Most -- if not all -- of the important skills in our lives are acquired outside the traditional classroom setting. Yet we continue to teach using lectures where students passively take down information. Peer instruction is a research-based pedagogy that actively engages students in the classroom and has been shown to dramatically improve conceptual understanding, even in large classes. While successfully implementing peer instruction doesn't require any technology, using the right technology can improve student engagement, increase learning, and make it easier to implement peer instruction in your classroom. In this workshop you will learn how to use Learning Catalytics -- a web-based technology publicly unveiled for the first time last year at BLC '11 -- to bring peer instruction to your students. You will get hands-on experience designing effective questions -- not just multiple-choice but also open-ended questions where students produce textual, numerical, or graphical responses -- and using Learning Catalytics to pose them to students. You will also see how to use Learning Catalytics to manage the discussions students have during class and promote engagement and conceptual understanding.
Over the past three years, the November Learning team has visited over 20 schools in the United States, in Canada and in Asia as a part of our Innovative Planning Partnership (IPP), a process that assists schools and districts in developing technology integration plans that lead to more empowered teaching and learning immediately and in the future. By completing a review of current technology and professional development plans, a school/district-wide survey, a series of classroom observations and meetings with school leaders, teachers, students and parents, we have been able to define clear steps of how to integrate and align technology across the curriculum.
During this session, I will share what we have learned during our visits, including the top five crucial areas that are often forgotten about as schools make the transition from paper to digital environments.
Create and publish interactive multi-touch lessons and books for the iPad, with Mac’s free iBooks Author. Or just create almost any type of book just for fun. Flipping your class? You and your students can design engaging class resources with galleries, video, 3D objects, animation and interactive diagrams.
This session is for beginners and will demonstrate how fast and easy it is to create your first captivating iBook for the iPad.
The learning objectives within the Common Core State Standards represent a rigorous application of research, media and higher-order thinking skills, as students develop their capacity to engage in complex text and tasks that have real-world implications.
Essential to this effort are the lifelong learning skills, habits and dispositions that serve as the foundational structure for all learners. Without thoughtful and purposeful attention to these and other requisites we risk our investments of time, money and energy yielding little return – like pouring concrete without proper supports in place.
Join us for a rich discussion focused on the core tools our leaners need to build capacity and develop competencies in discovering meaning, analyzing content, comparing information, synthesizing, applying and sharing their understandings.
Participants will:
- Identify the requisite skills, dispositions and learning habits that support the Common Core
- Consider resources designed to foster student development of foundational tools and structures for learning
- Share critical shifts in the roles of teachers and students in a standards-based learning environment
- Explore how learners are being empowered to extend their thinking, research and learning beyond current boundaries
Presentation Link: http://brainyardworkshop.wikispaces.com/
