Archive of category "Education"
Introduction
A few months ago I read a book called Cats: The Nine Lives of Innovation by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D. I had actually read it in hopes of gaining inspiration for some ideas for new inventions or to further refine some ideas I have had floating around in my head. However, this past week I have been attending some training at the Summer Seminar as part of the EAST Initiative. Something that was stressed over and over during the various training sessions was the need to be innovative and to break out of the mold of the status quo.
Scientia potentia est is a Latin maxim originally stated by Francis Bacon. The literal meaning of the phrase is “for also knowledge itself is power”, or more commonly paraphrased today as “knowledge is power.” Never has this statement been more true than today.
This article is the first of two posts about the classroom of tomorrow. Click here for the second part. The first part will focus on the classroom of tomorrow given the current educational climate in the United States. In the current system, there are certain things which will not be able to be changed given the various rules and regulations imposed upon K-12 public education by the government. The second part will focus on the idealized vision for the classroom of tomorrow, which will only be possible if the current educational climate in America changes in such a way that true reform in the way education is handled in America will be allowed to prosper.
Mar
EAST Conference 2010
Outside of the state of Arkansas, many educators have probably never heard of the EAST Initiative. There are a few schools in Hawaii, California, Illinois, and others that are part of this movement, but it’s true strength comes from Arkansas where the idea was conceived in 1996. There are now over 200 schools that participate in EAST.
I read a lot about education and the use of technology to improve education. I have come across several resources that might prove beneficial to you as well. Below are five online magazines (most of them offer print versions as well) that I read on a regular basis. They provide tips, reviews, and sharing of ideas to those people interested in using technology in educational settings. They often have video clips and share the latest research about technology, education, and education reform as well.
College Students Taking Online Classes
The number of college students taking online classes continues to increase. By 2014, it is expected that more than half of all college students will take at least some of their college course work online. With the growing trend of college students taking online courses, is America’s K-12 school system poised to take the same steps and move to the internet to teach some of their classes?
PBS recently aired a documentary called the “Digital Nation”. It does a terrific job of outlining the concerns of many educators about students growing up with the digital medium and relying so much on it. It also presents the topic from the point of view for students. The students claim they are expert multi-taskers while teachers claim they are not.
Lots of people have been bringing up excellent questions about implementing and using the iPad in classrooms. Some of these comments and concerns have come from my own blog, while others have come from the blogs of others as I have tried to learn as much about the iPad as possible. One thing I have noticed through my research is that no one has really attempted to address these concerns. As an educator, I know that a teacher’s time is invaluable and often does not have time to seek out the answers themselves, and I know how frustrating it is to have lots of questions and not being able to find the answers. That was part of the reason behind me developing this blog.
My previous post about iPads mentioned the power the iPad has for dramatically changing the way that teachers teach and students learn. I also casually mentioned that the success of the iPad will depend greatly on the apps that will be developed for the iPad. There are apps out there for the iPod Touch and the iPhone that may be similar to what I will describe below, but my intention is not to copy what others have already created. Instead, my intention is to provide the conceptual framework for three apps the iPad will definitely need in order to succeed as a game changer in schools. The three concepts relate to note taking, studying and reviewing, and individualizing curriculum. In my previous post I outlined how the iPad can impact these areas. Below is a description of the function of the apps necessary to make this work.
I have recently become aware of two documentaries about education that will be coming out later this year. The two documentaries are Waiting for Superman and Race to Nowhere. Both of these talk about the current state of education in America and what needs to be done to fix the problem. These two documentaries may have just enough punch and support behind them to finally get America’s schools back on track.
