Raffaello D’Andrea: The astounding athletic power of quadcopters

Considering PBL

OSSEMOOC

Today’s post compliments some of our related posts on Project Based Learning (PBL).

I really like the reference to PBL as an element in eLearning,  and arguably blended learning by extension.  The video referenced in this tweet,  may be of interest to you as you reflect on the 13/14 school year, and look towards Sept. 2014.

Today’s Picture and Post shared by Mark W. Carbone.

View original post

TEDX: Maira Kalman: The Illustrated Woman

Author and illustrator Maira Kalman talks about her life and work, from her covers for The New Yorker to her books for children and grown-ups. She is as wonderful, as wise and as deliciously off-kilter in person as she is on paper.

Future of Medicine interview with Dr. Mickie Bhatia

I recently had the honour of attending the presentation of the Hillier Foundation scholarship awards here in Brantford at Apotex Pharmachem.  The opening speaker was Dr. Mickie Bhatia who gave an awesome talk on Stem cell research.

Future of Medicine interview with Dr. Mickie Bhatia, PhD from MaRS Discovery District on Vimeo.

 

Have a Great Summer @GEDSB

I just want to wish all the staff and students of the Grand Erie District School Board and all other provinces and states a safe and well deserved break.  I will be taking a bit of a break from my blog throughout the month of July but will get back at it in August and the new year.

Have a good one!

Dave

Digging Into Curation

Great post on blogging as a mode of curation.

OSSEMOOC

Contributed by Donna Miller Fry

Here at  #OSSEMOOC we are often asked questions like, “How do you find time to blog?”, or  “How do I find good stuff online?”.

While sharing tools is one approach to answering that question, I like to think of all of these activities as part of the process of curation.

When you have a PLN with strong curation skills, navigating through the vast amount of information online becomes so much easier.  In fact, curation is an important skill for everyone.

Sue Waters (@suewaters) has very neatly and concisely explained the curation process.

In this post, Sue takes us through the process of discovering and recording information that we need, organizing information, contextualizing, editing and making meaning and then sharing.

She has also described the process in further detail on her personal blog.

As you head into summer, consider how the suggestions in…

View original post 24 more words

Summer Time is Reading Time for Teachers

Ok almost there my teacher friends.   Tomorrow is the last day of the school year and many of you have some pretty big plans for the summer.  Many of you may have no plans.  If you are like me either way you will certainly be thinking about what you are going to read this summer.  I would love any of you to post your summer reading choices on this blog.  If you are still making up your mind maybe you should check out this pinterest site for a few suggestions.

http://edut.to/1tE0YRk

World Cup Fever

Ok so I am not a big soccer fan by any stretch of the imaginations but it seems you cannot go anywhere these days without seeing a game on a screen playing.  With that in mind I thought hey I bet there are some great ideas for integrating a bit of international football into the classrooms in this last week of classes. Here are some links if you are looking for some ideas:

http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/themes/worldcup/

http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/jun/02/how-to-teach-world-cup-fifa

http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/worldcup.php

http://fabulousclassroom.com/2014/05/world-cup-soccer-teaching-learning-resources/

http://www.sparklebox.co.uk/world-cup/#.U6cFu43QfX4

 

Say No To Bullying

What a great example of the kind of work and messaging a student can produce with technology in the classroom.  This was homework of a 14 year old.

Is Linear the Right Approach?

I think about this often especially as it pertains to blended learning. It is my belief that blended learning is just another example of differentiated instruction in the classroom. Something that for some students is an excellent way to learn and for others may not be the modality or way. I fear sometimes that blended learning gets used sometimes as something that I describe as “blended lazy”. Now recognize I am not painting all people who use blended learning with this brush because many use it really effectively but when blended learning gives a teacher a chance to steer the learners to a computer and away from themselves I worry that it is missing the mark. Good blended learning can mix up the diversity of tasks in the classroom. Blended learning can free up the teacher to work with students who struggle more. Blended learning can help us engage students and extend learning but if it is delivered with the teacher sitting at the front of the class and all the student just working linearly through modules day after day I think it has missed it’s mark.

OSSEMOOC

Many of our conversations around eLearning in Ontario involve the idea of online course “content”.  As schools make plans for online learning next year, teachers want to know, “Is there a course?”.

Years ago, when I was teaching full time online, my principal often said, “We are not in the business of content delivery, we are in the business of learning!”.

In one conversation about content this year, a teacher said to me, “Well, wouldn’t you just have the students build their own content?”.

This article in my zite feed caught my attention this morning:

As we think about how our students learn, how does it impact our thinking about what online learning should look like?

Shared by Donna Miller Fry (@fryed)

View original post