod
Smartboards don’t change the model that’s broken. They just make that model way more expensive.
via http://www.edumorphology.com/2010/05/why-smartboards-are-a-dumb-initiative/

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May 12

Generational thinking about being online

by Scott McLeod
We are probably the last generation that will make the distinction between being online and not being online
Shelley Blake-Plock via http://chalkdust101.wordpress.com/2010/05/11/the-questions-they-wont-ask/

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May 5

We are in uncharted territory

by Scott McLeod
the enthusiasts among us tread into uncharted territory.  We take the lead because there is no one to guide us.  We try new things and figure it out as we go along.  The results are sometimes messy, but that’s because we are the first … we are attempting things with our classrooms that have never been done before.
Graham Whisen via http://ideaconnect.edublogs.org/2010/05/04/moving-schools-forward/

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May 5

We must use the technology to properly evaluate it

by Scott McLeod
we must use the technology to properly evaluate it.  In many districts students aren’t even allowed to use the technology, so how could teachers help them critically examine the technology? Instead, the students are left to “figure it out on their own”.
Jerrid Kruse via http://www.isteconnects.org/2010/05/05/web-filters-filtering-learning/

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Apr 21

Individualization of both assessment and instruction are in our grasp

by Scott McLeod
... education customized to the needs and circumstances of students has been the dream of progressive educators since John Dewey. Today, the search for that price point has been legalized. Special educators are required by federal law to come up with individualized education plans that customize programming to the particular needs of a child with disabilities. Struggles over bilingual education are difficult to resolve because the correct mix of native- and English-language instruction can vary with each child’s age and background. Getting to the price point has proved elusive for the simple reason that each child is ready to learn a somewhat different body of material, and each learns best in a somewhat different way.

But now, for the first time, technology is making it possible to teach to a student’s price point. As Howard Gardner put it: “So long as we insist on teaching all students the same subjects in the same way, progress will be incremental. But now for the first time it is possible to individualize education—to teach each person what he or she needs and wants to know in ways that are most comfortable and most efficient.”

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Filed under  //  edtech   learning   teaching  

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Apr 21

Why change in schools is needed

by Scott McLeod
Change is needed because our students are facing a world in which local business now occurs globally, technology breaks down old barriers, and information is infinite
Judy Jeffrey via http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100421/NEWS02/4210356/1004

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Filed under  //  edtech   education   reform  

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Apr 12

The reaction to the iPad is a very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy

by Scott McLeod

In one sense, the reaction to the iPad is a very clear indicator of one's educational philosophy. If you are a teacher, administrator or politician who sees the school's role as filling little empty buckets with prescribed information, the iPad is a potential fire hose. It CAN deliver content, and given Apple's control over the apps that run on the device, that content can be provided by a very select number of publishers.

But if your idea of an educated person is one who constructs knowledge, solves problems, and communicates effectively, this is not the tool for you - at least at the current time.

Doug Johnson via http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2010/4/11/ied.html

 

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Mar 23

Why are we still ... ?

by Scott McLeod
why are we still so keen on having our students memorize facts when we have no idea whether they can develop informed points of view of what those facts meant, mean or might mean to the future. Why are we using one dimensional textbooks when the stories we wish to tell can be brought to life with the multi-media experiences available to anyone with a modem and a computer? Especially, since the textbooks are coming out of Texas which wants our students to believe that evolution is a theory like creationism and that the civil rights movement created unrealistic expectations for minorities. Do we really want to codify that kind of thinking?
via http://dotsie1.blogspot.com/2010/03/lately-on-dangerously-irrelevant.html

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Filed under  //  edtech   education   learning   teaching   technology  

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Mar 19

Extending learning beyond the bounds of the school day

by Scott McLeod
the restriction of learning to the moments we spend in the classroom with our students is disrespectful of our students time. Why should we set parameters on their willingness to engage in learning?
Patrick Higgins' Cover Letter to Everyone, via http://chalkdust101.wordpress.com/2010/03/19/cover-letter-to-everyone/

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Mar 9

If students don't want to pay attention, the laptop is the least of your problems

by Scott McLeod

Plenty of professors still allow laptops. Siva Vaidhyanathan, an associate professor of media studies and law at U-Va., generally permits them in his classes. He remembers his own college diversion: reading newspapers surreptitiously on the floor beneath his desk. He believes that, ultimately, it is a professor's job to hold the class's attention.

"If students don't want to pay attention, the laptop is the least of your problems," he said.

Vaidhyanathan, an Internet scholar, senses a losing battle. In an era of iPhones and BlackBerrys, Internet-ready cellphones have become just as prevalent in classrooms as laptops, and equally capable of distraction. If professors had hoped to hermetically seal their teaching space by banning laptops, they might be about three years too late.

via http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/08/AR2010030804915_pf.html

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Filed under  //  edtech   higheredtech  

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Mar 8

8 norms for the Net Generation

by Scott McLeod
To reshape pedagogy, Tapscott says that we must consider eight norms for the Net Generation: freedom, customization, scrutiny, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, speed, and innovation.
Don Tapscott via ASCD at http://ascd.typepad.com/blog/2010/03/tapscott.html

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Mar 6

Dean Shareski asks: Are we insane?

by Scott McLeod

Imagine it’s 1991. A principal of a large school has students that are doing some really nice writing and art. Imagine of a large publishing company comes to the school and wants to try something different. They offer the principal a chance for every student in the building the opportunity to publish any or all works of their choice. They’ll publish these books of writing and/or art and distribute them to libraries and book stores all over the world. And they’ll do it all for free.

The principal listens to their offer and says, “No thanks.”

Now imagine you’re a parent of children from this school and find out about the offer and the principal’s decline of that offer. Would you be satisfied with that or would you be marching into her office and find out if she’s gone completely insane?

Are we insane for not accepting that same deal that every school on the planet has been offered in 2010?

Dean Shareski via http://ideasandthoughts.org/2010/03/04/are-we-insane/

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Jan 29

Why the iPad may not be the right product for education

by Scott McLeod

Apple’s own iPad website states:

The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and videos.

That might be so, but what’s the best way to create web pages, emails, photos, and videos. That’s the device I want. That’s the device I want in the hands of my students!

Jeff Utecht via http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-ipad-not-the-right-product-for-education

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Jan 28

Bill Ferriter hates interactive whiteboards

by Scott McLeod
I’m willing to argue that even with time and training, interactive whiteboards are an under-informed and irresponsible purchase. They do little more than reinforce a teacher-centric model of learning.
Bill Ferriter via http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2010/01/27/tln_ferriter_whiteboards.html

Found via Russ Goerend, http://opt.posterous.com/teacher-magazine-why-i-hate-interactive-white

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Jan 26

A "generation lap" rather than a "generation gap"

by Scott McLeod

“This is the first time in history when children are an authority on something important. This digital revolution is changing every institution,” Tapscott said. And this, he added, has caused a generation “lap” instead of a generation gap, because kids are lapping parents on the digital track.

“This generation has a big problem - it’s us. The problem, to me, is older people who don’t ‘get it,’” Tapscott said.

Don Tapscott via eSchoolNews, http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/26/digital-natives-need-tech-rich-education/?

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Jan 12

We are "de-skilling" students

by Scott McLeod
In far too many schools, we still "de-skill" students, unplugging them from the mediums they are most comfortable with to teach through methods contemporary to the buggy whip.  We unplug our students, believing that laptops, iPods, cellphones, and even whiteboards have no real place in teaching the three Rs.  As a result, students fail to see the relevance of their education as they judge the delivery and not the content.  In our quest to boost high school graduation numbers and build a more educated workforce, we should be doing everything and anything we can to better connect students to those learning and opportunity pathways.  That not only means technology, but it means well-integrated tech.
via http://blog.eduflack.com/2010/01/11/whiteboarding-uneven-learning.aspx

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