China . A very interesting country- rich in culture and advanced technology. I am blessed to be here to attend the EARCOS Teacher's Conference . In my next few blog entries, I will be talking about the different tech workshops that I have attended and my reflections on them .
The first pre-conference I attended was called Shift Happens: Are You In Denial? And For How Long? facilitated by Michael Boll and Michael Lambert . It talked about the shift that is happening in our schools today in terms of technology and the way schools and teachers function . The workshop presented elements that we must shift in order to take advantage of the incredible global revolution.
In the past years, there has been a lot of shifts in education such as:
-privacy to public
-etherpad for instruction
- back channels for students
-digital footprints
-personal blog to course blogs
-2 to 3 books to personal mobile library
-Nanotechnology and 3D printers
-industrialist to individual
With all these transitions and advancement taking place, the big questions are: " What is school really for ?" , "How can we, as teachers, use this transformation to inspire and engage my students ? " , "What are we teaching to prepare our students to become digital citizens?" and "How can we help students adapt to the change or the shift?"
With the world wide web taking over and student's online reputation becoming more significant , it seems that one of the most important things that we should be teaching our students now is how to protect and build their TRUST value factor online. We need to teach kids to be responsible on the web , reflect on what they can contribute to the online community and focus on building their market value based on trust. On Rachel Botsman's TED talk, she mentioned that based on the current trend, one's online reputation is the new currency .
In Seth Godin's TED Talk for the youth, he talked about different strategies schools can use to prepare students for the future. I'd like to highlight some of these:
- homework during the day , lecture at night
- Open book , open value
-Access to any course
-Precise focused education
-Measure experience instead of test scores
-Cooperation instead of isolation
-Lifelong learning
-CONNECT DOTS over COLLECT DOTS – put kids in a situation where they can fail.
Some applications that support the SHIFT in education are :
virtual boards
Socrative
Today’s Meet
Ether Pad – google (internal server) , tighten pad :
Google Apps
Gravatar- globally recognized avatar (saves time logging in, anonymous comments)
Zeebley.com
Facebook graph
Readlists.com
Flipboard.com
Delicious.com
Mozilla –Badging system for students
Skillshare.com
The shift in education is massive - and it should all start within ourselves. As soon as we accept that there is a shift happening , we will be able to adapt to it and be able to translate this first, into our own lives and then inside our classrooms. We can all be catalysts for this incredible change .
Resources:
http://shift.michaelboll.me/
Rachel Botsman's TED talk
Seth Godin's TED Talk
The first pre-conference I attended was called Shift Happens: Are You In Denial? And For How Long? facilitated by Michael Boll and Michael Lambert . It talked about the shift that is happening in our schools today in terms of technology and the way schools and teachers function . The workshop presented elements that we must shift in order to take advantage of the incredible global revolution.
In the past years, there has been a lot of shifts in education such as:
-privacy to public
-etherpad for instruction
- back channels for students
-digital footprints
-personal blog to course blogs
-2 to 3 books to personal mobile library
-Nanotechnology and 3D printers
-industrialist to individual
With all these transitions and advancement taking place, the big questions are: " What is school really for ?" , "How can we, as teachers, use this transformation to inspire and engage my students ? " , "What are we teaching to prepare our students to become digital citizens?" and "How can we help students adapt to the change or the shift?"
With the world wide web taking over and student's online reputation becoming more significant , it seems that one of the most important things that we should be teaching our students now is how to protect and build their TRUST value factor online. We need to teach kids to be responsible on the web , reflect on what they can contribute to the online community and focus on building their market value based on trust. On Rachel Botsman's TED talk, she mentioned that based on the current trend, one's online reputation is the new currency .
In Seth Godin's TED Talk for the youth, he talked about different strategies schools can use to prepare students for the future. I'd like to highlight some of these:
- homework during the day , lecture at night
- Open book , open value
-Access to any course
-Precise focused education
-Measure experience instead of test scores
-Cooperation instead of isolation
-Lifelong learning
-CONNECT DOTS over COLLECT DOTS – put kids in a situation where they can fail.
Some applications that support the SHIFT in education are :
virtual boards
Socrative
Today’s Meet
Ether Pad – google (internal server) , tighten pad :
Google Apps
Gravatar- globally recognized avatar (saves time logging in, anonymous comments)
Zeebley.com
Facebook graph
Readlists.com
Flipboard.com
Delicious.com
Mozilla –Badging system for students
Skillshare.com
The shift in education is massive - and it should all start within ourselves. As soon as we accept that there is a shift happening , we will be able to adapt to it and be able to translate this first, into our own lives and then inside our classrooms. We can all be catalysts for this incredible change .
Resources:
http://shift.michaelboll.me/
Rachel Botsman's TED talk
Seth Godin's TED Talk