Learn about a new “superpower” that isn’t being taught in 90% of US schools. Why aren’t more students training to be programmers? Interesting thoughts from successful people in the field of programming. Who wouldn’t want to be the new “Mark Zuckerberg”!
Starring Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, will.i.am, Chris Bosh, Jack Dorsey, Tony Hsieh, Drew Houston, Gabe Newell, Ruchi Sanghvi, Elena Silenok, Vanessa Hurst, and Hadi Partovi.
Sunday, 6/23/2013, 7:00pm–8:30pm
Ann Michaelsen, Sandvika vgs, Norway
I’m pleased to be able to attend ISTE again this year. Here is what I will be talking about and below you can read more.
Learn how to use Twitter, blogs, and Skype to get in contact with students and teachers from other parts of the world and build a global classroom. Recommended by ISTE’s SIGOL
Purpose & Objectives
Purpose: Show participants how social media like Skype, Twitter and the writing blogs can be used to get in contact with students and teachers from other parts of the world. By using examples from my own class I will show how my students communicate and learn from peers in the outside world using social media. By modeling own practice from the classroom I hope to encourage the teachers to start this when they get back to school.
Objectives: To be able to use Twitter, Skype and blogging as tools to connect. And to introduce new material to the students on personal blogs using authentic material like videos from Youtube and TED-talks. Curriculum goals are the basis for learning, not textbooks, and students learn how to cover the curriculum goals using different tools and by connecting with students, other educators and experts on those specific fields. Questions and challenges are set by the students with help from teachers, not the other way around. Students offer feedback to fellow students. The goal is self-paced differentiated learning where every student can progress individually and the teacher can keep track of this. We explore how it is possible to use digital age learning in an authentic real-world practice, modelling real-world problems.
This is a great task to use in class after the students have read their novel. Every student should be able to do this task. It is a lot more challenging task then just writing a summary or answering questions that you find in a textbook or you as a teacher give the students. Using the double entry journal the students are forced to reflect on their reading and to give examples of sections in the book that are important and explain why they think they are important. This will also test the students’ understanding of the text.
miss peregrine’s home for peculiar children / ransom riggs (Photo credit: sonyazombiee)
Use a table function to make two columns. You can do this on your blog as well.
Was very excited about being able to speak at BETT this year and was curious about how many might turn up on a Saturday. Don’t think I’ve ever been to BETT on a Saturday before! And considering that the DLR(train) was under construction and that we had to walk the last 3 train stops, I was thinking not many would show up today! And I was right. It was a small crowed today compared to the last 2 days I was there. I got to listen to Stehpen Heppel and his students again, always a good experience. It is all about empowering the kids, and letting them take control. I guess you can’t say that often enough! Eventually teachers will get it I hope. I also got to hear Tim Ryland, that was a pleasant surprise. I follow him on Twitter and he had a great show. Just sorry I didn’t get there when it started. After that I listened to Sugata Mitra. It’s been a while since I’ve heard him talk and he is always adding new research and info. I really like the Granny cloud, great idea!
After that I rushed over to Theater E to do my own presentation! Allison M Allen introduced me and she was really helpful and encouraging! Great thanks to her and those who took the time to show up and show interest in my topic “Connected educators and connected students”! I think it was a pretty good crowd considering, and it was a great experience to be able to speak at BETT. Hopefully it will result in connections with more educators from different parts of the world! Please contact me and comment if you would like to connect your students! It is great fun to be able to learn from other teachers! Remember that kids can learn on their own if they are motivated. Real authentic tasks is a lot more motivating then answering questions in a book! It really isn’t that difficult and it is free as well. You don’t have to buy software or more hardware! Here is my presentation: Using social media to connect Bett 2003
It’s been some years since I have been to BETT in London and after a day there I was reminded why. Even if it is in a brand new exhibit hall the concept hasn’t changed much. It is basically a big exhibit hall with vendors. And in between conference centers or learning centers for workshops and lectures. Unlike ISTE, a conference I quite like, BETT has focus on selling products they convince us the teachers we can’t live without. What I like with ISTE is that they have great auditoriums and rooms for keynotes, lectures, workshops, poster sessions and more. Here all I see is vendors. And tons of teachers from Norway, Sweden and Finland! And I am wondering what we all get out of this? To be fair I know there is a lot of networking going on and a lot of private sessions as well. Tomorrow for instance I’m invited to a Scandinavian session with Stephen Heppel. I’m very much looking forward to the event! Still one might questions if we have to meet in London to do that?
Then why am I here? I have to admit I was curious about the new location for Bett 2013, and it looked like they were offering a lot more workshops and talks this year. But the main reason is that my proposal was accepted and I’m hosting a workshop on using social media to connect educators in Learn Live Theatre E, Saturday 02 Feb, 13:15-14:00. That will be a useful experience for me and hopefully fun as well. But my concern now is if they will hear what I say since the noise in the exhibit hall is very loud also inside the theater. I will find out on Saturday for sure!
Tower bridge view from my hotel
I have been reading a lot of books about education lately and 2 areas strike me as important for students’ learning. Assessment and student involvement I don’t think I need any more gadgets or software for that. Okay, I would like the learning management system we use to be more tailored to our needs. Everything I see is very teacher centered, the software included. From clickers to tablets and content offered. To involve the students, what is going on in the classroom needs to be student centered. And to change our classrooms and making them student centered we need to listen to the students. And they are not here, at least not selling products. And that does seem to be the main issue at BETT right now.
Please correct me if I am wrong!
Safer Internet Day 2013 will be the tenth edition of the event, and will take place on Tuesday 5 February 2013. The theme for the day is ‘Online rights and responsibilities’, when we will encourage users to ‘Connect with respect’
Know that you do, do you plan to participate? There are all kinds of activities suited for students of all ages. Why do you know about internet safety? What do you tell your students and how do we make sure they have the knowledge needed to be safe and smart internet users. Take time to watch this video and visit their web-site. We plan to participate and would love comments from students and teachers! Look at the students websites listed here on my web-page.
Safer Internet Day (SID) is organised by Insafe in February of each year to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.
On my trip to San Francisco I decided to travel to Alaska to take a look at what they are doing at Highland Tech Charter School. Since my colleague Oddvar Skråmestø was there before Christmas and seemed to be really thrilled with what he saw there, I thought it might be worth the trip. And I have been intrigued about the RISC model ever since Richard DeLorenzo keynoted at our conference in Oslo in 2010.
I like the school’s slogan “Educating for Leadership, Educating for Life”, it should be the main goal of every high school, regardless of country.
To explain the RISC model I quote from the school blog: Highland Tech is a competency-based school where mastery learning is expected, free of the traditional seat time model of education. Integration of technology devices, software, and web-based programs are integral to student learning. Students move at their own pace while developing 21st Century Skills in a learning environment that promotes innovation through risk taking. Staff is also encouraged to think outside the box in order to provide top-notch teaching and learning experiences for students. Shared Leadership and Continuous Improvement (hallmarks of our school) facilitate a reciprocal relation where all members of our community are active learners.
I also like this quote found on the same web page: Richard DeLorenzo of the Re-Inventing Schools Coalition presented the following idea:
Change is never easy, especially in a system that has been in place for over 150 years and we will defend it even if we know it doesn’t work because it is all we know.
This is the problem most schools are facing, we know our system is not working for all kids, still we persist on teaching students the same way. Lectures, exercises, tests. Even with all our knowledge about the value of formative assessment we insist on summative assessments moving forward regardless of leaving students behind. When trying to fix our system, the Norwegian government adds fun courses middle school kids can chose from, instead of changing the way required courses are taught.
The RISC schools’ system is bases on standards and rubrics. You need to master a number of standards in order to graduate and you use the rubrics to help you assess your mastery of each standard. Many standards can be worked on in a single assignment making it a cross subject assignment. To be able to do this teachers in different subjects have to approve of the project before you start. No big tests are given and the students can pretty much choose how to present this to the teacher depending on standard and level they are at.
This is an example of a reading standard level 6, analyzing themes: Analyzes, defends and connects theme(s) across texts. Analysis includes examining how the theme carries over time, and shows up in a variety of media/texts.
It would seem to me that in the Norwegian system where we have specific competency goals in each subject area, this could be applicable. My heartfelt wishes for both my school as well as other schools in Norway is that we at least move away from the tests where students need to memorize facts from textbooks and answer questions made by teachers to a system where the students own the learning and ask the questions!
Thanks to Ginger Blackmon and Laura Hilger for inviting me! To my two excellent student guides (can’t remember your names) and to Adam Robinson and his class of Social environments! Really appreciate your kind welcome and showing me how you work! Hope we can continue to work together on our Alaska project! And I look forward to seeing Ginger in Norway!
Written in the skies on my flight from Alaska!
