Illuminating LearnersDistrict Focus 2010 – 2011

Getting students and all staff “plugged into” learning

Learners =

Getting each of us “plugged into” learning

StudentsTeachersPrincipalsOffice staffCentral supportParentsCommunityEach of us!

A Vision of K-12 Learners Today– Creators– Remixers– Collaborators– Contributors– Owners of their learning

Are You Ready?To reinvent, redesign and reshape the learning

experience for your students and each of us?

Or do you want to……

Do you consider yourself a:

Learner?

Student?

Teacher?

“The brain is said to be the most important organ in the human body, but we have only the brain’s word for it” – Kurt Vonnegut

Teach Less, Learn MoreSingapore has been successful in updating and modernizing their

educational system. They had chosen to focus on 21st Century Skills as the backbone to their overhaul.

The deputy director of Curriculum Policy and Pedagogy, Tay Lai Ling, is quoted as saying: "We have come a long way in changing our teaching and learning methods, but our teachers and students still have farther to go. We have a new slogan at the Ministry that will hopefully encourage further change. The new slogan is Teach Less, Learn More."

todaysmeet.com/learnmore

Backchanneling in Grade 1

It can be done, but why would you?

Learners today….

• Have access to a far greater number of information resources than traditional learning environments provided

• Enjoy new opportunities to create, remix, and share digital content thanks to the Internet

Learners today….

belong to a culture where it is unacceptable not to share what you know

and

contribute to a culture where collaboration is an expected learning practice

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." -- Alvin Toffler

Learning Opportunity:

What are the tallest statues in theUnited States?

todaysmeet.com/statue

What resources did you use?

How do you present your learning?• Report or presentation (print or digital)• Images (chart, graph)• Video• Web page

(collaborative tools)

Connecting learners…– In classrooms– At home– On the street– At their friends’ homes– At Starbucks– On multiple devices– Everywhere– All the time

“Things that think want to link”Nicholas Negraponte, MIT Media Labs

Mall Library

SchoolHome

Connecting learners inside schoolsand classrooms– Wireless access– Online references– Online collaboration– Student-owned devices

Connecting learners…

"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible." -- Arthur C. Clarke

Illuminating LearnersDistrict Focus 2010 – 2011

Getting students and all staff “plugged into” learning