As my company’s website states:

Fall 2010: Bon Education launches dot.Learnt–a group blog written by team member and guests of Bon Education. dot.Learnt takes on topics at the intersection of education, technology and social media. It is a reflection of the work and thinking Bon does in the Middle East, North America and Asia. To visit dot.Learnt click here. Recent posts include:

• Coke is It! Why All Educators should be Mass Marketeers
• 9 Pearls of Techno-Wisdom
• What Makes an Online Community Work?
• Amateur Love
• Listening to the Web

Thanks to the thousands of educators and literacy-lovers that have read and left comments on this blog. You have challenged my thinking and opened my eyes to so many wonderful resources and stories. I hope that you will find the content, research and reviews we share on dot.Learnt useful. Please feel free to stop by, leave a comment and add us to your RSS reader.

Sincerely,

Anna

Founder, Bon Education, @bon_education, personal sketchbook on education annabatchelder.com/ideas.

Putting the first two bold words aside, let’s focus on the so what?! of OER. As Max Fawcett (Managing Editor at Alberta Venture) points out in the Open Education Open Debate:

Education, after all, isn’t an acquisitive process, an exercise in procuring and storing information. Instead, learning is a social process, one in which people get from point A – ignorance – to point B – enlightenment – through a messy combination of challenge, failure and consolidation. While there might be a few people who can (and should) take advantage of open-source learning models, there are, I suspect, far more who can’t. Information, in the absence of the ability to apply it, isn’t very valuable, as anybody who’s ever tried to fix their own car using only the supplied factory manual understands only too well”.

This reminds me of a comment in Brian Lamb posted in his blog two years ago:

“If we live in an era of information abundance, why is the primary drive around OERs the publication of more content? And what other activities around the open education movement might be an effective use of our energies? What other needs have to be met?”

In the past couple of years we’ve seen online course initiatives like P2PU and the Open High School take steps towards using the open content out there in meaningful ways. But, I would like to hear directly from teachers and students:

With so much free content out there on the Web, what services or apps would you like to see built in conjunction with all that content to help bring more meaning, value, time savings and/or joy to your education?

Anna

@bon_education

As you watch, think about:

• What skills and opportunities do kids need to participate effectively in modern day society?
• To lead happy, healthy and learning-filled lives?
• Now, how can you help?!

Anna

@bon_education

Anna

@bon_education

1) Always keep learning!

Technology changes rapidly! Therefore it is important to stay on top of the latest news, trends and research. Here are a few recommended resources to start with:

• International Society for Technology in Education – articles, advocacy kits and conferences about education technology
• Edutopia – videos and articles about education best-practices
• eSchoolNews – K-20 technology news
• Mashable – Learn about the latest applications and trends in social media
• A mentor – Find someone that knows a lot about education technology. Meet and share ideas and feedback regularly.

2) Share your knowledge.

• Help other teachers in your building learn how to use and teach effectively with technology by hosting workshops, coaching and mentorship sessions.
• Keep a classroom blog. Make sure to tell other teachers and students about it!
• Post your technology-infused lesson plans on open education resource sites like Curriki and OER Commons. Or, on sites like BetterLesson and the Ras al Khaimah Teachers Network.

3) Don’t be afraid to experiment.

See a new technology that could be effective in your classroom?! Try it! Remember, it is okay if the students know how to use the technologies better than you do! As teachers, we learn so much from our students and they from us. By trying new things, practice and an open mind, we can learn and do many great things in the classroom, for and with our students.

4) Start an education technology passion project with your students!

• Use technology and social networks to facilitate an exciting project with your students.
• Need ideas? Check out ePals, ThinkQuest, the Microsoft Imagine Cup and the Flat Classroom Project for inspiration!

5) Stay connected.

• Teach and learn from education technology enthusiasts from around the world. Become an active member education social networks like the ISTE LinkedIn Group, Classroom 2.0, the Global Education Collaborative and the Ras al Khaimah Teachers Network.
• Microblog! Join Twitter and converse with education tweeters like those featured on the TweepML education list.
• Attend local education technology conferences! ISTE and NECC are two big ones

6) Reflect!

• Keep a teaching journal. Document what went well in your lessons and what you would like to improve in the future.
• Solicit feedback from your students! What do they enjoy doing in your class? What are their challenges? How can technology be used to address some of these challenges and to inspire enthusiasm towards learning?
• Create an education technology professional development plan for yourself. Do it! Have fun!

(Image CC by Brian Hathcock)

Why not try a WebQuest?! “A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the Web” (WebQuest.org).

WebQuests have been around for about 15 years, so in Web history they are tried and true! Over the course of last year, several educators across the Middle East asked me about WebQuests. So, I’ve prepared a WebQuest about WebQuests (for Teachers) to share with participants in an upcoming 21st Century Teaching course I am leading this fall. If you are curious about WebQuests or are about to lead a training on WebQuests, I welcome you to share it!

To exploring the Web with many students this fall!

Anna

@bon_education

Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools is a wiki filled with hundreds of links and short descriptions of online tools for video editing and presenting, collaborating, building student creativity and problem-solving skills and more!

Some of my favorite featured tools include Prezi (a fabulous brainstorming and alternative presentation tool to PowerPoint), Animoto (a website that turns your favorite photos and music into a perfectly orchestrated masterpiece/slideshow), Make Beliefs Comix (a free tool that enables students to make their own comic strips), Teachers TV (a website filled with videos of model classrooms and videos about the things we all think about as teachers – integrating ICT, assessment, differentiated instruction, teaching to every student…).

Web 2.0 Cool Tools for Schools is going to keep me busy for a long time. What a wonderful reference!

Thanks Levna for organizing such a useful wiki!

Anna

@bon_education

(Image by supagroova. Available under CC license.)

What should educators do about it? Or rather, how should educators adapt to the current (and future) generations?

See what Phillip Zimbardo, a psychologist and professor at Stanford University, has to say about how each generation/culture’s perspective on time impacts its thinking about the role and purpose of education…

For a nice summary of the video, make sure to stop by David Bill’s blog–Thoughts on the Converging Worlds of Education and Technology.

Anna

P.S. If you are pressed for “time,” start at minute 6 of the video above!

@bon_education

Anna (@bon_education)

To learning in the 21st Century and beyond!

Anna

@bon_education

How do I get someone to learn something that is long and difficult and takes a lot of commitment, but get them to learn it well?

Good question! Take a look at the Prezi below for inspiration – a beautiful narrative in both content and form by Maria Andersen! To make your own Prezi, visit Prezi.com!

Another great weekend of digital exploring!

Anna (@bon_education)