JUST TOOLS

The Head Project (Holistic Evidence and Design), a research study of the impacts of the built environment of UK primary schools (4-11 years) on the learning rates of students, is the first study to identify the impact of the built environment on children's learning.

Six factors came out as particularly influential: light, choice for the user, flexibility, connections (such as corridors and the way different areas fit together), complexity (for instance having different types of learning areas) and colour.

There were surprises. It appears easier to over-stimulate students with vibrant colours and busy displays, than to create calm but interesting environments suitable for learning.

Don't be cautious.  If you have the right technology, little can go wrong. This is is a great reminder of what matters in education (strike that) learning. 

Lets work to get all kids excited about education. I know my Kindergartener works the iPad as well as I can! #equalityforallages

An important view!

Not as critical as the title may suggest, and reason number 6 is particularly true.

Having ones wife go back to university brings a lot of new readings and discussions to the dinner table :)

"Working smarter in the future workplace starts by organizing to embrace networks, manage complexity, and build trust. The 21st century connected enterprise is a new world of work and learning." We are trying to build community and not just teams. Trust is a community quality. What happens when we disagree? Trust answers that question.

On the negative side, we are seeing that simple work keeps getting automated, like automatic bank machines. Complicated work, for which standardized processes can be developed, usually gets outsourced to the lowest cost of labor.

On the positive side, complex work can provide unique business advantages and creative work can help to identify new business opportunities. However, complex work is difficult to copy and creative work constantly changes.

But both complex and creative work require greater implicit knowledge. Implicit knowledge, unlike explicit knowledge, is difficult to codify and standardize. It is also difficult to transfer.

Implicit knowledge is best developed through conversations and social relationships. It requires trust before people willingly share their know-how. Social networks can enable better and faster knowledge feedback for people who trust each and share their knowledge. But hierarchies and work control structures constrain conversations. Few people want to share their ignorance with the boss who controls their paycheck.But if we agree that complex and creative work are where long-term business value lies, then learning amongst ourselves is the real work in organizations today. In this emerging network era, social learning is how work gets done.

Becoming a successful social organization will require more than just the implementation of enterprise social technologies. Developing, supporting, and encouraging people to use a range of new social workplace skills will be just as important. Individual skills, in addition to new organizational support structures, are both required.

Personal knowledge management (PKM) skills can help to make sense of, and learn from, the constant stream of information that workers encounter from social channels both inside and outside the organization. Keeping track of digital information flows and separating the signal from the noise is difficult. There is little time to make sense of it all. We may feel like we are just not able to stay current and make informed decisions. PKM gives a framework to develop a network of people and sources of information that one can draw from on a daily basis. PKM is a process of filtering, creating, and discerning, and it also helps manage individual professional development through continuous learning.

Collaboration skills can help workers to share knowledge so that people work and learn cooperatively in teams, communities of practice, and social networks. In order to support collaborative working and learning in the organization, it is important to experience what it means to work and learn collaboratively, and understand the new community and collaboration skills that are involved. “You can’t train someone to be social, only show them how to be social.” Practice is necessary.

The power of social networks, like electricity, will inevitably change almost every existing business model. Leaders need to understand the importance of organizational architecture. Working smarter in the future workplace starts by organizing to embrace networks, manage complexity, and build trust. The 21st century connected enterprise is a new world of work and learning.

For example, traditional training structures, based on institutions, programs, courses and classes, are changing. Probably the biggest change we are seeing is that the content delivery model is being replaced by more social and collaborative frameworks. This is due to almost universal Internet connectivity, especially with mobile devices, as well as a growing familiarity with online social networks.

Work is changing and so organizational learning must change. There is an urgent need for organizational support functions (HR, OD, KM, Training) to move beyond offering training services and toward supporting learning as it is happening in the digitally connected workplace. The connected workplace will not wait for the training department to catch up.

An example of a crowdsourcing (social voting) tool, Tricider.  Plus an interesting (and growing) list related to training teachers to use technology.  Chime on in!

Do you have what it takes? Can you get it?

Check also:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching?tag=L2L

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching?tag=Life-Long-Learning

Transmedia, Learning through Play, for for children aged 5 - 11 years. 

must read by USC Annenberg Innovation Lab

These benefits also apply to adults using game-based learning for business or personal develoment.

Very true. It does help children to be more attentive and develops their level of concentration.

Facebook is now the Establishment of social networks, and for kids, that’s reason enough to stay away from it.

Enter apps like Kik, SnapChat, and WhatsApp, which you can use communicate quickly and secretly in ways that Facebook has so far been unable to. For teens, the apps represent freedom from Facebook, which, as Reuters reports, could be real a threat to Facebook itself.

The situation ties into the larger problem facing Facebook right now: While it’s obviously dominating social on the desktop, its success in the mobile world is less definitive. Facebook doesn’t have the sector locked down, which is opening up opportunities for smaller apps like SnapChat to carve out their own niches.

Read more at http://venturebeat.com/2013/04/01/facebook-mobile-messaging-apps/#b0ick8JOJV5CfZOj.99

He quedado algo inquieta al leer este artículo. Quiero, al compartir este artículo, hacer énfasis en la ausencia de aspectos tan importantes y críticos en la educación de nuevos líderes, la ética o el compromiso social como llaves para el éxito de toda comunidad. 

Create your own online learning center.

Is this for real?

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