Many people see teachers as the problem in education instead of thinking , why are the teachers not prepared?
What don’t they know?
How can we help teachers transform their learning?
What should we do to link teachers, resources, and initiatives that can help? The sheer numbers needed ..
Who Will Teach? Experience Matters
Read the full report: http://www.nctaf.org/WhoWillTeachExperienceMatters.htm
Between 2004 and 2008, 300,000 veteran teachers left the workforce for retirement. Baby Boom teachers who made lifelong commitments to education are retiring, and in many cases are taking their hard-earned wisdom with them.
See the Shifts in the Age of the National Teaching Workforce.
The solution for many is to close their eyes to the teachers in service in classrooms now. The people look to new teachers or to students. What makes SITE such a wonderful conference and place to learn is the ability to leap silos, ages and disciplines to change teaching and learning.
How do we shake the country of its indifference to educators and the need to change schools in a transformational way? How do we empower teachers?
If you look at the various youth stories in the digital generation project, you understand why teachers need professional development and understanding of the digital world of students, to understand how to help the future workforce. The DOE technology plan that is proposed has these as components to make a difference.
Increase the 0pportunity for Learning
We can enable learning and give unprecedented access to high quality learning experiences for all students. We can create new ways of understanding what types of learning experiences work – when, how and with whom? Lucy Gray has it right in this columnl
Connect Teachers with Resources
Teachers need to be highly connected with data, experts, professional teams, and resources in order to provide personalized learning. Online environments can ensure that every student has access to effective teaching.
Connect Teachers with Partners
I have a lot of friends who know that we who are teachers , are one of the keys to the future of education in America as we touch the future. We also have businesses and industries that see the problem and who are looking for the way to help us. Diane Ravitz has sounded the alarm about the future of education Her information is a wake up call to help us see that change is needed now. Marc Prensky gives pointers in his book , Digital Natives. It’s a good read.
Teachers/ Researchers? Compatible? Some are!! Some aren’t!!
Many people involved in research have a problem in working with teachers and professors of education. Our scholarly communities have acculturated us to behave differently and to work independently of each other. Teachers however will remain stuck in the shallow end of teaching and learning without the help of those who are forging new ways of working when doing research and when teaching. We have an emergency in that we need to transform education and schools and we need all hands on deck.
Sometimes there is little patience for those in teaching and learning who ask why involve the teachers in classrooms now? I am lucky enough to have been a member of
Cilt.org, which was an amazing combination of people that broke the silos in education. We were researchers , teachers, professors in the colleges and universities and businesses. We had a focus. We had projects and we accomplished a lot. I have also been working with Scott Latbrop of Blue Waters.. running to catch up.
Reaching for Excellence
The Supercomputing Conference SC in Portland this year was so tempting that about 384 teachers applied, but there were not enough spaces for all of the applicants. The conference then created a teacher day to involve some of those who were not able to participate. So we look for new ways of working and connecting. There are so many teachers who need to know the new ways of working. So some of the experts came to SITE. Dr. Melanie Stegman of the Federation of American Scientist shared her game, Immune Attack with participants as you can see in the picture.
Here is the game, Immune Attack.
Pictures of engaged teachers sharing ideas and learning.
Do you know these projects?
Bugscope, and other projects are still new to many educators. The Bugscope project provides free interactive access to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) so that students anywhere in the world can explore the microscopic world of insects. This educational outreach program from the Beckman Institute’s Imaging Technology Group at the University of Illinois supports K-16 classrooms worldwide.
Bugscope allows teachers everywhere to provide students with the opportunity to become microscopists themselves—the kids propose experiments, explore insect specimens at high-magnification, and discuss what they see with our scientists—all from a regular web browser over a standard broadband internet connection.
http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/
Then there is the Virtual Microscope
http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/.
Chickscope? What is Chickscope?
http://chickscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/
Using computers in the classroom with access to the Internet, students and teachers are able to access data generated from the latest scientific instruments. The goals include an increased understanding of the process of gathering scientific data and the opportunity to interact with scientists from several disciplines and students in other classrooms The access to unique scientific resources and expertise provides motivation for learning science and mathematics and stimulates interest in the scientific world.
Project learning, also known as project-based learning, is a dynamic approach to teaching in which students explore real-world problems and challenges, simultaneously developing cross-curriculum skills while working in small collaborative groups.
Project Based Learning Resources
Here is the industrial strength on the link there are all kinds of resources for your learning.
http://www.edutopia.org/project-learning . You will find lots of resources here.
For teachers who don’t know how to do project based learning there is a professional development initiative within the Edutopia resources.
http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-replication-tips
Bridging the Gap of Knowledge in Education
The challenge is that in the research and education community, cyberinfrastructure is both a continuous work-in-progress and a stable infrastructure driver for invention and innovation.
Do you know these resources?
Super Stars
Workforce Readiness
At higher levels there is workforce readiness.
*NSF ITEST Program
Dr. Joyce Mayln Smith( ITEST and Workforce Readiness) Joyce has workforce readiness as a project. Why reinvent the wheel when we can find resources here!
The ITEST resources are a valuable addition to our knowledge.
What about Marh?
Data to Discovery – San Diego Supercomputing Center
*Dr. Diane Baxter ,San Diego Supercomputing Center) with her excellent project has actually come to share the resources and works with outreach at SDSComputer Center. She has been quite generous in sharing with K-12, and even working with Native American projects such as the Internet to the Hogan to share the knowledge of the possibilities.
http://education.sdsc.edu/discoverdata/
Diane Baxter has wonderful things to share from this center.The Discover Data Portal a series of lessons , an experience of exploration and discovery. The mission of this portal is to provide a way for K-12 teachers and undergraduate professors to incorporate scientific data into their curricula. The process is to select data from existing online freely available scientific data archives, some of which may be a challenge for students to use without assistance, and build a series of lessons around them designed to guide K-12 and undergraduate students through beginning, intermediate, and advanced scientific tools.
*Dr. Alexander RePenning has a really, really serious and wonderful way to have us include games in education. Agent Sheets and scalable Game Design.
http://www.agentsheets.com/products/scalablegamedesign/index.html
* Dr. Danny Edelson National Geographic has numerous projects and programs to share. The recent work of the National Geographic on Water is one example but I also like the My Wonderful World Initiative.http://www.mywonderfulworld.org/. When I met Danny recently ,he was excited as I am about the possibilities of change in education. Teachers should take a look at the geographic alliances. That’s a group of people who come together in states who teach, share and learn geography together. There is also an international group. Resources here.
/
The JASON Project connects students with great explorers and great events to inspire and motivate them to learn science.Here is what it offers cutting-edge research from NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Department of Energy, the National Geographic Society and other leading organizations.
It allow leading scientists to work side by side with JASON students.
Curriculum?
The Jason project challenges students to apply their knowledge to the real-world scenarios scientists face every day.
This is just the beginning of wonderful resources that you can use in helping teachers to become technofluent.
Kicking it up a notch. Dr. Henry Neeman,
What in the world is Supercomputing?),What the heck is supercomputing? Who uses supercomputing, how,and why? How does supercomputing work? What does the explosive growth of computing power mean for students, faculty and professionals? How can you use your graphics card to turn your laptop into a supercomputer? Henry can teach using any method.
Dr. Neeman can teach in lots of e-learning styles. Henry Neeman has many ways to teach a lesson. So you will know that he is a fun guy. He has patience. He also knows that some people don’t have broadband. He has many ways to teach. take a look at his home page. http://hneeman.oscer.ou.edu/ The thing about Henry is that he can translate what he does into words that make you understand!! He uses whatever kind of media he can to share the message. He is a researcher, but he speaks to teachers in their language. He is awesome.
Bonnie Bracey Sutton
Emaginos.com
