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by TeachThought Staff
Ed note: This post is promoted by SEU'S online masters in education programs. SEU simply asked us to write about how learning is changing and the updated kinds of things teachers need to know, and to let you know about their program. So here we are.
As teachers, when we lecture, we have the best of intentions. We have a concept we want the class to understand, so we stand and explain it to them. We give them background. Offer details. Anticipate and pre-empt common misconceptions. Illuminate the more entertaining bits. Emphasize the nuance.

So explaining things isn't "bad," so how about beginning with some clarification. Talking is not lecturing-it's talking. Talking with students and expecting them to respond meaningfully isn't lecture-that's accountable talk, which itself is close to a Socratic dialogue or Paideia seminar. Explaining an idea verbally, especially if being done to clarify a context or history of circumstance-can be a powerful tool if used expertly.

Everyone loves a story, and unless you're awful, your students probably like you and want to hear from you. But you can't "give knowledge." Or "verbally annotate" discovery and inquiry. Clearly this thinking comes from a place of constructivism, so it's slanted that way. Lecture likely has a place in education. In the background knowledge-building phase of learning, for example.

Or in a "flipped classroom" setting where the "lecture" is designed to be consumed at the student's own pace (using viewing strategies, for example).

Or when students have mastered a core set of understandings, and are ready-in unison-to hear something from an honest-to-goodness expert who only has an hour to unload what he/she knows. In these cases, when...

All students are similarly motivated

All students have mastered certain "listening strategies"

All students have strong note-taking skills, and can adapt those strategies for a variety of content, delivery speed, and so on

All students have a similar background knowledge

...then lecture can be moderately effective, but even then it depends on what we mean by "effective." (Prince 2004)
The List of Alternatives To Lecture
So then, the list. This is an interesting post to write, because a large part of our content is to provide alternatives to lecture. In that way, our site at large could be seen as a compilation of alternatives to lecturing. But for those educators that'd like to see a kind of index all gathered in one place, with certain links to more in-depth analyses elsewhere, this post might help scratch that itch. This is a long list. The idea is to see a lot of awesome possibilities in one place, not write a book.

A few notes:

1. This is a mix of learning models and literacy strategies that can be used to accomplish what we hope a lecture might-"give information" and "promote understanding." Not every one is a perfect replacement for what a "good lecture" is, but most, in spirit and function, are close.

2. Some of the ideas don't have links-we'll try to go back and add them. Suggest some in the comments if you know of a good one. We may go back and add brief definitions links to great content that then clarifies and extends these items with thinking, frameworks, strategies, and tools, because some are admittedly confusing in name-only. We were going to include several videos and frameworks, but that makes the post clumsy and slow-loading on smaller mobile devices. If you get curious and/opr confused and we still haven't clarified something you'd like to know, either ask in the comments, or try keyword searching on your own.

3. If you look at this list as a whole, it's clear education is either changing, or has a slew of tools it's ignoring in not changing.
50 Alternatives To Lecturing Learning Models
1. Self-directed learning

2. Learning through play

3. Scenario-based learning

4. Game-based learning

5. Project-based learning

6. Peer-to-Peer instruction

7. School-to-school instruction (using Skype in the classroom, for example)

8. Learning through projects

9. Problem-based learning

10. Challenge-based learning

11. Inquiry-based learning

12. Mobile learning

13. Gamified learning (gamification)

14. Cross-curricular projects

15. Reciprocal Teaching

16. "Flipped-class" learning

17. Face-to-Face Driver blended learning

18. Rotation blended learning

19. Flex Blended Learning

20. "Online Lab" blended learning

21. Sync Teaching

23. HyFlex Learning

24. Self-guided MOOC

25. Traditional MOOC

26. Competency-Based Learning

27. Question-based learning
Literacy Strategies
28. Write-Around

29. Four Corners

30. Accountable Talk

31. RAFT Assignments

32. Fishbowl

33. Debate

34. Gallery Walk

35. Text Reduction

36. Concentric Circles

37. Traditional Concept-Mapping (teacher-given strategy- "fishbone" cause-effect analysis, for example)

38. Didactic, Personalized Concept Mapping (student designed and personalized for their knowledge-level and thinking patterns)

39. Mock Trial

40. Non-academic video + "academic" questioning

41. Paideia Seminar

42. Symposium

43. Socratic Seminar

44. QFT Strategy

45. Concept Attainment

46. Directed Reading Thinking Activity

47. Paragraph Shrinking

48. FRAME Routine

49. Jigsaw Strategy
Other
50. Content-Based Team-Building Activities

51. Learning Simulations

52. Role-Playing

53. Bloom's Spiral

54. Virtual Field Trip

55. Physical Field Trip

56. Digital Scavenger Hunt

57. Physical Scavenger Hunt

58. What? So What? What Now? ( See also here.)
50 Alternatives To Lecturing; adapted image attribution flickeringbrad
Experienced Teacher Our Best

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by TeachThought Staff Ed note: This post is promoted by SEU'S online masters in education programs. SEU simply asked us to write about how learning is changing and the updated kinds of things teachers need to know, and to let you know about their program. So here we are.

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"There is that danger of silencing that discourse, to the degree that teachers were using it anyway," Hess said. He acknowledges that too few teachers know how to effectively facilitate academic discussions in classrooms, and that often "turn and talk to a partner" devolves into "turn and gossip." But those issues have always existed in classrooms and aren't the fault of technology. In fact, Hess maintains that to be a good teacher who uses technology, a person must first be a good teacher. Technology won't repair those gaps.
READING ON PAPER VS. READING DIGITALLY
Reading print media is undeniably different from reading digital content. Researchers have been trying to understand how and why people interact differently with the two media and have shown that when students read online they comprehend less. But there isn't enough longitudinal data to know if those deficits can be remediated by learning strategies specific to digital content.

Those who prefer reading in print talk about the ability to flip pages, write in the margins and that they remember a scene based on where it was located on the page. It's more of a linear experience and readers interact with it in specific ways.

In contrast, digital reading takes place on a flat screen and the ability to hyperlink to related content makes the experience feel more like stream of consciousness than like a linear reading experience. It takes more self-control to stay focused when reading digitally, a challenge for many students used to quickly navigating around the Web. "It's an amazing thing, but it also causes a lot of fragmentation," Hess said.

The key to getting kids to read deeply in any format is to have them engage with the text in meaningful ways. In the digital space, that means disrupting a pattern of skipping around, writing short chats and getting lost down the rabbit hole of the internet. It means teaching kids ways to break down a complex text, find key ideas, organize them and defend them. Practicing those skills in class can be time-consuming, but it also builds good digital reading habits that hopefully become second nature.

"The goal in almost all the strategies is to slow the kids down so they are focusing on this text," Hess said. "Number two is to engage them in an active way with the text, and number three you want to encourage oral discourse. And number four you want them to do some reflection." Those steps should sound familiar to teachers because they are important for any kind of reading for comprehension and analysis. The trick for teachers is to learn how to transfer these processes into the digital space and push them even further.
"HEADINGS AND HIGHLIGHT" STRATEGY
Most of Hess' tricks are easy to do in Google Docs, a free tool many schools are adopting because it's easy for students to access their work anywhere. In this strategy, students have an excerpt of a difficult article open in Google Docs. First, the teacher asks students to read through on their own and highlight words they don't know. This is basic decoding work.

After everyone is on the same page with the vocabulary, teachers can ask pairs of students to read a paragraph together and highlight key ideas. As they do this, they'll have to discuss why they believe those parts are important. After they have a few minutes to do this activity, the teacher can ask them to individually devise a four-word heading for that portion of the text based on the main ideas they've highlighted. They can type their heading into the Google Doc and then compare the headings each created.

"If you came up with something different, you have to now justify why yours is better," Hess said. Once again, students have to defend their thinking using text. "Making that heading has forced us to dig into the text," Hess said.

The teacher can then ask for all the agreed-upon headings and pair different groups together so that four students have to discuss their headings and come to consensus on the single best representation of the main ideas. "When you walk around and listen, what the kids are talking about is the text," Hess said. At the end, the teacher might have groups present or even have the whole class vote on their favorite heading. And individually students can reflect on the process they went through, how the heading helps them understand the reading, and how it helps them answer the driving question of the unit.

Hess is the first to admit that this strategy could easily be done with paper and pencil. The only real affordance of the technology is the ability to change the heading multiple times in a clean way. But it does help teachers see how to bring dialogue and discussion into the classroom, even when students are reading on the computer, and it has achieved the goal of slowing down reading. When students practice this method they may internalize it as well and start looking for the main idea in each paragraph as they read.

"Part of it is getting kids to be thinking about why they are reading something," Hess said. Often kids will read an entire paragraph, understand all the words in it, but never slow down to make meaning or look for main ideas. This basic reading strategy forces them to do so. Once students can identify the main idea of a reading, the next task is to understand the flow of the ideas and to connect concepts.

The "Document outline" tool in Google Docs can be an easy and effective way to ask students to pick out evidence that supports the main ideas they've found. When this tool is turned on, students can write a heading for the paragraph or group of paragraphs and select "Heading 1" from the drop-down menu. When they come across a sentence or phrase that represents evidence supporting that main idea, they summarize it and label it "Heading 2."

Meanwhile, along the side of the Google Doc an outline will automatically populate with main ideas in Heading 1 and supporting evidence nested below in Heading 2. At the end, the whole essay is outlined and can be "exported to table of contents," which will put it at the top of the document, where it can be used as a jumping-off point for writing.

The technology didn't do any of the thinking for students, but in this case the software helped build an outline as students discuss and winnow down their evidence, and their work has been conveniently saved in an easy-to-review manner. That makes initiating writing -- often hard for students -- much easier. And the headings in the outline are links that automatically skip to the part of the text where students inserted that heading. "You've created an active document," Hess said.

Even better in Hess' mind, when a teacher sees an outline like this he or she can easily tell if the student understood the reading. To create the outline students have to comprehend the text; decoding isn't enough. Hess says he uses this strategy all the time when reading documents for his own work because it's useful, not just a tedious exercise to force kids to slow down.

If a school or teacher isn't using Google Docs, a similar type of "talking to the text" can be achieved using Diigo, which also allows users to share marked-up documents with one another that include comments or highlights.
HIGHLIGHTING STRATEGY
Students have been highlighting print texts for a long time, but anyone who has picked up an old copy of a high school text knows that sometimes the various highlights can get confusing. Teachers sometimes try to organize students by having them highlight different concepts in different colors, but the text can end up quite messy and hard to read after all that highlighting.

Hess worked with a student to improve on a "highlighter tool," Google Doc add-on that the student created in his computer science class. The tool lets users create individualized highlighters in different colors. So, for example, all the text that supports "Argument #1" might be in red, while the evidence in "Argument #2" might be in green, and so on. The highlights can be exported by color, which creates a table with all the ideas. Hess often suggests that students then add another column to the highlighter table, where they can write summaries of everything in that highlighted category.

"It helps them discern between different things, and secondly, you've asked them to summarize what they've done," Hess said. That provides good reflection and consolidation of the information they just picked out. Since some kids have difficulty prioritizing what to highlight, a teacher could limit the number of items for each color.

In this case, the highlighting strategy is made much easier and more effective because it is digital. The various colors are labeled so the student doesn't need a key to decipher highlights and all the information can be exported in one table, rather than having to sift back through the entire article.

Hess warns that many of these strategies should first be taught using a text that isn't a difficult cognitive lift for students so they can learn the reading strategy and the digital tools without also having to puzzle their way through a difficult text. A new tech tool and a new learning challenge at the same time are a recipe for frustration.

While these strategies take time, they also get students deeply engaged with texts that may be difficult for them. Digital tools that modify articles for different reading levels, like Newsela, have a time and a place -- like getting students on the same page about a topic so they can debate -- but there are drawbacks to offering students only texts at their level.

"If you are constantly bringing it down, you lose some of the richness," Hess said. And challenging texts that force students to struggle also help them grow. "You can have someone reading a very complex text if you can scaffold it," Hess said.
TEACHER REACTIONS
Evelyn Cervantes is an eighth-grade social studies teacher at Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose, California. Although located in the heart of Silicon Valley, the school only has a few laptop carts that all the teachers share. Cervantes knows many of her students are online at home a lot and she wants to make sure the lower-income students the school also serves are learning good digital skills when at school. In the past she experimented with showing videos in class and using a polling app, but wasn't very impressed with how those tools impacted learning for her students.

"I felt like it was very much about giving information to the kids, so more delivery of information, and not much beyond that," Cervantes said. She has been pushing herself to use some of the strategies Hess taught her and likes the way they require students to engage deeply with text. She's tired of students copying and pasting text without doing any analysis.

"The strategies make it so that students have to slow down and analyze what they're reading," Cervantes said. She also noticed that when kids had their own computers they often didn't really engage in dialogue when they were asked to share with a partner. Instead, they would merely share their screens. In response she halved the number of computers in the room, so pairs of students would have to share. After that modification she started to see much more robust dialogue.

Cervantes says although many of the strategies Hess taught her could be done on paper, she likes using Google Docs because the outlines and annotations students create during class can easily become their notes. She can review them and return them quickly, touching on common themes or helping to point out holes in the thinking of the class.

Hess emphasizes that all these digital reading tools must be used within the context of bigger, interesting questions, or else the strategies just become a list of steps. While Socratic seminars can take a lot of preparation, students are identifying main ideas, categorizing evidence and highlighting important passages in the service of an argument that they care about, which makes the whole process more meaningful.

A New Yorker article dedicated to the question of whether students read as deeply on digital devices as in print focuses on the work of Maryanne Wolf, as well as others studying the space. Several studies found the decrease in comprehension on digital devices was more due to distractions on the internet than to the medium itself. Perhaps self-control is among the key skills to teach students expected to read more online.

In the article, Maria Konnikova ends on a hopeful note:

"Wolf is optimistic that we can learn to navigate online reading just as deeply as we once did print-if we go about it with the necessary thoughtfulness. In a new study, the introduction of an interactive annotation component helped improve comprehension and reading strategy use in a group of fifth graders. It turns out that they could read deeply. They just had to be taught how."

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Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally | KQED

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Teachers are finding that when they explicitly teach deep reading strategies geared to digital media, students can access and comprehend complex texts.

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"Students are not empty vessels," he says. "Students are full of all kinds of knowledge, and they have explanations for everything." From birth, human beings are working hard to figure out the world around us.

But we go about it more like the early Greek philosophers than modern scientists: reasoning from our limited experience. And like those early philosophers - Ptolemy comes to mind - we're often dead wrong.

Sadler says that cognitive science tells us that if you don't understand the flaws in students' reasoning, you're not going to be able to dislodge their misconceptions and replace them with the correct concepts.

"It's very expensive in terms of mental effort to change the ideas that you come up with yourself," Sadler says. "It's a big investment to say, 'I'm going to abandon this thing that I came up with that makes sense to me and believe what the book or the teacher says instead.' "

In one study, which he recently wrote about in American Educator magazine, Sadler gave 20 multiple-choice science questions to a group of middle school students. For each test item, one of the "distractors" was a very common misconception. In fact, often the misconception was far more popular than the right answer.

For example:

2. Eric is watching a burning candle very carefully. After all of the candle has burned, he wonders what happened to the wax. He has a number of ideas; which one do you agree with most?

a. The candle wax has turned into invisible gases.

d. All of the wax has melted and dripped to the bottom of the candle holder.

The wrong answer, d., was chosen by 59 percent of the students; only 17 percent chose the right answer, a.

The study also gave the same test to these students' teachers. They asked them which of the wrong answers was most commonly chosen. They found that teacher knowledge of common student misconceptions was weak: They knew 85 percent of the right answers, but only 41 percent of the "right" wrong answers.

But, among teachers with stronger knowledge of student weaknesses, their students learned significantly more science, based on a retest at the end of the year.

Having discovered the importance of wrongness, how can teachers act on that knowledge?

The first step, says Sadler, is to teach Socratically (there's the Greeks again), by asking questions and having students think out loud. This works much better than lecturing.

"Teachers who find their kids' ideas fascinating are just better teachers than teachers who find the subject matter fascinating," he says.

The next step is to give students exposure to the information and experience that will enable them to reason their way to the right answer.

For example, Sadler and colleagues created a high school astronomy course. In one of the lessons, students looked at pictures of the sun taken through the same telescope at each month of the year. Most predicted that the sun would appear larger in the hot months. However, once they got out the rulers, they would discover that the sun is biggest (i.e., closest) in January. (The closest point in our orbit, the "perihelion", was January 2 this year.)

"That throws a monkey wrench into the logic of the elliptical orbit," says Sadler.

*The true cause of the seasons is our planet's 23.5 degree tilt off its axis.

Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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Getting Inside Students' Minds: Why Misconceptions Are So Powerful

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"Students are not empty vessels," he says. "Students are full of all kinds of knowledge, and they have explanations for everything." From birth, human beings are working hard to figure out the world around us. But we go about it more like the early Greek philosophers than modern scientists: reasoning from our limited experience.

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( iStock/ALLVISIONN )

When Aly Buffett was a young girl struggling with reading, her parents brought in a tutor. The tutor told her, "You're struggling right now, but I'm here with you, and you're going to do amazing things," Buffett said. Now 20 years old and a junior at Tulane University, Buffett believes her tutor's warmth and confidence altered the path of her life. She realized that the steady support she'd received from her parents, teachers and tutor isn't something every struggling child receives.

"A lot of kids aren't told, 'You're going to be successful, you're going to achieve a lot,' " she said. Conscious of her good fortune, and grateful to all who helped her, Buffett is considering a career in politics so she can shape education or health policy. "I feel the need to pay it forward," she said.

Having a sense of purpose like this is "the long-term, number one motivator in life," said William Damon, author of The Path to Purpose. To have purpose is to be engaged in something larger than the self, he said; it's often sparked by the observation that something's missing in the world that you might provide. It's also a mindset that many teenagers appear to lack, according to research Damon carried out at the Stanford Center on Adolescence: About 20 percent of high school kids report being purposeful and dedicated to something besides themselves. The majority are either adrift, frenetic with work but purposeless, or full of big dreams but lacking a deliberate plan.

Of course, parents are instrumental in guiding their children toward purpose. But schools also play a part. And so far, Damon writes, when it comes to steering teenagers toward futures that are meaningful and rewarding, there's more work to be done.

Damon and other experts offer teachers and school leaders practical steps to assist students to find purpose.

Relate the lessons of literature to teenagers' lives. When discussing Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with her 12 th- grade English students, Anne Weisgerber prods her students to consider the characters' purpose, and to puzzle over how their flaws set them on a disastrous path. "Stories like these get students thinking about why people do certain things, while commenting on right and wrong behavior," Weisgerber said. "Students begin to understand the time and place and how there might be parallels to their own lives," she added. Weisgerber wants her students to reflect over literature's enduring themes and to apply these insights to their own life plan. "I always tell my students that life doesn't come with a rule book, but it does provide us with great literature," she said.

Talk about why. "Every part of the curriculum should be taught with the Why question squarely in the foreground," Damon writes. Why study mathematics, or literature, or biology? Students might better appreciate a subject's value if they understand its purpose, as well as what drove leading figures in the field to devote themselves to it. In literature, teachers can explore what compelled the author to develop a character in a particular way. "The closing question is always, 'what's the author's purpose?'" Weisgerber said. "That's where the big discussions happen," she added.

Explain your purpose as a teacher. By sharing what they find meaningful in their work, teachers prod students to think about their own lives' purpose. "They can be a model of what a purposeful person looks like," Damon said.

Connect the classroom to the outside world. "There's a disconnect between school curriculum and real life," said Adam Poswolsky, author of The Quarter-Life Breakthrough. When what goes on in class feels untethered to reality, kids lose interest in the subject and start to drift. Poswolsky encourages teachers to take students on field trips whenever possible. "You can't replicate the real world in the classroom," he said. Exposure to actual careers and experiences might help kids recognize the connection between what they're learning and reality.

Promote community service and civic engagement. Already, schools have been successful in steering kids toward serving the community; 26 percent of teenagers between 16 and 19 volunteer. Such volunteerism, even when coerced by schools or parents, is apt to carry on beyond high school, especially when some education accompanies the service. To encourage more political engagement, schools can talk up the importance of student elections. These ultra-local, bottom-up campaigns teach kids about elections and the political process, and introduce them to purpose, said Poswolsky.

Continue to ask important questions. Elementary school kids are routinely asked big questions about their futures. What do you dream about? What do you want to be when you grow up? But by high school, adults more often inquire about teenagers' college plan or course load. "Your purpose in high school is to get into the best college," said Caroline Wohl, a freshman at Georgetown University, who said she spent her high school years striving for academic success. Candid, thoughtful conversations between teachers and students about purpose - as Weisgerber does in her literature discussions - can prod young people to think about their own values and how best to live.

It's not just teachers. Coaches, tutors and guidance counselors also are well-suited to inviting thoughtful conversations about purpose. "There need to be people in a school who say, 'I'm not worried about your actual work, I'm worried about your heart and dreams," Poswolsky said. In high-needs schools, such figures are even more vital, he added. Neal Sharma, who has coached track and cross-country for 17 years in Summit, New Jersey, said that he delivers the message to kids that distance running will give them confidence in themselves and a sense of self-efficacy.

"I think about helping kids become better versions of themselves, which might lead them to their purpose," he said.

How Schools Can Help Students Develop A Greater Sense Of Purpose

Author

Linda Flanagan

Linda Flanagan is a freelance writer, researcher, and editor. Her work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Wall St. Journal, Newsweek, Running Times, and Mind/Shift, and she blogs regularly for the Huffington Post. Linda writes about education, culture, athletics, youth sports, mental health, politics, college admissions, and other curiosities. She also reviews books and conducts interviews.

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How Schools Can Help Students Develop A Greater Sense Of Purpose

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When Aly Buffett was a young girl struggling with reading, her parents brought in a tutor. The tutor told her, "You're struggling right now, but I'm here with you, and you're going to do amazing things," Buffett said. Now 20 years old and a junior at Tulane University, Buffett believes her tutor's warmth and confidence altered the path of her life.

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iStock/brianglobal

My friend Joanne was packing her youngest child off to college this month and wrestling with a modern dilemma: Is it better to buy textbooks in digital form or old-fashioned print? One of her son's professors was recommending an online text for a business course: lighter, always accessible and seriously cheaper ($88 vs. $176 for a 164-page book). But Joanne's instinct was that her son would "learn better" from a printed volume, free of online distractions, and with pages he could dog-ear, peruse in any order, and inscribe with marginal notes. Her son was inclined to agree.

Many of us book lovers cherish the tactile qualities of print, but some of this preference is emotional or nostalgic. Do reading and note-taking on paper offer any measurable advantages for learning? Given the high cost of hard-backed textbooks, is it wiser to save the money and the back strain by going digital?

You might think that, decades into the digital revolution, we would have a clear answer to this question. Wrong. Earlier this year educational psychologist Patricia Alexander, a literacy scholar at the University of Maryland, published a thorough review of recent research on the topic. She was "shocked," she says, to find that out of 878 potentially relevant studies published between 1992 and 2017, only 36 directly compared reading in digital and in print and measured learning in a reliable way. (Many of the other studies zoomed in on aspects of e-reading, such as eye movements or the merits of different kinds of screens.)

Aside from pointing up a blatant need for more research, Alexander's review, co-authored with doctoral student Lauren Singer and appearing in Review of Educational Research, affirmed at least one practical finding: if you are reading something lengthy - more than 500 words or more than a page of the book or screen - your comprehension will likely take a hit if you're using a digital device. The finding was supported by numerous studies and held true for students in college, high school and grade school.

Research suggests that the explanation is at least partly the greater physical and mental demands of reading on a screen: the nuisance of scrolling, and the tiresome glare and flicker of some devices. There may be differences in the concentration we bring to a digital environment, too, where we are accustomed to browsing and multitasking. And some researchers have observed that working your way through a print volume leaves spatial impressions that stick in your mind (for instance, the lingering memory of where a certain passage or diagram appeared in a book).

'They assume that because they were going faster [reading digitally], they understood it better. It's an illusion.' Patricia Alexander, University of Maryland literacy scholar

Alexander and Singer have done their own studies of the digital versus print question. In a 2016 experiment they asked 90 undergraduates to read short informational texts (about 450 words) on a computer and in print. Due to the length, no scrolling was required, but there still was a difference in how much they absorbed. The students performed equally well in describing the main idea of the passages no matter the medium, but when asked to list additional key points and recall further details, the print readers had the edge.

Curiously, the students themselves were unaware of this advantage. In fact, after answering comprehension questions, 69% said they believed they had performed better after reading on a computer. Researchers call this failure of insight poor "calibration."

The point of such research, as Alexander herself notes, is not to anoint a winner in a contest between digital and print. We all swim in a sea of electronic information and there's no turning back the tide.

"The core question," Alexander said in an interview, is "when is a reader best served by a particular medium. And what kind of readers? What age? What kind of text are we talking about? All of those elements matter a great deal."

On top of that, we all could do with a lot more self-awareness about how we learn from reading.

For example, a big reason that students in the study thought they learned better from digital text is that they moved more quickly in that medium. Research by Alexander and others has confirmed this faster pace. "They assume that because they were going faster, they understood it better," Alexander observes. "It's an illusion."

If students become aware of this illusion, they can make better choices. Just as they might decide to turn off social media alerts while studying an online textbook, they might want to consciously slow themselves down when reading for deep meaning. On the other hand, when reading for pleasure or surface information, they can let 'er rip.

Digital text makes it easy for students to copy and paste key passages into a document for further study, but there is little research on how this compares with taking notes by hand.

"We study things like highlighting and underlining," Alexander says, "but those kind of motor responses have never been of highest value in terms of text-processing strategies" - whether done with a cursor or a marker. The studying strategy with "the greatest power," she adds, involves deeply questioning the text - asking yourself if you agree with the author, and why or why not.

Dutch scholar Joost Kircz points out that these are still early days for digital reading, and new and better formats will continue to emerge. In his view, the linear format of a traditional book is well suited for narratives but not necessarily ideal for academic texts or scientific papers.

"In narrative prose fiction, the author strictly determines the reading path," he and co-author August Hans Den Boef write in The Unbound Book, a collection of essays about the future of reading. "But in a digital environment we can easily enable a plurality of reading paths in educational and scholarly texts."

In addition to the hyperlinks, video and audio that currently enhance many digital texts, Kircz would like to see innovations such as multiple types of hyperlinks, perhaps in a rainbow of colors that denote specific purposes (annotation, elaboration, contrary views, media, etc.). He also imagines digital books that could enable a variety of paths through a body of work. Not all information is linear or even layered, he told me: "There's a lot of information that's spherical. You cannot stack it up. The question is to what extent can we mimic human understanding?"

While we await those future digital products, students deciding what school books to buy this fall would do well to ask themselves just what they hope to get from the text. As Alexander notes, "If I'm only trying to learn something that's going to be covered on a test and the test is shallow in nature, then [digital] is just fine." If, on the other hand, you hope to dive in deeply and gather imperishable pearls, spring for the book.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, the nonprofit, independent news website focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for our newsletter.
A Textbook Dilemma: Digital or Paper?

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My friend Joanne was packing her youngest child off to college this month and wrestling with a modern dilemma: Is it better to buy textbooks in digital form or old-fashioned print? One of her son's professors was recommending an online text for a business course: lighter, always accessible and seriously cheaper ($88 vs.

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Listen to this post as a podcast:
Sponsored by Raymond Geddes and Kids Discover

This is an excerpt from a letter written to a Charlotte, North Carolina newspaper in 2002 by a first-year math teacher, a man who was vehemently opposed to block scheduling.

"I am...a first year high school math teacher. (My school) operates on a block schedule - a concept I had never even heard of until I accepted (this) teaching position. My observations of block scheduling have been a shocking education for me. Block scheduling has resulted in less emphasis on core content and more on gimmickry. Classes used to be places where serious learning took place. No more. Under block scheduling, they have become little more than glorified playtime periods. Classes used to consist of core subject material being communicated to students by individuals rich in knowledge and experience. Now teachers are no longer teachers, but merely guides - glorified baby-sitters, if you will. Under block scheduling, the students are now in groups trying to "discover" facts that used to be communicated instantly when teachers actually taught. It's obvious that this format wastes valuable class time - and that doesn't include the time students waste by talking, singing, and becoming restless all-around as a result of the lengthened class periods."

This letter articulates the concerns some teachers, parents, and even students have about block scheduling, where class periods last 80 to 100 minutes and only four classes are held each day. This type of schedule became popular in middle and high schools in the 1990s as an alternative to the traditional schedule, where students attend the same six to eight classes, 45 to 50 minutes each, every day. The idea behind the change was that with less transition time between classes, fewer instructional minutes would be wasted, and the kinds of behavior issues and bullying that can crop up during class transitions would also be cut down. On top of that, having extended blocks of time would give teachers the opportunity to dive more deeply into their content.

And in many cases, schools have been successful with block scheduling. They've even found solutions for some of the problems it presents, like offering shorter periods for classes like math and band, where consistent daily practice is more important. But one issue with block scheduling seems to persist, a problem that is highlighted in the letter above, a problem that is still voiced by teachers and students today: The ineffective use of the longer block of instructional time.

So that's what we're going to focus on here. We'll start by looking at the mindset that causes a lot of block scheduling's biggest problems. Then we'll quickly review some best practices for teaching in the block. Finally, I'll walk you through five specific structures you can choose from to plan solid, interesting instruction for an extended class period, the kind of teaching that will make those 90 minutes fly by.

The Big Problem: A Lecture-as-Teaching Mindset

Some of the challenges associated with block scheduling boil down to logistics, like needing more time for AP courses. These issues can often be solved with creative scheduling tweaks.

But the rest of it, the criticisms lobbed at block scheduling and the problems that can crop up with it, can almost all be traced back to one mindset, a single strong, pervasive belief about teaching, and that mindset is this:
teaching = lecture
This mindset, the belief that lecture is the only "real" way to teach, causes all kinds of trouble in block scheduling.

Let's go back to the math teacher who described the extended classes in block scheduling as "glorified play periods" in his letter. One likely reason he felt that way was because he saw his co-workers doing something besides straight-up lecturing. Here's a line from his letter again, where he longs for the good old days of traditional scheduling: "Classes used to consist of core subject material being communicated to students by individuals rich in knowledge and experience." What could he possibly mean besides lecture?

In this teacher's mind, anything that wasn't lecture couldn't possibly be "serious learning," and therefore all the other non-lecture-based activities he observed in his colleagues' classrooms were a waste of time.

And to an extent, he may have a point. We don't know what was going on in his colleagues' classrooms. Maybe the other teachers were using some highly effective techniques that he was just unfamiliar with. Or maybe, if his school was like some who don't invest enough in training teachers in different methodologies, they really were just screwing around. Because if teachers don't have a well-rounded repertoire of instructional strategies, methods that they know are effective, they will only use lecture to teach, and that gives them one of two choices:

1. Lecture for the full 90 minutes, which bores students to tears, can lead to behavior problems, and ultimately has a negative return, since student attention spans can't be sustained for longer than about 15 minutes. So in this case, you're "covering" a lot of material, but students aren't learning it.

2. Lecture for half the period, then give students the second half for "homework time." This is also ineffective, because that means students are actually learning only half the material over the course of a semester or year. This is typically the reason why some teachers object to block scheduling: They say they can't "get through" as much material. But if these teachers knew more strategies, that remaining time could be used for instruction that would actually hit more learning targets.

Best Practices on the Block

Do not rely solely on lecture.
This advice comes from every teacher I have talked to and every piece of research I have read about successful block teaching (for a good summary, see Queen, 2002). Although I do believe a brief, dynamic lecture every now and then is an efficient way to deliver instruction, and does not need to be abandoned entirely, teachers who lean too heavily on it are doomed to failure in a longer class period. Instead, use a variety of instructional strategies, many of which we will get to in a little while.

Switch activities every 15 to 20 minutes.
Students get restless when they are required to sit still or do the same thing for long periods of time, so unless they are working on a task that will truly engage them for a full hour (and we'll get to these later on), look at your class period as a series of 15- to 20-minute chunks of time and switch activities in each chunk.

Overplan.
If you've ever finished your planned activities in a 50-minute period and found yourself with ten awkward minutes to kill, imagine how much worse it is when you have 30. So plan for the essential activities, but also build in some extras that would be nice to get to, but aren't essential. Meagan Brockway, a high school history teacher in Greencastle, PA, says, "Block scheduling requires planning for more than you can accomplish and then continually readjusting based on student needs." This readjustment may vary from student to student and class to class. "If I have a class that is tremendously behind, then it is a matter of looking at the 'extras' and either cutting those out completely to get to the content needed OR if it is a class that is up for a challenge, then I give them extended time to complete it on their own."

Use a smart pacing guide.
One of the challenges of block scheduling is "fitting in" all of the content you might be used to teaching on a daily schedule. Pacing guides, which are used to map out when you will address each learning target or standard throughout the year or semester, are essential to make sure you use class time wisely. But these often value "coverage" over actual learning. The late educator Grant Wiggins, who always offered incredibly insightful ideas on authentic learning, wrote a great post on designing pacing guides that help teachers hit the most essential standards but also build in time for re-teaching and extension when necessary.

5 Structures for a Block Class Period

To make the most of your extended class period, consider one of these five structures, which you can mix and match over the course of a marking period, depending on your instructional needs. For the sake of convenience, I'm going to assume we're talking about a 90-minute class period, but you should obviously make slight adjustments if your block is longer or shorter than that.

The Classic

This would look the most like a typical lesson, except you would have time to do it right and include ALL the bells and whistles that we all know a good lesson should have:

(10 min) An engaging anticipatory set to pique students' interest, build relevance, bring concepts out of long-term memory or just set the stage for learning. This is a step we often skip over when we are pressed for time. (For ideas, see my post on anticipatory sets or this one on How to Approach Your Teaching Like a Master Chef.)

(15-20 min) Some kind of direct instruction, where the teacher delivers the day's lesson through a lecture (Yes! In small doses this is okay!), doing a demonstration, showing a video, having students read through some kind of text or do an interactive online lesson.

(30 min) Student application of the content. This might take the form of individual practice, reciprocal learning, or some other kind of group work.

(15-20 min) An assessment of the content or skill, followed perhaps by re-teaching to those who need it and an extension activity for students who met the standard.

(10 min) A reflection or other kind of wrap-up, where the value of the lesson is reinforced.

Whitney Schultz, who teaches 80-minute blocks of English at a high school in Baltimore, MD, uses this kind of structure on most days, mixing up the activities within each of the segments. "That 10-15 minute review and 10-15 minute introduction might instead be a 20-30 minute quiz followed by self-grading; or, in my AP class, it might be 20-30 minutes of daily AP practice followed by 40-50 minutes of text discussion/analysis. I've found it's easier to fill 80 minutes than try to trim down what I cover each day!"

The Workshop

In this structure, students would spend the majority of time working on their own projects. The class period might start with a brief (10-minute) mini-lesson, and it would ideally end with some kind of a wrap-up, sharing, or reflection time, but at least a full hour would be spent working independently or in groups on a long-term, hands-on project. Meanwhile, the teacher would circulate, conferencing individually with students as needed or using an appointment system like the one used at the Apollo School.

In an English language arts class, this could be independent writing or reading, or a mixture of both, depending on what each student happens to be working on at the time.

If you are running a self-paced math class, or are delivering instruction through hyperdocs or playlists, where students work at their own pace through a series of lessons, then during the hour, students would just get started from wherever they are in the materials.

In any class that has implemented Genius Hour, this time could be devoted to research, writing, or working on presentations.

The Lab

One big, focused activity takes up most of the class period in this structure. Class may start with some kind of an introduction and end with a reflection or wrap-up, but at least an hour is set aside for an activity where the whole class digs into a single meaty task. In this case, the task itself is designed to be active and engaging, so the rule about switching every 15 or 20 minutes is waived. The big activity could be any of the following:

Simulations or role-plays, which can be incredibly useful in helping students understand complex social studies or science concepts.

A debate, socratic seminar, or some other long-form discussion strategy

A project-based learning activity

A virtual field trip

Jigsaw or another cooperative learning activity

An actual lab (hello, science!)

Sketchnoting: This idea comes from Jana Maiuri, a middle school English teacher in Oakland, California, who will occasionally set aside a whole class period for students to create sketchnotes on a given topic. It starts with "a ten minute rapid-fire warm-up...followed by a kind of 'okay, show me everything you know about commercial fish depletion in a sketchnote in the next 90 minutes.' Then in the next class we do two concentric circles and everyone gets two minutes to present their sketch: three vital facts, the most unique or compelling thought, and one artistic accomplishment or challenge. The movement and the art are engaging and thought provoking." (To get started with sketchnoting, see Vicki Davis' comprehensive post on sketchnoting here.)

The Performance

At the end of a learning cycle, students should ideally have some kind of final product to share with peers, or even outside visitors. A 90-minute block class would be ideal for sharing and celebrating this student work. This performance could take many forms:

Student speeches

Film festival

Gallery of physical or digital products

Skits

Poetry or other readings

The Variety Pack

On some days, you might opt to just give students a fast-paced mixture of activities, some that might review previously learned content, some that introduce new stuff, others that do a bit of drill and practice, and even some that are just there for fun and enrichment. These can be handled in a station rotation model, with student-selected learning centers, or just by having the whole class do a a series of smaller activities together. Here are just a few possible activities you could include:

Any kind of skills practice, flashcard work, or retrieval practice

Watching a short video clip

Independent reading

Journal writing

Having a short philosophical chairs debate

A short read-aloud from a book you're reading together as a class

Small group work with the teacher

Games like Kahoot or Crumple & Shoot

So whether you're brand-new to block scheduling or you've already been doing it for years, I hope you've found at least one new idea to help you make the most of that extended class period and never again be accused of running a "glorified playtime period." ♦
References
Queen, J.A. (2002). Block scheduling revisited. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(3), 214-222.

There's more where this came from.
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Whether you're brand-new to block scheduling or you've been doing it for years, these strategies will have you handling those 90 minutes like a boss.

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Choice has always been at the heart of teaching, but who could have predicted just how much choice we'd have? As the internet continues to spread deeper into our professional lives, sometimes the options seem painfully infinite.

For a profession already known for inducing daily doses of exhaustion, the decision fatigue and accompanying ego depletion brought on by the internet has many teachers questioning whether the juice is really worth the altruistic squeeze.

Crafting a Thoughtful and Realistic Approach to Web Usage

While there are undoubtedly a few audacious educators gracefully embracing the digital age in all its option-spawning glory, some of the educators I know make up the greater majority - those afraid and unwilling to fully relinquish control and purposefully unleash the internet upon their students.

While a more measured and strategic approach to coping with the modern information influx is understandable, it just doesn't fit the reality of most students in 2017. Our students are used to accessing the infinite. They find freedom in the unconstrained digital spaces that have always shaped their world.

As educators, it's our responsibility to learn and honor that reality, no matter how foreign it may seem. In doing so, I think we just might find that we end up shaping the very citizens we'd always hoped to.

Providing Honest Digital Leadership

The internet has the potential to open doors to improved literacy, self-discovery and empowerment like nothing else. As teachers, we just need to be open and realistic about the darkness that accompanies that potential and work to be sure we guide students toward their interests and away from the proverbial bad.

That doesn't mean we deny the dark truth and negativity we know exists on the web. It simply means we acknowledge the internet's immensity, humanity's variety, and bring an open and honest awareness to those we teach.

Students want support, guidance and acceptance as they navigate their lives and the web. For the first time ever, a technology exists that allows them the freedom to derive true personal power through introspective exploration like never before.

Facilitating the Power of Educational Choice

When students are presented with infinite options (i.e., the internet), they naturally move in directions that interest them. Allow them to make their own choices, and they'll find pleasure in reading and learning online.

By embracing the internet, and being honest about the boundless content that comes with it, we can cultivate a generation of impressively-literate and highly-autonomous citizens who collectively discover themselves through the power of choice.

Speaking of choice, literacy and the internet, here's a short list of applicable tools that can assist educators with making students' learning more meaningful:

Stackup.net - A free Chrome extension that provides the accountability needed to measure progress while giving students the freedom to read what they want.

Hypothes.is - A new layer of the web that allows you to annotate text with anyone, anywhere.

Grammarly.com - A free writing app and grammar checker that makes sure your messages, documents and social media posts are clear, mistake-free.

Newsela.com - A paid service that levels nonfiction in any subject, offering news articles at multiple reading tiers, which allows you to teach reading the way you've always wanted to.

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An Educator's Guide to Choice, Literacy and Embracing the Internet

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Choice has always been at the heart of teaching, but who could have predicted just how much choice we'd have? As the internet continues to spread deeper into our professional lives, sometimes the options seem painfully infinite.

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The Future of MLS | American Libraries Magazine

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The Future of MLS | American Libraries Magazine

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We've all seen various reports and discussions around the future of libraries. From Pew ("The Future of Libraries: 7 Questions Librarians Need to Answer") and the Aspen Institute ("Rising to the Challenge: Re-Envisioning Public Libraries") to forums (ALA Summit on the Future of Libraries) to articles (Slate's "What Will Become of the Library?"), and our own white paper ("Re-Envisioning the MLS"), there is no shortage of data or discussion on the topic. We know the challenges:

State and local government workforces have faced significant reductions since 2009. In 2011 alone, state and local governments cut nearly 250,000 jobs. While some hiring has occurred lately, reductions have been significant and are unlikely to grow to pre-recession levels.

Securing a library job can be challenging. Competition is fierce, and the skill sets of students who have recently graduated with an MLS need to correlate with the skills libraries seek.

There are many sources of information and providers of information services. It's not just Google. Individuals have many choices of which a library or librarian may not be preferred or even considered.

The nature of information is changing. Being data and information literate (analytics, visualization, curation) will be critical to success in education, employment, and everyday life.

Communities are changing. We're growing older and more diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, income, and ability. The information and technology needs changing populations will pose challenges.

Given these challenges, there is need to engage in a parallel discussion regarding the future of librarians.

To seed this discussion, the iSchool at the University of Maryland launched its three-year Re-Envisioning the MLS initiative. We started with two key questions: What should an MLS program look like in four years? And what types of students should we recruit into the profession? This duality is critical, as we anticipate substantive changes to what makes up an MLS degree, which will affect who we recruit into the profession.

Our first year is focused on engagement, with years two and three focused on redesign and implementation. More information about our efforts, including speaker archives and dates of future events, is available at mls.umd.edu (search #HackMLS).

What have we learned to date? Key findings indicate the need for MLS programs to graduate information professionals who:

Inform, by serving as vital conduits to the information resources that people need when they need them.

Enable, by actively providing their communities with tailored opportunities to succeed through the resources and services provided.

Equalize, by ensuring that - regardless of background, ability, means, or any other factors-their communities have access to the information resources, services, and skills necessary for today and tomorrow.

Lead, by taking leadership roles in their communities around access to and the availability, dissemination, and preservation of information.

Success in these areas is critical and requires the right type of person from the onset. Characteristics identified include:

Adaptable. Information professionals must be willing and eager to continually learn and adapt to the people using the information, how they use information, and the kinds of services they need.

Creative. Information professionals must be willing to try new techniques, programs, and services. There should be a willingness to take risks, to fail, to learn, and to try again. They must actively seek information about trends and best practices.

Leader. Information professionals need to have a strong ability to communicate and adapt their leadership style to their environment, as well as effectively navigate the changing needs of organizations. They are self-reflective enough to know when to be constructively aggressive and when to provide others with the opportunity to lead.

Tech-savvy. Information professionals must be comfortable with technology and have a desire to always adapt and update their skills. They should be eager to learn how to use new devices, be comfortable with social media platforms, apps, analyzing data, and developing coding skills-and should approach technology through the lens of usability, accessibility, and inclusiveness.

Marketer. Information professionals need to know how to advocate on behalf of their organizations and communities. They also need to anticipate and know how to articulate a vision for access, inclusion, services, technologies, and other key community needs. This requires a willingness to engage in constant and ongoing analysis and change.

Service-oriented. Information professionals have an obligation to focus on the community that they serve, individual needs, and inclusion. They need to ensure that services-whether they be programming, literacy instruction, data analysis, or records management - are designed and implemented based on the actual needs of their users and communities and not based on arcane information practices of our professional past.

Future MLS students must embrace change, work well with ambiguity and uncertainty, be willing to pick up new skills all the time, focus on the needs of increasingly diverse communities, meet people where they are and get them to where they need to be, be able to articulate and move toward a vision, and lead.

We are only part way through our journey toward Re-Envisioning the MLS - but it is clear that the future of the MLS does not lie with those who seek a quiet refuge or who won't embrace ongoing change in the information, technology, and community needs landscapes.

John Carlo Bertot is professor and MLS program director at University of Maryland's iSchool.

Lindsay Sarin is MLS program coordinator at University of Maryland's iSchool.

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The Future of MLS | American Libraries Magazine

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State and local government workforces have faced significant reductions since 2009. In 2011 alone, state and local governments cut nearly 250,000 jobs. While some hiring has occurred lately, reductions have been significant and are unlikely to grow to pre-recession levels. Securing a library job can be challenging.

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Can a simple classroom redesign inspire student achievement?

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Imagine a 5th grade classroom in the middle of a lesson. What do you see: charts, letters, and drawings on the wall? A teacher writing notes on a large chalk or white board at the front of the room...

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Institute of Museum and Library Services

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Institute of Museum and Library Services

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Institute of Museum and Library Services

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Institute of Museum and Library Services

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The Institute of Museum and Library Services is the primary source of federal support for the nation's 123,000 libraries and approximately 35,000 museums. Our mission is to inspire libraries and museums to advance innovation, lifelong learning, and cultural and civic engagement.

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Technology Solutions That Drive Education

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This checklist will help teachers select apps that not only improve learning outcomes but also align with school and district technology goals.

School leaders don't have to look hard to find popular educational software applications: Best-of lists written by teachers, technology vendors and industry thought leaders clutter Twitter and the internet at large.

Some schools and districts find these resources helpful, but the wealth of recommendations can lead to choice overload. And because many district leaders lack the technology expertise that would guide them through the selection process, schools often end up with apps that don't meet the needs of teachers and students.

The U.S. Department of Education hopes to solve this problem by creating an online tool that will help decision-makers design a scoring rubric specific to their school or district's needs. This type of resource would make it possible to base decisions on evidence, rather than "marketing hype or the buzz among a small group of peers," states a 2015 post on the Education Department's Homeroom blog.

Although the Department of Education has not yet released that online tool, a planning checklist published on EdSurge could help school and district leaders in the interim. It primarily focuses on the ways apps fit into pedagogy.

"Educators should be more intentional and selective about the apps they use to ensure students are exposed to high-quality tools that maximize learning experiences for all parties involved," wrote Ross Cooper and Kerry Gallagher, the K-12 technology experts who authored the list. The duo recommends asking the following 10 questions when evaluating potential apps:

1. What content do we want students to learn?

2. What skills will our students practice or refine when they use this app?

3. Will our students be consumers or creators when they use this app?

4. What are my students' needs, and can this app meet them?

5. Is there a better app that achieves the same purpose?

6. Is there a comparable/better app at a cheaper price?

7. Is there an app on your devices that already does the same thing?

8. Does the app promote our school and district "best practices"?

9. How will we inform everyone else?

10. Have we talked to the app creators?

By working their way through this checklist, school leaders can steer clear of apps that are all flash and no substance, Cooper and Gallagher wrote.

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10 Questions to Ask Before Installing a New Educational App

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This checklist will help teachers select apps that not only improve learning outcomes but also align with school and district technology goals. School leaders don't have to look hard to find popular educational software applications: Best-of lists written by teachers, technology vendors and industry thought leaders clutter Twitter and the internet at large.

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Students work on air quality monitors designed to capture data in their communities. ( Courtesy of Brock Hammill)

The maker movement has expanded greatly in recent years and much of the attention has focused on cities with high population density and large well-funded school districts. In rural districts, teachers are also developing maker projects to help students gain the benefits that come from hands-on experiences, while better understanding the needs of their communities.

Take for instance the work being done by Brock Hamill at Corvallis High School in Montana. The students in his science class construct air sensors and analyze data in a way that helps address a problem unique to their community. Air pollution poses a problem for that region of Montana because of nearby forest fires and, in the winter, use of wood-burning stoves.

"We can just get days and days and days of smoke," said Hammill, and it can get to the point where sports practice and games must be canceled.

Working with a teacher training program at the University of Montana, Hammill borrowed expensive air sensors for his students to use for a couple of days each semester. But he wanted his students to have more access to sensors, so he set about making his own. His first task was to see if he could even make a sensor from scratch and then test its accuracy so that his students could do the same.

"I took it as a challenge to see what could we do," he said.

First, Hammill created step-by-step instructions on his website to provide students some structure for such a new project. He then used a $500 grant from Montana State University to purchase enough equipment to make seven air sensors. All of his students were able to build those sensors in class, a project that included putting together hardware and software that could transmit data to the internet.

Then students had the opportunity to make modifications to the air sensors, such as having the light color change to represent different air quality measures. Students - who had unfettered access to their sensors - also worked on making them more adaptable to different environments.

"They were working on wearable models you could just use a battery with and put in your pocket," said Hammill. This would let students publish their real-time exposure to air pollutants at their exact location. Students also had the challenge of making a sensor that would register volatile organic compounds, such as paint fumes.

"They were just changing code left and right, making it work," he said. "They liked it, too, because they'd never worked hardware and software together. They'd change the code and run it and show other groups."

The air sensor project helped students understand a problem in their community while giving them much-need computer programming skills. "It's just hard for these rural schools to get a computer programming teacher," he said.
OLD-SCHOOL MAKER
Rural districts might already be offering a maker program and not realize it. Organizations such as 4-H and Future Farmers of America teach agricultural education skills that involve a lot of "making." Students might be designing, programming and learning about technology under the auspices of such a curriculum.

Jacob Bowers teaches a variety of agriculture classes in his town of Pella, Iowa. In that program, high school students learn how to fly drones over farm fields and analyze data from those flights. Thanks to a grant from the Carl Perkins Vocational and Technical Innovation Act, Bowers purchased drones to be shared by his and neighboring districts. Along with learning how to fly the drones, students learn data analysis. Bowers also gets permission from farmers to look at their field data, which come from more expensive drones.

Students spend less time flying and more time figuring out how to program a drone to take the footage they want, he said. For instance, a drone can be equipped with a UV camera to determine the health of a field. Depending on the type of light bouncing back at the camera, farmers can determine how much fertilizer is needed on the field. The same thing works for a temperature camera. Based on the temperatures coming back, students can figure out where different soil types are located.

Having the students figure out fertilizer plans is the big challenge to master. With efficient use of fertilizer, "we save the farmer money and it's a little less hard on the environment as well," said Bowers.

Bowers isn't just teaching kids how to crunch numbers on spreadsheets. In his greenhouse class, students design hydroponic systems.

"They actually work together to build a more sustainable hydroponic system that can make a lot of produce," he said.

Next year, he plans to teach a metals class where students learn to run a small business creating metal signs. They'll learn to run the books, find clients and use design software to make different products for those clients. All this is in the spirit of maker education. But how tech-driven the program is depends on the teacher, said Bowers.

The big takeaway is "identifying what skills are going to be applicable 20 years from now," he said.

That's why he focuses on fertilizer figures and data analysis, because that's something students will likely always need to understand if they work in agriculture.

As other teachers have seen, students who struggle with academics often shine in a maker space. Bowers sees that in his hydroponics class.

"They're excited to walk in and be able to show other students what they know."
TAKE IT SLOW
Giving students access to skills they normally might not be exposed to is a big value of the maker culture. But when maker spaces are new to a school, schools might experience some growing pains.

Noelle McCammond worked as technology support for the Corning Union Elementary School district and helped design the maker space at Maywood Middle School with Michelle Carlson, an educational consultant who helps bring maker spaces to schools.

They tried to make the first maker project open-ended, but students didn't really know where to start and needed more structure.

"Our student population and our teachers really struggled with it," said Carlson.

They had to walk back the process a little bit and spend time just cultivating that idea of being creative and seeing what's out there, said McCammond.

"We had to be really structured and give them clear roles," she added.

But as students got more comfortable with maker equipment, teachers were able to give them time to tinker.

How Maker Mindsets Can Be An Easy Fit For Rural Schools

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How Maker Mindsets Can Be An Easy Fit For Rural Schools

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The maker movement has expanded greatly in recent years and much of the attention has focused on cities with high population density and large well-funded school districts. In rural districts, teachers are also developing maker projects to help students gain the benefits that come from hands-on experiences, while better understanding the needs of their communities.

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Flickr:Pixelsrzen

In the digital age, kids need to have an understanding of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. They need to learn the technical how-to's, as well as a more global comprehension of how to navigate the online world. To that end, Melbourne educator Jenny Luca made a commitment to help her students start blogging and to create ePortfolios. Here are six reasons why, at her school, these skills are now a high priority.

By Jenny Luca

CREATING POSITIVE DIGITAL FOOTPRINTS. Kids need to start establishing a positive digital impression of themselves. Without question, it will be the norm for these students to be Googled when they begin to look for jobs -- even if it's part time. As young as they are, they need to cultivate their personal brand, and they can do this by posting about what they're involved in at school, learning in their classrooms, or other co-curricular activities they enjoy. We want our students to understand that they can control the message about themselves on the Web, and that they can point prospective employers, colleagues or university admissions officers.
"As of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW."
COMMUNICATING WITH DIGITAL TOOLS. We want our students to have a handle on how to use digital tools to communicate, and not just through networks like Facebook. Plenty of our students are Facebook users, but there is a higher order skill set required to maintain consistent posts on a blog. We've taught our students how to set up categories, add widgets, use the HTML editor to embed code, and how to tell the difference between a legitimate comment and a spammer. As our world moves ever closer towards the Internet as the main vehicle for communication, we feel that we are helping our students understand the language they will need to navigate this new territory.

TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS AND FAMILY. Our curriculum is becoming more transparent to parents. As our students write more about what they're learning, we now have a means for their parents to feel more connected to what happens at school. Where once a child would write for an audience of one - the teacher - now they are writing for a potentially much larger audience that includes their immediate and extended family. Students will not only have a digital archive of their learning, but will see comments from friends and family that they can revisit in years to come. Their access won't be limited to the box of cherished school records and mementos relegated to the attic. For these kids, an Internet connection will enable them to revisit their childhood and adolescent school years.

NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT WEB TOOLS. We need a digital space to demonstrate new methods of learning how to use important Web tools. Already this year, our student ePortfolios have been used to embed Slideshare and Google Docs presentations, Glogsters, podcasts created with Garageband, Google MyMaps, Prezi, and links to Wiki pages they have edited for different subjects. Just having our students understand how to hyperlink to other people's content, and the potential this opens for two-way conversation, has been eye-opening for them. These spaces have helped provide even more reasons for our teaching staff to use Web-based tools and teach themselves new skills in the process.

EFFECTIVE DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP. By creating ePortfolios, or a digital collection of their work, our students learn how to conduct themselves in digital spaces in the context of their curriculum, not just in isolated lecture-style presentations that may strike a chord with some students, but miss the mark with others. When I talk to my seventh-grade students, they can clearly articulate why we're using these ePortfolios. It makes sense to them, and they know it is important for their future lives.

PRIDE IN THEIR WORK. For many of our students, their world view is changing as a result of posting in public spaces. Many of them have embedded clustr maps into their sidebars, and they can see where people are visiting from. Recently, one of our students posted about the effect this global audience has had on her: "Okay- so is this is amazing. I've used this blog since March 30th and so far it's been a great resource and an amazing display of some of my work this year. It hasn't just been my teachers, my classmates, my family and I that have looked at it -- as of August 6 my blog has had 533 visits worldwide. Amazing or what? WOW."

Wow indeed.

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Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog

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Flickr:Pixelsrzen In the digital age, kids need to have an understanding of what it means to be a responsible digital citizen. They need to learn the technical how-to's, as well as a more global comprehension of how to navigate the online world.

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It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

Many universities around the world are constantly working on their graduate attributes and are mapping their programs to them. The blog post "" where I interviewed Prof. Geoff Scott, is really eye opening for college educators as it highlights the attributes and capabilities the CEOs in the market place want in graduates, the things they look for in hiring. If educational leaders don't have a clear picture of the qualities and capabilities of an excellent graduate of their program, then how can teachers help students strive for excellence and to be leaders in their worlds?

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?

The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy

by Allan Carrington, TeachThought PD Workshop Facilitator

The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

The Padagogy Wheel, though, is not rocket science. It is an everyday device that can be readily used by everyday teachers; it can be applied to everything from curriculum planning and development, to writing learning objectives and designing centered activities. The idea is for the users to respond to the challenges that the Wheel presents for their teaching practices, and to ask themselves the tough questions about their choices and methods.

The underlying principle of the Padagogy Wheel is that it is the pedagogy that should determine our educational use of apps. It's all very well to come across an exciting new app and to think to yourself, 'That's really cool, now how can I use it in the classroom?', but what you need to do at the same time is to think about how that app might contribute to your set of educational aims for the program you are teaching. It was in fact this very concern, my desire to help teachers make good decisions as to how to make the pedagogy drive the technology, and not the other way around, that led to the birth of the Padagogy Wheel.
So how does it work?
The Padagogy Wheel brings together in the one chart several different domains of pedagogical thinking. It situates mobile apps within this integrated framework, associating them with the educational purpose they are most likely to serve. It then enables teachers to identify the pedagogical place and purpose of their various app-based learning and teaching activities in the context of their overall objectives for the course, and with reference to the wider developmental needs of their students.

It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

THE FIVE GRIDS

1. Graduate Attributes and Capabilities

Graduate Attributes are at the core of learning design. Graduate Attributes address the long-term, enduring aims of our educational activity. They involve thinking about the type of people that emerge from our educational programs - their ethics, responsibility, and citizenship, for example - and their employability in our current and future society. Teachers must constantly revisit the way in which their programs are contributing to the development of these attributes. They need to do the hard yards of articulating what they expect a graduate of a program to "look like" i.e. what is it that a graduate is and does that we regard as successful and meets the expectations of their communities as change agents and leaders. How else can teachers help students know what transformation 'looks like'?

Many universities around the world are constantly working on their graduate attributes and are mapping their programs to them. The blog post " If you exercise these capabilities.. You will be employed! " where I interviewed Prof. Geoff Scott, is really eye opening for college educators as it highlights the attributes and capabilities the CEOs in the market place want in graduates, the things they look for in hiring. If educational leaders don't have a clear picture of the qualities and capabilities of an excellent graduate of their program, then how can teachers help students strive for excellence and to be leaders in their worlds?

Every teacher needs to look at their courses and pedagogy and ask, "How does everything I do support these attributes? Is there any way I can build content and activities that help students become 'excellent'?"

2. Motivation

Motivation is vital to achieving the most effective learning outcomes. It is valuable for teachers to regularly ask themselves "Why am I doing this again?" That is not a joke. I am referring to the choices of learning outcomes, development of activities and design of content e.g. writing text and even making videos. So the wheel introduces a 21st century model of motivation that science has developed and is so well presented by Dan Pink in the TEDtalk "The Puzzle of Motivation".

Thinking through the grid of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose (AMP) and filtering everything you do from idea-creation to assessment will, I believe, significantly help your teaching be transformational. Barbi Honeycutt on her FlipIt Blog has some good ideas on how to implement Dan Pink's AMP principles in the Flipped Classroom model.

Bloom's Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with 'remembering and understanding', which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the 'By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .' type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

4. Technology Enhancement

Technology Enhancement serves your pedagogy. When you choose any app or technology remember to apply the app selection criteria. The model only suggests apps that can support the learning objectives and activities at the time of publishing. The Padagogy Wheel constantly needs updating with apps as they are released. Teachers also should think customization all the time - is there a better app or tool for the job of enhancing my defined pedagogy?

Developed by Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model - standing for "Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition" - is a framework that assists teachers to assess the degree to which digitally-empowered learning and teaching is (or is not) moving beyond what can be taught using analog technologies. The SAMR Model is extremely useful when considering how you are going to use the technologies you have chosen. SAMR is a widely used model with a wealth of resources online, like Kathy Schrock's excellent SAMR resources page. A very useful perspective about SAMR is through the eyes of the students. The 3.55 min Youtube video below, subtitled for when I teach about the Padagogy Wheel in China, explains:

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?
The history of the Padagogy Wheel
In 2012 on a teaching trip to the UK, I got the idea of putting apps around the outside of Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel and organizing them according to his cognitive domain categories. The taxonomy was based on Kathwohl and Anderson's (2001) adaption of Bloom (1956) and it was their work that combined Remembering and Understanding.

The first version of the Padagogy Wheel had at its core Bloom's cognitive domain categories and teachers started their exploration of the wheel by making decisions about learning outcomes from each of those categories. They were aiming for those outcomes that promoted higher order thinking skills, in the 'Analyse' and 'Create' domains. I was the first to show 65 educational apps around the outer rim of the wheel. These apps were categorized by their strengths in helping learners reach better outcomes. I knew I was onto something useful by the requests for my permission to use this info-graphic after the seminars.

Back in Australia I thought about 'what is good teaching' and 'what is its core concept'. I added Graduate Attributes and Employable Capabilities for version two, then Motivation and the SAMR Model for version three. Two years and 150,000 downloads later I updated the apps and doubled the number available per category for version four. I also added further advice on app selection criteria.
I want to issue you with a challenge
Spend time thinking through how you can apply all five of the grids to your curriculum design, lesson plans and teaching practice. Learn more about each grid and take the Padagogy Wheel out for a spin. Please share your best practice examples. I would love to hear from you.

This year an objective is to build an online resource of how teachers have used the model, showcasing best practice and including research projects. We learned from our recent trip to China that they have over 14.5 million teachers. Yes, just teachers! And they all are extremely committed to change, hungry for professional development and collaboration. Your own work on the Padagogy Wheel could help many thousands of educators in China, as well as others around the world. This will help students become excellent practitioners and graduates, leading their communities into transformational change and could make the world a better place. After all isn't that why you became a teacher?
*Previously published at TeachThought.com

The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy

by Allan Carrington, TeachThought PD Workshop Facilitator

The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

The Padagogy Wheel, though, is not rocket science. It is an everyday device that can be readily used by everyday teachers; it can be applied to everything from curriculum planning and development, to writing learning objectives and designing centered activities. The idea is for the users to respond to the challenges that the Wheel presents for their teaching practices, and to ask themselves the tough questions about their choices and methods.

The underlying principle of the Padagogy Wheel is that it is the pedagogy that should determine our educational use of apps. It's all very well to come across an exciting new app and to think to yourself, 'That's really cool, now how can I use it in the classroom?', but what you need to do at the same time is to think about how that app might contribute to your set of educational aims for the program you are teaching. It was in fact this very concern, my desire to help teachers make good decisions as to how to make the pedagogy drive the technology, and not the other way around, that led to the birth of the Padagogy Wheel.
So how does it work?
The Padagogy Wheel brings together in the one chart several different domains of pedagogical thinking. It situates mobile apps within this integrated framework, associating them with the educational purpose they are most likely to serve. It then enables teachers to identify the pedagogical place and purpose of their various app-based learning and teaching activities in the context of their overall objectives for the course, and with reference to the wider developmental needs of their students.

It's useful to see the Wheel as providing a series of challenges and questions, a structured set of prompts asking you to reflect on your teaching, from planning to implementation. These prompts are interconnected like mechanical gears where a decision in one area often affects decisions in other areas. Consider each area as a grid through which you filter what you are doing. There are five of these grids; let's look at each one in more detail.

THE FIVE GRIDS

1. Graduate Attributes and Capabilities

Graduate Attributes are at the core of learning design. Graduate Attributes address the long-term, enduring aims of our educational activity. They involve thinking about the type of people that emerge from our educational programs - their ethics, responsibility, and citizenship, for example - and their employability in our current and future society. Teachers must constantly revisit the way in which their programs are contributing to the development of these attributes. They need to do the hard yards of articulating what they expect a graduate of a program to "look like" i.e. what is it that a graduate is and does that we regard as successful and meets the expectations of their communities as change agents and leaders. How else can teachers help students know what transformation 'looks like'?

Many universities around the world are constantly working on their graduate attributes and are mapping their programs to them. The blog post " If you exercise these capabilities.. You will be employed! " where I interviewed Prof. Geoff Scott, is really eye opening for college educators as it highlights the attributes and capabilities the CEOs in the market place want in graduates, the things they look for in hiring. If educational leaders don't have a clear picture of the qualities and capabilities of an excellent graduate of their program, then how can teachers help students strive for excellence and to be leaders in their worlds?

Every teacher needs to look at their courses and pedagogy and ask, "How does everything I do support these attributes? Is there any way I can build content and activities that help students become 'excellent'?"

2. Motivation

Motivation is vital to achieving the most effective learning outcomes. It is valuable for teachers to regularly ask themselves "Why am I doing this again?" That is not a joke. I am referring to the choices of learning outcomes, development of activities and design of content e.g. writing text and even making videos. So the wheel introduces a 21st century model of motivation that science has developed and is so well presented by Dan Pink in the TEDtalk "The Puzzle of Motivation".

Thinking through the grid of Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose (AMP) and filtering everything you do from idea-creation to assessment will, I believe, significantly help your teaching be transformational. Barbi Honeycutt on her FlipIt Blog has some good ideas on how to implement Dan Pink's AMP principles in the Flipped Classroom model.

Bloom's Taxonomy is really a way of helping teachers design learning objectives that require higher order thinking. You start with 'remembering and understanding', which is the easiest category to serve with objectives but produces the least effective outcomes in achieving transformation. When supporting teachers, I recommend they try to get at least one learning objective from each category and always push towards the domain category of Creating, where higher order thinking takes place. This is the 'By the time you finish this workshop/seminar/lesson you should be able to. . .' type of thinking. Only after you have developed your learning outcomes are you ready for technology enhancement.

4. Technology Enhancement

Technology Enhancement serves your pedagogy. When you choose any app or technology remember to apply the app selection criteria. The model only suggests apps that can support the learning objectives and activities at the time of publishing. The Padagogy Wheel constantly needs updating with apps as they are released. Teachers also should think customization all the time - is there a better app or tool for the job of enhancing my defined pedagogy?

Developed by Ruben Puentedura, the SAMR model - standing for "Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, Redefinition" - is a framework that assists teachers to assess the degree to which digitally-empowered learning and teaching is (or is not) moving beyond what can be taught using analog technologies. The SAMR Model is extremely useful when considering how you are going to use the technologies you have chosen. SAMR is a widely used model with a wealth of resources online, like Kathy Schrock's excellent SAMR resources page. A very useful perspective about SAMR is through the eyes of the students. The 3.55 min Youtube video below, subtitled for when I teach about the Padagogy Wheel in China, explains:

Take each of your activities and think through how you will use the technology for each task. Ask yourself "Does this activity just substitute (i.e. students could easily achieve the tasks without this chosen technology) or can I augment or modify the tasks to improve the activity and increase engagement?" Finally sieve your curriculum building activities and your teaching practice through the SAMR grid of Redefinition. Is there any task you can build into the activity that without the technology would not be possible?
The history of the Padagogy Wheel
In 2012 on a teaching trip to the UK, I got the idea of putting apps around the outside of Bloom's Taxonomy Wheel and organizing them according to his cognitive domain categories. The taxonomy was based on Kathwohl and Anderson's (2001) adaption of Bloom (1956) and it was their work that combined Remembering and Understanding.

The first version of the Padagogy Wheel had at its core Bloom's cognitive domain categories and teachers started their exploration of the wheel by making decisions about learning outcomes from each of those categories. They were aiming for those outcomes that promoted higher order thinking skills, in the 'Analyse' and 'Create' domains. I was the first to show 65 educational apps around the outer rim of the wheel. These apps were categorized by their strengths in helping learners reach better outcomes. I knew I was onto something useful by the requests for my permission to use this info-graphic after the seminars.

Back in Australia I thought about 'what is good teaching' and 'what is its core concept'. I added Graduate Attributes and Employable Capabilities for version two, then Motivation and the SAMR Model for version three. Two years and 150,000 downloads later I updated the apps and doubled the number available per category for version four. I also added further advice on app selection criteria.
I want to issue you with a challenge
Spend time thinking through how you can apply all five of the grids to your curriculum design, lesson plans and teaching practice. Learn more about each grid and take the Padagogy Wheel out for a spin. Please share your best practice examples. I would love to hear from you.

This year an objective is to build an online resource of how teachers have used the model, showcasing best practice and including research projects. We learned from our recent trip to China that they have over 14.5 million teachers. Yes, just teachers! And they all are extremely committed to change, hungry for professional development and collaboration. Your own work on the Padagogy Wheel could help many thousands of educators in China, as well as others around the world. This will help students become excellent practitioners and graduates, leading their communities into transformational change and could make the world a better place. After all isn't that why you became a teacher?
*Previously published at TeachThought.com

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The Padagogy Wheel - It's Not About The Apps, It's About The Pedagogy - TeachThought PD

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The Padagogy Wheel is designed to help educators think - systematically, coherently, and with a view to long term, big-picture outcomes - about how they use mobile apps in their teaching. The Padagogy Wheel is all about mindsets; it's a way of thinking about digital-age education that meshes together concerns about mobile app features, learning transformation, motivation, cognitive development and long-term learning objectives.

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eSchool News - eSchool News covers the intersection of technology and innovation in education.

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eSchool News - eSchool News covers the intersection of technology and innovation in education.

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Technology News & Innovation in K-12 Education

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Classroom Technology News | Educational Apps | Bloom's Taxonomy | techlearning.com

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Classroom Technology News | Educational Apps | Bloom's Taxonomy | techlearning.com

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Tech & Learning's purpose is THE go-to resource to help K-12 educators and administrators use technology to enhance the student experience and drive innovative learning.

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Every student in every school deserves the opportunity to study computer science.

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In the 2015 New Media Consortium Horizon Report, makerspaces were recognized as one the six most important educational technology developments.

"Makerspaces are increasingly being looked to as a method for engaging learners in creative, higher-order problem-solving through hands-on design, construction, and iteration," the report says.

As Laura Fleming, a library media specialist from New Milford (Conn.) High School, said in the Spring 2016 issue of EdTech: Focus on K-12, a good makerspace is one that puts the learner first.

That being said, creating a makerspace that teaches students the skills to aid them in creative and technological futures doesn't necessarily require renovations and a rollout of new tech.

Fleming's space, for example, thrives on donations of old computers from her school's IT department. Here are five other ways to create a makerspace now.

1. Don't Focus on High-Cost Equipment

Last year, one of my teachers wanted to start a new makerspace program at the A. Harry Moore School at New Jersey City University. What I learned over the course of the year is that it is more important to spend the time to make sure staff and students understand the maker concept than to spend a lot of money on materials. Some of the tools for creation can be purchased at the dollar store.

2. Emphasize the Engineering Design Process

Teachers and students can learn a lot from following the engineering design process. They learn to define a problem, brainstorm a possible solution, propose an approach, find the tools and materials, be flexible, try, fail, and try again.

3. Have Students Solve Problems They Care About

Using maker time to allow students to solve problems that relate to their everyday lives will create 21st century learners. Two of my teachers will be teaching an innovation station class this fall. Many of our students are wheelchair dependent. One of the first problems they are going to tackle is how to design items that will make their wheelchairs look more visually appealing.

4. Invest in Small, Reusable Tech and Nontech Products

A Strawbees maker kit is around $20 and comes with straws and connectors to make bridges, cranes or even animals. In our school, we used this kit on Maker Day to have a tower-building contest.

On the more technical side, a littleBits base kit is a good investment for students to create inventions that can be taken apart easily for reuse. Also, it's quite small, so storage in a classroom without a lot of space is easy.

5. Recycle Old Classroom Furniture and Tools to Make Something New

Like Fleming has done with her school's old computers, don't think that you have to get a bunch of new materials. Think about how you can use this as an opportunity to combine the old with the new. Create a makerspace in the corner of a classroom with an old table and a set of Legos. Also, never underestimate the value of some cardboard in the corner of a classroom mixed with the imagination of a child.

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5 Tips to Create a Cost-Effective Makerspace Quickly

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In the 2015 New Media Consortium Horizon Report, makerspaces were recognized as one the six most important educational technology developments. "Makerspaces are increasingly being looked to as a method for engaging learners in creative, higher-order problem-solving through hands-on design, construction, and iteration," the report says.

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The role of technology in the education of the future | World Economic Forum

# data[].attributes.subject
The role of technology in the education of the future | World Economic Forum

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By 2020 it's estimated there will be 1.5 million new digitised jobs across the globe Image: Wikimedia

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The role of technology in the education of the future

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By 2020 it's estimated there will be 1.5 million new digitised jobs across the globe Image: Wikimedia Consulting Engineer, Cisco Stay up to date: Education, Skills and Learning Follow License and Republishing World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

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NeverEndingSearch — @joycevalenza by Joyce Valenza

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NeverEndingSearch — @joycevalenza by Joyce Valenza

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Neverending Search - A School Library Journal Blog

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New Hampshire School Library Media Association - Home

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The New Hampshire Society for Technology in Education (NHSTE) is a non-profit organization formed by volunteers to improve education through the use of information technologies. NHSTE is also an organizational affiliate of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

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American Association of School Librarians (AASL) |

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The School Librarian as Learning Alchemist | American Libraries Magazine

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The School Librarian as Learning Alchemist | American Libraries Magazine

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The landscape of learning is changing. Children and young adults learn not only in school but fluidly across home, school, peer culture, and community. This transformation in learning and the school environment has prompted educators to ask challenging questions about how to develop learning spaces to meet these needs within the sometimes competing economic, social, and political realities.

At the same time, school librarians continue to serve their communities by linking children, young adults, and teachers with both the information they need and the skills to use it. We've identified three trends that we see as most affecting the role of the school librarian in the near future.

Information on demand

In the near future, there will be a significant reduction in physical library space and collections. Educational technology is becoming more mobile, embracing one-to-one laptop or tablet initiatives and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policies. Young adults also have access to their own devices: According to 2013 Pew Research Center data, some 37% of teens aged 12-17 own a smartphone and three-fourths use mobile devices to access the internet at least occasionally. More and more schools are shifting their policies about the use of these devices in the classroom away from rigid restrictions-and many educators are incorporating them into their lessons.

Even as some schools move to virtual collections, the opportunities for school librarians to influence learning will actually increase. When a collection is housed in the cloud and accessible through mobile devices, the school librarian has a greater capability to enhance learning. Colorado teacher-librarians Phil Goerner and Krista Brakhage

report such augmented reality programs as Aurasma allow students to use their devices to scan physical objects and receive interactive help and instructions. Responsive technology, or the internet of things, allows us to connect directly to objects and record real-time information, such as cost or temperature. School librarians thus control a limitless collection that taps into devices and data around the world, enhancing the research experience for students.

The importance of mobile devices in school adds to the need for school librarians to serve as policy experts for their districts. The BYOD movement, for example, can influence several school, district, local, state, and federal policies, such as those regarding access, copyright, filtering, usability, and privacy. Filtering is perhaps the most salient example, as student use of personal devices has taken the control of internet access away from school administrators. The urge to protect children and young adults on school devices and Wi-Fi must be carefully weighed against the need to teach them how to safely use the internet. Much of the information on the success of BYOD comes from companies with a vested interest in these products (for example, Intel Education's K-12 Blueprint). School librarians must advise other educators impartially on these issues.

Connected learning

The connected learning model makes use of networked technologies to promote education that is academically oriented, peer-supported, interest-driven, production-centered, openly networked, and grounded in a shared purpose. New media can support connected learning by increasing student access to knowledge, providing timely feedback and individualized learning experiences, and connecting youth to a network of individuals with expertise in areas of shared interest. The model supports learning in a variety of subject areas, including STEM subjects, but its major benefits are in out-of-school learning environments. For example, US public libraries are embracing the connected learning model by creating learning spaces and labs, thanks in part through funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Unfortunately, school is often the place that young people are forced to disconnect from ecosystems of learning that they most enjoy, resulting in a rupture between in-school and out-of-school learning. School librarians

are best situated to overcome this barrier as the "connected learning person" on staff, trained to embrace technology and youths' interests and trends.

Most connected learning models in school libraries take the form of after-school or time-bound programs and clubs that focus on actively creating, making, tinkering, producing, experimenting, remixing, decoding, and designing. School librarians can transfer these experiences into formal learning by offering more lenient technology policies and mobile learning, and by conducting research that supports the success of connected learning, ever-expanding technology, and new standards. The scientific and mathematical practices and dispositions that Common Core State Standards and the Next Generation of Science Standards require in preparing students for college and careers are perfectly suited to the connected learning environment.

From learning in situ to learning in the wild

Children and young adults lack the skills to evaluate the information they find on the open web. As they move away from controlled information resources, students must develop critical thinking skills. School librarians are spearheading a shift from learning in situ to learning in the wild. Librarians will likely move away from expensive, underused subscription databases and cumbersome keyword searching to teach students how to search effectively on the open web. This shift places a renewed emphasis on three key roles that librarians play in teaching students how to evaluate the credibility of information, respect copyright, and protect their privacy.

Indeed, these concepts formed the basis of Standard 3 of the American Association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21st Century Learner: "Share knowledge and participate ethically and productively as members of our democratic society." School librarians can encourage learning by fostering critical thinking skills, developing an ethical framework for creating and sharing information, and ensuring personal privacy.

Students will need to understand the process of creating and sharing information responsibly. A 2014 study by researchers at Northwestern's Institute for Policy Research showed that 88% of teens shared an image online recently, and a surprising number of children under the legal age of 13 are online and sharing information in social media contexts. Many of them are sharing information, intentionally or not, that their parents would prefer they keep private. These trends point to the need for youths to undertake a deeper understanding of ethics and privacy, skills that are rarely taught by teachers and parents. However, the school librarian can and should be the educational leader in developing these dispositions that will aid in intellectual growth and responsibility.

The school librarian of the future

Even though the primary purpose of the school librarian continues to be access to information, the new mix of mobile technology, personalized learning, and expanded learning spaces makes providing access more complicated, necessary, and exciting than ever before. The school librarian of the future will be the learning alchemist in the school, directly involved in transforming the physical and virtual spaces for learning in the school, leading shifts in technology and media-enhanced learning, and building robust partnerships with community anchors. In tandem with public librarians, those working in museums and after-school clubs, school librarians will ensure that learning-as educational researchers Ola Erstad and Julian Sefton-Green put it-is "lifewide, life-deep, and lifelong" for all children and young adults.

From left: NATALIE GREENE TAYLOR MEGA SUBRAMANIAM AMANDA WAUGH

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The School Librarian as Learning Alchemist | American Libraries Magazine

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At the same time, school librarians continue to serve their communities by linking children, young adults, and teachers with both the information they need and the skills to use it. We've identified three trends that we see as most affecting the role of the school librarian in the near future.

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ALA Libraries Transform | An initiative of the American Library Association

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ALA Libraries Transform | An initiative of the American Library Association

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ALA Libraries Transform | An initiative of the American Library Association

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Designed to increase public awareness of the value, impact and services provided by libraries and library professionals, the Libraries Transform campaign will ensure there is one clear, energetic voice for our profession.

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TED-Ed celebrates the ideas of teachers and students around the world. Discover hundreds of animated lessons, create customized lessons, and share your big ideas.

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Read This Book: Educated By Design

If you're interested in the ways that education and design intersect, this book is for you. If you're interested in empathy, design thinking, hands-on creative learning, getting comfortable with failure, you're in luck. And if you love super-awesome illustrations created by the author spread throughout your books, this one's got you covered. Educated By Design: ... Read more

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Read This Book: Educated By Design If you're interested in the ways that education and design intersect, this book is for you. If you're interested in empathy, design thinking, hands-on creative learning, getting comfortable with failure, you're in luck. And if you love super-awesome illustrations created by the author spread throughout your books, this one's got you covered.

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The Future for Teaching and Learning | American Libraries Magazine

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The Future for Teaching and Learning | American Libraries Magazine

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What does the future hold for librarians' participation in teaching and learning in colleges and universities? Many are already taking advantage of the opportunities provided by the emergence of new technologies and faculty interest in giving students assignments that will engage them in their learning. I believe that the greatest opportunities for librarians lie in deeper connections to the curriculum, adapting to new modes of pedagogy, linking technology-rich and collaborative spaces in libraries to learning, and ensuring that individuals who enrich the library's role in teaching and learning are on staff. Overall, the trajectory is for the increasing integration of librarians and libraries into the teaching and learning program of the college or university.

Librarians, Pedagogy, and Curriculum

The trends in higher education reform that emphasize active learning and learning as a social process converge well with an increasing emphasis on the need for students to develop collaborative skills and the ability to communicate effectively and professionally in various media. Collaboration has received considerable attention in higher education instruction, and many libraries now offer learning spaces to support group work. Developing skills for sharing information in various media beyond the traditional written text is also growing in importance.

Departments, colleges, or individual faculty might deliberately add the development of technology and information skills within the discipline as new objectives in the curriculum. To support these objectives, faculty can develop new types of assignments that require students to produce projects using a variety of technologies as a means to:

increase student engagement with course content

provide students with opportunities to explore new media technologies and innovate in their academic work

increase individualization of assignments, which can also reduce plagiarism

facilitate student expression in media that are not purely textual

The Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP), issued by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) and the Lumina Foundation in 2014, illustrates the kinds of proficiencies that students need to develop as they complete their academic work. For example, one of the proficiencies is: "Constructs sustained, coherent arguments, narratives or explications of issues, problems or technical issues and processes, in writing and at least one other medium, to general and specific audiences." This inclusion of "at least one other medium" demonstrates the recognition that students will be called upon to communicate in a variety of ways, whether they pursue graduate academic work or enter a profession. However, many faculty members are not well prepared to construct assignments that ask students to develop media projects or to work with students on those projects.

Librarians can work with faculty on assignments that encourage students to experiment with new media.

When faculty members assign students team-based, multimedia projects, they often incorporate changes in their own pedagogy, particularly active learning activities. This can create opportunities for partnerships between teaching faculty and librarians or other information professionals. Librarians can work with faculty to develop new assignments that both connect to the disciplinary content and encourage students to experiment with new media. In many cases, faculty are open to thinking about such assignments if they are not solely responsible for the technical aspects of its implementation. Librarians have the opportunity to work as partners with faculty, become resources for innovative teaching and learning activities, and guide students as they create new types of content for their course assignments.

The staff at the University of Pennsylvania's Weigle Information Commons media center have been successful in partnering with faculty from a number of departments to create and implement new types of student assignments. They include a French class assignment where students create a video of themselves acting a role of a self-created fictional character living in World War II Paris. An assignment in a South Asian Studies class has students create a video, working individually or in small groups, to trace a change in the meaning of a particular commodity either over time or as the commodity moved from one cultural context to another. In each of those cases, the assignment involves students' finding relevant information of various types, integrating it into an innovative presentation, and producing a video that incorporates academic content.

Working with a wide variety of assignments, and not just the typical freshman composition assignment to search databases to locate and read a certain number of journal articles, leads librarians into deeper engagement with the curriculum. Introducing freshmen to basic library concepts is important, but librarians may have greater impact if they focus more resources on working with students in upper level courses in their majors and on capstone projects. Integrating a wide variety of information concepts into a student's academic career, focusing on such issues as the mechanisms of scholarly communication in disciplines and the economic and privacy aspects of information in society, is a much richer set of topics than an emphasis on the mechanics of searching for information. A document under development by the Association of College & Research Libraries, the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, addresses the need for a more sophisticated and integrated approach for librarians' interaction with learning.

This table illustrates the direction in which I hope that library involvement in teaching and learning will move in the future.

When instruction takes place

"One shot" class often in freshman year

Multi-stage through the curriculum

Types of course for instruction

Freshman composition

Focus on upper level courses in major and capstone classes

What students learn

Set of skills

Knowledge practices and dispositions

Types of student projects

Term paper

All types - papers, videos, websites, data visualizations, 3-D printed objects, etc.

How learning is accomplished

Classes with lecture/demonstration

Problem-based active learning experiences

For libraries to become more deeply involved with learning, they need people who are willing to be involved in innovative instructional development and who have the requisite skills. Faculty in higher education institutions are often criticized for their inattention to pedagogy, but it is also often noted that few faculty have had any formal preparation for teaching. Similarly, there are many academic librarians who have had no formal preparation to take on teaching roles. Librarians with limited teacher training can work with other librarians or library specialists to team teach or develop learning activities collaboratively. They can also work with individuals in a campus teaching and learning center or an undergraduate education office, which can provide additional benefits of connecting with individuals who understand teaching and learning trends in the institution.

Library Learning Spaces

"Learning" in library spaces can mean many things. In traditional, quiet library spaces, students may read or think through complex problems or write, generally carrying out the tasks as solo activities. These experiences continue to have great importance, but they are not the only modes of learning. In new types of library spaces, students may be creating a website or a video, working with other students on a group project, collecting, analyzing, and presenting data, solving problems, incorporating special collections materials into a media product, conducting an interview with someone in a remote location, or making a physical object.

Many academic libraries have made significant investments in technologies available to students and they also offer appropriate workspaces for student collaborative projects. One of the rationales for locating technologies and associated services in the library is that the library as a unit serves all of the institution's disciplines. Although some campus departments might have expensive equipment in place, it is often available only to faculty, graduate students, and department majors. Even if others can use the equipment, supporting services are rarely available for the broad community. In addition to offering equipment, libraries design service programs to support a broad user community, facilitating innovation among individuals and departments that lack funds for high-end equipment. Examples of these provisions include data visualization technologies, geographical information systems (GIS), and high-end media production. One growing area for academic libraries is the development of makerspaces.

The updating of library spaces to include many areas for collaborative student work, the availability of a variety of technologies for multimedia production, and library staff expertise in such areas as instructional design and multimedia creation can add real value to a college's curriculum. However, when describing newly remodeled library spaces, advocates seldom cite particular ways in which the new library space supports key teaching objectives or how it helps faculty offer innovative assignments. Librarians need to explicitly map out a service program linked to learning when they plan new or renovated facilities, just as they pay attention to placing equipment and furniture in the facility. There may be new program emphases in departments that could take advantage of partnering with the library. For example, the libraries of North Carolina State University and University of Nevada, Reno, work with courses to incorporate the use of 3D printing technologies into assignments.

Often faculty and students don't realize what specialized technologies and expertise is available in the library. One way to highlight what students can accomplish in media assignments for their coursework is to feature large screen digital exhibits of student work with explanations of the kinds of content they used and the ways in which they incorporated technologies available in the library.

In the future, successful involvement by librarians in teaching and learning will increasingly focus on gaining a deeper understanding of the academic programs they serve; this is part of the growing emphasis on developing a robust liaison role for academic librarians. Librarians will develop a sense for what types of courses include assignments where critical aspects of information literacy are relevant. They will help students become sophisticated content creators in a variety of media, and they will increase students' understanding of important issues related to information.

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The Future for Teaching and Learning | American Libraries Magazine

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What does the future hold for librarians' participation in teaching and learning in colleges and universities? Many are already taking advantage of the opportunities pro­vided by the emergence of new technologies and faculty interest in giving students assignments that will engage them in their learning.

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Two cities in the state of Tennessee, Nashville and Chattanooga, were highlighted in the report for their bold reimagining of what a library could be, and how their communities have responded in overwhelmingly positive and successful ways to the changes.

When Corinne Hill got appointed executive director of the Chattanooga Public Library in 2012, the city had just received a harrowing report on the state of its library. "It was a really bad report," Hill said. "The consultant came in and basically said the system was broken." Because the library needed rebuilding from the ground up, she said, the board was open to doing something really different, and she saw an opportunity.

At the same time, Chattanooga was undergoing a transformation. City leaders had recently provided the entire city with a one-gigabit-per-second Internet speed as a municipal utility, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Hill saw a great opportunity to leverage the brand-new "GigCity" to improve -- and expand -- the library.

"Having that kind of speed in a library is crazy-ridiculous-amazing," Hill said. With the help of grants and the library's operating budget, she invested in outfitting the downtown library with infrastructure to handle the highest-speed Internet, and then got to work on what they would offer.

The fourth floor of the library had historically been used as storage, but Hill decided to rip it all out and transform it into a space the community could use. "We emptied all of that [storage] out, and turned it into a raw space with all the appeal of a 1930s factory space, with concrete floors and everything that goes along with it," she said. "It's now a public space. If you've got an idea, you can develop it here."

Currently, the fourth floor is home to several businesses, including a wedding-dress maker who uses the space to cut out patterns, and a writer in residence. One of Hill's goals was not only to offer the high tech -- like a popular 3-D printer available to the public -- but the decidedly low tech, too. "We've got sewing classes, we've developed these popular programs about making stuff, which is a natural extension of the space," she said. "And we're now in the textile market! We brought in a loom and it's really popular. We're becoming where the community can come and make stuff. Yes, the gig is sexy, but this other stuff is very real, very much a maker movement."

And very soon, the fourth floor will be adding the GigLab, "a separate but inclusive gig-connected space designed specifically for gigabit-related experimentation and learning," according the . That level of connectivity, according to Hill, will create new opportunities. "Our job then will be to help the community figure out what to do when you got a gig," Hill said. "It's like back in the days when electricity was new. Once you turn the lights on, what do you want to do next? What do you do with all that electricity? We're doing the same thing."

Nearly 700 kids and teens per day pour through the library's second floor, which is dedicated to youth. Not only are kids enticed by the 3-D printer and video arcade, but they can also learn how to edit video using software provided by Mozilla, go to coding camp or lay down on the floor with a Chromebook and do research for a school project. Hill and her team have also joined with the online craft marketplace Etsy to help teens get their own Etsy stores off the ground. "When I was 14, I worked at a pizza place. Can you imagine if your first job can be your own shop?" Hill said.

While many parents and teachers worry that all the tech gadgets will draw students away from reading books, Hill said, she's finding that reality is the opposite: So many students now associate technology with school that they find reading print books pure pleasure.

Much like the missions of Nashville's Limitless Library and the Aspen Institute's report, Hill said she hopes to transform the Chattanooga library "into a catalyst for lifelong learning, especially in the age that we live in."

"Giving people access in a public space is a great use of tax dollars," Hill said. "We're not really expanding the role of libraries. It's doing what we've always done, we're just using different stuff. We are a place for the curious, for creativity, a place for learning, a place to experiment. It's always been the mission of the library. We're just using different tools."
Beyond Mobile Libraries
In Nashville, Mayor Karl Dean had an idea to "break down the walls" between the public library and the public school libraries. Dean, who is also a member of the Dialogue on Libraries group, noticed that technology changed how students received information in every area of their lives, but school libraries struggled to keep up both in the quality and relevance of the materials they could offer.

So together with then-Library Director Donna Nicely, Dean created the Limitless Libraries program, a way for public school students to access the entire public library catalog without ever having to leave school. Students can check out any material the public library has to offer -- including books, music and DVDs, but also iPads and e-readers -- through their school library, and the public libraries deliver the materials directly to the schools every day.

Beginning as a pilot program in 2009 with just a handful of schools, Dean can proudly say that Limitless Libraries is now available in every Nashville public school. The effects on the students and the libraries have been staggering. "Out of 28,000 students who have registered [for the program]," said Dean, "15,000 have used the public library for the first time because of Limitless Libraries. And circulation at school libraries has increased by 79 percent."

Limitless Libraries has also helped teachers, Dean notes, by giving students access to the millions of volumes in the public libraries, which means better access to quality materials for research papers and projects. And, above all, the program gives access to books and materials to many kids who can't afford them on their own, or have difficulty getting to a library from home.

Dean said he is a "big believer" in libraries, and they are far from becoming irrelevant. "People need to have access to computers, digital books and DVDs," Dean said. "Libraries are also gathering places for a number of reasons," he said, which is why he's building two new Nashville libraries, one as part of a community center inside an abandoned shopping mall. "They're tremendously popular, every community wants one, and the demand isn't going away," he said. "They'll play an even more important role in cities going forward."

Garmer said Dean is a "visionary leader when it comes to connecting and supporting the public library in the community," and a great example for the report. While schools are an obvious partner for libraries, she said, because they come out of different parts of the budget and are part of two different professional communities, their "silos" are difficult to break down. "When leaders step outside of the box and really reimagine what a library is capable of doing in the community," she said, "the new partnerships and collaborations will start to flow naturally."

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How Libraries are Advancing and Inspiring Schools and Communities | KQED

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Libraries are experimenting with some exciting ways to inspire and engage the community by creating meeting and maker spaces with old technology and new.

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Aspiration is often associated with a whimsical sense of dreaming about the future. The Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations, an independent non-profit organization, defines aspiration as the ability to set goals for the future while maintaining the inspiration in the present to reach those goals. When a student has dreams for the future and is actively working towards them, she's in the "aspirational zone." And in that state, student achievement increases.

A lot of kids have big dreams about what they want to do as adults - whether that's become a professional athlete or a teacher - but no idea of what it takes to get there. Dreaming about the future is important, but without a plan, it often ends with just that - a dream. "There is such a disconnect between the kids dreaming and the kids doing," said Russ Quaglia, president and founder of the Quaglia Institute for Student Aspirations in an edWeb webinar. Other students work very hard to complete all their assignments and participate in every group, but they have no vision for where they want that hard work to lead them. The trick is to find the sweet spot - what Quaglia calls the "aspiration state."
[RELATED READING: Six Ways to Motivate Students to Learn]
To do that, Quaglia suggests focusing on three guiding principles: self-worth, engagement, and purpose. Helping students work on these qualities will ultimately help them to feel academic motivation, a clear predictor of academic achievement.
SELF-WORTH
It's incredibly important for students to know that someone cares about them, that their presence matters. The Quaglia Institute has surveyed almost a million students about their perceptions of school. Fifty percent of students surveyed don't think their teachers care if they're absent from class. "Half the students in our country don't think we care if they even show up," Quaglia said. Only 45 percent of students responded that they feel valued at school. That disconnection, or sense that they don't fit in at school, is part of why kids drop out.

Helping students to feel that they belong and matter could be as simple as asking after a student's well-being after an absence, or making sure he is caught up on the work. It could also mean being the person a student seeks out when life is particularly hard and also when it's great. Every student needs at least one person like that in life, and teachers often become that support system.
ENGAGEMENT
Making sure kids are paying attention is another crucial factor. "We're talking about making sure classes are fun and exciting," said Quaglia. "What I mean is that they're so engaged that they lose track of time and space." When kids are engaged, teachers can try to instill and provoke a sense of curiosity and creativity in them. In many classes, this is not the case: 45 percent of students say they are bored in school and the same number say their classes help them understand daily life. Only 34 percent of students say their teachers know their hopes and dreams.

A huge part of engagement is getting students to have a spirit of adventure. They need to be willing to risk something and succeed. "We have not made it cool to be successful in school yet," Quaglia said.
PURPOSE
Giving students real responsibility over their education makes them an actor in the school's community and they begin to care more about what happens in school. If students can develop a sense that they not only matter, but have purpose, it can help them become more academically motivated. In the Qualia Institute survey, 94 percent of students believe they can be successful, but only 74 percent believe their teachers expect them to be successful. "The teacher's expectations of kids are lower than the kids' expectations of themselves," Quaglia said. He finds that statistic especially disturbing.
[RELATED: How Will Students Perform? Depends On Teachers' Expectations]
"I promote the notion of student voice, but then I feel like I'm banging my head against the wall when kids say they don't think their teachers are willing to learn from them," said Quaglia. Only 52 percent of students say their teachers are willing to learn from them. That disconnect is exactly why it's so important to give students purpose. If they are genuinely heard by teachers they respect, it can go a long way towards motivating them.

By focusing on helping students develop a sense of self-worth, engage with school, and find purpose, teachers can nurture academic motivation. When they are motivated, they try to get good grades, put forward their best work and push themselves to improve. Students that responded that they are academically motivated were also likely to be performing better academically.

"Most kids are academically motivated, but the longer they're in school the less academically motivated they become," Quaglia said. Teachers have the power to reverse that trend, but it takes a recognition that students respond to every action or non-action.

"Our choice isn't whether we are going to be their heroes or not," Quaglia said. "It's whether we're a good one or a bad one. Kids will pick us as heroes and we won't even know it." That knowledge doesn't mean teachers have to become superhuman, but it does mean that building trust with students, learning their names, and sitting down with them can make all the difference.

How to Help Kids Find Their Aspirations

Author

Katrina Schwartz

Katrina Schwartz is a journalist based in San Francisco. She's worked at KPCC public radio in LA and has reported on air and online for KQED since 2010. She's a staff writer for KQED's education blog MindShift.

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A lot of kids have big dreams about what they want to do as adults -- whether that's become a professional athlete or a teacher -- but no idea of what it takes to get there. Here are ideas on how to help them find their aspirations.

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One of the most exciting models of learning is "design thinking." It combines hands on learning (tinkering) with independent problem solving methodologies. This concept is basically the same as the problem solving-based creative process taught in many design disciplines, like architecture, engineering, and game design. The basic steps of design thinking can be characterized as follows:

1. Identify the problem and research to understand the problem better
2. Brainstorm possible strategies and identify solutions
3. Test these solutions (welcoming failure as a learning tool)
4. Apply what you learn to evolve best solutions

When students practice design-thinking projects in the classroom, they not only master the concepts within the project, they exercise their skills of collaborating with teammates, investigating their topic thoroughly, using empathy to generate ideas for solutions, prototyping, and testing. Most importantly, they learn that failure is not a setback. This activity fosters the lifelong skill and mindset that learning new things to help solve problems is part of day-to-day practice and no longer confined to the classroom. Because this quest for knowledge is self-initiated and involves the direct application of learned skills, the retention of information that kids have as a result of this process is significantly higher.

Everyone who cares deeply about education wants to find creative ways to engage the next generation of learners. The thinking about these spaces will continue to evolve and change as we try them out and learn from these experiences.

A challenge for many public and cash-strapped schools is that this hands-on, project-based learning approach needs to be directly supported by the spaces where the learning occurs. Design thinking in education requires open spaces with flexible, moveable pieces that can be used in different ways each day depending on the topic being explored. Schools like Brightworks in San Francisco and the Nueva School in Hillsborough have fashioned their learning spaces and laboratories specifically for this type of culture, but similar results can be achieved without renovating your classroom or school. Here are six ideas that any school can implement.

1. Put wheels on classroom furniture.
Spaces need to be flexible to accommodate a wide variety of student-use scenarios and project-driven set ups. Furniture that can be easily rolled out of the way can go from collaboration lounge to prototype lab with little effort. A variety of casters can be found at IKEA or your local hardware store. Use casters with stems for desks and tables. These have sleeves that can be inserted into the legs. Plate mounted casters can be screwed directly into the base of the furniture. Look for wheels that swivel in all directions so that students can move them easily. Many casters have locks which help to keep them from moving once you've got them in place.

2. Create comfortable and customizable "break-out spaces" with couches or soft chairs where students can work together.
Stanford University's "d.school" (design and engineering school), where the current design thinking trend was jump started, exemplifies the importance of comfortable collaboration spaces. d.school students draw from a mobile "kit of parts" to assemble work environments shaped to their project based activities and then put them all back afterwards. d.school has created a culture of creating the space for the environment you need. Furniture here easily rolls or stacks out of the way to leave an open room after the activity is finished. Working in this space requires presence of mind of how you will interact and how the space should be shaped to accommodate that.

3. Look for spaces on your campus that can be transformed into a student-driven collaboration classroom.
The Australian Science and Mathematics School, a public high school in Adelaide, repurposed a basement storeroom as their innovation "shed." The shed supports 17 students in self-organized learning and tinkering on Thursday mornings and was designed to be a "funky" place teenagers would be comfortable perusing what they are interested in. Sivam Krish directs programs at the shed, but does not teach in the traditional sense. He encourages peer-to-peer learning in the space. The shed is furnished with cheap garage equipment and relatively inexpensive technology. Nothing is fixed: monitors, 3-D printers, computer workstations, and other equipment are mounted on wheeled scaffolding carts so that students can frequently adjust their space to suit their projects.

4. Create a shared design-thinking space for all students to use.
By being inclusive of all students, the program can serve as a compliment to the rest of the curriculum. At Marin Primary and Middle School in Northern California, the kindergarten through 8th grade classroom curriculum links to hands-on projects that kids do in the school's "Projects Lab." The lab is a locus where all the equipment that can facilitate student tinkering and prototyping is concentrated, with some inherent flexibility in its layout to accommodate student creativity.

In San Francisco, Lick-Wilmerding High School's Design and Technology Center takes sharing a step further by bringing together many of the schools communal resources. The center houses teaching workspaces and shops for wood, metal, glass and electronics, as well as a multi-purpose room, computer lab, and two conference rooms. The central, single level, configuration of the spaces allows for a shared work area between disciplines and encourages student interaction and interdisciplinary collaboration.

5. Create a design-thinking space is a design-thinking exercise.
Assign students the task of designing the design-thinking environment. Groups of the students enrolled in the one-semester design-thinking course at Flint Hill School in Oakton, Virginia came up with blue-sky proposals for redesigning the school library. At the end of the semester, two 11th grade participants, Jack Morrissette and Zane Homsi, used an independent study credit to further consider how design thinking could be expanded at the school. Their study culminated in a more feasible library redesign based on the collective ideas from their classmates-including a proposal to free up space for design-thinking environments by going completely digital. With no more shelves full of hard copy books, there would be room for comfy chairs and moveable white board walls for collaboration spaces, and an innovation lab with 3-D printers, visual design technology and other tools. Their proposal is currently being considered by the school board.

6. Ask for help.
Ask students' families and the community to donate gently used furniture, construction tools, sewing machines, fabric, wood remnants, and other tools and materials they no longer use. Power tools, an integral component of any decent maker-studio space, empower kids with confidence and the independence to prototype and test their ideas. Ask parent volunteers to demonstrate how to use them correctly and with the necessary safety equipment. Ask the PTA or your board to help raise the funds for your program.

You can also ask to visit design thinking programs other schools. The Willows Community School in Culver City, California visited Castilleja High School's Bourn Idea Lab in Palo Alto where parent and resident tinkerer, Diego Fonstad, showed the space and offered insights into how the school integrates the classroom learning and physical aspects of making into one project.

Rethinking learning environments will play an important role in education in the years to come. Are you rehashing old models or covering new ground? Everyone who cares deeply about education wants to find creative ways to engage the next generation of learners. The thinking about these spaces will continue to evolve and change as we try them out and learn from these experiences. This is the design-thinking process for creating the next generation of learning environments.

Let's keep this conversation going. What ideas for bringing design thinking into schools have you tried?
Peter Pfau, FAIA, is the founding Principal of Pfau Long Architecture in San Francisco and a member of the AIA's National Committee on Architecture for Education. Pfau is a modernist who balances conceptual rigor with a love for building.
How a Moveable Space Can Ignite Creativity in the Classroom

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How a Moveable Space Can Ignite Creativity in the Classroom

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One of the most exciting models of learning is "design thinking." It combines hands on learning (tinkering) with independent problem solving methodologies. This concept is basically the same as the problem solving-based creative process taught in many design disciplines, like architecture, engineering, and game design.

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"That is really cool that you can do that. But it wouldn't fly in my school..."

"I wish my principal would let me try something like that..."

Have those thoughts ever flitted through your mind while you read an inspiring article, sat in a workshop, or took a class? Then join the rest of school librarians across the country. We all have. The reality of the school library is that, like any other classroom in the building, it falls under parameters laid out by an administrator and sometimes those parameters feel like inflexible boxes that we just can't break out of.

It's important to remember that administrative rules for libraries don't derive from bad intentions; they are usually just deeply rooted in misperceptions and the ease of following long-set tradition. But with some leadership strategies, advocating skills, and a little rebellion we can redefine our boxes and break out of the "but my principal won't let me" trap.
Pay attention to what your principal needs.
The school library needs to provide resources for all of its patrons. Make sure the principal is one of them. Recognize what his or her priorities are and then go about curating resources for them to utilize. Don't ask what they need or how you can help-instead, present her with a LibGuide that is filled with resources that will help her communicate with teachers. Read articles and put them on his desk. Being a principal is a tough job. Ask yourself how can I make it easier ? If you can, you will develop a trusting relationship that will serve the library's goals.
Share national guidelines and goal-setting with your principal.
Set goals for your library and then support them with AASL's Standards for the 21st-Century Learner or the AASL's National School Library of the Year criteria. Instead of presenting ideas as "I think this is a good idea," present it as "my professional organization recognizes that this is what excellence in librarianship looks like." Read case studies on libraries that have transformed into learning commons and use those outcomes to support your decision making. Show your administrator that you want your space to be as relevant and academically and professionally supportive as possible. Invite them to be part of the process.
Make visuals to show what you do and where you want to go.
Part of our job is to keep the unsavory invisible. We do a lot of work that nobody ever sees. That includes our principals. Few administrators have a background in librarianship, and therefore do not understand the depth of the work we do and the ways that we support students and staff. For them to fully acknowledge our work, we have to be fully transparent with them. Show them exactly what you do. Develop lists, infographics, charts, etc. that outline the overall task of the library and its influence on the school. Administrators are busy people and love visuals that get information across to them.
Document your data.
Every month create an eye-popping visual that shows what classes you worked with, what your top titles were. Share your circulation numbers. Put it in the school newsletter. Send it to parents, staff, school board, and administration. Stand on the top of the circulation desk and yell out to the world all the great stuff that is happening in the library.
Always start with what's best for kids & how it will help the school.
Administrative styles vary from principal to principal, and we've all worked for some we adore and some we do not. Despite this, I have never met a principal who doesn't want what is best for students at heart. When approaching an administrator about a new direction you would like to take, do not start by complaining or explaining how hard your job is. Make sure your changes are student-centered. Show them that what you want to do will benefit your student body. Any program that can meet diverse needs of students will get full administrative support.
Be excited!
Passion is contagious. Share your excitement! They say the squeaky wheel gets all of the attention? Maybe. But the one that treads its own path and shares its enthusiasm usually gets the better kind of attention. Be unapologetically passionate about your space, your program, your students-and then be evangelical in your sharing. Make posters, go to classrooms, send emails, speak at faculty meetings. Share share share. It will catch on.
Don't ask permission.
I can hear the collective gasp. But really, that old adage It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission holds true. If you can support the changes you want to make in your library with pedagogical truth, then do it. Sometimes administrators need to see it in action to know it will work. You are the trained professional in charge of a program that is likely the largest academic program in the school. Being able to run and organize a library space, know every student in the building, be familiar with all of the curriculum, balance a budget and interact with sales representative, assess materials, and teach every grade level in every content is no small feat. You were trained for this, so don't wait for somebody who wasn't to give you permission to move forward. Do what you know is best. Don't ever allow yourself to be backed into a corner when it is what is best for students.

Meaningful change has never happened without a little rebellion. But it has also never happened without a little negotiation and compromise. Finding the sweet spot of the two takes courage. It means swallowing our pride some days. It means swimming upstream others. And it means always holding our ground when we know what's best for kids. If our profession and our programs are going to transform alongside all of education, it will require us to be brave in speaking out. Set your intentions. Grab your principal's hand. And say, let's go. We're doing this. Don't ask if you can.

Angie Miller is a 7-12 school librarian in Meredith, NH. The 2011 NH Teacher of the Year and the recipient of the 2017 NH Outstanding Library Program of the Year, Angie is a TED speaker, National Geographic teacher fellow, and freelance writer who writes for her blog, The Contrarian Librarian, and is a regular contributor to sites like EdWeek and the Washington Post's Answer Sheet. As a co-founder of the initiative, Let the Librarians Lead, Angie leads professional development, speaks to audiences, and advocates for school leadership through librarianship. Her book, It's A Matter of Fact: Teaching Students Research Skills in Today's Information-Packed World, published by Routledge, will be on shelves in January 2018.

Categories: Advocacy/Leadership, Blog Topics

Tags: Administration

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But My Principal Won't Let Me! Leadership, Advocacy, & Some Rebel Yell from the Library | Knowledge Quest

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