Teaching

Strategic Initiative #3 of the College of Education Strategic Plan at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign calls for establishing the Ubiquitous Learning Institute: New Education Ecologies.The proposed institute ... will take an innovative approach to research on and development of teaching-learning paradigms suited to new learning ecologies, and will explore the implications of these paradigms for formal schooling, for online communities, for evolving definitions...

Tracy offers intriguing comments about the undervalued notes program Journal. Well, I’m still only using Journal. That’s right. This whole Journal thing is working for me. I really thought I’d miss little things about OneNote after using it all semester, especially after using the new OneNote all semester with all the new features. Did I slip and hit my head at some point this...

Liz Beavers reports in the Cumberland Times-News about progress a third-grade student with neurofibromatosis has made with a notebook PC toward fuller academic participation in a regular classroom.

COLLEEN WIXON reports that a Vero Beach Florida teacher could loose his school Internet privileges for a month for posting online political opinions during school hours. "It's pretty obvious he was (posting political comments) during a time when he should be working with students," Vero Beach schools Superintendent Pat Pritchett said. Pritchett recommended the teacher lose his Internet privileges for 30 days.

Kirschner, P. A., Sweller, J., & Clark, R. E. argue in Educational Psychologist, 41(2), 75-86 (2006) that minimal guidance during instruction does not work. They analyze "the failure of constructivist, discovery, problem-based, experiential, and inquiry-based teaching." They find little empirical or theoretical support for these approaches. Sigmund Tobias invites comments about this article, especially about ways not to reject Kirschner, et al.'s conclusions. Their...

Ben Feller reported yesterday that the U.S. Department of Education is handing out money for teachers who raise student test scores. This is the first Federal effort to reward classroom performance with bonuses. The deadline for filing a letter of intent to apply was June 15, 2006. Using the old-fashioned incentive of cash, (this) program encourages schools to set up pay scales that reward...

The Center for Digital Initiatives offers a useful Bolueprint Solutions for K-12. The eight page paper outlines possible factors to consider in creating a one-to-one school. It serves a useful purpose as a background reference to share with Board of Education members and local union stewards. Some teachers may find the outline cumbersome and tedious with administrative rhetoric and generalities. I found the section...

Tracey Russo offered a University of Massachusetts Dartmouth workshop demonstrating the Tablet PC's digital inking capabilities for annotating presentations, documents, and whiteboard functionality. Attendees explored ways to integrate the Tablet PC into your classroom in order to take advantage of this new resource to enhance teaching and learning.

Bonnie Bergin started Assistance Dog Institute to train "Helping Dogs Help People." Teaching a dog to read requires far more than a few flash cards and a pocketful of biscuits." Chapter 1, Learn to be your Dog's Coach, shows how your attitude affects your dog's familiarity with basic skills. It sets the stage for your dog's successful reading lessons. She founded the only college...

Bonnie Bergin started Assistance Dog Institute to train "Helping Dogs Help People." Teaching a dog to read requires far more than a few flash cards and a pocketful of biscuits." Chapter 1, Learn to be your Dog's Coach, shows how your attitude affects your dog's familiarity with basic skills. It sets the stage for your dog's successful reading lessons. She founded the only college...