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Eclectic Technology
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Tech tools that assist all students to be independent learners & teachers to become better teachers
Curated by
Beth Dichter
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Keeping learner motivation levels high is one of the common challenges faced by the eLearning professionals. With these tips you can motivate them from that first splash to the finish line.
Beth Dichter's insight:
How do you motivate your students? This post explores this and shares five tips you might use if you teach online, but the same tips will also work in a face2face classroom. What are the tips? 1. Offer choice, control and freedom 2. Structure lessons around clear, real world goals 3. Create engaging, bite-sized materials 4. Engage students with each other 5. Give - and seek - feedback frequently. Each of these is discussed in more detail in the post. 
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Beth Dichter's insight:
PIXELearning offers this visual that discusses why games are good for learning. In the visual you will find information on the following areas: Play, Rewards, Mastery, Engagement and Flow Theory as well as Laws of Learning.
Ryan McDonough's curator insight,
July 7, 2014 8:19 AM
Self explanatory visual on the benefits of gaming as a means of learning. Outlined are the rewards, mastery, engagement, intensity, exercise, readiness, and competitiveness. These types of graphics need to be displayed in the classroom. There's always parents who are unsure of how gaming qualifies as teaching. Can't they just sit their kid in front of an iPad all day at home? Well, in the appropriate setting, with the right direction and guidance, games are certainly good for learning. Some people just don't know that from experience yet.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out the notes from the talk above, consider watching the video embedded within the post and think about new ways to work with your students this year about the concept of failure. If you are an engineer failure you understand that failure is a teaching tool, allowing you to improve the project, but in education most students consider failure just that...they have failed. A couple of quotes found in this visalization are below. What are your thoughts as you read them? * Have courage. It's not easy to do new things! * No failure means no risk which means nothing new.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
An infographic that provides suggestions on how to make your classroom S.P.A.R.K.L.E. - Sharing Powerful Activities Really Keeps Learners Engaged. Click through to see a variety of suggestions!
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Storytelling allows us to make connections. We often turn to stories as a tool to teach (and reach) our students. "Stories bring information, knowledge, and truth to life." This post provides 30 great tips to help you engage your students with stories. A few of them are listed below. Within the post each tip comes with additional information. * You must have a hook in your opening * Use vivid language that kids can understand * Tell the truth, even when it's difficult * Appeal to their senses * Draw real world connections
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Are you looking for some new ideas for your classroom? Have you heard of "spaced learning" or "flexible Fridays" or "engagement"? Each of these is explored in this post.
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"...we need to find a way to embrace all forms of technology in the classroom and use them to our advantage. By training students to use technology appropriately and effectively and providing opportunities for them to reach learning targets through its usage, we create a situation in which students are engaged in learning. We also free ourselves from the constant cycle of fighting against students."
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"A new Center on Education Policy report, Student Motivation—An Overlooked Piece of School Reform, pulls together findings about student motivation from decades of major research conducted by scholars, organizations, and practitioners... Researchers generally agree on four major dimensions that contribute to student motivation (below). At least one of these dimensions must be satisfied for a student to be motivated. The more dimensions that are met, and the more strongly they are met, the greater the motivation will be." Four Dimensions of Motivation: 1. Competence 2. Control/Autonomy 3. Interest/Value 4. Relatedness For more information read the article.
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What's the difference between an ebook, an app and an interactive ebook? We explain. This article not only explains the differences it provides examples of each and shows how the books have evolved over time.
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Are you interested in learning more about Universal Design for Learning, to learn how to approach curriculum to minimize barriers and maximize learning for all students? This is a short video that provides an overview to UDL.
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In an effort to keep all teachers pursuing the best possible ways to integrate education and technology, we thought it might be good to take another look at ways teachers can be hip. By ‘hip’ I simply mean that a teacher is aware of trends and actively engaging to stay on top of what his or her students need. From cutting-edge education technology to simply being aware of new Apple products, it’s important for teachers to be hip.
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Lisa Nielsen brings you 12 Most Useful Ways Kids Can Learn With Cell Phones...empower students to use tools they already own as a means for better education!
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Beth Dichter's insight:
I came across an article in THE Journal called 6 Ways to Engage Every Learner Using UDL. This sent me to the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation where I found a range of excellent materials on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The link provided here will take you to a page where they have three toolkits: * Action and Expression Digital Resources * Engagement Digital Resources * Representation Digital Resources Each toolkit is 6 - 7 pages long and shares digital tools that will help you each of the three areas. - Options in the mode of physical action - Options in the means of navigation - Options for accessing tools and assistive technologies - Options in the media for communication - Options in the tools for composition and problem solving - Options in the scaffolds for practice and performance - Options that provide effective goal-setting - Options that support planning and strategy development - Options that facilitate managing information and resources - Options that enhance capacity for monitoring progress You can download each file as a pdf and there is a hot link to each suggested tool. The site also provides additional information on UDL, including links to a number of other resources that provide an excellent overview and includes videos as well as text based materials. You may also find the original article (linked to above) of interest. Here is one quote: "Just like a worksheet can be a barrier and a print text can be a barrier, technology can be a barrier for some students as well. UDL is not about technology but it is about using technology in an intentional way.”
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"10+ years ago, filters and blocking tools were banning access to most blogs and web publishing services in schools around the world."
Beth Dichter's insight:
But times have changed. Many resources that were blocked in the past are not being used by teachers on a daily basis. This post explores if the same should be true for student work. Is it time to allow student work to be public on the web? Does an authentic audience improve student writing? Will students try harder if they share their work? These are two of the questions explored in this post. Along with the Pros of Posting Online this post includes the following areas: * Tips for Allowing Public Posting * Let Students Know * Have and Review Guidelines and Rules (including sample guidelines) * Get Parent Permission (including 18 examples) * Encourage Sharing and Commenting * Give Students Freedom * Be Public Without Fear of the Public * Don't Stress Over Moderating Everything What are your thoughts? Do you think that your students would be more engaged if they were allowed to write to a larger audience of their peers and receive feedback from them? There are a number of comments on the original post and you may also learn from these responses.
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Eight brilliant online games that can engage, inspire and equip students with the tools and ambition to approach a whole host of exciting careers and paths.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Check out this post for games for many disciplines. You will find links to and information about the following games. * Pavlov's Dog * Power Up * Lord of the Flies * Cisco Binary Game * The Transistor * Climate Change * Laser Challenge * Immune System Defender
TopMBA's comment,
December 5, 2013 1:48 PM
Great scoop! You may also enjoy this article: http://www.topmba.com/blog/online-game-offers-scholarship-route-simon-mba-mba-news
TopMBA's comment,
December 5, 2013 1:48 PM
Great scoop! You may also enjoy this article: http://www.topmba.com/blog/online-game-offers-scholarship-route-simon-mba-mba-news
TopMBA's comment,
December 5, 2013 1:48 PM
Great scoop! You may also enjoy this article: http://www.topmba.com/blog/online-game-offers-scholarship-route-simon-mba-mba-news
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“When students are motivated to learn, they naturally acquire the skills they need to get the work done.” Sir Ken Robinson Common sense tells us that students are more likely to learn if they are motivated by and engaged with the curriculum or project at hand. Now, hard science is telling us the same thing. When students are passionately engaged in their learning - when they are mesmerized by their learning environment or activities – there are myriad responses in their brains making connections and building schema that simply would not occur without that passion or emotion.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Are you looking for some ideas on how to bring passion-based learning into the classroom? This post provides 25 suggestions, and each has a short description. Below are a few to whet your appetite, Click through to the post for more. * Share your own passions with students. * Let students share their passions. * Connect students' passions to real-life scenarios. * Help connect students to a new subject through an existing passion.
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"...this year I have been dedicated to using the 21st Century four Cs. The four Cs are a rubric of sorts that help align lessons to more reality-based learning and assessing. As I design a lesson or assessment, I ask myself if what I've designed, or what the students must master, correlates to the important skills of: * Collaboration * Communication * Critical Thinking
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post looks not only at the four Cs but also at four elements that Dr. Carol Tomlinson uses when discussing differentation: * Process * Environment * Content * Product Wolpert-Gawron states "I think about these two lists in a way to ensure that I am hitting as many learners as possible -- with the wall up of rigor necessary to help prepare them for what we can predict they might need for their future." The post goes on to discuss how she uses TED Talks as a way to teach argumentative writing (as required in the Common Core). A quick overview of her projects includes students watching TED Talks, brainstorming advocacy isssues, researching (in small groups), creating a Problem Statement, developing background information, guiding questions and more. This is one teachers take on how to create a deeper learning environment in her classroom, and provides many ideas that you may want to adapt to your classroom.
Willem Kuypers's curator insight,
May 20, 2015 1:59 AM
Mes objectifs pour l'année académique prochaine : collaboration, communication, pensée critique et créativité.
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An in-depth study that took place in Scotland, looking at "issues associated with the deployment of personal mobile devices as tools for teaching and learning." * How tablet devices impacted teaching and learning? * Leadership and management issues * Parental engagement * Professional development and learning for teachers The post lists six headlines from the study, including (quoting): * The adoption of mobile technologies on a personal basis significantly increases access to technology for students, both inside and beyond school, with many attendant benefits for learning which include greater motivation, engagement, parental involvement, and understanding of complex ideas. * Teachers are equally engaged by the use of a device like the iPad which has a low learning curve enabling them to use it immediately as a teaching tool and a learning tool for themselves. For more information click through to the article. To download the report you will need to go a link at the end of the articles "iPad Scotland Evaluation."
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Does gaming have a place in the classroom? The information on this infographic provides reasons why gaming should be in the classroom (with resources provided on the infographic). A few of the reasons discussed are: * The students are engaged. "Computer games stimulate the brain to produce dopamine" which helps with attention and making connections. * Student are motivated by games. For more information check out the infographic!
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"If you are a student or teacher of literature, and you aren’t already familiar with this resource, you owe it to yourself to check it out. For effective learning to occur in any classroom, it’s essential that information be presented in multiple formats. It’s just as important to offer a range of options for engagement. This site helps beautifully on both counts. 60 Second Recap is a web based resource, and an iOS app, that uses short video clips to introduce great literature in a manner that I suspect most learners find highly engaging. Each clip is well researched and skilfully written. Production quality is exceptional. The target audience may be high school students, but these videos completely engage this learner, and I haven’t been a high school student for more than 40 years!"
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From
edudemic
"When used effectively, technology plays an important role in enhancing the learning process. Teachers can use digital devices to present supplemental material for lessons or to encourage students to take a more hands-on role in their education." The question is how do we keep students engaged and focused on the lesson...knowing how many distractions exist once a student is sitting at a computer. * Encourage direct engagement * Use real-world problems Read on for additional ways to use technology to enhance your lessons and support student learning.
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BoomWriter is a supremely engaging creative writing website that has students reading, writing and assessing content in ways they’ve never done before! It's easy & it's free.
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In creating the platform for sharing audio, SoundCloud has built a top teaching tool that can bring a new level of engagement to your class.
tim parks's curator insight,
October 11, 2014 8:31 PM
Soundcloud is a very powerful tool. It gives people the option to post their music for anyone to hear. 
Rafael San Inocencio's curator insight,
October 10, 2015 10:21 AM
SoundCloud is a great source for more things than just music. While searching through soundcloud you can find podcasts and talks, so I don't see why they couldn't use it's powers for teaching, I think this is a cool idea.
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It is hard to make an argument that there are many desirable post-secondary educational or career scenarios for current high school students that will not require the use of computer technology on a daily basis. The kids have known this for quite some time now.
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Career and Technical Education programs (often called vocational schools) have their students learn by doing. Learning by doing is known as experiential learning. Why is experiential learning beneficial? Below are the three reasons described in this post.
Reason 1: Experiential education promotes positive attitudes towards learning.
Reason 2: Experiential education provides true-to-life experience that enhances career exploration.
Reason 3: Experiential education helps create more engaged members of the workforce.
Each of these reasons is discussed in the post. There is also an excellent infographic, Experiential Learning in the Classroom: Learn by Doing.