Edina Digital Age Learning

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the Educon 2.1 Conference at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. One of the highlights for me was the chance to tour the school and sit in on classrooms to learn some of the pedagogy that makes SLA so unique. One of the classrooms I visited, was Diana Laufenberg's Government Class. Students were sharing their stories from public meetings they had attended and were sharing their learning. Last month, Laufenberg presented at the TEDxMidAtlantic Conference . In the talk, she shares the story of learning from the perspective of her grandmother, father, herself, and now her students. In her grandmother's world, school was where you had to go to "get the information." She points out that today, that is no longer the case. By asking students questions, allowing them to make mistakes, asking them what they can do with the information, we can offer a richer learning experience. She challenges us to provide experientia...

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...