I use an RSS aggregator to bring together all of the things that I like to read about on the web. Take a look at newsgator as a good example of an RSS feed reader, although Safari and some other web browsers also now have an in-built RSS aggregator.
Those that have Google Mail also have access to a good RSS aggregator in their account.
I see a lot of papers and blog entries on the changing role of education from being a teacher-led learning activity to a student-led teaching activity.
While I see, and agree with, may of the benefits of students directing their own learning activities what I think many of these studies ignore is the fact that a large proportion of young learners do not know what they want or need to learn. They turn up at school and need the guidance of the teacher and the education system to provide them with a broad education to prepare them for later life.
Most students, as they enter their teenage years, challenge why they have to learn what is being delivered in the classroom. What to a sensible, mature adult seems appropriate and important is dismissed in an instant. Given the ‘choice’ of what to learn many students during this period would choose to learn nothing.
Rather than provide the choice and freedom during this period of what to learn, perhaps we should be providing the freedom of how to learn. We should be encouraging our students to develop their own strategies for making sense and meaning of their studies.
Ideally, I would like to see more papers address this issue when discussing the transition from teacher-led to student-led learning.
Incidentally, I am a strong believer in student-led learning and an advocate of the transition of the teacher from “the sage on the stage to a guide on the side”. What I need to see for this to work are educational strategies for ensuring a student-led learner covers an appropriate curriculum for their future needs.
A higher quality quicktime version of this movie can be found here.
A mix of science and art this video makes very interesting watching, and is again a very good use of technology enabling us to visually make sense of data that is already available.
Prepare to be blown away by this 20 minute talk by Hans Rosling.
Hans Rosling shows us how, using technology, we can see patterns in the way the world population is changing. If only all learning was as clear, and interesting, as what Hans presents us with here.
It is amazing that plain old data can be taken and turned in to something as clear and visual as what is seen. We are only scraping the surface of what analysis technology is helping us to perform on our data.Truly inspirational!
One day I would love to be invited to TED - and have something equally as inspiring to show people.
I have recently subscribed to GeekBrief.tv. I think that this is a great video podcast with good production values. Each episode is just long enough to watch any time and they are crammed with lots of small bits of info. Cali Lewis is a great host and is fun to watch.
I am thinking of making my own educational video podcasts and we can learn a lot from studying this one.
Filed Under (Teaching) by Andrew Reid on 21-07-2007
I attended a launch meeting for the new AQA ICT A Level at the start of the week. An update is long overdue and the proposed changes address most of the shorcomings of the present A Level.
A nice feature of the AS is that there is no longer an assessed coursework module (which was a turn off for the more academically inclined students) and instead a short project report is to be brought into one of the two exam modules. The practical nature of the new specification will allow for better engagement while still allowing plenty of scope for deep levels of understanding of “ICT as a subject”.
