Pedagogy 2.0

Here is a great article that outlines ways feedback has traditionally been carried out, and how to carry out new forms of feedback, including developing feedback models, that support learning in constructivist, problem-based ways.

Feedback Model to Support Designers of Blended-Learning Courses    

Abstract

Although extensive research has been carried out, describing the role of feedback in education, and many theoretical models are yet available, procedures and guidelines for actually designing and implementing feedback in practice have remained scarce so far. This explorative study presents a preliminary six-phase design model for feedback (6P/ FB-model) in blended learning courses. Each phase includes leading questions and criteria that guide the designer. After describing the model, we report research into the usability and quality of draft versions of this model. Participants in both a small usability pilot and an expert appraisal survey rated and commented on the model. We conclude that the overall quality of the model was perceived as sufficient, although experts recommended major revisions before the model could actually be used in daily practice.

Keywords: feedback; blended learning; instructional design model

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Schools, colleges and university are just some of the places where learning takes place but school kids and students can spend a lot of their time in these spaces. There are other places where people learn, some through doing courses at work or online or even learning from others around them in all sorts of situations. The posts here are about learning spaces, writings about learning and technology and thoughts and ideas about all of these.

The New Literacy – 21st Century skill
Published by Worcestershire e-learning Blog on Sunday, September 2, 2007 at 11:02 AM
Many educators are concerned about the way in which students seem to accept the results thrown up by Google as the ultimate truth and there are major efforts in the UK to raise the level of web literacy for students and educators alike. Understanding what you are looking at, knowing its origin and whether the content is valid is a 21st century skill for learners of any age. We have never been in the quite the position of having to validate the sources of information they way we do now. Many of us are used to paper based publications which have ISBN numbers, known publishers and which are subject to peer review or scrutiny by peers prior to piublication and we are often told something about the author. This is not the case for the web and search engines like Google. A colleague of mine created a situation in a school which was filmed for Teacher TV – a UK service sharing practice and ideas within the teaching profession. This film says it all. The New Literacy – 21st Century skill
Thank you for this post by

Dave Thomson whom writes for the education blog in the UK

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Differentiated Instruction

Effectively meet the individualized needs of students.

In addition, the strategies shared will enrich the following areas in your classroom.

Motivation • Social Skills • Classroom Management • Critical Thinking • Positive Environment

Curriculum Mapping

Explore, Plan, Evaluate, and Implement Curriculum that works.

Systemic Change • Classroom Curriculum• Collaborative Planning • Organization

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The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 8, No 2 (2007), ISSN: 1492-3831

m-Learning: Positioning educators for a mobile, connected future

Kristine Peters

Abstract

Mobile learning is variously viewed as a fad, a threat, and an answer to the learning needs of time-poor mobile workers, so does it have a place in delivering ‘mainstream’ learning? Based on a 2005 comparative research project, commissioned by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, the paper reports on research into web-based information about the use of mobile technologies for commerce and learning, which was then tested through 29 interviews with manufacturers of mobile devices, businesses and education providers. The research found that mobile technologies were in common use in some commercial sectors but use purely for learning was rare. However m-learning lends itself to new methods of delivery that are highly suited to the ‘just enough, just in time, and just for me’ demands of twenty-first century learners.

Full Text: HTML PDF MP3

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I would like to send a message of support to all those in the Bowcroft community: I have had the pleasure to meet, and begin working and collaborating with people whom are willing to discuss thorny issues, and try new ideas. Here are some recent ways that I have worked with teachers and supporters of learning:

September 12, 2007

I interrupted a conversation between the teaching assistants involved in literacy. They were wondering why the reading diagnostic tools used by teachers to assess student reading levels were difficult to align with one another. I claimed that I rarely looked a diagnostic test for reading until much closer to the first report card. I tried to learn how the kids read, how they found relevance and significance in the literature they were reading, and if they were not making sense, why they were not engaged. I suggested that they look at differentiating the reading process into the most significant aspects, and grouping kids around those main concepts: predicting, discussion and debate, analysis and synthesizing the main ideas and important aspects, building vocabulary with concept mapping, taking notes to support memory, fluency and confidence in reading aloud and silently, choice in reading material, and reading from different genres, which means becoming familiar with differing perspectives. So, I challenged them to think about moving beyond an isolated measure of reading ability to understand their kids as readers.

Here are some best practice ideas around reading that may be of some support:

Reading Rockets

Building A Powerful Reading Program: From Research to Practice

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As in my previous post, the new year has started, and in this seventh year of this new century, we are faced with increasing change, speed of everyday live, and the questions of what school still needs to look and sound like. School 2.0 is getting a lot of press these days. I get new updates through Google Alerts nearly everyday about teaching and learning in the 21st Century. Is this a new band-wagon, or is there going to be systemic change as a consequence of this read/write, Web 2.0, digital environment.
Back to School 2.0 by Rachael King

Education projects such as the Aspirnaut Initiative aim to harness technology to better prepare U.S. students to compete in the global economy

Children in Grapevine, Ark., often board the school bus in the dark, some even packing pillows and blankets. For students in Arkansas’ rural Sheridan School District, the ride can last as long as an hour and a half, and probably seems longer thanks to rules against behavior that could distract the driver. But lately the 15-hour weekly commute is looking up. Thanks to a pilot program called the Aspirnaut Initiative, the bus has been outfitted with an Internet router and the children have been given either video iPods or laptops. The machines have been loaded with educational videos such as National Geographic Society’s Wild Chronicles to teach concepts such as the relationship between predator and prey.

Read the rest of the article here Back to School 2.0

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Sunday, Dec. 10, 2006

How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century By Claudia Wallis, Sonja Steptoe

There’s a dark little joke exchanged by educators with a dissident streak: Rip Van Winkle awakens in the 21st century after a hundred-year snooze and is, of course, utterly bewildered by what he sees. Men and women dash about, talking to small metal devices pinned to their ears. Young people sit at home on sofas, moving miniature athletes around on electronic screens. Older folk defy death and disability with metronomes in their chests and with hips made of metal and plastic. Airports, hospitals, shopping malls–every place Rip goes just baffles him. But when he finally walks into a schoolroom, the old man knows exactly where he is. “This is a school,” he declares. “We used to have these back in 1906. Only now the blackboards are green.”

Accessed from Time.com, September 03, 2007

Tomorrow is my daughter’s first day of ECS (Kindergarten), and the start of another new year of school. I thought that this would be a good place to start my blog; it is a new beginning for a new student (and hopefully continuing as a stellar learner), and a new year for a good number of other students (hopefully as learners, as well). I wonder what kind of learning career she will have in school, and I hope it is not the one portrayed in Rip Van Winkle’s awakening.

I make this point to reveal the fact that I am excited to see my daughter reach a new mile-stone in her life, and I am excited for her because she is so excited to be “doing” school. I am, however, scared, as a dad, to see my daughter growing up faster than I could ever imagine. Likewise, I, too, am scared for all those other young people in school where they are “doing” school, an institution that may not be serving them as best it should. This blog is intended to support teachers in their quest to support learners to live a full life in school and not the one witnessed by Rip Van Winkle.

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