TechEd News

Seven misconceptions about how students learn
By Valerie Strauss, Washintgonpost.com

Will Rogers once said, “It isn’t what people don’t know that hurts them. It’s what they do know that just ain’t so.”

That’s the introduction to a list of seven myths about learning on the Web site of the Independent Curriculum Group, which is part of a movement of leading private college preparatory schools with teacher-generated curriculum.

Many people — educators included — still cling to some of these misconceptions about learning because they base what they think on their own experiences in school, ignoring what 21st century science and experience are revealing.

Here are seven of the biggest myths about learning that, unfortunately, guide the way that many schools are organized in this era of standardized test-based public school reform. The list is from this page on the group’s Web site:

Basic Facts Come Before Deep Learning

This one translates roughly as, “Students must do the boring stuff before they can do the interesting stuff.” Or, “Students must memorize before they can be allowed to think.” In truth, students are most likely to achieve long-term mastery of basic facts in the context of engaging, student-directed learning.

Rigorous Education Means a Teacher Talking

Teachers have knowledge to impart, but durable learning is more likely when students talk, create, and integrate knowledge into meaningful projects. The art of a teacher is to construct ways for students to discover.

Covering It Means Teaching It

Teachers are often seduced by the idea that if they talk about a concept in class, they have taught it. At best, students get tentative ideas that will be quickly forgotten if not reinforced by a student-centered activity.

Teaching to Student Interests Means Dumbing It Down

If we could somehow see inside a student’s brain, its circuitry would correspond to its knowledge. Since new learning always builds on what is already in the brain, teachers must relate classroom teaching to what students already know. Teachers who fail to do so, whether due to ignorance or in pursuit of a false idea of rigor, are running afoul of a biological reality.

Read the rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/seven-misconceptions-about-how-students-learn/2012/02/13/gIQAenfFCR_blog.html

6 Technologies to Watch in Higher Ed
By Tanya Roscorla, Convergemag.com

During the next five years, six emerging technologies show potential to influence teaching and learning in higher education, according to a new report.

The 2012 NMC Horizon Report on higher education suggests when these technologies could become mainstream, meaning 20 percent of colleges and universities adopt it within the specified time frame.

Keep reading to find out what technologies appear on the short list and how they could affect universities. 

Time to adoption: One year or less

Last year's report listed electronic books and mobiles as technologies that could be adopted within one year or less. But this year, mobile apps and tablet computing earned their own mentions.
 
1. Mobile apps

In the Apple marketplace, mobile users downloaded more than 18 billion apps by October 2011. And more than 10 billion downloads came from the Android marketplace by December, according to ABI research.

The  2011 Campus Computing Survey of 496 senior IT officials found that more universities and colleges are moving to mobile. From fall 2010 to 2011, the percentage of public universities that deployed mobile apps jumped nearly 23 percent, totaling 55.3 percent.

As students increasingly want to learn anytime and anywhere, they look for apps that meet their needs. Through student competitions, university development teams and outside providers, universities are developing their mobile strategy.

Basic university apps offer campus maps, library information, dining hall meal schedules and university news. But more advanced mobile apps allow students to log in and check their grades or course schedule.
 
2. Tablet computing

As the iPad, Galaxy and other tablets continue to gain traction, universities are using them in various ways. At the University of California, Irvine, researchers in cadaver laboratories manipulate body structure images and radiographic films, according to the report.

In a pilot, students at the University of Southern Mississippi receive Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices that come with Blackboard Mobile Learn. Universities such as Georgia Tech are recording class lectures with McGraw Hill's Tegrity app.

Read more: http://www.convergemag.com/policy/6-Technologies-to-Watch-in-Higher-Ed.html

10 of the best apps for education
By Jenna Zwang, Assistant Editor, eSchoolNews

As iPhones, iPads, and iPod touches become more integrated in classrooms, educators and students are looking for new ways to apply them to the learning process. Applications on all of these devices can help automate current classroom processes or present new ways to learn that previously had been unexplored.

In this special feature, we’ve assembled a list of education “apps” for Apple devices that we think are noteworthy. Five are free, and the other five range in price from $0.99 to $9.99. What do you think of these apps? And, which apps for Apple devices are you using now that aren’t on our list? Share your thoughts in the comments section of this story.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/07/10-of-the-best-apps-for-education/

Diving Into the Cloud
T.H.E.Journal

Is it any wonder that the forecast is calling for cloud? It’s a perfect storm out there, with powerful forces remaking the IT landscape in education. On one side, devastating budget cuts are pushing IT departments to identify ever-greater cost savings. On the other, the explosion in mobile devices is pressuring IT to provide anytime-anywhere computing with no downtime. And finally there’s data--a flood of never-ending data--that need to be stored and analyzed.

Implemented correctly, the cloud can help school districts tackle all of these issues. It promises to allow IT departments to support their institutions faster and more cheaply. But the term itself has become so abused that most people have no idea what "the cloud" means anymore. Right now, it’s more like a thick fog.

In this two-part series, T.H.E. Journal hopes to lift that fog and help IT administrators--and their constituents--understand the cloud, and what it can do to help districts ride out the storms buffeting their schools.

Learn more: http://thejournal.com/articles/2012/01/03/cloud-story.aspx