Clipmarks | edtechnnorris's Teaching and Learning collection

Learning From Mistakes Only Works After Age 12

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 21:58:01 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: With little ones, stay positive.

Eight-year-old children have a radically different learning strategy from twelve-year-olds and adults. Eight-year-olds learn primarily from positive feedback ('Well done!'), whereas negative feedback ('Got it wrong this time') scarcely causes any alarm bells to ring. Twelve-year-olds are better able to process negative feedback, and use it to learn from their mistakes. Adults do the same, but more efficiently.

In children of eight and nine, these areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their 'control centres' in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback.

Hot for Teaching Jobs: More Consider Ed Jobs

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:14:34 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: abcnews.go.com

If you've ever thought about ditching your current job to become a teacher, you've got plenty of company. Forty-two percent of college-educated 24- to 60-year-olds would consider teaching as a career, according to a survey out Wednesday from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in Princeton, N.J.

Because of retirements, teacher turnover, and enrollment growth, schools will need to hire somewhere between 2.9 million and 5.1 million teachers between now and 2020

Most potential teachers say it's extremely important that their job be personally rewarding (68 percent). The second most common motivation: "contributing to society and making a difference" (54 percent).

The Biggest Issue

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 02:32:46 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Blog about why US is falling behind.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Between 1975 and 1990, educational attainments stagnated completely. Since then, progress has been modest. America’s lead over its economic rivals has been entirely forfeited, with many nations surging ahead in school attainment.

In “Schools, Skills and Synapses,” Heckman probes the sources of that decline. It’s not falling school quality, he argues. Nor is it primarily a shortage of funding or rising college tuition costs. Instead, Heckman directs attention at family environments, which have deteriorated over the past 40 years.

there is a big debate under way over the sources of middle-class economic anxiety. Some populists emphasize the destructive forces of globalization, outsourcing and predatory capitalism.

America rose because it got more out of its own people than other nations. That stopped in 1970. Now, other issues grab headlines and campaign attention. But this tectonic plate is still relentlessly and menacingly shifting beneath our feet.

Unboxed - If You're Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:37:03 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Relates to the article about over-praising your children. People who think success is based on talent, and not the willingness to grow, learn, make mistakes are not as successful.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a “fixed mind-set.” Those who believe that their own abilities can expand over time, however, live with a “growth mind-set.”

“People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.”

But Ms. Dweck does not suggest that recruiters ignore innate talent. Instead, she suggests looking for both talent and a growth mind-set in prospective hires — people with a passion for learning who thrive on challenge and change.

How the Google generation thinks differently

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:42:05 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: women.timesonline.co.uk

Digital natives
Like receiving information quickly from multiple media sources.
Like parallel processing and multi-tasking.
Like processing pictures, sounds and video before text.
Like random access to hyperlinked multimedia information.
Like to network with others.
Like to learn “just in time”.

Digital immigrants
Like slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.
Like singular processing and single or limited tasking.
Like processing text before pictures, sounds and video.
Like to receive information linearly, logically and sequentially.
Like to work independently.
Like to learn “just in case”.

Educational Benefits of Social Networking Sites Uncovered

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:02:33 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

esearchers at the University of Minnesota have discovered the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The same study found that low-income students are in many ways just as technologically proficient as their counterparts, going against what results from previous studies have suggested.

What we found was that students using social networking sites are actually practicing the kinds of 21st century skills we want them to develop to be successful today,"

educators can help students realize even more benefits from their social network site use by working to deepen students' still emerging ideas about what it means to be a good digital citizen and leader online.

"Students are developing a positive attitude towards using technology systems, editing and customizing content and thinking about online design and layout. They're also sharing creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology.

Clueless in America

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:42:02 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: drop out rates and sub standard education a real issue in this country

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

The nation’s future may depend on how well we educate the current and future generations, but (like the renovation of the nation’s infrastructure, or a serious search for better sources of energy) that can wait. At the moment, no one seems to have the will to engage any of the most serious challenges facing the U.S.

An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. That’s more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life — and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.

Ignorance in the United States is not just bliss, it’s widespread.

We have one of the highest dropout rates in the industrialized world,

When two-thirds of all teenagers old enough to graduate from high school are incapable of mastering college-level work, the nation is doing something awfully wrong.

Teens See Disconnect Between Personal and School Writing

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:31:30 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Important point, teens know how important writing is for their future, they know they would get better if teachers spent more time writing in classes.

Clip Source: www.thejournal.com

Students see a distinction between the writing they do for school and the writing they do in their personal lives. While the vast majority of 12- to 17-year-olds (85 percent) engage in some form of electronic writing--IM, e-mail, blog posts, text messages, etc.--most (60 percent) don't consider this actual writing. That's one of the findings from a study released last week by the Pew Internet & American Life Project

According to the study, 73 percent of the teens surveyed said their electronic communications have no impact on on their formal (school) writing, and 63 percent said that "using computers to write makes no difference in the quality of the writing they produce" outside of school assignments. A full 93 percent of students do engage in some form of writing outside school, whether electronic or otherwise.

Clip Source: www.thejournal.com

Eighty-six percent of teens surveyed said they thought "good writing ability" would be important for later success in life,

A Q&A With the Author of the Future of Reputation

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 19:49:24 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: All kinds of reasons to teach children to be responsible and ethical users of the internet. Even those who have no digital footprint can be impacted. A societal shift is necessary.

Clip Source: freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com

Section 230 does not establish a good balance between protecting reputation and preserving free speech.

It’s allowed websites like JuicyCampus.com, which facilitate the spread of gossip and rumor on college campuses, to flourish without consequences.

Many social network websites are set up with a default setting that makes information fully available to the public. This is the easiest setting, and many people just go with the default.

If you find information about yourself online that is libelous or invasive of privacy, you should contact the person who put it up and request it be taken down. In many cases … this will solve the problem.

On the Internet, however, shaming can become a digital scarlet letter that can be affixed to a person’s identity for life. Wherever that person might go, their shameful acts will readily pull up in a Google search.

Daniel Solove

The Future of Reputation,

The goal is for a set of norms to develop about responsible blogging — for a kind of ethical code

Study Suggests Math Teachers Scraps Balls and Slices

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:26:17 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Study suggests that children learn best when math is taught abstractly, limiting the real life examples and manipulatives

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Other mathematicians called the findings interesting but warned against overgeneralizing. “One size can’t fit all,” said Douglas H. Clements, a professor of learning and instruction at the University of Buffalo. “That’s not denying what these guys have found, whatsoever.”

“The motivation behind this research was to examine a very widespread belief about the teaching of mathematics, namely that teaching students multiple concrete examples will benefit learning,” said Jennifer A. Kaminski, a research scientist at the Center for Cognitive Science at Ohio State. “It was really just that, a belief.”

The idea is that making math more relevant makes it easier to learn.

That idea may be wrong, if researchers at Ohio State University are correct. An experiment by the researchers suggests that it might be better to let the apples, oranges and locomotives stay in the real world and, in the classroom, to focus on abstract equations

Are Wired Kids Well Served by Schools?

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:25:59 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Probably not.

Clip Source: www.news.com

"Kids associate one word with school--'boring,'" said Deborah Stipek, dean and professor of education at Stanford, who was part of a panel discussion with the group of researchers. But kids' levels of engagement with the Internet and games could give educators new ideas for upping school's status.

The Stanford event, which was sponsored by MacArthur and Common Sense Media, raised more questions than it answered. But one of the more interesting findings in the research showed that many kids are drawn to create media online because their work can be immediately recognized or judged among their peer group or a larger audience, according to Mimi Ito, a cultural anthropologist of technology use and a principal investigator on MacArthur's project. That, she said, can be immediately gratifying.

Among the generation of kids growing up wired, many teens are hyper-motivated to learn a special skill like how to create a podcast, direct a YouTube video, publish an anime site, or hack an iPhone.

BTW, teen writing may cause teachers to :(

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:24:53 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Many teens slip non-standard english into their writing projects. Here's a thought: If students were blogging for their teachers and held accountable for their grammar and punctuation, maybe their facebook pages would improve.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

NEW YORK (AP) -- It's nothing to LOL about: Despite the best efforts to keep school writing assignments formal, two-thirds of teens admit in a survey that emoticons and other informal styles have crept in.

The Pew Internet and American Life Project, in a study released Thursday, also found that teens who keep blogs or use social-networking sites such as Facebook or News Corp.'s MySpace have a greater tendency to slip nonstandard elements into assignments.

"It's a teachable moment," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew. "If you find that in a child's or student's writing, that's an opportunity to address the differences between formal and informal writing. They learn to make the distinction ... just as they learn not to use slang terms in formal writing."

Tech encourages students' social skills

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:40:53 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris

Clip Source: www.eschoolnews.com

Well-integrated technology opens social networks for students and allows children to develop key social skills, according to two recent studies conducted by researchers at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Researchers X. Christine Wang and Cynthia Carter Ching have based both of their reports, titled "Social Construction of Computer Experience in a First Grade Classroom: Social Processes and Mediating Artifacts," and "Digital Photography and Journals in a Kindergarten-First-Grade Classroom: Toward Meaningful Technology Integration in Early Childhood Education," on the theoretical framework introduced by Lev Vygotsky.

Encyclopedia Britannica Now Free For Bloggers

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:00:23 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: In order to keep up with wikipedia, EB is forced to rethink it's company plan

Clip Source: www.techcrunch.com

Encyclopedia Britannica often is used in case studies as a definitive example of how new technology can disrupt a business. Everything was great for the nearly 250 year old privately held company until the Internet came around and a Category Five hurricaned on their parade. According to Comscore, for every page viewed on Brittanica.com, 184 pages are viewed on Wikipedia (3.8 billion v. 21 million pave views per month). In short, they are a classic example of the Innovator’s Dilemma (see also the Music Industry).

You can purchase the 32 volume Britannica, which has 65,000 articles and 44 million words, for just $1,400. Or you can access it on the web for $70 per year.

And now, you can get access to the online version for free through a new program called Britannica Webshare - provided that you are a “web publisher.”

College Students Score Higher in Classes that Incorporate Instructional Technology that in Trad....

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 21:03:59 GMT

clipped by: edtechnnorris
clipper's remarks: Letting students go to face to face class mixed with online content that they can go over at their own pace is beneficial to schools and students.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

The lives of today's college students have always included computers and the Internet. That technology now has moved from the ether into instruction.

students in a "hybrid class" that incorporated instructional technology with in-class lectures scored a letter-grade higher on average than their counterparts who took the same class in a more traditional format.

Hybrid classes are growing in popularity and practicality for students and professors, at UH and on campuses across the country, because of the presentation of material and the accessibility and flexibility to students.

"Students could choose a content delivery method that matched their style, so we believe they were better able to comprehend the material." In addition, comments in evaluations indicated students preferred the self-paced nature of the hybrid class.