Author: Josh Weisgrau
Project Based Learning Explained
Here’s a clear (although perhaps overly simplified) video about project based learning from the Buck Institute for Education.
Generation Mobile Forum Webcast
The FCC will be hosting a forum on teens and technology tomorrow (Tuesday) from 10am to noon. Lots of great panelists and speakers including Jane Lynch (for the Gleeks). Check out the webcast here.
A little inspiration on a Monday morning
Global Education Conference
Bienvenue! Welcome! 歡迎! Willkommen! Benvenuto! 반갑습니다! Seja bem-vindo(a)! Bienvenido!
The 2010 Global Education Conference is being held November 15 – 19, 2010, online and free. Sessions will take place in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days. The conference is a collaborative and world-wide community effort to significantly increase opportunities for globally-connecting education activities and initiatives.
There is no formal registration required for the conference, as all the sessions will be open and public, broadcast live using the Elluminate platform, and available in recorded formats afterwards. Links to watch the sessions will be posted a few days before the conference begins, in the “Sessions” and “Schedule” pages, and recording links will be listed soon thereafter.
George Siemens – It’s New! It’s New!
There is much talk (chatter) about 21st century skills – even OECD is trying to define what those skills for “jobs that have not yet been created, using technologies that have not yet been invented, to solve problems that cannot be foreseen”. This statement is silly. It is my main critique with the emotional-feel-good message of Ken Robinson’s focus on creativity. First, we need to get over the view that our generation is astonishingly unique. Hasn’t every generation faced new technologies to solve problems not foreseen? The present moment arrogance that invades much of school reform thinking is frustrating. And, I might as well add, the pendulum-thinking mindset that is evident in Robinson’s view is damaging in the long term. If a view of educational reform is defined by the current reality that it is reacting against, rather than a holistic model of what it will produce in the future, then we’re playing a game of short-term gains, planting in our revolution the seeds for the next revolution that will push back against gains that we make now.
MacArthur Foundation White Papers
Several of the white papers produced as part of the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning Initiative are available as free kindle books.
If you don’t know about this MacArthur project, check out the website.
If you don’t own a kindle, you can download free software for mac or pc to read kindle books.
The white papers are:
The Future of Learning Institutions in a Digital Age, by Cathy Davidson and David Goldberg
Ken Robinson – RSA Animate
K-12 Online Conference
This free online conference for teachers runs for two weeks starting next Monday, 10/18. Each day several videos or presentations will be posted and there is space for online discussion.
The conference is organized around four threads: Student Voices, Leading the Change, Kicking It Up A Notch, and Week in the Classroom. Several of the presentations sound very interesting to me, and I think will be to many of you. Here’s the schedule of presentations.
The opening keynote from teacher Dean Shareski is already up, an interesting piece on sharing as a moral imperative for teachers. It also includes some contribution from Dan Meyer who we saw in the video last Friday.
Video Introduction
http://vimeo.com/15594860
Here are the links to the full videos:
Alan November – Myths and Opportunities
Danah Boyd – Living and Learning with Social Media
Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach – Learning 2008 Shanghai Conference