eLearning Blog

My school system is spending a lot of time rethinking how we should educate our students as we move to a one to one solution.  The video above by Ken Robinson looks at the history of our school system and asks why we are still largely teach in an industrial factory type of way when few of our citizens are preparing for such work.  It is worth the ten minutes to look at this if you haven't seen it yet. 

A couple of months ago the admin teacher in instructional services was shown how to organize our projects using many colored sticky notes.  Of course, I started searching for a way to do this virtually. Our crack team beat me to it finding Trello .  It is amazingly intuitive and allows you to add multiple members and each project that everyone is working on.  It allows easily allows you to see where everyone is in their project without having to send multiple emails and what not. Above is a short tutorial showing you how to use it.  By the way, it's free! 

I have done a lot of studying about Finnish schools in the past few years (and am trying to find more on ones in Singapore).  Why you ask - because Finland and Singapore were no one's examples of fine school systems two decades ago.  But they figured it out and on most reviews are seen as #1 and 2 in the world.   Amanda Ripley's book " The Smartest Kids in the World " is an excellent in depth look at Finland.  For a quicker view watch this clip.  The principal has it correct.  If you have time between working,  you can process your learning and retain it better.  Imagine that - less homework equals better understanding and more learning (more found in " How We Learn" which looks at how your brain functions as you try to retain information.  But our highest level teachers in the US seem to think the more we pound the kids the more they will learn.   Michael Moore's new movie is definitely one I will be seeing when it comes out.   ...