Tips by Tony

Here are just a few of the articles I found interesting over the past several weeks:

• Flip Video Spotlight – Storytelling

  Short but sweet – some good tips on using an inexpensive video camera to tell a story. Good resource for digital storytelling projects.

• Study: PowerPoint animations are comprehension killers

  This is something we’ve known for a long time, but it’s always good to reinforce with additional studies. Pass this along to your colleagues that continue to spend 90% of their time making animations/transitions and only 10% on content.

  This isn’t a complete shock, as the authors cite a study that indicated that presentations containing irrelevant pictures or sounds (we’re looking at you, corporate PowerPoint templates) can also decrease student comprehension. The surprise is that animations that are intended to increase focus can be just as distracting.

• Hire Geeks

  What type of teachers should we be hiring? Read one opinion/rant on the subject. There’s some sound advice in this article.

  I want teachers who are curious, experimental, sophisticated, and engaged. ‘Lifelong learner’ sounds like someone taking a woodshop class at the retirement home.

  What we really need is to be recruiting more geeks.

  I’m talking about folks who don’t have to be ‘trained’ in using technology. I’m talking about people who live and breathe social media and don’t understand how you live without it.

  I agree 100%.

  And you should only integrate it into your life in ways that you need and/or want to. The worst thing we can do as a society is to force people into the use of technology — particularly social technologies — via training and tech mandates.

  Again, I agree. Trying to train someone who has no interest in learning or using these tools is a waste of time. We need more people who have an interest.

  Rather, we should model the best practices in the use of technology and give folks the room they need to experiment with the tools so that they can develop personal relationships with them.

  In other words: no two people are going to use Twitter the same way.

  So don’t bother ‘training’ teachers to use it. Rather, present it; model it; and then give the teachers the time and space to experiment on their own.

• “Cohort Two” Kickoff

  Slides from a presentation on 21st Century Skills, Web 2.0, Media Literacy, etc.

• Participatory Learning vs. De-schooling, De-skilling, and De-valuing

  Great Edutopia video with an introduction from Jason Flom:

  In another outstanding video from Edutopia’s Educator page of the Digital Generation Project, Henry Jenkins, participatory media guru and Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program discusses “this new media landscape” and its implications for learning, teaching, and integrating media literacy. He challenges us as educators and participants in media to look beyond “natives vs. immigrants” in envisioning and implementing a participatory curriculum that helps students “pool knowledge” with each other. He advocates for a paradigm shift from the deschooling, deskilling, and devaluing that often happens as soon as students walk into the classroom.

• 
  Today’s “School Reformers” vs Real Change for Education – I

  One man’s view on what’s wrong with current educational reform ideas, and what we should be doing instead.

  I have a 5% plan too. But my plan is to try something different. It is to take 5% of US public schools, spread across every congressional district, and eliminate age-based grades, subject-area divisions, expectations about “highly qualified [subject area]” teachers, absolute rules on days and hours of attendance, artificial divisions such as Special Education, Gifted and Talented, and Advanced Placement, and, of course, all “high-stakes” tests except for the NAEP.

  In place of all that I want 1:1 wireless access. I want school buildings open many hours of the day (if not 24), with public libraries, computers, classrooms, and gymnasia in the evening. I want teachers committed to personal professional development, and teachers with time to gather and learn from each other. I want universally designed instruction and universally designed furniture and universally designed technology. I want continuous use of the community and the world in the classrooms.

Who/What I’m Following on Twitter

Added in the last several weeks: @Orrin_Woodward, @jacquelineAM, @iteachhistory, @PaulReid, @DeborahMersino, @web20classroom, @ShellTerrell, @spillarke, @kerrygallivan, @CircleReader, @library_goddess, @SandraABE, @sociallearn, @MichaelW1968, @cedpaine, @teachergrins

Related posts:

1. Monday Morning Roundup (8/24/2009)
2. Monday Morning Roundup (10/19/2009)
3. Monday Morning Roundup (08/17/2009)
4. Monday Morning Roundup (5/18/2009)
5. Monday Morning Roundup (5/11/2009)
6. Monday Morning Roundup (5/4/2009)
7. Monday Morning Roundup (06/01/2009)
8. Monday Morning Roundup (07/27/2009)
9. Monday Morning Roundup (6/8/2009)
10. Monday Morning Roundup (7/19/2010)