gpmt

"Many students see no relevance between their education and the real world, and say they are struggling to find meaning in their education or find a career direction, according to a new survey from …"

Via Leona Ungerer, Ricard Lloria, juandoming

Via ColinHickie, LGA

Are mistakes a part of the learning process? If they are, what does this say about our current education system? This post explores these ideas, asking the following questions and following each with a number of responses that explores each question in greater detail. The first section has two questions:

* Why are mistakes important to achieve engagement and learning?

* Why do we avoid mistakes in our current model?

The second section, Turning Mistakes into Learning Opportunities asks one question:

* How can we use learning errors to our advantage?

At the beginning of this post the author speaks of James Joyce, and also does so at the end where she states (referring to Joyce) "a true genius sees all learning as an opportunity to improve and discover. Errors are taken at will. In making mistakes, we can reach new heights and find our true genius." Will schools move in this direction?

Via Beth Dichter

A year into the pandemic, the instructional sands keep shifting from in-person, to remote, to concurrent (or hybrid) and back again. And almost every conversation I have with educators regardless of whether they are classroom teachers, instructional specialists or administrators is around student engagement. Sometimes these conversations are with administrators concerned about the increasing numbers of students on the schools D-F list or with teachers disconsolate about students who won’t turn on their cameras, turn in work or participate in discussions and whose attendance (virtual or in-person) is sporadic at best.

All of them are asking, with some urgency, about how we can boost student engagement under these difficult and fluctuating circumstances. From my vantage point, the causes and symptoms are multi-faceted. We need to partner with students—individually and collectively—to discover the root causes and empower them to be their own antidotes.

Via John Evans

"There are several big movements underway that are worthy of debate and possible consideration as we look to help education become the 21st century, user-centered, on-demand, engaging, technology-centric activity that it has not been for much of its existence. Game-based learning (GBL), or gamification, is one of the models that commonly gets touted as a cure-all for the problems with education because of the popularity of gaming in our society (New Media Institute). While there are problems with the gamification movement as it currently stands, the model has several areas in which it differs sufficiently from traditional education to make it an intriguing possibility. Here is a look at several of those differences."

Topics discussed include authenticity, student engagement, creativity and innovative thinking, and cost, as well as a discussion on the debate that exists over game based learning. 

Via Beth Dichter