// Langwitches Blog

Brian’s TRT Blog picked up one of my blog posts from Educon’s session Taking.Play.Seriously. Brian has only a very short response to this:
So, would more play produce more creativity which would result in higher test scores? Hmmmm………
That “Hmmmm” sparked the following comment from me:
That is exactly what I am pondering as well. How can [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

I created the following video clip, as a follow up to the Connected Learning Possibilities post from yesterday. It is to illustrate the ability we have (through technology) to extend learning, take learning further than and off the pages of a book for our students.

Extend Learning from langwitches on Vimeo.

Technology is not about “replacing” learning nor teaching. Technology is a tool to make learning and teaching possible in ways that it never was before nor that we had ever imagined (Well, maybe Gene Roddenberry from Star Trek had).
I would like to share a small examples of how technology tools can enhance a learning experience [...]

I was thrilled to meet Laura Malbogat last week while at the Curriculum Mapping conference. Laura is the curriculum writer for Think Global School. A new type of school, that will open with 15 students for the 2010/2011 school year. These students will travel with their teachers over the next four years (12 trimesters) to [...]

Heidi Hayes Jacobs is presenting: Curriculum Mapping- Launching Pads to the Future
The state of Curriculum Mapping is dynamic! Heidi will share her latest work and provide practical strategies on how to Upgrade the Curriculum in your school setting to respond to the needs o the “class of 2023″.
Image licensed under Creative Commons by nasa1fan/MSFC
What year [...]