OK. . So this is it. I am starting my blog about 10 years too late. What I am hoping to achieve is input and output on all forms of education. Be it personal development or education of others, what the world needs now is for education not to be a dirty word. Why is it that teenagers dread coming to school yet as children we are eager to learn everything? Publicity in the media tends to more negative than positive, whereas this country more than anything needs look to a society of wise minds to steer our future in the right direction. My top first 5 of the week: Teaching tip: Super handy icons for any type of teaching lessons. Books; Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari Clips: How To Lose Weight in 4 Easy Steps! Quotes: “Do or do not. There is no try.”– Yoda Website: https://unsplash.com/
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In this disruptive ready realm now in education, space is the next frontier of what we need to look at for our students in terms what is needed to create the best circumstances for learning. We know that how a 19th century paradigm such as schools are built and structured, that they are ripe for change. I think the talk of teachers as we are now becoming irrelevant because of technology is much overstated. How classrooms are structured and how teachers deliver content are very much in need of an overhaul. Our Moonshot thought needs to be how can we figure out how we can create spaces that students are excited to enter and look forward to the next learning step they encounter and not be resistant to it. That is where the third teacher of space comes in. The more we can come closer to creating those places, the closer we are to the tipping point of this next evolution in learning.
There are definite benefits to using technology in regards to most assessment formats particularly with formative assessments. The downside to a majority of using the technology is the time it needs to adjust both your teaching and the students to using it. There seems to be an abundance of educational technology out there and it just means a lot of trial and error. Whether your students are up to going on the journey with you is subjective to your situation. The motivation shown with the instant feedback style of tool like Kahoot and Quizlet is quite astonishing. When we as educators figure out how to condense our units into this motivation of mastery for all our students we will be able to change the entire educational paradigm.
I think that instinctively we are predicated to learn through visual cues. I am not an anthropologist but it makes sense that visual learning would still dominate our leaning seeing as that the idea of reading and writing is relatively brand new in terms of our learning processes. Compare this to the evolutionary scale of 50 000-100000 years of watching out for signs of danger and learning skills it just make sense that this would still be our naturally stronger skill-set. Therefore using visual literacy should be a major part of our teaching and learning, particularly with the beginning phases. With the rise of infographics and other visual based learning tools, the trend growing in terms of using visual literacy in learning spheres. In saying that I think it has it's limitations in terms of complexity and retention. This is where reading and writing comes in to compliment it.
Flipped learning definitely has its pros and cons. Of all the benefits it does provide there must be a culture of love of learning to get the students to engage with the material for the actual class time to be beneficial.For the students who have mastered the material, which I can assess going through the Docentedu grading system I can link them through Google Classroom to look further into the curriculum using some short clips usingEdpuzzle on the subject matter. For the students who a still yet to grasp the content I can go through the answers separately from the Docentedu and focus on weak spots that can be easily found through their answers. The best tool I have found in regards to learning basic terms and ideas would beQuizlet. It allows live team games with instant feedback that has motivated students like no other tool on the market I have found except for perhaps Education perfect software.
Created by Knewton Student agency for me in one year will be a student centered environment where their tasks should be focused on the big picture understanding of the unit. I understand that not everything can be brought about entirely through PBLs, however as a formative assessment of units it can potentially be a powerful tool in growing a deeper understanding for students of all abilities.
I think Edtechhoneycomb of being future ready is the next educational revolution and we are developing a lot of steps that is heading in the right direction; Collaborative spaces, student agency and a robust infrastucture. The big issue we have with our school is empowering all the teachers to that critical mass area where they are comfortable moving into this new collaborative space. We are lucky enough to have great wifi and all the students have access to their own laptops, however there is a growing gap between the new innovative teachers and the techno illiterate. I feel some teachers think they are too far behind already to keep up with the students, although I find many students are also not as Tech Savvy as we assume.
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Author@dylankcmac Connected educator, Lifelong Learner and just curious about almost anything.... except cucumbers Instagram.com/dylankcmac Sydney, New South Wales · dylankcmac.com Archives
March 2017
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