Next Generation Professional Development @ ISTE 2010

Next Generation Professional Development : Learning about Teaching and Visa Versa
> ISTE 2010

Chris Dede Harvard University Chris_Dede@harvard.edu

Emerging info technologies are reshaping the core challenges we face, often what students do outside of classroom looks much more like 21st century learning than what is done in the classroom.

What is educational transformation? (reminds me of scheckty)

Automation versus amplification -expert decision making (what happens when normal decision making breaks down?) and complex communication * how many times do we ask students to do this in class? It is argued that these two skills will be the only thing left that machines don’t do better!

Video – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGFE4G3x4fk&feature=youtube_gdata

21st century tools for work – based on video clip
Life size telepresence with translation
Digital ink
Wall size holographic surfaces
Flat digital mouse

Creativity, collaboration, and sharing between users = web 2.0; sharing thinking, co-creating, need to focus on web readiness, most things can be searched and found in less than a minute.

Encyclopedia britanica versus wikipedia example – shared standards, knowledge is basically seen as debate, when the argument is over then the entry stands

Henry Jenkins framework for new literacies – http://newmedialiteracies.org/blog/2008/11/10/NMLskills.pdf

We can’t always give knowledge but we can give skills that will be relevant, the industrial school model might not work anymore.

@ Teachers teach as they were taught
@ The focus isn’t technology use, but changes in intent, pedagogy, assessment and learning outside schools
@ Continuous peer learning is the best strategy for long term improvement

Collaborative problem resolution via mediated interaction – each person with different expertise, find problem, comprehend as team, make meaning out of complexity

Situational learning and transfer versus academic learning – classrooms seem divorced from situation learning.

Immersive learning – multi user virtual environments, virtual reality, ubiquitous computing

If we were really good at formative assessment we wouldn’t need summative assessment.

 

Dissecting the 21st century teacher @ISTE2010

Dissecting the 21st century teacher > ISTE 2010

Two things are very cool and this session hasn’t even started yet, it is a panel discussion which is a nice break from the norm, and they handed out student response clickers (quizdom) before they began. Looking forward to some fresh conversation…

What is one and am I one? This was done all through social networking. Hopefully we will come away with some ideas.

Began with panel introductions. I bet it’s hard to be humble when up in front of a large group. Everyone has their laptops open and we are being asked to tweet. Cool.

21st century teacher = progressive teacher, I missed the title exactly, dang.

Integrating technology was NOT chosen as the key characteristic of the 21st century teacher, interesting. I bet we would all agree that while not most important, it needs to be present. How many people would have chosen that on your campus? I chose innovative, while I could have gone with all of the above, i decided to make a choice and not bail out and play it safe.

Should tech integration be conscious and deliberate? I say yea, it won’t happen spontaneously. If Jukes is right, we had better attend to it.

What’s most important for educators to do outside the classroom? I say seek out learning experiences. Technically it embodies all the other answers, but i like the broadness of this choice as it will be different for different teachers. Is being an advocate for the kids personals enough to be considered teacher learning? Perhaps I’m just mincing words.

Full disclosure – this was the first session that I REALLY worked the Twitter back channel. Lots of fun commenting on others and having others comment on my tweets. I was actually part of a very rare retweet

Presenter had a great point, it’s easy to complain, it’s harder to find a work around. It’s a crutch and we should be embarrassed if that stops us from engaging our kids.

It’s not fair to say the transition to a 21st century classroom is easy, it diminishes the effort of those who are working hard to make that change. Who said that nothing worth achieving should be easy? It applies here as well.

What resources are available for a teacher to be 21st century? Teachers are great at being resourceful, this situation is no exception.

It’s nice to be part of the a thinking session. We spend lots of time scouring conferences for magic bullets.

What advice would you give an educator to take that next step? Good question. It’s important to get connected, read blogs, join Twitter, listen to podcasts. Immerse yourself and don’t feel like its not going to happen immediately. Don’t be afraid to take risks and experience potential failures.

Tremendous session, great food for thought.