TEDxNYED&CC – Classroom Connections

TEDxNYED provided me with a springboard for ideas for the classroom. Please feel free to add your comments to build a professional dialogue regarding the ideas presented.

PARTICIPATION

Andy Carvinhttp://bit.ly/aUKc1z

Classroom Connection: using geographical tools (maps, GPS, and databases) to create social, cultural, political information in map/image based environments. This can help students reach out to help out community members as information becomes available; perhaps a community service and 'online volunteerism' springboard!

Michael Wesch http://bit.ly/9kkKmK

Classroom Connections: In a discussion with Honor Moorman we tried to work backwards. How could high school prepare students for the self awareness of Wesch’s higherEd classes? How could middle school prep students for that high school and ultimately how could we equip our elementary students with skills to learn in a changing world. Teachers are certainly thinking about it. http://bit.ly/cWZEWJ.

Henry Jenkins http://bit.ly/cYigHV

Classroom Connection: Students need to be producers of digital media texts. Moving away from a transmission model to one of a participatory one. What will be the role of gaming platforms, social media in our classrooms? Media literacy skills will be key so students can understand the the impact of media on popular culture.

 OPENNESS

David Wiley http://bit.ly/aaH6UY   http://bit.ly/dsnGuK

Classroom Connection: Repositories of knowledge… How proprietory will they be? Who will house the information gathered in Course Management Systems (CMS)? How many teachers and districts are using open source CMS, e.g., Moodle? What happens with the information?

Neeru Khosla http://bit.ly/8XWnFk

Classroom Connection: Ability for teacher to make dynamic adjustments in order to ‘customize lesson plans’ and include ‘multi-media, illustration, animations …’.  Would you use Flexbook courseware in your classroom? From where will ebooks/ereaders access their content?

Lawrence Lessig http://bit.ly/dufAkL

Classroom Connection:  How much information will be available to students to use in the classroom? How will students construct knowledge if they will not be able to access. Attribution through Creative Commons provides us with the ability to credit the creators and innovators. Isn’t it a win-win situation.

MEDIA

Shereen El Feki http://bit.ly/bKBAib

Classroom Connection: Morphing of different civilizations. How does this influence the diversity and multi-cultural nature of our classrooms?How can student media texts help to create a kinder, gentler…. and more tolerant society?

Jay Rosen http://bit.ly/cIN58l

Classroom Connection: When you have online distance education you ‘Need clarity when there is no proximity…” For anyone teaching distance education courses this should be a mantra.

‘Adopt a bridge” Students can adopt a community stimulus project through an 'online volunteerism' initiative. 'What is the price of… in your community?' Why not provide activities that help students become informed and  responsible and consumers? Why should they not learn how the local economy works?! National Geographic … in the early 90’s had students collected weather data and using a 300 baud modem uploading their information to create a collaborative national weather map. Why not involve students in creating a national consumer report? Let’s create informed consumers...

Jeff Jarvis http://bit.ly/9slFw9

Classroom Connection:  Asessment Practices… ‘So we need to move students up the education chain. They don’t always know what they need to know, but why don’t we start by finding out? Instead of giving tests to find out what they’ve learned, we should test to find out what they don’t know. Their wrong answers aren’t failures, they are needs and opportunities.’ “In the real world,” he said, “the tests are all open book, and your success is inexorably determined by the lessons you glean from the free market.” As IDEO suggests, “if you wan to drive new behaviour, you have to measure new things. Skills such as creativity and collaboration can’t be measured on a bubble chart." (2009)  How will our assessment practices need to change? How will a student's digital footprint be impacted by their performance?

NETWORKS.

Chris Abani http://bit.ly/cYnJZV

How much data do you require as evidence? A great narrative can be just as valid and more inspiring. Drawing inspiration from stories...

Gina Bianchini http://bit.ly/a5zFUV

I came to this conference with some ‘blue sky’ ideas. I am sure that most everyone in attendance had/has a vision of how the technology can better the world. Bianchini opened a door for me… how do we get together and a capitalize on our desires to help out generously and freely? Do we not do this in our classrooms each day? Do we need a collaborative online space for optimism and blue skying!

George Siemens  http://bit.ly/bxYvwa

Classroom Connection: George Seimens interrogates what we know and how we know it. ‘The scientific method is a way of checking…’ ‘We have to disrupt what it means to be a teacher’ signifies that each of us needs to be an informed practitioner. We need to adopt an inquiry approach, call it action research or teacher inquiry, and collect evidences to inform our practice. We need to be able to look objectively, analyze ourevidences and use or knowledge to formulate our vision for the classroom. Our practices need to reflect our new found knowledge. Then we need to connect on a personal level to implement change.

ACTION

Dan Cohen http://bit.ly/c9rHLFhttp://bit.ly/b2pzQp

Classroom Connections: By arming students with an investigative mind set they can be part of dynamic interdependent worldview. Absolutes are fine but don’t our students need to roll up their sleeve and get into robust problems and form their own conclusions or impressions. Learning is messy and can be disruptive. Would we ask our students to adopt a worldview of classical mechanics or quantum mechanics? 

Amy Bruckman  http://bit.ly/aXiqQt

Classroom connections:

In the past 10 weeks I have been in ten classrooms. In every classroom there has been a lone computer that sits at the rear of the class. Most questions that children ask are more than likely answered by the teacher… So where is the access to the information and multi-media resources that are available using the world’s largest library, The Internet. What if a Grade 2 student were to ask his/her teacher what sound does a bison make? Where is the spirit of inquiry?

Would somebody please rescue that machine in the corner of the classroom. Give each classroom a digital video projector and let the students research it themselves! Where is the efficacy to give students agency?

Dan Meyer  http://blog.mrmeyer.com

Classroom Connections: Most recently when I used a Math Textbook I had to re-arrange the input for the lesson using a document camera. In order have the information make sense for my students I had to first, make sure that it made sense to me. According to Dan:

Use multimedia,

Encourage student intuition,

Ask the shortest question you can,

Let students build the problem, and

Be less helpful…

Try not to build in learned helplessness… Create real life, authentic, rich problems for your students to experience.

Chris Lehmann http://bit.ly/aa3eKq

Classroom Connections: Giving students an opportunity for constructivism and for constructionism (Gary Stager and Michael Resnick) provides them with real life opportunities to make the world a better place as noted by the scientific inventions and improvements by Chris Lehman’s students. Chris’ presentation reminded me of the words that my friend Ron Benson repeated to me just last month. The goals of education should be to educate students to 

Think Clearly,

Care Deeply, and

Act Wisely…

Let’s add

Open,

Voracious, and

Collaborative Learners (Wesch 2010).

BTW… Thanks TED!

Thanks for reading the Wiki...  It may be that I have misquoted or did not attribute comments to any of the presenters. If this is the case I would be happy to correct any inaccuracies. 

Some of the websites have specific references and contain specific content shared at TEDxNYED and others provide background information.