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Will your students excel in the Innovation Age?

Catch up on the most compelling K-12 news stories you may have missed this week

Every Friday, I’ll be bringing you a recap of some of the most interesting and thought-provoking news developments that occurred over the week.

I can’t fit all of our news stories here, though, so feel free to visit eSchoolNews.com and read up on other news you may have missed.

In this week’s news:
The 4 essentials of a successful Genius Hour
What are you passionate about? What do you want to do more than anything in the world? Well I hope you said what you are doing right now. This is not always the case. Some people hate what they are doing. They may hate it because it pays too little, but being a teacher doesn’t make me very wealthy and I love what I’m doing. More importantly, people may hate their job because they would rather be doing something else. This is where I think we can do better in education.…Read More

What makes a great education tweet?

How to write an education tweet that adds value and gets noticed

Since getting its start less than a decade ago, more than a billion users have signed up for Twitter, with an estimated 320 million of them currently active. While Katy Perry (@katyperry) may top the charts with the most followers (80 million and counting), the average number of Twitter followers for those of us who aren’t pop sensations is a more modest 208. Regardless of who the user may be or the number of followers one may have, each tweet is restricted to a simple 140 characters. What you do with them is up to you.

While some tweeters may elect to update the world when they brush their teeth, many choose to use Twitter as an effective communication tool; one that generates conversation, pushes thinking, and at times, brings about change. And every day, millions of education-related tweets are posted to the site.

So what makes a Tweet valuable and worth reading? Why do some tweets receive a large amount of attention while others are left to themselves with no interaction at all?…Read More

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5 critical 21st century skills that go way beyond the 4 Cs

Teach students to think like entrepreneurs with these skill sets

Since the publication of his highly impactful book, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Friedman has been teaching his readers and listeners to think differently about our world and how we interact with each other. Friedman consistently talks about new skill sets that are required for anyone who wants to not only survive but truly thrive in the hyper-connected world that is life in the 21st century.

Educators have been tackling a new mindset for student learning for nearly two decades. In the early 2000s, when as a nation as we sat at the dawn of the 21st century, The Partnership for 21st Century Learning (formerly The Partnership for 21st Century Skills) introduced the education community to a Framework for 21st Century Learning, which highlighted 18 different skills. Over time leaders from a broad spectrum of business and education communities narrowed the focus to concentrate on a set of skills that came to be known as the 4Cs—communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

The goal was to have the 4Cs integrated with the “3Rs” that had served as the backbone of American curricula for centuries. As the K-12 education community continues the work of embedding the 4Cs into all content areas, the world continues to evolve and we find ourselves once again considering what it is all students must know and be able to do by the time they graduate from high school.…Read More

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Mystery Skype Calls Connect Your Classroom to The World

Mystery Skype calls are a great way to connect with the world

[Ed. note: Katrina Keene will give a related session on Mystery Skype at ISTE 2015 on Monday June 29.]

For centuries, schools have sat in silos. Teachers and students were capable of communicating only with those inside their own buildings. It was at one time not only unattainable, but unthinkable to collaborate and communicate with outside classrooms. The technology for these types of interactions had not yet been introduced to education—and even if they were, cost and practicality were barriers to implementation.

I have been an active user of “video conferencing” since the early 90’s, when this type of technology was usually seen in large businesses or colleges that were fortunate to have the funds to provide the equipment to make use of such a progressive form of communication.…Read More

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Educating parents of the Siri generation

In our digital world, some parents may feel lost at sea. Here’s what they need to know

[Ed. note: Carl Hooker will deliver a related session on digital parenting at this year’s ISTE conference on Monday June 29. Previous ISTE coverage has focused on iPads and coding and keynoter Josh Stumpenhorst.]

What ever happened to the good old days? When I was a kid I used to listen to music my parents didn’t like and stay out riding my bike until the street lights came on. Today, our kids have scheduled playdates and a steady stream of organized activities, and spend the rest of their time connecting to others online. We no longer live in an analog world, yet why do we think our parenting should look the same as it did back then?

As an administrator in a one-to-one mobile device district, I’ve seen firsthand how access to devices can disrupt learning for both good and bad. But we forget that this disruption also occurs at home when the students take their device home. Our teachers hopefully have hours and hours of support and training for integrating these tools in the classroom, but what help are parents getting?…Read More

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8 ways to improve your digital teaching

When good digital teaching means good digital learning

Ed. note: Innovation In Action is a new monthly column from the International Society of Technology in Education focused on exemplary practices in education.

We all remember that one dedicated teacher from our early years. While they might not have had access to the same technology we do, they brought the world to us with images, stories, and play-pretend. They likely would’ve been one of the first to Skype with amazing people across the globe, competitively Kahoot, or have us build word clouds to help us learn vocabulary. They were full of life and encouraged us to find our personality.

In short, they were great teachers. Good teaching is the result of the conscious engagement between the teacher and the students, in an environment fostering inquiry, discovery, and creation. Good teaching is what makes digital age environments meaningful to students. Good pedagogy is the key to learning, regardless of the tool.…Read More

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Where in the world do the most young people use technology?

Yesterday, we talked a bit about digital natives and digital immigrants, Edudemic reports. I mentioned at the beginning of that post that I got into thinking about this after reading an article that discussed which countries have the most digital natives. The article was pretty interesting, and drew on information from the recent UN International Telecommunications Union (UTI) study that looked at the proportion of young people in each country that grew up with the internet. At first, I figured that the results of this study would be pretty obvious. First world countries with large populations and higher birth rates would be at the top of the list. After all, lots of kids + money for technology = more kids using technology, right? I was really interested when the results were not quite what I thought. If you’re interested, you can find a pdf of the entire UTI report here, but they have also created an infographic with some of the more interesting data points. Keep reading to learn more…