Learning Technology

Google has made it possible for us to have instant information gratification. Just start typing the first letters of your search word and the site intuits your question and offers you the smartest choice of answers.

There’s just one thing about Santiago Swallow that you won’t easily find online: I made him up. Everything above is true. He really does have a Twitter feed with tens of thousands of followers, he really does have a Wikipedia biography, and he really does have an official web site.

Games, in contrast, depend on failure to teach. They literally push players to the edge of their ability and knowledge; then the best games change or adapt when a level is reached to push players further. In order to succeed, players must encounter and overcome obstacles both large and small along the way. These disappointments teach students to persevere and foster creativity and adaptability – invaluable skills in our hyper-connected, fast-paced, global economy. Here is a look at some of the ways failure helps students and how games support this valuable learning opportunity.

My point is that if we use social bookmarking frequently, it becomes a mechanic process. Every time you see something interesting, we press the “share button”, add as many tags, keywords as we can think of, and that’s it. We’ll filter the information later on, no need to deal with it right now. Even if this process doesn’t save time right now. In the future, when you need to retrieve information for any kind of project, and if you have bookmarked it before, the whole process could be a time saver.

The continual connectivity and direct communication made possible through social media tools is what has essentially changed communication forever. Therefore, while I may have a specifically guided professional site, that site is present in the digital world and, as such, can be searched, linked, commented on, and posted–it can be “webbed” and that is precisely why new tools of communication are so powerful and also why their implications for teaching and learning are so amazing.

Teach a man to fish, eh? Give a kid an app and you inspire her for a day; teach a kid to make apps and you inspire her for a lifetime.

Over the last few years, I’ve watched as teens have given up on controlling access to content. It’s too hard, too frustrating, and technology simply can’t fix the power issues. Instead, what they’ve been doing is focusing on controlling access to meaning. A comment might look like it means one thing, when in fact it means something quite different. By cloaking their accessible content, teens reclaim power over those who they know who are surveilling them.

Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information. Despite taking these privacy-protective actions, teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data; just 9% say they are “very” concerned.

Switching from a traditional classroom to a flipped classroom can be daunting because there are a lack of effective models.  So, what should an effective flipped classroom look like?  In our experience, effective flipped classrooms share many of these characteristics:

Students and teachers in Europe are keen to "go digital", computer numbers have doubled since 2006 and most schools are now "connected", but use of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) and digital skill levels are very uneven. These skills and support for teachers to deliver them need a strong boost, according to a survey on the use of digital technologies in schools in Europe published by the Commission.

In 2010, the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) and the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education agreed to collaborate on a joint project to develop a Review of Innovative Practice – a report presenting concrete examples of practice of the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) with people with disabilities in different educational contexts and settings. In particular, the Review was targeted at considering examples of practice that can be considered to be ‘innovative’ within the specific educational setting and wider societal context they were situated within.

One of Google’s aims in this project was to make sharing content with the students in their classroom simple. Currently, making sure that each student has the right apps on their device can be a pain, especially if an app needs to be purchased for every device. Google’s new product is the fact that it enables administrators to distribute applications to their entire team.

As teachers, when we assign a research project, we often focus on the end product: the research essay, presentation, etc. However, students (especially young students) do not automatically know how to conduct meaningful research. Our modern students are used to Googling answers. They have grown accustomed to information being readily available. However, as academics, we know that research isn’t a  fast process. It’s slow and deliberate. As a teacher, I need to intentionally slow my students down during this exercise. I do this by breaking down a larger project into more manageable chunks and focusing on the process.

The National Literary Trust studied almost 35,000 eight- to 16-year-olds.

Its findings suggest a picture of young people who are now immersed in a screen-based culture.

As well as social networking and browsing websites, the study indicates almost a third of youngsters read fiction on online devices.

The problem is that Wikipedia in the classroom has gotten a bad reputation in the K-12 world, undeservedly so I think. I would suggest that Wikipedia can be used for a multitude of educational purposes at a wide variety of grade levels. Too many teachers are still afraid to use it in class, so I’m here to right that wrong and show our educators how they can responsibly integrate Wikipedia into their lessons.

I developed this quiz with members of my personal learning network (found at end of post) to get students thinking about their digital footprint. The quiz was created at the request of high school students I spoke with who thought the creation of a such a quiz could lead to a smart conversation about ways students can update their digital footprint so that it is one that leads to college and career success.

Mob mentality can take over all too easily online. Your social stream has likely been flooded with status updates about breaking news. While it's important to stay current, establish a strong personal brand that doesn't waver based on what's trending. After all, the root of mom's lesson is to stay true to yourself.