Eclectic Technology

In our world today we are surrounded by visuals. Yet we walk into many classrooms and see many written texts that often have few visuals. This post begins with a quote from John Medina, the author of Brain Rules (and a developmental molecular biologist). He states "We are incredible at remembering pictures. Hear a piece of information, and three days later you’ll remember 10% of it. Add a picture and you’ll remember 65%. Professionals everywhere need to know about the incredible inefficiency of text-based information and the incredible effects of images (http://www.brainrules.net/vision)."

There is also a video that was created by students explaining their frustration with the lack of visual learning that takes place in the classroom.

Additional sections include:

* Use Visuals, Images, Data Visualizations, Infographics and Videos to Teach Concepts

* Use and Teach Learners How to Make Concept Maps and Graphic Organizers

* Use and Teach Learners How to Do Sketchnotes

* Allow and Encourage Learners to Show What They Know Through Visual Imagery

* Teach Visual Literacy

Jackie Gerstein provides a thought provoking post with links to additional resources. Take the time to read and consider how you might increase the use of visuals in your classroom. And if you have not read John Medina's book you might want to check out his website.

In this post Jackie Gerstein raises the question "if the research on the process of learning is compared to the practices being implemented in school, does this research influence school practices?"

After reflecting on her experience at school she shares five questions (shown in the image above) that will help guide learning:

* Is failure viewed as normal and as a productive part of the learning process?

* Is learning spaced out over time rather than crammed into a short time period?

* Are distractions during learning normalized?

* Is the learning practiced often and in a variety of contexts?

* Is the learning playful and fun? (especially important when one gets stuck at an impasse)

Each is discussed and there is also a link to a short video that provides a brief overview of learning from the book How We Learn by Benedict Carey.

Do you share current research on learning strategies with your learners? This post also references a post from Mind/Shift that discusses current learning strategies. Click through to the post to learn more and consider sharing this information with your learners as well as parents and staff in your school.

What is experiential learning? This post explores this concept, with a list of "principles as articulated by the Association for Experiential Education" and also eight images that compare experiential learning to a more traditional classroom.

Finding projects that help students understand key concepts is one way for us to include experiential education in our classroom. The images provided in this post may spark your imagination.

How can you, as an educator, help students develop a growth mindset? This infographic from Jackie Gerstein provides provides a  look at:

* "the common beliefs of an educator who promotes a growth mindset"

* "common beliefs of an educator who promotes a growth mindset"

She also discusses the need for a teacher to become a coach when we look at mindset, providing a link for additional information that you may find helpful, as well as links to some of here previous writings on mindset.

Australia has published an in-depth professional learning toolkit that has resources that many teachers may find helpful (not just those in Australia). This link shares a range of activities that will enhance your professional learning, including sections on:

* The Essential Guide to Professional Learning which has three sections: Evaluation, Leading Culture and Innovation. Each of these areas has a downloadable resource. The one for Evaluation discusses  the rationale for evaluation, evaluation design, examples of effective data collection method, effective evaluation of professional learning (with a great visual on how the evaluation should measure the impact on students, the individual practitioner and the organization, as well as how it improves the professional learning program, the professional learning outcomes and the sustained impact), and much more.

* One visual from the Essential Guide to Professional Learning: Leading Culture is shown above. The image looks at the many ways adults learn. As with the one on evaluation the resource provides a list of questions one should consider and then explores ways to build holistic learning cultures.

Find some time to explore this resource and share it with others in your building. You might also check out the short video that looks at innovation. You can also find it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ZifjWftc8

This infographic provides a look at what may need to change in teacher education. Areas explored include:

* Preparation and Professional Development, including sections on

        - The Problem

        - The Question

        - The Answer

        - The Opportunity

* Design Principles for the Next-Gen Teacher

* Competency-Based Development System

* Get Involved in Shaping the Future of Teacher Preparation

* What's Next

This infographic may make you look at the professional development that is offered in your school. Is it helping you become a "Next-Gen Teacher"? Do you have the necessary skills to help your students become critical thinkers? Collaborative problem solvers? Do you think we should be moving towards compentency based learning and do you model this in your classroom? This infographic may raise many questions.

What questions can we ask ourselves to assess our "pedagogical principles and instructional preferences"? Jackie Gerstein provides a list (and the list as a table as shown above) to help you reflect on your practice. As she states the process may be "simple but not easy." You may answer the question but how do you change your practice so that you may implement it in your classroom?

Edutopia has published a great guide on Technology Integration. It has six sections:

* Introduction

* Why Integrate Technology?

* What is Tech Integration?

* How to Integrate Technology

* Workshop Activities

* Resources for Tech Integration

This guide includes an amazing number of resources (websites, books videos and more) and was designed to address the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Think about using with a group for professional development, or on your own!

We often hear of growth mindset and fixed mindset. Is there also a creative mindset? Jackie Gerstein suggests that there is a creative mindset in this post. Why? If a mindset is defined as "ideas and attitudes with which a person approaches a situation"  there is a list of "ideas and attitudes" that may be part of a creative mindset. The visual above provides Gerstein's list of some items she considers important for a creative mindset. The list is also below.

* Believes in one's own creativity

* Embraces curiosity

* Suspends judgement - silences the inner critic

* Tolerates ambiguity

* Persists even when confronted with skepticism and rejection

* Taps into childlike imagination; a child's sense of wonder

Each of these is described in more detail and links to additional resources are provided. There is also a short discussion conditions necessary to facilitate creative mindset in a classroom.

Has your role as a teacher shifted? Do you model being a learner with your learners? This post by Jackie Gerstein shares why it is important that the educator "needs to understand and be able to articulate and demonstrate the process of learning, him or herself."

How can you go about doing this. Gerstein recommends that "educators pick something new to learn and practice doing the following: (below quoted from the post)

1. Explicitly state and record the metacognitive process while learning.
2. Demonstrate and articulate the actual steps of learning.
3. Record the stages of artifact development.
4. Understand and embrace the iterative process of learning.
5. Use and demonstrate the self-evaluative reflection process.

Gerstein then discusses each of these five steps/procedures/strategies, providing links to additional resources as well as one additional visual as well as a video that looks at how the learning process is iterative (and may provide you with an idea you would like to do with your class).

If you are interested in Maker Education this post from Jackie Gerstein is worth checking out. She provides three visuals, all of which are also put in ThingLink, so each has great resources linked to the image.

The three images are:

* Educator as a Maker Educator

* Perfect Storm for Maker Education

* A Making Reflection (designed for students this could be used in a variety of ways)

There is also a slideshare The Mindset of a Maker Educator that provides links to a range of materials.

Do you teach your students about growth mindset? Is this a topic of discussion with other staff in your school? Jackie Gerstein has shared three excellent resources in this post that focuses on growth mindset.

She has created an infographic (image above) that looks at fixed mindset and growth mindset, showing how a student may identify based on their mindset.

The next step was putting the infographic into ThingLink and creating links to over 15 resources. Here is the link: ThingLink version of the infographic.

There is also a slideshow that provides additional resources (although some may be repeated in the ThingLink). The slideshow is split into four sections:

* Mindsets

* Historical Background

* The Educator with a Growth Mindset

* Teaching the Growth Mindset to your Learners

Since this post is based on a workshop she provided it is a great resource to share with teachers at your school (or other teachers whom you know). Make sure to check out the resources for students. You may find yourself creating a poster to help your students learn more about growth mindset.

Are you interested in being known as an educator whom is also a maker educator? This post from Jackie Gerstein provides a great visual that looks as many of the roles you might play, including

* Process facilitator

* Resource suggestion provider

* Lead learner

* Relationship enabler

* Technology tutor

This visual is designed in ThingLink and if you click through from the post you will find additional resources in the visual

And you might also view a SlideShare where Gerstein provides  additional resources.

Once again Jackie Gerstein has written a post about a topical issue that has great depth in both vision and resources. 

Some of the quotes from research include:

"Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even technical skills."

"Social media sites allow teens to accomplish online many of the tasks that are important to them offline: staying connected with friends and family, making new friends, sharing pictures, and exchanging ideas. Social media participation also can offer adolescents deeper benefits that extend into their view of self, community, and the world,"

Along with the bibliography she also provides links to other posts she has written on this issue (and links to some posts by others) as well as links to a new website she has created that has activities that use technology to enhance social-emotional skills.