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Back in 2002, Shelly Luke Wille, William Myrhang and I designed a model classroom for the National School Boards Association (NSBA) Technology + Learning Conference. After the first class, word spread about our innovative room, seamless technology, and the learning that was happening. We were at capacity for every class. Educational decision makers didn’t just see how a classroom could be designed for collaboration, they actually experienced it, working in pairs, following the leadership of expert educator Shelly Luke Wille. If we want to change the classroom, educators and policy makers have to experience a different classroom for their own learning. We have to change perception about what a classroom is if we are ever going to catch up to the needs of the 21st century learner. To see how we did it, Read the article: How to Build a Classroom in 24 Hours or Less
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The challenges of educating a 21st century society are not local. Educational leaders around the world are looking at how technology can make the classroom more engaging and better prepare students for the unknowns of the future workplace and civil society. The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) regularly leads delegations to visit different countries. The latest trip to Scotland and the Netherlands concludes with a recommendation to shift the language in the US about technology in education. By using the term ICT (information and communications technology) we would shift the emphasis from boxes and software to an integral part of the vision for education and part of the solution to issues such as graduation rates and increasing STEM studies.
To read the full report: Report from Scotland and the Netherlands: Real Investment/Real Innovation
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iPhones and iTouches have quickly taken the lead over laptops as the preferred student device for school. Further evidence of this trend is the development of apps with educational information. Discovery Education just launched an app for learning U.S. Geography by Discovery Education:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/u-s-geography-by-discovery/id374922243?mt=8
Bravo! More development for these tools means more engagement of students in real learning.
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Teachers are starting to give up the cell phone battle. Think about it. Kids walk into a classroom with a powerful, tiny communication device and are told to turn it off and put it away. So the devices go under desks and into pockets where students continue to use them. When technology goes underground it becomes subversive and a classroom management headache. On Tuesday, I heard a student panel at Forsyth County Public Schools who were frustrated with the class time wasted by teachers asking students to put away their technology.
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It’s not quite what you think. The disconnect is not between classroom teachers and their students but between student teachers and the future. Unleashing the Future, the Project Tomorrow report on 2009 Speak Up findings surveys aspiring teachers for the first time and finds that these digital natives are learning to integrate technology using spreadsheets and word processors. REALLY!??!
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