Friday, January 29, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/30/2016

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Friday, January 15, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/16/2016

  • tags: design classroom classroom design

  • This article describes what constitutes a growth mindset and what contributes to a false growth mindset. Dweck also offers advice on how to avoid the pitfalls of a false growth mindset.

    tags: growth mindset mindset Edutopia dweck

    • A growth mindset is the belief that you can develop your talents and abilities through hard work, good strategies, and help from others. It stands in opposition to a fixed mindset, which is the belief that talents and abilities are unalterable traits, ones that can never be improved.
    • We typically teach students a growth mindset through online programs that demonstrate how the brain changes with learning (how the neurons grow stronger connections when students work on hard things and stick with them) and how to apply this to their schoolwork.
    • "Great effort" became the consolation prize for children who weren't learning. So the very students who most needed to learn about developing their abilities were instead receiving praise for their ineffective effort.
    • Teachers need to tell the truth. They can acknowledge laudable effort, but they also need to acknowledge when students are not learning effectively, and then work with them to find new learning strategies. (By the way, exhorting students to try hard is another ineffective practice that does not teach a growth mindset.)
    • Skilled educators set high standards for students but then help them understand how to embark on the path to meeting those standards. It's not a hollow promise.
      • In the safety of these classrooms, students can begin to leave behind their fixed mindset and try out the idea that they can develop their abilities. We see this happening when teachers give students:

          
        • Meaningful work
        •  
        • Honest and helpful feedback
        •  
        • Advice on future learning strategies
        •  
        • Opportunities to revise their work and show their learning
        •  

    • In order to work toward more of a growth mindset, we need to observe ourselves and find our triggers. Just spend several weeks noticing when you enter a more threatened, defensive state. Don't judge yourself. Don't fight it. Just observe. Then, as Susan Mackie advises, give your fixed mindset persona a name. Talk to it, calling it by name, when it shows up. Over time, try to recruit it to collaborate on your challenging goals instead of letting it undermine you with doubts and fears.
  • Large archive of movie clips organized by theme and title.

    tags: movieclips video fair use

  • Finished projects as a result of PBL methods. Sorted by grade level.

    tags: project based learning pbl project

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/15/2016

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/13/2016

  • Edtech conferences organized by time of year.

    tags: conferences edtech

  • tags: research technology literacy tech integration

    • Technology is tempting to embed in the classroom en masse. It piques kids’ interests and it is fun to explore. But does it lead to achievement and help students grow as learners? We need to ask ourselves these types of questions if we want to realize the impact that connected education can have on students
    • When words are on a screen, we tend to not stick with content as long as we might when compared to paper.
    • Reasons include more distractions on a screen, such as multimedia enhancements and advertisements, and the “difficulty to see any one passage in the context of the entire text” (Jabr, 2013). These factors can lead to decreased comprehension and understanding.
    • dedicated e-readers with e-ink technology are equivalent to print, as far as the mind is concerned. “
    • So should reading on tablets and laptops be avoided in classrooms? Not if a digital reading experience offers options for learners who need more support.
    • social media isn’t just for the kids. Educators can leverage these connections to their advantage.
    • In a recent study, teenagers originally from Mexico living in the US saw improvement in acquiring English skills through interacting within Facebook communities (Stewart, 2014). These adolescents also felt more supported and connected when they were able to communicate with others using their native language.
    • Sherry Turkle, a scientist from MIT, found that empathy can be reduced by up to 40% in college students when they prioritize online relationships over in person conversations (Turkle, 2015).
    • What we allow at school needs to be balanced with an awareness of the often unrestricted access students have at home and the community.
    • Integrating digital devices into the classroom tends to accentuate current instruction but does not improve poor practice (Toyoma, 2015)
    • college students who do not use a digital device during class show better understanding of the content taught compared to students who did (Shirkey, 2014)
    • In fact, the mere presence of a laptop or tablet was distracting to those around the student using technology.
    • Keep it simple. If the digital devices lack a natural point for integration, don’t shoehorn it in for the sake of making instruction “connected.” Pedagogy trumps technology.
    •  

      Use technology.

       

      Not too much, at home and school.

       

      Mostly for learning.

  • This post provides tools and ideas for how to build a personal learning network.

    tags: pln personal learning network

  • Three technologies: one for keeping track of personal belongings, one for being an engaged observer and notetaker, one for blogging.

    tags: technologies tech tools

  • tags: googleclassroom Google classroom google_classroom google chrome

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/09/2016

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Educational Resources & Tech Tools 01/02/2016

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.