This interview is well worth listening to: https://omny.fm/shows/the-kieno-kammies-show/jobs-of-the-future
Showing posts with label 21st-century-classroom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 21st-century-classroom. Show all posts
Wednesday, 23 August 2017
Jobs of the future
I enjoyed listening to Michael Chavez, Chief Executive at Duke Corporate Education, who was interviewed on the Kieno Kammies show. He chatted about the skills and knowledge our boys will need to succeed in work, life and citizenship. We need to teach our boys to become curious, to develop the ability to empathise, collaborate and look out into the world to find creative and innovative solutions to traditional problems.
Monday, 31 July 2017
Free, multimedia Internet safety presentations
Thursday, 18 May 2017
17 Ways to Help Students With ADHD Concentrate
17 Ways to Help Students With ADHD Concentrate
What a great article!https://www.edutopia.org/discussion/17-ways-help-students-adhd-fidget
Tuesday, 25 August 2015
Kahoot - a game-based platform for learning
Kahoot is one of the fastest growing learning brands and we are using this tool to great effect in our classrooms. "It engages the heart, hand and mind for deeper pedagogical impact and supports connected learning and stimulates social learning and collaboration."
(Kahoot: https://getkahoot.com/)
The learners just love being able to answer quiz-based questions in an engaging and fun way where they are challenged by their peers and within limited time frames. The results are immediate and real-time. Kahoot is therefore a great tool for testing learning.
It works on any device with an internet connection and for teachers there is no setup time and involves simple one-click game play.
(Kahoot: https://getkahoot.com/)
The learners just love being able to answer quiz-based questions in an engaging and fun way where they are challenged by their peers and within limited time frames. The results are immediate and real-time. Kahoot is therefore a great tool for testing learning.
It works on any device with an internet connection and for teachers there is no setup time and involves simple one-click game play.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Writeable surfaces
I love our new desks! And Idea Paint walls!
Our boys are enjoying write-able surfaces in Biology laboratories and our resource centre. They find it much easier and more productive being able to make quick and easy changes and then use their phones / tablets to photograph the final product. They also enjoy making notes while the teacher is talking, or using the surfaces in collaborative work. Another class used the desks to jot down answers during a discussion.
Our boys are enjoying write-able surfaces in Biology laboratories and our resource centre. They find it much easier and more productive being able to make quick and easy changes and then use their phones / tablets to photograph the final product. They also enjoy making notes while the teacher is talking, or using the surfaces in collaborative work. Another class used the desks to jot down answers during a discussion.
I asked the boys what they enjoyed about working this way and why it was 'way cooler' and 'free-er' than writing on good old fashioned paper. They loved that it wasn't permanent and that mistakes could be easily corrected.
Wednesday, 6 August 2014
Terms, Laws and Ethics For Using Copyrighted Images
We all like to use images in our presentations and projects to make them more visually appealing. We need to make sure that we correctly reference any images belonging to someone else and that we use the images according to legal and ethical standards. Follow these links to find out more about what you can and can't do with images: copyright, fair use, creative commons, and public domain.
created a useful guide and infographic to help explain the do's and don'ts.
Wednesday, 14 May 2014
Flipping the classroom
Flipping the classroom is the new buzz word in education but I prefer rather to use a combination of electronic material to create a blended approach that maximizes the value of teacher contact time. In this way we use technology to support the learning and teaching process. We try to articulate the course content in a uniform way so that pupils have a one stop shop - web pages that clearly lay out the content to be covered, the activities they will be engaged in, all rubric, instructions and supporting resources.
Monday, 17 March 2014
14 Things that are obsolete in 21st Century Schools
Ingvi Hrannar Ómarsson
Icelandic elementary teacher & Entrepreneur… passionate about the future of education.
Saying that it has always been this way, doesn’t count as a legitimate justification to why it should stay that way. Teacher and administrators all over the world are doing amazing things, but some of the things we are still doing, despite all the new solutions, research and ideas out there is, to put it mildly, incredible.
I’m not saying we should just make the current system better… we should change it into something else.
I have compiled a list of 14 things that are obsolete in 21st century schools and it is my hope that this will inspire lively discussions about the future of education.
Read more.....
Read more.....
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Using a blog to support communication
I'm a great fan of blogging and as this very busy educational year draws to a close (and not a moment too soon), I thought I would share one really simple and effective blogging idea.
Every year a number of staff take our grade 10s to the Cederberg where they hike with staff and on their own; they cycle along country roads; challenge themselves on the banks of the Clanwilliam Dam and work with school children at Elizabethfontein in the Northern Cederberg . At Sanddrift and Jamaka they learn a range of skills and contribute to the upgrading of the environment in which they find themselves. We have named this journey the Bishops Epic. The boys experience a wide range of activities which test them physically and mentally and allow them to appreciate the landscape as well as the people and the history of the area.
Every year a number of staff take our grade 10s to the Cederberg where they hike with staff and on their own; they cycle along country roads; challenge themselves on the banks of the Clanwilliam Dam and work with school children at Elizabethfontein in the Northern Cederberg . At Sanddrift and Jamaka they learn a range of skills and contribute to the upgrading of the environment in which they find themselves. We have named this journey the Bishops Epic. The boys experience a wide range of activities which test them physically and mentally and allow them to appreciate the landscape as well as the people and the history of the area.
Obviously the boys' families want to follow the journey and so we use this blog to communicate. Internet access is not always possible and the staff have limited access to technology. They do, however, have their cell phones and so we set up the blog so that it will automatically upload an email (with photo attachment) as a post on the blog. We chose to have a proof reader supervise the posts before accepting publication. Making possible a simple posting process worked really well. 16500 hits!
Saturday, 26 October 2013
Learning Spaces
I recently returned from a magnificent trip to Australia and
Singapore. Amongst other things we spent lots of time talking and learning
about 'learning spaces' and the profound impact such spaces have on the learning
and teaching.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Tuesday, 23 April 2013
QR Codes: an interest in reading
On World Book Day our library chose a variety of popular books that they felt teenage boys would like to read. They wanted to give the boys the opportunity to democratically choose which of the suggested books the library should buy. They used technology to do this! Our library staff created QR codes of reviews of the books and then published these on posters and on the website. Boys use QR scanners on their smart phones to vote for books that appeal to them by simply scanning the QR code and thereafter voting for particular book(s). It’s created a buzz about reading and about the resource centre. The boys feel that they have been included in the process and are excited about our new centre.
Monday, 11 March 2013
Med KarbachBlogs and other ICT in Bio
Our Bio teachers have just done a section on eco columns and we love how
they went about this. Firstly, instead of typing the instructions out, Jacky
made a short video which she linked off the academic Intranet site. Instructions
on how to Blog and examples of what a good blog should contain were also posted
there. She then used Stixy as a pin board to upload further resources /
instructions and Blogger as a platform for the pupils to blog the process. In
this way she was able to connect pupils to the subject content in a meaningful
and fun way. The boys worked together and could communicate with each other anytime
/ anywhere and also get real-time feedback from their teachers. In this way the
teachers could monitor the process, rather than mark an end product. The pupils
enjoyed the authenticity and excitement of being able to engage with the
various parties –and parents were invited to see the work too.
Wednesday, 6 March 2013
Teaching Poetry Using Thinglink
Our English teacher is impressed by Thinglink, a very easy to use piece of free Internet software that allows one to annotate images.What a great app to use for teaching poetry! By using the tagging tool he is quickly and easily able to enrich the text (picture) with explanations, questions, photos, sound and videos. He is then able to share the interactive image with his class - either via email or our Intranet.
Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants
Marc Prensky wrote an article in October 2001 entitled “Digital natives, digital immigrants”. He is a writer, consultant and inventor in the areas of education and learning and is also the author of “Digital Game-based Learning (2001)”. He has a master’s degree from Yale University, Middlebury College and Harvard Business School.
I thought that it would be useful to summarise some excerpts from this article where he talks about today’s students and how we as educators should be looking at ways to bridge the gap between their learning styles and the type of education we are imposing upon them.
According to Prensky, today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. Today’s students represent the first generation to grow up with new technology. They spend their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and all the other toys and tools of a digital age. As a result, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. One can call the students of today “Digital Natives” whereas the rest of us, who were not born into the digital world but have adopted many aspects of the new technology, can be called “Digital Immigrants”. (Prensky, 2011)
The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age) are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. The students in classrooms have grown up on the “twitch speed” of video games and TV. (Prensky, 2011)
They are used to the instantaneity of hypertext, downloaded music, cell phones, a library on their laptops, beamed messaging and instant messaging. Today’s average college graduates have spent less than 5000 hours of their lives reading, over 10 000 hours playing video games and a further 20 000 hours watching TV. Computer games, email, the internet, cell phones and instant messaging are part of their daily lives. (Prensky, 2011)
They have been networked for most of their lives. They have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic. Clearly today’s learners are different. “Every time I go to school I have to power down”, complains a high-school student. Is it that Digital Natives can’t pay attention, or that they choose not to? Often from the Native’s point of view their Digital Immigrant instructors make their education not worth paying attention to compared with everything else they experience – and then they blame them for not paying attention! We need to reconsider both our methodology and our content. (Prensky, 2011)
In Maths for example the debate must no longer be about whether to use calculators or computers – they are a part of the Digital Native’s world – but rather how to use them to instil the things that are useful to have internalised from key skills and concepts to multiplication tables. (Prensky, 2011)
If Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change and despite possible grumbling and reservations, they will succeed in the long run and their successes will come just that much sooner if their administrators support them (Prensky, 2011)
Bibliography Prensky, M., 2011. The Digital Divide. London: Penguin.
According to Prensky, today’s students have not just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang, clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously. Today’s students represent the first generation to grow up with new technology. They spend their entire lives surrounded by and using computers, video games, digital music players, video cams, cell phones and all the other toys and tools of a digital age. As a result, today’s students think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors. One can call the students of today “Digital Natives” whereas the rest of us, who were not born into the digital world but have adopted many aspects of the new technology, can be called “Digital Immigrants”. (Prensky, 2011)
The single biggest problem facing education today is that our Digital Immigrant instructors, who speak an outdated language (that of the pre-digital age) are struggling to teach a population that speaks an entirely new language. The students in classrooms have grown up on the “twitch speed” of video games and TV. (Prensky, 2011)
They are used to the instantaneity of hypertext, downloaded music, cell phones, a library on their laptops, beamed messaging and instant messaging. Today’s average college graduates have spent less than 5000 hours of their lives reading, over 10 000 hours playing video games and a further 20 000 hours watching TV. Computer games, email, the internet, cell phones and instant messaging are part of their daily lives. (Prensky, 2011)
They have been networked for most of their lives. They have little patience for lectures, step-by-step logic. Clearly today’s learners are different. “Every time I go to school I have to power down”, complains a high-school student. Is it that Digital Natives can’t pay attention, or that they choose not to? Often from the Native’s point of view their Digital Immigrant instructors make their education not worth paying attention to compared with everything else they experience – and then they blame them for not paying attention! We need to reconsider both our methodology and our content. (Prensky, 2011)
In Maths for example the debate must no longer be about whether to use calculators or computers – they are a part of the Digital Native’s world – but rather how to use them to instil the things that are useful to have internalised from key skills and concepts to multiplication tables. (Prensky, 2011)
If Digital Immigrant educators really want to reach Digital Natives – i.e. all their students – they will have to change and despite possible grumbling and reservations, they will succeed in the long run and their successes will come just that much sooner if their administrators support them (Prensky, 2011)
Bibliography Prensky, M., 2011. The Digital Divide. London: Penguin.
Monday, 25 February 2013
Afrikaans Twitter
Our Afrikaans department are using Twitter to help their learners build vocabularly. Read all about it in the article posted in Die Burger.
Teaching
Afrikaans in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town certainly has its challenges, as
exposure to the language is so limited. The
department likes to encourage parents to help their sons spend a bit more time
with the language and to this end has opened theTwitter account, @afrpret. Every day from
Monday to Friday, they add some new words and sample sentences.Follow
them on Twitter - @afrpret- and encourage your children to engage with the words!
http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Selfone-in-klaskamer-ingespan-20130224
Teaching
Afrikaans in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town certainly has its challenges, as
exposure to the language is so limited. The
department likes to encourage parents to help their sons spend a bit more time
with the language and to this end has opened theTwitter account, @afrpret. Every day from
Monday to Friday, they add some new words and sample sentences.Follow
them on Twitter - @afrpret- and encourage your children to engage with the words!
http://www.dieburger.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Selfone-in-klaskamer-ingespan-20130224
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