learningIT

I have added a few videos under my ICT Theories and Info tab above recently that you may find interesting. One has taken inspiration from the CommonCraft team and created a video on Digital Storytelling in Plain English. Another is from Alan November (Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom) and finally, the lengthy Teaching Search in the Classroom from Google.

Other interesting reads from the web:

Michelle Obama tells International audience why the Arts Matter (from Los Angeles Times)

Schools Adopt Art as Building Block of Education (from The New York Times)

From Text on Paper to Media Collage – Art becomes the next R (from Jason Ohler via The Committed Sardine)

What’s new? 21st Century Skills (by Jamie McKenzie)

Media literacy skills have been important for decades as the news media transitioned into entertainment and a few international corporations consolidated control over information. While media literacy was important in the 1960s, it was sorely neglected. It may be even more crucial today but remains unattended by many school programs.

Digital Images for Education is “an unrivalled online image library, comprising over 500 hours of film and 56,000 photos, will be available free of charge for at least 25 years to UK higher and further education institutions from Summer 2010.”

“The challenge is no longer finding information but making it meaningful.”

A great article from 2020 Forecast:

An extremely visible world demands new sensemaking

Information proliferation will continue, exacerbating the burden on families, learners, educators, and decision-makers to make sense of vast amounts of data. New tools for visualizing data will require new skills in discerning meaningful patterns. Social media and collaborative tools will leave “data trails” of people’s online interactions — including contributions to group activities, inquiries and searches, skills, digital resources, and preferences (such as playlists, buddy lists, and topics tracked) — and social networks. At the same time, sensors and global positioning systems in devices such as cell phones and car navigation systems will be able to capture location-based information along with health and environmental data. Together these tools will provide a robust, visible “data picture” of our lives as citizens, workers, and learners. Families, learners, educators, and decision-makers will need to become sophisticated at pattern recognition in order to create effective and differentiated learning experiences and environments. Furthermore, new skills in collective sensemaking will redefine forms of knowledge, knowing, and assessment.

• How do ubiquitous, visible data impact teaching, learning, and the assessment of learning experiences?
• How can we use data to enhance human decisions rather than automate them?

How will we aggregate data and make sense of it all? “Educators and learners will need to learn how to participate effectively in an abundant data world.  New ways of seeing, knowing, and communicating will redefine learning environments, roles, and even forms of knowledge, knowing, and assessment. “

Full story here.

Also look at the Explore Visual Literacy area located under Related Topics > Trends.

Forget iTunes U: Students Now Getting College Credit via YouTube

A computer science professor at an Australian University is doing something revolutionary with YouTube – he’s offering students who can’t attend his classes college credit for watching his videos.

50 Online Reference Sites for Teachers

and if interested…

Visual Literacy Resources by Frank Baker

The Carrot Revolution blog featured this article from the magazine, Educational Leadership. I’m glad M. Anderson did. Luckily, my school subscribes to it and as soon as I read it, I forwarded it onto our staff bulletin board. I’ll agree, it’s an excellent read. More and more we read and hear how creativity, design, story and collaboration are vital for success in the 21st Century. I guess many have read Dan Pink and others these days and are taking note. (I will be touching upon this at a presentation I am making in April)

Now, how many of your schools are ready to crumble the academic hierarchy?

Highlighted summary (the article goes in depth with each number):
Eight Guidelines for Teachers
1. Shift from text centrism to media collage.
2. Value writing and reading now more than ever.
3. Adopt art as the next R.
4. Blend traditional and emerging literacies.
5. Harness report and story.
6. Practice private and participatory social literacy.
7. Develop literacy with digital tools and about digital tools.
8. Pursue fluency.

UPDATE: I just noticed this is my 100th post!