Edina Digital Age Learning

During session 3 at the Iowa 1:1 Institute I decided to move from presentation to conversation mode. I joined Dr. Scott McLeod , Dr. John Nash , Dr. Jeanette Westfall , Dr. Michael Gielniak and a few other educators to share our experiences both positive and negative with 1:1 learning. Sustainability I was curious as to how all of the districts represented here today in Des Moines could afford to be moving to 1:1 learning. How were they sustaining it? It turns out, Iowa has a 1 cent sales tax for education that can be used for capital and technology. If a district has all of their buildings in good working order, they can focus those dollars on technology.This is how they are funding all of the 1:1 initiatives on display here in Des Moines I shared our struggles with how we might expand or even sustain our 1:1 initiative. McLeod mentiond that a Means test model could work, where the district provides laptops to those that can’t afford them. He also mentioned a model being used by t...

I was planning to write this post today, and then I saw a post from Scott McLeod with a chart showing student learning curiosity and engagement with content. To answer Scott's question about whether technology is to blame for this, I think the answer is NO ! The other day I saw a post on Clay Burrell's blog regarding a webcast he attended from a group called Teachers Teaching Teachers titled, "How to Make YouthTwitter Less Schooly" or something to that affect. Clay has had some interesting posts in the past about "schooliness" or "schoolishness" if you prefer as it relates to student blogging. It got me to thinking about, whether "schooliness" was a digital/technology issue, or whether it has been around regardless of technology's influence. I see my own two children's experience (admittedly a small sample) similar to McLeod's chart on learning curiosity. They are both naturally inquisitive, and excited about learning, but I ...

Dr. Scott McLeod makes a point during his presentation to Edina Staff in August. Many Edina staff have integrated Web 2.0 tools in their teaching this fall. Here Dr. McLeod leads the 21st Century Skills CoP in the "Shock and Awe" activity.