Edina Digital Age Learning

Dr. Robert Marzano , led off the second day of the TIES 2009 Conference with a keynote desscribing his research on Interactive White Boards . (IWB) His research was funded by Promethean , and they were a major sponsor of the event. That said, here were some highlights of his talk. Overall, he was less dry than what you see on the ASCD videos . He started with a general impression of research and looking for the “Silver Bullet.” It doesnt' exist, but we may find “silver beebies!” IWB's may be one of those. "What will revolutionize education is when we start using what we know works . " IWB, Student Acheivement, and Engagement Marzano started by talking about Seymour Pappert and " Mindstorms ." We’ve come a long way since. Papert often asked the question, "If Rip Van Winkel had gone to sleep in 1880 and woken up in 1980 if he walked into an operating room, it would look different, but "What about a classroom?" Not so much. Marzano asked, ...

For the second session at TIES 2009, I decided to listen in on the Question and Answers with today's Keynote Speaker, Michael Horn . Q :The first question for Dr. Horn revolved around the current model of classifying students by grade levels. Do we have a "classification scism" in K-12 education. A: Horn agreed with this, but said that the current model, in place for the last 100 years, has a social component with promotion. At the same time, as we "socially promote". As we move to a more student centered environment, we can still organize students socially, but instead of calling it, "3rd grade", we gear it toward what they are learning. If we decouple online learning and time, making it less about seat time and "Carnegie Units", this will be huge. Q : EHS Assistant principal, Eric Nelson asked how are districts moving to more online learning dealing with bargaining units? A: Horn said that where it's been most successful is in carving o...

The TIES Technology Conference 0pened today with a keynote by Michael Horn , co-author of " Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns ". He discussed themes from the book and how online and student-centered learning supported with technology will lead this innovation. The authors came from the perspective of studying education from the outside, looking in. " If we can understand some of the root causes of why schools struggle, we can help them transform and improve. " "Why do successful organizations fail?" was the question that Clayton M. Christiansen, the lead author has been studying since he started at the Harvard Business School. He shared models from the business world that explains performance over time. Since "basic needs" don't change very much, the performance that customers can absorb is rather flat. In contradiction, the pace of technological innovation grows at a much faster pace. " Tec...