Edutopia - Digital Generation Project

This week Edutopia.org announced the Digital Generation Project.

I've been following the updates on Edutopia.org for years now and I'm looking forward to the latest installment of next level showcasing that Edutopia has to offer.

The press release says that for the last year, Edutopia has researched the digital lives of 10 students ages 8 to 18. Here's a quote:

"Edutopia uncovers the new behaviors and trends and how digital technology has forever changed the way kids learn, socialize, and play."

Call me a sap for liking the rather corny 2001 opening which uses:

"old to new" sequence
black and white film to colour,
student emotional change of state and more.

Looking forward to the conversation.

Vicki Davis - Connects to the World

I just thought I'd share the one of the latest Edutopia.org video about Vicki Davis and her students in rural south Georgia. I'm not going to say much here. You'll see what I mean when you watch the 5 minute video.

Here's Vicki's Blog: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/
Vicki is: CoolCatTeacher on Twitter.

Finger Painting

Source: The New Yorker Magazine
Artist: Jorge Colombo - Cover for June 1st, 2009

As teachers we are always trying to find new ways to engage our students.

I read an article in this morning's New York Times about New York artist Jorge Colombo. He is this week's cover artist for The New Yorker magazine.

Now, this might not seem newsworthy, but what is different about Mr. Colombo's art work is that he created the cover on his iPhone with the Brushes application. He calls them isketches, what else?

So, here's to all the teachers like @digitalnative who have class sets of iPod Touch devices. Can you imagine conducting an art lesson where the canvas is handheld and digital? Perhaps some of you reading this are not imagining it -- it is already happening.

I can see entire classrooms full of students finger painting their masterpieces. Can you see it? I guess this is the future, or the present.

I remember, vividly, finger painting as a 5 year old in my Kindergarten class at Silver Creek Public School in Toronto. It was messy but great fun! 45 years ago I could not have imagined sitting in a classroom of the future with a tiny device finger painting.

Here's hoping I get the opportunity to see this happening in a classroom nearby soon. Anyone?

Note: I understand Brushes has been around for a while, I just think it is terrific that someone using the app gets a cover for a magazine.

Doug Martin - Mentoring Artists

"Because I wasn't talented in math and reading skills, I figured I wasn't smart." - Doug Martin

I just read a short article about Mr. Doug Martin in the April/May 2009 edition of Edutopia Magazine.

The article, written by Owen Edwards, begins by explaining how Mr. Martin didn't feel smart enough in the traditional subjects. He explains how he envied the students in the gifted class as school seemed easy for them. He feared standardized tests. He said they made him feel inferior.

Mr. Martin is a visual arts teacher in West Virginia. He now makes it possible for students to showcase their visual arts in digital portfolios, and he assists his students to obtain scholarships in the arts.

Here's a longer article on how Mr. Martin assists his students in developing their own digital portfolios. Here's a great quote from that article.

"I always wanted to teach students that were like me, the students that teachers overlooked because they weren't the type who excelled in traditional classrooms and who maybe thought they couldn't survive the rigors of a college education."

Thank you Doug Martin!

Ubiquitous Laptops

The state of Maine made history this week.

In a press release on the evening of May 11th, the Deparment of Education announced that it would be expanding its laptop program to include all high school students. If you remember, the state of Maine was one of the first states to have middle schoolers use laptops in a 1:1 initiative. Now, all students in grades 7 to 12 in the state of Maine's public school system will have a laptop.

I like the quotes on the press release by Governor Baldacci and Commissioner Gendron.

Governor Baldacci:

“Every night when students in seventh through 12th-grade bring those computers home, they’ll connect the whole family to new opportunities and new resources.”

And here is my favourite because it is about how research has shown improvement in writing.

Commissioner Gendron:

“Laptops have been shown to engage our students, and initial research shows they improve student achievement, particularly in writing”.

Student engagement and writing, two of my favourite topics. Congratulations Mainers, we'll all be following along.

Future Shock - Future Schools

One of my PLN Twitter folks tweeted this morning about a web post featuring Alvin Toffler on Edutopia.org.

How many of us either knew about the writings of Mr. Toffler back in the '70s and '80s? or perhaps we may have flipped through some of his writings or even read a book or two! Certainly, "Future Shock" was on our bookshelf when I was a teenager.

The Edutopia folks interviewed Mr. Toffler and as always, did an excellent job. As I skimmed the article just now, Mr. Toffler's list of "Schools of Tomorrow" characteristics caught my eye.

Even thought this Edutopia blog post/article is two years old, I thought that by blogging about it here I could do my part for keeping the idea of a 21st century school environment for our children alive.

Here's to promoting schools of tomorrow!

Toffler's School of Tomorrow

These are the fundamentals of education in the twenty-first century:

• Open twenty-four hours a day
• Customized educational experience
• Kids arrive at different times
• Students begin their formalized schooling at different ages
• Curriculum is integrated across disciplines
• Nonteachers work with teachers
• Teachers alternate working in schools and in business world
• Local businesses have offices in the schools
• Increased number of charter schools

Source: Edutopia Magazine: February 2007