// Langwitches Blog

Taking.Play.Seriously with Brian Smith
Session Wiki
Created with flickr slideshow.

Conversation Description:
Diane Ackerman’s quote, “play is the brain’s favorite way of learning” is oft used to describe the learning that takes place in elementary schools. Despite that belief, a simple visit to any school in the country will reveal a picture that flies in the face of Ackerman’s [...]

Re)Imagining Social Media & Technology in Teacher Education with Alec Couros and Dean Shareski.

Conversation Description:
Dean Shareski and Alec Couros have been teaching technology and social media related courses in a teacher education program at the Faculty of Education, University of Regina. Over the last couple of years, we have focused on social and participatory learning [...]

Leadership 2.0: Who Do We Need Our Leaders To Be? with Chris Lehmann

Conversation Description:
If educators cannot successfully integrate new technologies into what it means to be a school, then the long identification of schooling with education, developed over the past 150 years, will dissolve into a world where the students with the means and the [...]

21st Century Classroom or 21st Century Learning- Tracy Weber
Session Wiki
Conversation Description:
Purpose: To encourage educators to plan their classrooms from a learning perspective rather than from a tools perspective. Don’t buy the tool and then figure out how to use it. Instead, figure out what learning should look like, and then focus on obtaining the tools [...]

Elementary School in the 21st Century- Brian Crosby
How does the Pedagogy Change? How does that School look?
Session Wiki

Conversation Description:
School/pedagogy needs to change, adapt, modernize is the siren call. We will briefly look at and/or discuss examples of lessons, technology use, and projects in elementary school today. Then use the bulk of our time attempting to [...]

BBC News – Phone texting 'helps pupils to spell'
A study of eight- to 12-year-olds found that rather than damaging reading and writing, "text speak" is associated with strong literacy skills.
(tags: literacy texting spelling learning articles)

Education Innovation: Micro Cultures of Professional Learning Communities
In his fine book Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling, author Andy Crouch explains his premise that it is not enough to condemn, critique, consume, or copy culture. The only way to change culture is to cultivate and create it.
(tags: pln culture education)

Doug Reeves Reprints.indd – Powered by [...]

VisualsSpeak LLC
You have 20 minutes to get
the cranky IT guy and the busy CEO
on the same page.
What if you could sidestep miscommunication
and get to the heart of the matter fast?
No awkward silences. No arguments. No roadblocks.
A shift happens. No one can explain how or why, but everyone can feel it. There’s energy, excitement, a sense [...]

Learning Is Messy – Blog » Blog Archive » My Attempt To Explain (sort of) The Power of Building Your Personal Learning Network (PLN)
An Educators Guide to Why You Want A Personal Learning Network”
(tags: pln twitter)

Science and history fairs have been held across the United States (and maybe other countries?) for years. Having grown up in Germany and Argentina, the first time I encountered these events was with my oldest daughter at her elementary school in the 1990s.  According to Wikipedia, Science fairs have been held across the USA since [...]