Edina Digital Age Learning

Today on the " Getting Smart Blog ," I saw a great infographic that gives great examples of how our eLearning2 Initiative in Edina can transform student learning. Many of our staff are already implementing learning like this in their classrooms, and our professional development plan will definitely include these ideas!

Tony Wagner , author of the book,  Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change The World   was the keynote speaker on Tuesday, December 11 at the 2012 TIES Conference .  He began by sharing the story of a classroom in New Orleans, where kids were excitedly using technology...to do test prep. In another question, he talked about a teacher using lots of technology, but never explaining, "why math? Knowledge today is commoditized. Very quickly you will be able to get a college education without leaving your house. What's school for then? Routine jobs are being outsourced.  The world no longer cares how much our kids know. It cares about what are students can DO with what they know! Students need to be able to transform knowledge. So what is the teachers roll? When he read, The World is Flat, it scared the heck out of him. He talked to executives, community leaders, college teachers and recent graduates. They stated that the following com...

Simon Sinek, author of the book, " Start with Why " was the keynote presenter Monday at the TIES Conference. His TED Talk on content from his book has been extremely popular. Sinek, considers himself an early adopter, but he likes human beings more than technology! How do we use technology to make things work better for the human being? We need a human problem before technology is used most effectively. He gave the example of screens with string to pull down.  A brilliant example of tech is to go to Bed Bath and Beyond. Some toasters have a function where if you lift the button, the toast comes up.  First, what is the human problem we are trying to solve? We have to remember why we are teaching this in the first place. We teach students, not curriculum!! So what can technology do for education? Sinek believes it can be used for: Humans are fundamentally social. What is so remarkable about us that made us not only survive, but thrive? Human beings want to...

Kathryn Smith , former Bemidji State professor, presented on Innovative Spaces Support 21st Century Learning. Her presentation slides can be found here . Today, learning can happen anywhere, anytime, and on any device.  She started by using PollEverywhere to ask about the status of mobile technologies and school learning environments. She thinks that the TPACK model is a good one to use when implementing professional development around 21st Century learning. We are using this model in our BYOD professional development. Smith notes that the National Educational Technology Plan , is a great road map for change. Research has shown that the appropriate use of technology and the appropriate design of learning spaces is having a significant positive impact on learning. The learning spaces today are not that far removed from 19th Century classrooms. She showed this video from the University of Michigan on research on design of learning environment. Here are more videos...

Often, when people talk about Flipped Learning, the focus is on the videos students sit and watch. Rarely, do we get to see how classroom pedagogy shifts. The other day, I came across this scene at one of our middle schools. The teacher was working with a small group of students showing them how they would be using iPads to create their own videos for classmates on problems that were directly tied to power standards in math. His other students were in the classroom, organized in groups solving problems. By moving his instructional lecture to video, he was freed up to work with this small group. Too often, the focus of flipped is on the videos, and not enough is spent showing the classroom interaction that can occur because the lecture is online.