Why we should include infographics in our teaching

Many of our students have told me that prefer lesson that involve some visuals to aid their learning. They like images too stimulate their imaginations, explain data and to help them see connections. The infographic below offers 10 different reasons why we should use visual material when we are in our classrooms as well as what might work best for various types of  information.

Find more education infographics on e-Learning Infographics

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Learning and games

I like the way this infographic explains the difference between game-based learning and gamification. We use both to create inreresting learning experiences in our school.

An Ethical Island

Here’s a brief- very brief- overview of different types of game-learning.

This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Scaffold Like an Ant- A simple scaffolding example

A simple but effective way to encourage deeper understanding

An Ethical Island

I am teaching a class where I allow the students a set amount of time to draw out what they know about a subject. Today, the students did their pre-class work, then came to class, and we began to draw things out. At first they look at me a little funny when I ask them to draw. Then, they dig in and explain what they think the subject is all about. Usually it takes about 25% of class time to get them through this phase. Today, they wanted to remain in this drawing/ scaffolding phase. They were going deeper than any class has ever gone in their reasoning and understanding of a difficult subject. It was pretty cool.

Here is what I do in my classes… (the ant is an analogy, I don’t get to teach about ants).

What would you add?

~Mia

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More on Student Groups – Infographic 2

A second great infographic by Mia MacMeekin It offers an addititional infographic that compliments the first, with similar ideas but also a few different ideas.

1. Bond
2. Supplies
3. Intervene (If they are struggling)
4. Praise
5. Research steps (clear and simple)
6. Freedom (the one I particularly like)

The freedom to:

• explore
• fail
• have fun
• be creative
• do it their way

An Ethical Island

This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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6 ideas for Forming Effective Student Teams and Groups

I have been working teachers and their year 7 students. They have been working in literature circle groups and others on some research activities.
It is interesting watching the dynamics and how different groups and classes perform their tasks. It is easy to put students into groups but creating effective student groups takes a bit more work.

I liked the following infographic by Mia MacMeekin as it offers a few ideas to help assist teachers to make groups more productive but still student lead. It is logical and not really new but it helps to remind us that these form a range of the approaches, particularly useful as “one-size never fits all.”

There are 6 Tips For Creating Effective Student Groups

1. Create a ZPD Zone. This refers to Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal development. He frames student ability in terms of developmental range. This is different for each student and understanding the different ranges for the students can assist in making decisions about the groups.
2. Cognitive Dissonance is Good. Encourage the student to stretch themselves beyond what is comfortable
3. Numbers Count. (4-6 being optimum)
4. Praise and recognition of good group behaviours)
5. Give Them Something to Do. Use the PBL (Problem-based learning) approach which works well in a group setting allowing for different knowledge and strengths of all in the group.
6. Facilitate the team bonding by assisting in the initial brainstorming activity. The trust that comes with good team bonding allows everyone a voice and participation by all.

An Ethical Island

1 Step in the Process:

This work by Mia MacMeekin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

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Flipping the classroom: where do your sit?

I watched another report this week about how getting good marks is the main goal of education and students are doing anything to achieve the highest marks possible. This aim was not about being a better learner but about the game of beating the system. When marks, not learning or understanding how to learn, become the ultimate concern,the education system is in trouble.

I enjoy reading about what some schools and teachers are doing to get their students engaged their learning. I love seeing students taking responsibility for their own learning and even more, enjoying the process of learning. These students are giving themselves a good basis for being successful throughout their lives.

I have been reading more about flipped classrooms lately. These classes offer a type of learning that seems to fit the bill about allowing students to take responsibility for their learning.

One article entitled About flipped classrooms from the University of Queensland gives a good description of the roles and expectations of teachers and students in flipped classrooms and the important technologies. They also provided the diagram below about “the  Learning opportunities of the flipped classroom (adapted from Gerstein)”.  There are also useful links to more information.

I also found the infographic below, from a post “Is a Flipped Classroom Right for You?” by Jennifer Prescott on the We are Teachers site,  useful. It would help any teacher work out where they are in relation to “flipped classrooms”. It clearly sets out some of the basic ideas then leaves any reader with enough knowledge to investigate further.

Another great resource about this topic is a post on the coolcatteacher blog, “Preparing your students for flipped learning”, where Jon Bergmann talks with Vicki Davis about this with many examples given.

He explains the difference between flipped classrooms and flipped learning, which is more in-depth pedagogical method. Jon explains how to flip learning in areas without connectivity, how this system improves learning, and raises grades.

Flipped classrooms

Useful Links

• A Principal’s Reflections: BYOD Begins With Trust and Respect. An interesting analysis about one school’s experiences of BYOD. “Our BYOD initiative at New Milford High School has succeeded and grown up to this point based on the basic premise of trust and respect. Yes, we have policies in place, the right infrastructure, and support our teachers with professional development and guidance. However, the most important elements stem from the fact that we trust our students to use their devices as tools for learning, enhanced productivity, and to conduct better research. Time is spent working with them on digital citizenship and the creation of positive digital footprints that they can be proud of. We also respect them as learners growing up in the digital age where these tools are playing a greater role in the world we are preparing them to succeed in. When creating a BYOD initiative grounded in these principles the possibilities are endless.” 

• Getting Going with Mobile Devices: Workflow, Organization, and Fundamentals | Connected Learning How do/should you develop the long-term capacity to manage student work and a daily workflow process in a mobile classroom?

• What is Connected Learning | Connected Learning Post with infographic and video that tries to explain what connected learning is and why it offers an important pathway in education

• Discovering Pathways Through Connected Learning | Connected Learning Interesting discussion about learning as a whole. Debates why we should acknowledge learning that occurs outside the classroom/school as well as within and how that might be acknowledged ( and more specifically at having badges to recognise achievements)

• Teaching Skills: What 21st Century Educators Need To Learn To Survive Listing the traits that make an/the ideal 21st teacher. Post tries to answer What does an educational professional need to be or do to tune in and synchronize with the new realities silently emerging inside schools and educational environments?

• The 33 Digital Skills Every 21st Century Teacher Should Have | Fluency21 – Committed Sardine Blog “Med Kharbach compiles an extensive list of 21st century teaching activities and presents resources to assist others in adopting these activities into instruction. This post comes from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning at http://www.educatorstechnology.com, where they offer a host of web resources and educational tools that are definitely worth checking out.”

• Big History Project The Big history project tells the story of the universe. It starts at the very beginning and reaches to the complex societies of today. It illustrates the connections between what are often seen as diverse subjects and weaves together insights and evidence from many disciplines into one single, understandable story. Insights come from astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology, history, economics, and more.

• Atlas of Living Australia “The Atlas of Living Australia (Atlas) contains information on all the known species in Australia aggregated from a wide range of data providers: museums, herbaria, community groups, government departments, individuals and universities. You can also get facts and figures about the information contained in the Atlas from the Atlas dashboard.”

• Tech Learning : Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Classroom Applying Bloom’s Taxonomy in the Classroom – Infographic with ideas and assessment.

• How To Build Powerful Tech-Infused Lesson Plans – Edudemic – Edudemic The piece offers advice on how to go about creating “21st century lesson plans” that leverage the technologies available to support a lesson without being the lesson.

• Free Technology for Teachers: A Short Guide to Creating and Grading Quizzes Through Google Forms This is another great guide to using Google Docs by Richard Byrne. Here he offers screenshots of those processes he has discussed in some of the workshops and webinars he has run on how to create self-grading quizzes through Google Forms and Spreadsheets. He has put them into one PDF that you can use to guide you through the processes. . You can view the PDF below. (If you are viewing this on an iPad, you might not be able to see the guide.

• The Teacher Report: 7 Tech Tools for Collaboration A short list of tools that offers tools that enable teachers to connect in our own time and in a variety of interesting ways with educators around the world. These tools offer the platforms for learning from one another and sharing best practices.