Edina Digital Age Learning

Today, I was listening to NPR , when the announcer mentioned that coming up on Science Friday , there would be a discussion with author, Matthew Lieberman regarding his new book, Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect . I was intrigued, as:  It is Connected Educator Month and it sounded like it would provide scientific research behind the importance of connecting. Provide support to those who believe " learning is social. " Provide support for Connectivist MOOC experiences , like Open Online Experience (OOE13) , which I have been participating in. Provide good background for my TIES session in December ! So I sent out this tweet: I enjoyed the segment and took some notes that will be useful. Then the following happened: It's not every day that you hear a segment about a book that you are interested in, and a half hour later you're having a dialog with the author. That is the POWER of being connected!  I am definitely inte...

Talking about teachers "Asking kids for help" as an important way to engage students. #edcampMSP — Michael Walker (@micwalker) October 12, 2013 I was having lunch today at EdCampMSP with some great folks from Byron, MN and Little Falls. Neil Adruschak was commenting on his experience with the Little Falls 1:1 iPad roll out . In year one, he got a call from a teacher, asking for help learning how to use Keynote on the iPad. Neil had never used it, and suggested that instead, the teacher ask his kids to show him how it was done. The next morning 25 out of 25 students showed up in his classroom, eager to share their knowledge of how to make a presentation in Keynote. A week later, the teacher called again, this time to learn how to use another product. Neil asked, "how did you learn to use Keynote?" "Oh, yeah!," said the teacher as he hung up. This year, teachers like the one above, who had highly engaged, motivated students in their classro...

Today, I received an e-mail from Chris Hoffman , one of our 8th Grade Math Teachers at Valley View Middle School . For the last 4 years or so, Chris has been working to flip his curriculum . Last year, he included a project where students created a video example for all of the power standards in his course. He also built an AP Statistics course from scratch, and included many videos to assist students as they worked through the curriculum. Based on his student's performance, it was very successful! I asked him permission to share his note with my readers, and he said it would be ok.  I do the flipped classroom. After a brief agenda overview and summary from the video lessons I help students with homework for the bulk of the 85 minute block and today, their practice test for the upcoming unit assessment. The two students in the photograph spent a few minutes with me working on reviewing sign changes when solving equations in algebra. I mentioned they should transfer what we re...

Edina High School Chemistry teacher, Gavin McLean has begun incorporating student devices into his instruction. Last year, 9th grade students were given the option to participate in our eLearning2 initiative . Last spring, McLean recognized that those students would be coming to the high school with devices, and began brainstorming ways that he could incorporate them. Early on, he worried about student devices in his lab space. He saw potential for students to enter their observations electronically, but worried about devices getting damaged if they were on the lab surface. He took it upon himself to build stands that students could use in the lab. Color coded for each station, they provide students with a stable platform to set their Chromebook, laptop or tablet on. 4 Chemistry classrooms are now outfitted for students to bring devices. I had a chance to stop by a lab to see students in action. They have been were doing some identification and entering in data into a shared G...