Process Over Product

Presentation for today's session at NY/NJ Google Apps Summit.  Also provided is an overview for the session.

The use of mobile devices in classrooms increases opportunities for teachers and students to reflect upon their own learning. Through leveraging cameras embedded into iPads, iPod touches and smart phones, footage of classroom experiences can be archived for further analysis and discussion.

Come see how the Morris School District is using film and its use of Google Apps to focus a conversation on reflection and personal growth

Worth Reading

Sharing items from my Diigo account that I bookmarked over the past couple of weeks.

1. Everyone Chip In, Please: Crowdfunding Sandy (Goldmark)- Hurricane Sandy has shown crowdfunding websites are a simple tool for quick-response giving. Anyone can go on these sites and ask for money to rebuild or to help their neighbors rebuild. Friends, family and strangers chip in.

"You can literally sign up, share your campaign on Facebook, Twitter, email, and begin accepting credit or debit card donations online in under a minute,"

2. The Informal Instruction Core and Teaching The Village (Reich)- retake on Elmore's Instructional Core theory to focus more on learning that transpires in informal spaces.

Out in the world of informal learning—where most of us live during most of the day for most of our lives—things are slightly different. Let me propose an "Informal Learning Core." Like Elmore's core, it has three pillars: the learner, the mentor, and the materials. One difference between informal and formal education is that there is a much greater emphasis on "learning" rather than instruction in informal spaces, hence the name switch. Also, hierarchies of learning can be much weaker in informal systems, and the roles of mentors and learners are much more fluid than the roles of teacher and student. But in many cases, we're still dealing with someone who wants to learn, something they are learning with, and someone who wants to help them.

3. The Top Phrase Top Innovators Use ( Berger)-  jump starting the process to innovation, facilitating discovery through asking certain questions.

It's not complicated: The "how might we" approach to innovation ensures that would-be innovators are asking the right questions and using the best wording. Proponents of this increasingly popular practice say it's surprisingly effective — and that it can be seen as a testament to the power of language in helping to spark creative thinking and freewheeling collaboration.

4.  Scaffolding For Deeper Understanding (Skillen)- moving students from novice to experts by privileging process and reflection

• Experts realize that the ‘social context’ is important to learning
  • That learning takes place in a social context is a significant issue. This is why collaboration or ‘cooperative learning’ has become so popular – but it has to be more than social collaboration. Cognitive collaboration needs to be encouraged. As students communicate their ideas, they learn to clarify, refine, and consolidate their thinking. Schoenfeld has said that, ‘Groups are not just a convenient way to accumulate the individual knowledge of their members. They give rise synergistically to insights and solutions that would not come about without them.’

5. Art project erases new-school jitters for these Morristown freshmen- coverage of LeWitt project.  Great points about what was gained from the experience.


6. Why I Hate School, But Love Education: