Edina Digital Age Learning

Andrew Vanden-Heuvel , a former astronomer turned educator shared his thoughts on the future of learning. He currently serves as an online educator in Michigan. Cosmic issue: Solve the poverty problem Education can do that. Purpose of school is to help kids find their passion. The problem is that "school is boring!" How can we make school engaging? Too often we think that technology is the answer for technologies sake. The real question is how to make LEARNING engaging? Gamification It's everywhere. Reward cards, video games, etc. The reason they are interesting is that they can be fun. What kind of gamification do we want at school? Target cashiers get a score for the speed of checking someone out, with tracking of score and number of sales. Would this work in school? One mentioned the importance of clear learning targets. Identifies those not scoring well and allows the teacher to differentiate. I see similarities with this and the tool, Kahoot! It provi...

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...

Doug Paulson , K-12 STEM specialist at the Minnesota Department of Education shared information about the state license Minnesota has for Sketchup Pro , a Computer Aided Design program. The Pro version can be translated into other CAD programs as well, and it can be shared within presentations to show 3D drawings and build understanding of the real world.  Paulson shared how the flow of ideas between the practice of science to the practice of engineering to the interactions of science, engineering and society can be set up on each grade level. Paulson had us open Sketchup and begin learning to use the tools. He discussed how using these tools, and allowing students to add the colors and textures that they wanted allowed them to explore design. With 4th graders, he had them design solar ovens, and then had them discuss why their design would be the best. Then he had them actually build and test it out. This can be used to have students build bridges or other structur...

The State of Minnesota Department of Education has a state-wide license for Geographical Information Systems . On September 27th, I had a chance to attend a training at MDE to learn more. Applications: In social studies, Substrand 1 on Geospacial Skills, have two standards where technology is embeded. Students are to formulate questions on topics in geography and use geospatial technology to analyze problems and make decisions within a spatial context. GIS is a great tool for this.  Authentic problems, like transportation and flooding can be addressed. In science, students are to use maps, satellite images and other data sets to describe pattersn and make predictions about natural systems in a life science context. Students could use GIS to use online data sets to compare wildlife populations or water quality within Minnesota. Sara Damon, a social studies teacher from Stillwater Public Schools talked about Spatial Thinking with Geotechnologies. Sheis a strong advocate fo...

After Brian Silverman spoke about Playful invention, and using programming to spark learning, Carolyn Staudt from the Concord Consortium spoke on Modeling technology. Everything the consortium produces is Open Source, and everything they put out "changes educational methods, goals, content, materials development and distribution and professional development." She demonstrated the Molecular Workbench software which allows you to simulate atomic structure. Molecular Rover , which shows atomic motion in different states of matter. She demonstrated flying through helium gas to view atomic motion. Inquiry questions are built in to the software, and students are asked to take snapshots of the models to prove their theories. Now they are working on "Evolution Readiness" for 2nd and 3rd graders! She said that Models could work with other social science topics as well. Now she's working on grabing data with inexpensive equipment like cellphones, gps, cameras, etc... H...

This afternoon, I'll be heading off to Educon 2.1 at the Science and Leadership Academy(SLA) in Philadelphia. Chris Lehmann , the principal at SLA has been a strong proponent of student-centered instruction, and Friday will provide an opportunity to meet with students and staff to "learn how they learn" at SLA. Tomorrow will be a Pre-Conference on Constructing Modern Math/Science Knowledge , led by Gary Stager , executive director of the Constructivist Consortium , and frequent blogger on educational issues . I'm hoping that the conference will provide some good examples of implementing student-centered learning without sacrificing high student acheivement. The best part of the conference will be networking and connecting. The focus of Educon is not so much on the tools, but on learning. The guiding principles of the conference are: Our schools must be inquiry-driven, thoughtful and empowering for all members Our schools must be about co-creating -- together with o...