Who are Generation Z?
The term Generation Z refers to teens and pre-teens born after 1995 and was officially launched in 2014 as part of a marketing presentation. The salient characteristic of their generation is its apparent fondness love of and comfort with new technology.
So, in order to find out more about Generation Z, we asked middle school students about theirs and their families’ relationship with technology. And found no easy generalizations.
And what does this all have to do with that pesky “digital natives” conversation?
Continue reading Z is for Generation Z →
Using the Young Writers Project to teach writing
There are so many reasons to appreciate how we teach adolescents to write in Vermont. One of these gifts is the resource of the Young Writer’s Project.
Let’s look at what makes this online resource so powerful for educators to present as an option for students looking to explore their writers’ identities.
Continue reading Y is for Young Writers Project →
How does edtech affect extra credit?
Is extra credit still a valid notion as we move towards ubiquitous learning, and grapple with questions of equity in education?
If the goal is anytime, anywhere learning, how can we quantify certain activities as eXtraneous to that learning space?
Continue reading X is for eXtra credit →
Creative ways to share learning opportunities
Teachers at Lamoille Union Middle/High School learn about the latest tools and resources available to them in a unique and engaging way. Marc Gilbertson, the Integration Specialist and Meagan Towle, the librarian, carve out 20 minutes in their busy schedules to get together and crank out a short video podcast series called the Weekly Geek to share available resources.
Check out this week’s entry demonstrating three tools to encourage visual and audio engagement in learning.
Continue reading W is for Weekly Geek Podcast →
Why voice recordings work for young adolescents
As students use technology to explore and capture projects that show both their emerging proficiency with skills and snapshots of who they have been, are and may become, tools that allow students to add their own human voice to multimedia can be invaluable in the discovery and showcasing process.
Here’s why voice recordings work for young adolescents and 3 tools we like for creating them.
Continue reading V is for Voice Recordings →
Ubiquitous learning is not the same as ubiquitous computing
We hear a lot of hype about e-learning, blended learning, MOOCS, and mobile learning. But even a quick investigation of these trends reveals that effective teaching and learning are as elusive as ever.
Yet ubiquitous computing — that is, anytime, anywhere access — is only a stepping stone to ubiquitous learning.
Continue reading U is for Ubiquity →
Timeline tools for transformative learning
Timeline tools can serve two important purposes: concrete help with project planning (for PLPs, 1:1 rollouts, PBL) and for displaying evidence of learning in an easily digestible format.
But the online, anytime/anywhere, collaborative nature of such tools can unlock meta-learning for students, providing them with a platform for bolstering collaboration and project-planning skills.
Continue reading T is for Timelines →
Steps to a student-led conference
Some of my most poignant moments as a teacher occurred around the table of a Student Led Conference. Truly. My eyes have welled with tears at the sheer emotion shared. I’m a believer in giving students the voice and the power to be at this table.
It requires a strong level of planning and structuring by the teacher, though.
Continue reading S is for Student-Led Conferences →
Getting real about student reflection
Ah, reflection. It may bring to mind an introspective moment, perhaps gazing into the still waters of a mountain lake and seeing a slightly puzzled person staring back. That’s not the kind of reflection we are talking about here.
Reflection in a 21st Century learning sense is a key component of personalized learning.
Reflection allows students to construct knowledge, make personal connections, and ultimately become self-driven learners. More like a trailside break on a wilderness trek than a lazy lakeside afternoon. Continue reading R is for REAL Reflection →
QR codes unlock learning anywhere
These simple workhorses of technology — ink and blank spaces on a screen or page — can be incredibly powerful in making learning an anytime, anywhere endeavor, and turning the world into a classroom.
Continue reading Q is for QR codes →
Using performance tasks as a way to measure student knowledge
When working with a group of middle school science teachers recently whose goal was to increase the depth of knowledge in their shared common assessments, we explored using Performance Tasks as a way to measure student knowledge and skills gained, as they apply them in novel and real situations.
It’s the “do” in the KUD (know, understand, and do) that so often gets left behind, but is so important in the world of deep learning.
Continue reading P is for Performance Tasks →
Online collaboration extends student learning networks
Online collaboration takes on new significance as students extend their learning network in conjunction with more personalized and meaningful learning: they can use online networks to learn with mentors, with community partners, remote collaborators and with asynchronous and synchronous group work.
Continue reading O is for Online Collaboration →
How these educators used Nearpod for professional development
Educators instinctively understand the engagement power of a tool that allows learners to actively participate in the learning.
For those of you new to Nearpod, this multi-platform app allows teachers to shoot out presentations — think Powerpoints or Google Slides made interactive — directly to their students’ devices. Content slides can be interspersed with embedded polls, quizzes, and drawing tools for in-the-moment formative assessment.
Continue reading N is for Nearpod →
How to use Minecraft with students
Minecraft is an example of welcoming in student-driven modes of learning, exploration and demonstration of learning. Students find the platform deeply engaging because they can use it to build entire worlds, and many prefer to do their building collaboratively, or outside of school hours. But Minecraft also requires reading, writing and blogging skills, and can have real-world impact.
“Bio,” says one 9th grader. “We were in Bio. And there were some machines sitting there and one was a centrifuge. And I knew what it was because of Minecraft.”
Continue reading M is for Minecraft →
What can you do with an LMS?
LMS stands for Learning Management System. An LMS is an application for planning, delivering, managing, and assessing a learning process.
Likely, your school or district will choose which commercial LMS package to deploy (Canvas, Haiku, Schoology and Google Classroom are a few), but how you use it is entirely up to you.
Continue reading L is for Learning Management System (LMS) →
Extend learning communities beyond the classroom
For a review game “killer app” recommendation, Kahoot is by far at the top of my list.
Kahoot, if you have not yet had the pleasure of being acquainted, quite frankly, is a riot no matter what your age.
Continue reading K is for Kahoot →
Just-in-time learning in its best form is “Just for me” learning. When you learn something because you yearn to understand it, precisely when you need to apply it, you will learn it deeply and joyfully. Your brain will soak it up because your heart is in it.
Now, how does that translate to providing just-in-time-teaching?
Continue reading J is for Just-in-time Learning →
3 tech-rich strategies for exploring identity with students
“Who am I?” is the question at the heart of the adolescent mind. Almost all challenges, tests, and dilemmas relate to the central theme of identity.
Young adolescents seek to find answers to questions like, “Where do I fit in?”, “What makes me different or special?” and “What do I believe?”
Continue reading I is for Identity →
What can educators do with Google Hangout?
Much like being friends on social media, physical proximity has little to do connecting people with other people. Google Hangouts has successfully made communication between individuals or groups and accessing information a bit easier and some may save they even have shrunk the world.
Continue reading H is for Hangout →
Physical management of tech
aka OMG Where Did All These Cords Come From
The act of simply registering, storing, charging, keeping track of and distributing apps to devices in a 1:1 environment is a full set of challenges on its own. And so, while we’ll later this week get to the other two important aspects of Group Device Management — Behavior Expectations and Communicating With Families — let’s take a few minutes to tackle the physical realities of suddenly having mumble-hundred pieces of identical technology arrive at your door.
Continue reading G is for Group Device Management →
A blog exploring innovative, personalized, student-centered school change
