It Takes a Village: School / Family Partnerships

I just posted the writing below on the Curriki blog, but given the topic, I suspect it will resonate with LIP readers as well. To see the original post, click here.

image by Enrique Burgos Garcia

I am in the middle of conducting comparative research in the UAE about teacher use of and attitudes toward technology in the classroom – looking at teachers across a variety of curriculum systems (British, UAE, Indian, etc.).

Recently, while conducting focus groups with both teachers and principals, I learned that one of the things schools across all systems struggle with is parent engagement. How do you get parents to understand the importance of participating in their children’s education, especially in cases where parents don’t have many formal schooling experiences to draw from? Second, when many parents are offline, but on SMS, how can SMS be used in creative ways help parents learn about and engage with the schools’ curriculum at home in the case where parents simply won’t come to school?

While there are no magic answers to the questions above (although feel free to share recommendations and anecdotes in the comments section of this blog), the Open University has put together a very useful free online course for teachers called, “Parents as Partners” aimed at helping teachers 1) understand why parents do and don’t participate in school initiatives/activities, 2) develop a framework for working with all types of parents, and 3) prepare for the challenges and successes that arise when working in partnership with parents.

If you don’t have time to do the whole course, I recommend thinking about the activity Why work with parents? as a way to help you articulate to parents the variety of reason why they should be involved.

For more research on the topic of parental engagement, check out A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement (Southwest Education Development Laboratory 2002). And, for those educators working with parents that are engaged and online, feel free to share Digital Tools for Homework Help with classroom moms and dads. Make sure to check out the curriculum tab to see a wealth of homework help resources including:

• Age Appropriate Educational Sites for Kids
• Internet Search Tips for Finding Homework Help Resources in a Snap
• Open Education Resources of Note – Free Educational Content that Can be Shared, Mixed and Modified.

To partnerships!

Anna

@bon_education

Why the Social Web Can’t Be Ignored

more about “Garys Social Media Count“, posted with vodpod

Recently I came across the above “Living Statistics” flash app on Personalize Media. If you are studying the impact of social media on society in your classroom, this is a wonderful chart to explore and discuss. Make sure to click on the “now,” “+1 day,” “+1 week,” etc. buttons to see how many new blog posts, Facebook members, and tweets have been created around the world in 2010 alone! Thanks to Gary Hayes for sharing such a wonderful app/classroom discussion piece!

For more ideas on how to discuss social media and digital literacy in your classroom or home, take a look at, “MySpace in Democracy” – a wonderful free unit on Curriki by educator Samuel Reed. As the unit description points out:

This 6-8 week unit draws upon social studies, media literacy and inquiry to explore how social networks and media technologies promote and disrupt democratic practices. It is intended for middle grade students (grades 6th-8th).

The unit is organized in 3 major sections: Communication Timeline Inquiry (Week 1-2), First Amendment and Cyber Rights Inquiry / Webquest (Week 3-4) and Free Cyber Speech and Internet Safety Public Service Productions (Week 5-8)

One more blog post to add to the chart above!

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

@bon_education

A Great Tool for Embedding Videos into Your Blog!

more about “The World is Open“, posted with vodpod

Last night I posted a quick blog on Curriki about the interview above with Curt Bonk, author of  The World is Open: How Technology is Revolutionizing Education. Finding it difficult to embed the original video into WordPress, I called upon my friend Kim for suggestions. Kim in turn recommended that I convert the original film into a WordPress blog embed using VodPod-a service that allows you to collect videos from around the Net and then add them to your blog.

If you’ve ever had troubles with video embed formats, make sure to bookmark VodPod. Take a look at the VodPod Videos Widget too!

Anna

@bon_education

Why Digital Literacy is Imperative!

Thanks to Thomas Boito for bringing the above video to my attention via a comment on my last post, “A Vision of Students Today“.

The stats in the video above will blow you and your students away and are a great starting point for a conversation about the importance of digital literacy–the ability to ask questions, research and locate information online, validate and interpret that information, and contribute meaningfully and responsibly to online conversations and content.

Thinking about Did You Know 4.0!

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

@bon_education

A Vision of Students Today…

While browsing through this unit on 21st Century Skills, I came across the video above. A bit dated (the video was added to YouTube in 2007), the stats may be a slightly off, but messages are still applicable today.

Thanks to Michael Wesch and the students in his Introduction to Cultural Anthropology class for reminding the education establishment that we must continuously adapt to education the needs, habits and outlook of each generation.

To keeping up with the times and learning along the way!

Anna

@bon_education

Information is everywhere; the challenge is to make effective use of it.

I just posted a blog entry on Curriki that I suspect many Literacy is Priceless readers will enjoy as well. To see the original post, visit the Curriki blog.

The movement towards open content reflects a growing shift in the way academics in many parts of the world are conceptualizing education to a view that is more about the process of learning than the information conveyed in their courses. Information is everywhere; the challenge is to make effective use of it. -2010 Horizon Report

Open education enthusiasts will be delighted to read the 2010 Horizon Report—an annual document put out by the New Media Consortium and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative highlighting six emerging technologies/practices likely to enter mainstream education in the coming five years.

This year’s list includes:

• Mobile computing (next 12 months) – Learning via devices such as smart phones and netbooks
• Open content (next 12 months) – Think Curriki (i.e. free education resources that people can mix, modify, customize and share)
• Electronic books (next 2-3 years) – Electronic reading devices à la the Kindle and the Sony Reader
• Simple augmented reality (next 2-3 years) – Real world images with virtual computer-generated imagery/data overlays (Watch this video to see examples of simple augmented reality.)
• Gesture-based computing (next 4-5 years) – Devices controlled by your body movements (See video example here)
• Visual data analysis (next 2-5 years) – A combo of stats, data mining and visualizations to better understand large data sets (For examples of this, take a look at visual complexity.)

The Horizon Report points out that behind these emerging technologies/practices are four trends:

• The abundance of information available online today is challenging traditional notions of what it means to be educators from keepers of information to coaches and sense-makers.
• People expect to work and study anywhere and anytime.
• Technologies are increasingly cloud-based. (For more on cloud-computing, click here.)
• The work of students is increasingly collaborative and multidisciplinary.

If you have the time, this year’s Horizon Report is a fascinating and practical read filled with examples and further readings on each of the technologies/practices above. Make sure to check out the section on Open Content where you will discover more great OERs such as SmartHistory and FolkSemantic.

Until next week…

Anna Batchelder

Founder, Bon Education

@bon_education

P.S. Curious what emerging technologies were highlighted last year? Check out our 2009 summary of the Horizon Report.

Education is Priceless

The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance.

- Benjamin Franklin

Gotta love Ben F! Lucky for us, education doesn’t have to come at such a steep price thanks to the growing open education movement…

Last week while reading Open Education News, I learned about the January 6, 2010 launch of NalandaU (Chennai, India)—a free online university that aggregates video and course content from universities such as MIT, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley and the Indian Institute of Technology. As Nalanda’s blog points out:

Apart from watching the videos, the students can take notes in the page and access them later – organized by courses. They can also connect with their friends in Facebook who are also in the same virtual class, and share information. The course pages also have related courses that the student can take next and improve the knowledge further. Selected courses also have online quiz that the students can take to get their grades, and can manage their transcripts from a central location. It has a simple search tool with search suggestions and course results organized by broad topics.

The site has been designed to reduce distraction and information-intimidation as much as possible. The information available at each page is organized well, unintimidating and more homogeneous, and when playing the videos you can go full screen or hide everything other than the lecture by using “Dim the lights” option.

NalandaU is a wonderful site of reference and study for educators, parents and high school/university students wishing to brush up on subject matter knowledge, explore new areas of interest and connect with subject-specific enthusiasts around the world. Course topics range from the American Novel to the History of Economic Thought to Mobile Application Development (see more courses here).

I wonder what good ol’ Ben would have thought of NalandaU? Off to explore some Nalanda U courses on entrepreneurship…

Anna

@bon_education

PS Curious about the original Nalanda University? Learn a bit of history here. Moving to the other side of the globe… For more tips and quotes from Benjamin Franklin, click here.

Empowering Students with a “Can do!” Learning Attitude!

Recently while reading a back issue of the New Yorker, I came across a piece titled, “FOOD FIGHTER: Does Whole Foods’ C.E.O. know what is best for you?” While learning about the eccentric and seemingly contradictory nature and political views of the CEO of my favorite grocery chain, one paragraph forced me to pause and fold down the corner of page 40:

In high school, Mackey was an indifferent student, a late bloomer, puberty-wise, and a fanatic about basketball, science fiction, and girls. Before his senior year, he was cut from the varsity basketball team, and he persuaded his parents to move so that he could switch schools and play. “That changed my life, because for the first time I realized that if you didn’t like the hand you were dealt you didn’t just have to feel sorry for yourself. You could do something about it.”

You could do something about it! You could do something about it!! YOU COULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!!  Or, as my father used to tell me in college, “Anna—think multiple paths. If you can’t achieve your goal one way, be prepared to try a dozen others”.

Beyond teaching skills and content, perhaps the best gifts we can give students (both children and adults) are hope, faith in their own abilities and a “can do” attitude.

Digital technologies offer so much promise when it comes to helping students pursue their passions and the multiple paths to their goals… Aspiring writers no longer have to “wait” for an agent to get noticed, but can use sites like Storybird, Scribd and LuLu to spread their words. Future diplomats can connect with children around the world using sites like Panwapa and ePals. Language lovers can learn second and third languages with LiveMocha and italki. So many apps and endless learning possibilities!

How are you using digital technologies to empower your students to pursue their learning passions?

To doing!

Anna

@bon_education

Free Literacy Resources Online

Thanks to Tech & Learning for giving Literacy is Priceless a shout out over the holidays! LIP has received a significant traffic as a result!

If you are short on time (who isn’t?!) and into reading edtech research summaries, take a look at Tech & Learning’s Best Practices for the Classroom page where you will find short summaries such as:

• U.K. survey reveals students’ views on writing
• Parents say schools should teach more technology skills

To technology, literacy and learning!

Anna

@bon_education

2010: The Year of the Cell Phone Novel

“Keara, Ethan, wake up! Quick!” the urgent sound of their grandfather’s voice cause both Keara and Ethan to sit bolt upright.

“Why Grandpa Jim? Why did you wake us up? Is it morning?” Keara always full of questions peppered her grandfather with this series of questions.

Grandpa Jim was moving quickly around the room gathering clothes and shoes for each of them so they could dress quickly. Since Grandpa Jim usually moved at a slower pace, both children knew something important was happening.

“A fisherman from the village was just here, he found a whale tangled in a fishing net. If we cannot help the whale, it could die.” (Excerpt from “Set Me Free,” Said the Whale, a cell phone novel by: KJL)

If the Classics don’t seem to get your students excited about reading and writing, why not try a cell phone novel?

Recently while reading, “I ♥ Novels:Young women develop a genre for the cellular age”—a New Yorker article that discusses the rising popularity of the cell phone novel genre throughout Japan—I thought it would be fun to look for kid/teen-friendly English language cell phone novels…

My search quickly brought me to the kids section of the website textnovel—“a social network for authors and readers of serial fiction and the first English language cell phone novel website, allowing members to write and read fiction with their cell phones or computers, using text messaging, email and online tools”. What I like about the site is that it not only welcomes users to contribute stories, but that it encourages them to rate stories, become fans and leave comments—digital literacy skills that are increasingly important for students (and teachers) to cultivate in a hypermedia and social media age.

With a new year (and new decade) around the corner, how about teaching a cell phone novel in January?

If you’re looking for ideas on how to incorporate this new genre into your unit of studies, take a look at the m4Lit Project—a cell phone novel project and research study based out of South Africa that aims to support student leisure reading and writing in both English and isiXhosa and to understand whether cell phones can be used as effective tools for developing literacy and a love of reading amongst teens. While browsing through the project site, make sure to visit the cell phone story Kontax—“about the adventures of 4 cool teenagers”.

Happy texting!

Anna (@bon_education)

P.S. For more ideas on how to incorporate cell phones into your classroom, take a look at the post Using cell phones as teaching and learning tools.

10 Twitter Tools for Your Classroom

One of the things I love about using Twitter as an education tool is the ability to connect with passionate educators around the world, quickly identify trending topics in global education and measure what types of information resonate with the Bon Education and Curriki communities.

I’ve always thought of Twitter as a great tool for the Language Arts classroom because the application naturally encourages users to develop reading and summarization skills—i.e. there is only so much you can say with 140 characters! (See more classroom Twitter ideas in my past post “Using Twitter in and Out of the Classroom.”)

Beyond ELA, recently I’ve begun to see Twitter as a fantastic tool for teaching math, geography, anthropology, marketing, etc. Using Twitter applications such as Hootsuite and Klout, student tweeters can do countless calculations to study and analyze how memes (tweets) spread, where they spread, who are the major influencers/connectors on Twitter, when are the best times to tweet, how changing one word in a tweet can totally change its stickiness and more!

As you think about developing lessons for the New Year, why not try using Twitter as a tool for instruction? While brainstorming ideas, make sure to check out “10 Twitter Tools to Help you Track and Perform Better“–great tools for encouraging students to apply a bit of math and science to their tweets.

Happy Twitter Holidays!

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

Twitter: @bon_education

Digital Tools for Homework Help

Research shows again and again that parents have a have a huge impact on student achievement in school and throughout life (Becta 2009, Henderson and Mapp 2002, Simpson 2001). In their recent report, “A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement,” the Southwest Education Development Laboratory (2002) points out that regardless of demographics, children with involved parents are more likely to (1) pass their coursework and earn higher grades, (2) attend school regularly, (3) socialize more easily with their peers and (4) graduate and go onto university.

In the spirit of helping parents get involved during homework time, Bon Education created a Digital Tools for Homework Help group on Curriki to support educational resource exchange between educators and parents. The hope is that the resources shared within this group will help parents get excited during homework help time, as well as save time and stress.

Check out the group Curriculum tab to see a wealth of homework help resources including:

• Age Appropriate Educational Sites for Elementary and Secondary School Students.
• Internet Search Tips for Finding Homework Help Resources in a Snap
• Open Education Resources of Note – Free Educational Content that Can be Shared, Mixed and Modified.

I welcome you to join the Digital Tools for Homework Help group and to invite other parents and teachers to join as well. Please feel free to add additional useful resource using the group Curriculum tab. You are also welcome to use the group Messages tab to contact other group members with questions and ideas!

As you think more about parent engagement, take a look at my last blog post that includes a great video about parent engagement by Henry Jenkins, Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program.

Cheers,

Anna

Chief Education Officer

Bon Education

@bon_education

On Parent Participation

This month I am leading a number of digital literacy workshops for parents as part of Mom 2.0. While looking for some videos to include in my presentations, I came by this great talk on parent participation by Henry Jenkins, Director of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies Program.

Prof. Jenkins reminds us that kids grow when:

• Given a sense of responsibility.
• Asked to exceed their own sense of limitations.
• Allowed to pursue their own passions and interest.

Furthermore, he states:

In the same way that parents have gone and watched badly played little league games and the off key band concerts for decades because it was important for their kids, they now need to watch kids play World of Warcraft, understand fan fiction and understand how Wikipedia works because it is important for kids. And, their accomplishments in that space is important to them and will be foundational for their sense of themselves and their sense of the future.

As educators it is important that we take time to reach out to parents and help them understand ways in which to become meaningfully involved in their children’s digital lives. Take a moment to listen to Prof. Jenkin’s 5 minute talk and to share it, along with the other Edutopia videos, with a parent near you! For additional resources to help parents get involved in helping their children learn at home, visit Next Generation Learning.

As research points out again and again, a little parent involvement can go a long way!

Anna

Founder, Bon Education

Twitter: @bon_education

Putting Lessons Within Teachers’ Reach

This was an exciting week for my company Bon Education and our partner Curriki in the Middle East, as interest continues to grow in our efforts to create an Arabic version of Curriki–i.e. an open source platform that would house open source Arabic language curricula and learning objects created by teachers and education stakeholders in the region.

Today, a story was printed in the National (UAE) about our efforts titled, “Arabic move to put lesson plans within UAE teachers’ reach“. The following is a brief excerpt from the article written by Kathryn Lewis:

“One of the things we know that improves teachers is for them to build their own knowledge, to get engaged in what they’re teaching,” Dr Kurshan said.

Curriki, she said, encouraged teachers to get involved in the design and implementation of lesson plans, rather than simply presenting the content of a lesson without engaging the material.

“If you can engage teachers in building their own knowledge they are going to have a significant impact on students and their students will do better.”

“Teaching is one of the most isolated professions. They spend a lot of time in their classrooms behind a closed door and they don’t have an ability to ask other people if what they are doing is having an impact.”

To the sharing of knowledge and curricula across borders, languages and professions!

Anna

@bon_education

P.S. To learn more about Curriki’s curricula and teaching projects around the globe, watch this video. To tell a friend about the site and to give him/her access to the 32,000 free learning resources Curriki has to offer, click here.

Eliminate the Education Divide: Notes from the Middle East

Eliminate the education divide, CURRIKI

Nightline with James Piecowye

Last week Curriki (one of the organizations my company works with) was awarded the Qatar Foundation WISE Award for innovation in education. As a result, Dr. Barbara Kurshan (Curriki Executive Director) and Peter Levy (Curriki Strategic Development) came to Qatar to accept the award (watch interview here).

After Qatar, Dr. Kurshan and I spent five days in Dubai chatting with ministries of education, universities, CEOs and teachers about our next initiative to create an Arabic language version of Curriki–i.e. a free and open source Arabic language curricula repository and online community. Our five days of meetings were VERY exciting as there is much enthusiasm in the region to support the use of English and Arabic open education content.

To learn more about Curriki, open education and the work Bon Education is doing to support the integration of education technologies into classrooms across the Middle East, I welcome you to listen to the Dubai Eye Nightline interview with host James Piecowye above. Curriki and Bon Education were also featured in a recent Khaleej Times article, “Improve Arabic Content on Net, Urge Experts“. Exciting times indeed!

Thanks for listening and reading!

Anna

CEO, Bon Education

@bon_education