Justin’s got a good, nuanced take on badges. I highly recommend reading.
Before vilifying badges as addictive candies that are void of professional value, keep an open mind for a moment longer. More …
Justin’s got a good, nuanced take on badges. I highly recommend reading.
Before vilifying badges as addictive candies that are void of professional value, keep an open mind for a moment longer. More …
Here’s a TEDx video by Will Ricahrdson, one of our authors from last week, in which he shares a couple examples of young people benefitting from learning networks that exist beyond their formal classroom environments. (If you’re not familiar with TED talks, they’re essentially short poignant talks about complex, challenging issues. You can learn more about them here.) He uses this as a springboard for sharing his perceptions of how he sees the changing roles of teachers and the difference between learning and test prep (e.g., high stakes testing). Probably one of the most compelling points in his talk is when he points to the difficulty associated with adapting to this changing educational environment because this is the system that we have had for the last 100+ years and therefore, the system that most parents and teachers have known growing up. Thoughts? What about his talk resonates with you the most?
Erika found a good post that she added to our Diigo library that has a nice connection to this week’s reading by Hsu, et al. on Web 2.0 as Cognitive Tools. Essentially she links to a blog post by a teacher who outlines several reasons why he continues to blog, and what I noted in my Diigo comments was how his fourth reason represented an example of how he uses a Web 2.0 technology as a cognitive tool:
provides me with a forum to clarify my thinking about the on-going classroom management and instructional challenges
The phrase ‘clarify my thinking’ really emphasizes this relationship between the cognitive activity and the tool. Thanks Erika for sharing this!