Innovative Learning

Ideas that challenge education

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One Great Lesson

Here’s a great story shared at Project PLN by Deven Black about student-centred learning.

My 7th grade social studies class was learning about the British and Dutch colonies that eventually became the first thirteen American states.

To begin my lesson I made a grid of nine possible tasks my student could do in the next two weeks.

I assigned each task a separate spot in the classroom and asked students to stand in the spot of the task that most appealed to them.

I immediately noticed that my group of six girls who always wanted to work together did not all choose the same task. Interesting.

I looked around the room and noticed that three of the tasks did not have a single student interested in it.  They all seemed like good tasks to me, but it has been a long time since I’ve been a 12-year-old.

What would have happened had I assigned one of those unpopular choices as the assignment for everyone? Or if, thinking I was offering differentiation, I had given my class a choice of those three unpopulated tasks

I shudder at the thought, especially since I’ve been guilty of both approaches more often than not.

Here are the six tasks students chose:

Create a 3-dimensional map of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam;

Write and enact a conversation between as many colonists as are in the group;

Write and produce a newscast as if television news covered the colonies;

Make broadsides or brochures aimed at convincing people to relocate to the colonies;

Create a map of one or more of the colonies showing some aspect of the colonies not usually seen on maps of them;

Write a letter or deliver an oral report to King George III about life, development and events in one or more of the colonies.

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10 Fascinating Facts About Mobile Phones

10 Fascinating Facts About Mobile Phones
Chances are you don’t leave home without your mobile phone, but how much do you actually know about our portable telephonic devices and their fascinating history? Do you know who Martin Cooper is? How about a textonym? What are one-quarter of U.S. mobile phone towers disguised as? Who devised …

(Source: tumblr.com)

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‘Don’t try to innovate for the future. Innovate for the present.’
Peter Drucker

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iPad Trials In Victorian Schools

 

THEY might still be on trial with the Education Department, but the verdict from the kids is already in: iPads rock.

The department has begun testing their usefulness in 10 schools to determine whether a full-scale upgrade from laptops to iPads will improve learning.

Educational experts are yet to be convinced that the iPad can offer more to students - apart from the fun of playing with the touchscreen - than the laptop.

Dianne Chambers, a lecturer in learning technologies at Melbourne University, said it was too early to tell. ”We don’t know yet. But if you don’t do these trials you’re never going to know.”

Professor Chambers said the iPad had at least one standout feature - its very quick start-up time. ”They’re instantly on. If you’re watching TV and you see something interesting you just press an iPad button and you’re onto the internet in a second.”

But with a computer, ”you have to go over to your desk, log on to your machine, wait till it boots, log in, boot your browser.” Even laptops ”don’t have the instantaneous factor”.

”[But iPads] are instantly on and they’re with you all the time … it’s an extension of your body/mind.”

Professor Chambers said it was important for students to have their own iPad, instead of using one from a class set, to get the most out of the device.

Education Minister Martin Dixon said the trial had been ”very positive”. ”The trial is to help schools make choices as to where they’ll spend their IT dollar,” he said. ”[iPads] really engage students in their learning and if they’re engaged they’re going to enjoy school and they’re going to stay on in school.”

The chief benefit of an iPad over a laptop, he said, was that it was cheaper and more portable. The downside, he said, was that they were not compatible with the department’s ultranet (internal internet), they could not run advanced software such as computer-aided design needed by some senior classes, and the touchscreen keyboard might not be suitable for long essays.

At Ringwood North Primary School, all 138 students in years 5 and 6 have been given their own iPad and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. In fact, for some parents, too positive.

”The kids absolutely love them,” said assistant principal Adam Brice. ”I think the hardest thing is probably parents. We’ve got a lot of kids who are really comfortable with it and what’s going on. The hardest part is for adults to get our heads around it.”


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/schools-ponder-if-an-apple-a-day-keeps-ignorance-at-bay-20110730-1i5kr.html#ixzz1TfJ8oOgT

Filed under iPads