LabTIC - Tecnología y Educación

Being a proper digitally competent teacher is not as simple as picking up an iPhone and tweeting. You need to be a good digital citizen, understand privacy, and more. In an effort to clarify and explain some of the most important characteristics that a digitally competent teacher must have, we whipped up this fun visual. [...]

At the Nueva School in Hillsborough, Calif., design thinking is built into students' and teachers' everyday lives. The process, which is an approach to learning that includes considering real-world problems, research, analysis, building by hand, and lots of experimentation, is documented and shared among staff.

Learn more:

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

The culmination of my quest for more powerful learning grounded in theory and research came when recently I conducted an experiment in pushing constructionism into the digital age.

Constructionism is based on two types of construction. First, it asserts that learning is an active process, in which people actively construct knowledge from their experience in the world. People don’t get ideas; they make them. This aspect of construction comes from the constructivist theory of knowledge development by Jean Piaget. To Piaget’s concept, Papert added another type of construction, arguing that people construct new knowledge with particular effectiveness when they are engaged in constructing personally meaningful products.

Imagine my surprise and joy when I realized that I had arrived at constructionism prior to knowing that such a theory even existed. I believe that thousands of other educators are unknowingly working within the constructionist paradigm as well. Although many within the Maker movement are aware that it has it’s roots in constructionism, the movement is gaining impressive momentum without the majority of Makers realizing that there is a strong theoretical foundation behind their work.

After I came to understand this connection between my practices and the supporting theoretical framework I was better able to focus and refine my practice. Even more importantly, I felt more confident and powerful in forging ahead with further experiments in the learning situations I design for my learners.