 Tom Whitby (@tomwhitby)3/12/13 6:59 AM An Unprecedented Opportunity for Educational Equityzite.to/ZBZs3q #Edchat |
Access to successful learning for all students is a powerful equalizer that drives superior educational outcomes. The importance of equal access is credited with much of the academic progress in Finland, a country without private schools or standardized tests. "Since the 1980s, the main driver of Finnish education policy has been the idea that every child should have the same opportunity to learn, regardless of family background, income or geographic location. Education has been seen first and foremost not as a way to produce star performers, but as an instrument to even out social inequality."1
The availability of well-researched information to guide educators and parents in their use of game-structured learning tools could support all children's acquisition of requisite foundational rote facts and procedures. This, in turn, could help all children to participate successfully in classroom learning (assuming computers and Internet access are available.
oh my.. this is the goal?
The best online learning games and programs promote intrinsic satisfaction from working through achievable challenges. Driven by the brain's own dopamine-reward system, perseverance is sustained and accurate memory networks constructed through the frequent corrective feedback that increases data acquisition and memory construction by the neuroplasticity process.
SAMs use of act game... ? - like below - not authenticity - just different
Students in the game-learning, neuro-chemical state of achievement-driven pleasure work at their own individualized levels and paces to learn the critical foundational factual and procedural information. As this most engaged and motivated state persists, the awareness that their effort can bring goal access promotes the reversal from fixed to growth mindsets.
good theory... wonder if they've tried it
we have.
over and over..
Learning frustration and boredom are stressors, and as children’s brains are relieved of these stressors, they will be in the emotional state where learning can be most successful. Teachers will not have to dedicate so much time to "behavior management" because whole-class instruction will not focus on directed instruction and drills.
oh my.
and this was tweeted a lot today.
With the more precise information about the availability of specific online learning tools best suited for individual students and topics, we can close another gap needed for the achievement of the educational success equity that is critical for realizing the economic, social and political reverberations we seek
sorry... but crap.
There are challenges, such as the students who need more guidance to be independent learners and finding programs best suited to their strengths and interests. These challenges can be mitigated with "consumer reports" to guide schools and teachers in the awareness of the best individualized learning tools for each student
more guidance to be independent learners of assumed/mandated/compulsory topics.. presented by overstressed/compulsorized or you lose your job-teachers
these challenges can be mitigated (really?) by letting go..
let's give.. facilitating curiosity a try.
no raised eyebrows bitte.
The next step needs to be a clearinghouse created and sustained by nonprofit educational foundations, with no related vested commercial interests, and the nonpartisan divisions of the Department of Education. This clearinghouse would evaluate, update and disseminate the information about available free online learning games that are found to be the best fit for each student and subject
or.. what if.. each individual does that for themselves..
in the blanket of 1. being known by someone 2. talking to self daily
only way to equity.. and gap-lessness..
7bill start ups
scale the individual...
not the clearinghouse.
et al..
A Consumer Reports for Online Tools can be one of the most powerful steps toward educational equity seen in this country since the availability of free public school education for all children
until that list changes.. next week/year
certainly by the time we give such a list legal rights to enter a classroom..
period.
but adding...
to enter a classroom with access in tact (teachers, tools, wifi, spaces of permission with nothing to prove)
The impact of access to prescreened, well-categorized online learning -- learning that capitalizes on the intrinsic motivation of the video game model for all students (assuming computer and Internet access are also available) -- is a powerful equalizer that can align the equity emphasis of the Finnish educational system with the ingenuity and collaboration that has yielded the greatest social, economic, scientific and democratic accomplishments of public education.
perhaps we write/repeat this 10/100/10000 times until we see that we are perpetuating what we already have.
just faster.
no?
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 JackieGerstein Ed.D. (@jackiegerstein)3/12/13 6:59 AM Hacking the Classroom: Beyond Design Thinkingwp.me/pKlio-17f |
I fear a similar outcome for design thinking within educational settings. As I stated in the introduction, design thinking, being a type of problem-solving model, is it’s own type of box. It attempts to solve problems via a specific process in order to come up with a new solution or product. John Media, in If Design’s No Longer the Killer Differentiator, What Is?, emphasizes the limited perspective that design thinking can create:
maedaDesigners create solutions. But artists create questions — the deep probing of purpose and meaning that sometimes takes us backward and sideways to reveal which way “forward” actually is. The questions that artists make are often enigmatic, answering a why with another why. Because of this, understanding art is difficult: I like to say that if you’re having difficulty “getting” art, then it’s doing its job.
Paul Pangaro, a technology executive, who combines technical depth, marketing and business acumen, and passion for designing products that serve the cognitive and social needs of human beings, further critiques design thinking in his video, The Limitations of Design Thinking.
If we stop with design thinking we won’t solve those problems that those in design thinking say they want to solve. Paul Pangaro
Designers create solutions. But artists create questions — the deep probing of purpose and meaning that sometimes takes us backward and sideways to reveal which way “forward” actually is. The questions that artists make are often enigmatic, answering a why with another why. Because of this, understanding art is difficult: I like to say that if you’re having difficulty “getting” art, then it’s doing its job.
Designers create solutions. But artists create questions
Hacking is research. Have you ever tried something again and again in different ways to get it to do what you wanted? Have you ever opened up a machine or a device to see how it works, research what the components are, and then make adjustments to see what now worked differently? That’s hacking. You are hacking whenever you deeply examine how something really works in order to creatively manipulate it into doing what you want.
The real reason to be a hacker is because it’s really powerful. You can do some very cool things when you have strong hacking skills. Any deep knowledge gives you great power. If you know how something works to the point that you can take control of it, you have serious power in your hands. Most of all, you have the power to protect yourself and those you care about (Hacker High School).
Any deep knowledge gives you great power.
any
Although I am currently looking towards hacking as a way to facilitate creative thinking and positive (world) change, it also has the potential to become a more standardized process as is the issue with design thinking. Hacking, but its very nature, should force learners and learning to the limits, but attempts to scale any movement can inadvertently and unintentional create the type of standardized, procedural system it is trying to avoid.ah - Jackie - love.
this is huge.
grazie
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 Daniel Pink (@DanielPink)3/12/13 7:00 AM Brooks: The "revolution will not be plenarized."nyti.ms/W3pCw5 |
My main impression over the past five years is that the conference circuit capitalists who give fantastic presentations have turned out to be marginal to history while the people who are too boring and unfashionable to get invited to the conferences in the first place have actually changed the world under our noses
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 syamant sandhir (@syamant)3/12/13 12:10 AM Why the pencil is still the most important tool for digital designersgigaom.com/2013/03/11/why… |
“There’s a common misconception that doodling shows that you’re not paying attention,” he said, but “doodling improves your brain recall by 30 percent.”
 Tim Kastelle (@timkastelle)3/12/13 12:11 AM Agree! RT @justadandak: #SMCwgtn @samrye_enspiral "dont be an 'authentic voice', be authentic" -> hell yeh! are we asking for authentic kids? or authentic voice within the confines of our current structure?.. wondering. much. |