Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Five ways to build a community of learners online

Relationships are the foundation of learning. When students feel connected to their teacher and their peers, they’re more likely to thrive. How can teachers forge these connections within a remote learning environment?

For education consultant Lainie Rowell, that’s the central question facing educators as they’ve moved instruction entirely online amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Cultivating a community of learners is critical,” says Rowell, an author and international speaker who facilitates professional learning for the Orange County, Calif., Department of Education’s Institute for Leadership Development.…Read More

Tips & resources to prevent cyberbullying

Each act of cyberbullying hurts students, disrupts classrooms, and affects your school’s culture and community. So how should you handle it? What should you do or say? And what can you do today that will help your students recognize, respond to, and avoid online bullying?

No matter how proactive you are, the reality is that students may still very well witness or experience cyberbullying. Acknowledging this and understanding how to deal with the aftermath is just as important as knowing how you can prevent it.

Changing the culture of how we both prevent and respond to cyberbullying can lead to powerful effects in the larger community. Rather than simply focusing on the consequences after the fact, we must guide students to understand that they have a choice in all their online relationships. They can say something positive or say something mean. They can create great community support around activities or interests, or they can misuse the public nature of online communities to tear others down.…Read More

Tech talk podcast: Evolving relationships and privacy

Technology can make it easier for people to connect with others, but it can also take a toll on relationships; and are you entitled to the same level of privacy for a paper letter as an e-mail? The New York Times presents a podcast by professor Sherry Turkle of M.I.T., who discusses her new book “Alone Together: Why We Expect More From Technology and Less From Each Other,” and Claire Cain Miller of the Times, who chats about the current state of communications privacy laws…

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Pew study: The web is redefining our relationships, reputations

Most people agree that the internet has and will continue to be positive for social relations. But according to a survey by the Pew Research Center, it’s also presented many more challenges, and perhaps opportunities, for how reputations are made, tarnished, and remade, reports the Washington Post. In its annual future of social relations survey, the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked 895 experts how eMail, social networking sites, and video conferencing, among other applications, are redefining the way we think of relationships. “As information shrinks our world, it will become easier for one’s misdeeds to return to them or for outbursts of regrettable behavior to be reported and shared,” said Stuart Schechter, a researcher for Microsoft and former staff member of MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. “For better or worse, technology makes the citizenry its own Big Brother. Some will welcome this as transparency; others will feel oppressed.” Privacy and security experts say users need to be as concerned about how their reputations online are being translated to peers and employers…

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