May « 2013 « Virtual Learning

Autonomous Learning?

At a time when what is taught and how it is taught is becoming more prescriptive, the official implicit assumption seems to be that the only legitimate learning takes place within the confines of a classroom at prescribed times. Extending those prescribed times, therefore, will lead to greater learning. Maybe.

So, what is the role of teachers, when so many young people seem to be able to learn quite successfully outside the confines of the classroom? What conflicts arise?

Can we safely assume that the majority of young people can learn how and why to use digital tools? If we can, what are the expectations of their teachers – and for their teachers?

None of these concerns are new. It’s maybe worth revisiting some work I did a number of years ago.

Autonomous Learning

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

Cultural attitudes to education are so ingrained in our concepts that we often think that our way is the only way of doing something. When social values, norms and class attitudes are inscribed within them then the shock of realising that our way is not the only way can be quite considerable.

How can partnership with colleagues abroad help teaching and learning?

Dan Bowen and Dave Smith

Learning by doing (2)

Here’s another example of something different. Young people, working and learning collaboratively across national boundaries, learn to program using Scratch.

Literacy from Scratch

Lawrence Williams, Brunel University and Dr Mirka Cernochova, Charles University, Prague.

Watching me, watching you (2).

How do schools improve? There’s no mystery, says Graham Newell. You start by focusing on what he terms ‘low-hanging fruit’. Give teachers the ability to see what they are doing. The video technology deployed by IRIS Connect enables teachers to model their behaviour and achieve improved teaching and learning.

Building Professional Capital through Technology

Graham Newell, IRIS Connect

Learning and political ideologies

The recent brouhaha over the ways in which History can be learned, and the official dogma of what learning, teaching and education should contain, would seem – like the strictures of Animal Farm – to prescribe what is Good about teaching and proscribe what is seen to be Bad about learning.

This exploration of the ways in which Visual Learning can work draws from a number of concepts: first, and most importantly, what we understand of the structure of the structure of the brain, synapses and cortical memory. The concept of plasticity, and the ways in which the brain develops and changes as a result of input, is another. The developing understanding of mirror neurons and their importance to learning also contributes to this exploration. Most importantly, it is underpinned by our understanding of learning and its developmental stages.

How much do you need to say?

If we believe everything that we encounter in the media then we would KNOW that the use of Social Media is the beginning of the long slide down the road to perdition, which can lead to embarrassment, job loss, imprisonment and even worse. We’ve read it in the mainstream media, so it must be true. However, social media offer possibilities other than the inane, the scurrilous or defamatory. Here’s the second of two sessions that look at the way in which Twitter can be used for professional development.

Tweeting and other professional development tools

Dr Matt Pearson

Social Media and Professional Development

If we believe everything that we encounter in the media then we would KNOW that the use of Social Media is the beginning of the long slide down the road to perdition, which can lead to embarrassment, job loss, imprisonment and even worse. We’ve read it in the mainstream media, so it must be true. However, social media offer possibilities other than the inane, the scurrilous or defamatory. Here’s the first of two sessions that look at the way in which Twitter can be used for professional development.

Twitter for enhanced CPD

Andy Mellor – NAHT

Can professional development really be something that is done to you?

Continuous Professional Development is a shrine towards which we travel – although, unlike many shrines, the distance travelled never seems enough for us to reach our goal. In this video a number of those involved with CPD talk about things that work.

MirandaMod: What makes a good ICT professional development programme?

Contributors include:

Rachel Jones (Education Director, The Elliot Foundation) and Catherine Howard (Head of Training & Consultancy, Steljes), Dr John Cuthell, Director, MirandaNet and Dr Christina Preston, Founder of MirandaNet, and Professor of Educational Innovation, University of Bedfordshire.

View the MindMeister map:

Watching me, watching you (1).

One way in which we as teachers can improve is to see what we are doing. The video technology deployed by IRIS Connect enables teachers to model their behaviour and achieve improved teaching and learning.

Enhanced CPD through video technology

Andy Newell: IRIS Connect

Learning by doing: activity-based learning

Here’s something different. Young people, working and learning collaboratively, to produce apps.

Apps for Good

Debbie Forster

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