Sign up for the infomagical challenge, “a series of experiments designed to help you find focus and discover the magic of clear thinking” (Infomagical, 2016).
The challenge consists of one week worth of challenges that start on Feb. 1st.
If you are still not convinced check out the FMRI scans related to information overload.
One of the top ten skills modern teachers should have (Ronan, 2015) is the ability to engage in professional learning communities. One easy way to do this, just in time, is with hashtags. Check out #ZISlearns, #ZISPBL, #ZISExperience , or some of those listed in the Popular Education Hashtags guide from November Learning and jump into communities beyond the walls of the ZIS Upper School .
*If you need a quick guide to getting started with Twitter this is a good one.
Hypertext is nothing new, in fact it’s origins stem back to the early 1940’s (Bolter, 1978) when Borges wrote a short story inspiring the concept. Fast forward to today and is it reasonable that we all know how create and responsibly consume hypertext. If you need a little refresher check out Alice Keeler’s post.
Please do the following:
Along with Moodle, Turnitin is now updated and ready for use. Both the student and teacher interface looks slightly different. Students will need to agree to terms of use upon their first submission. To view submissions, depending on the number of students enrolled in your course, you may have to filter for submissions or similarity.
If you need any specific help adding a Turnitin assignment into Moodle or having students submit their assignments feel free to ask Kevin or Liz for help.
The upgrade is now finished. If you are having issues with Turnitin please see Liz or Kevin. Here is the link to the archive. This will be available for approximately a months time.
As we approach winter break it’s time to take stock in our evolution as a 1-to-1 learning environment. The key here is to focus on learning, not technology. The beginning of the 2014-15 school year marked the start of cycle three where we shifted gears to think beyond the device toward the elements listed on the left.
You’ve considered failure, taken steps to become more mindful (thx Leslie) w/ and w/o technology, and explored the complicated lives of our digitally connected students (thx dboyd). You have looked at IRC student perception data related to organization and communication, thought through why communication fails, earned your GYST badge, and continued to dig into the very BIG driving question…..How will you continue to evolve your teaching to ensure transformational learning experience for yourself and your students?
The PBL mindset as highlighted by Markham (2015) goes a long way towards supporting transformational student-centered learning. In the new year we will continue to explore our evolution of PBL during lunchtime sessions (see the note in FF to sign up) and with Suzie at the beginning of March here on campus.
Rubric based feedback is a proven way to clarify what is expected from students, however when work is produced digitally adding a rubric to a students work itself can be a multistep process. Three powerful tools connect and streamline this feedback loop.
The sandbox (a copy of our current Moodle upgraded to the new version) is ready for testing. Now you will need to spot check your courses by doing what you would normally do… upload a file, link a website etc. None of the changes you make in the sandbox will effect your current courses. If you find any issues please communicate them to Liz ASAP.
As stated earlier this month, Moodle needs to be upgraded due to security concerns. Our timeline for migration to the upgraded version is as follows:
Tech Tuesday 