Edina Digital Age Learning

Rafranz Davis , author of the book, The Missing Voice in EdTech  Conversations, Bringing Diversity into EdTech " was our keynote speaker at the Edina Learning Institute. All of us as teachers have had times where we were NOT innovative, creative, brilliant! She is the first college graduate in her family, and comes from a very supportive close knit family. She comes from a "Minecraft Family," as a way to create as a family, both at home and outside. She loves that she can bring that outside activity into her classroom. As a student, in 5th grade she realized that she couldn't focus in class, as she began to day-dream. She felt like she didn't belong, and didn't have the platform to do creative things. It fueled her desire to become a teacher, to help students just as herself. She remembers the Tandy 1000 and AOL, and the first time she logged on to the Internet. It was the greatest thing ever to have access! It reminded me of waiting 4 hours to ...

On Tuesday, April 28, Edina High School Sophomores shared their year-long passion projects with staff, fellow students and community members. This project is part of their Pre-AP English 10 course, and also involved completing a research paper, service learning , and digital age learning . This authentic learning experience has led to recognition for students beyond the school walls in the past, and I believe this year's sophomores will be continuing that tradition. Here are some highlights that were shared out during the presentations. [ View the story "2015 Passion Project Fair" on Storify ] It was great to see EHS alumni, Alec Fischer and Gabe Aderhold come back to encourage students to continue to foster their passions beyond their projects, as you never know how far it can take you! This year's "Passion Fair" was the best yet, and it was great to see school and community leaders turn out to learn from the students.  It was also rewarding...

In this session, Monika Hardy and students from Loveland , Colorado shared a new learning opportunity that they have been exploring called " Innovation Lab ". Students are designing courses and modules based on their passions, and creating peer learning opportunities for others. One student named Aimee shared how her teacher suggested setting up a Website for students to study for an AP test. Aimee asked if instead she could post it to Students 2.0 so that others around the world could benefit and prepare for the test. The teacher agreed, and A student named, Chase shared projects he has been working on, including student led tutorials, such as translating adult language into kid/student language by posting to Youtube and Voicethread . Here is an example of a video he created . Another student created her own audio files for students including her own "Rosetta Stone" for German, allowing students to learn the language from another student. Morgan will be studying...

Earlier this year, I blogged about The Alice Project , an amazing authentic learning opportunity developed by Texas Educator, Christian Long . Long has developed a new student project, based on TED talks , titled The TEDx Project . This new project, which kicks off April 5, has his students individually analyze 1 TED Talk per week (Students sign up, so ultimately all 600+ TED talks will be analyzed!), publicly defend one of the talks, and create a 5-10 minute talk of their own on something they are passionate about using the theme, “What Matters (to You)?” The students will present their talks "in Ignite or Pecha Kucha style — 20 slides of 15 to 20 seconds each." They will then upload their videos to Youtube and embed them on his blog. Long states, " students will prepare with a ‘global’ audience in mind from day one. " He is looking for teachers to help judge his students work, and is also inviting Middle and High School teachers to submit their own student...