Classroom Distraction or Learned Behavior?

Jimmy's Charhouse was typically busy this Saturday night. Nearly every table is filled, and there's a short line of patrons at the door waiting to be seated. At this time of the evening, many families are enjoying dinner. My wife and I are enjoying our salads. She looks wonderful, and I want to take her picture. In the background, I notice a family of seven celebrating a birthday over dinner. The parents and grandparents are conversing over a beverage. The teenage daughter is texting on her iPhone while her younger sister plays with the ice cubes in her glass of cola. Their younger brother is playing a handheld video game.

I watch this scene off and on for the next several minutes. The boy has yet to eat or even look up from his game. It is his birthday being celebrated. My wife excuses herself to the ladies room, and I take this opportunity to look around our dining room. There are ten tables, each with children, having dinner. Each of these parties has, at least, one child enjoying screen time with either a smart phone or tablet. Six of the parties have two or more children engrossed in their screens. Ten out of ten!

Against my philosophical position, my school district is looking for practical, effective ways to restrict student iPad use to an academic purpose. The argument presented by teachers, students, and parents, is these restrictions will limit distractions, and enable greater focus on academic endeavors. According to presented research, our younger students are not able to make good choices regarding focused use of mobile electronics.

This is our second year of being fully one-to-one with iPads, so we are learning more about engagement and classroom effectiveness as we go. However, most of our high school students have likely had several years of engaging with their mobile devices, voraciously consuming whatever content appears on their screens.

Millions, no billions, of dollars have been spent developing and perfecting the enticing properties of mobile electronics. How can teachers compete against this level of firepower? Is there any wonder many of our students struggle with face-to-face interaction when families choose digitally enabled isolation? Who gets credit for classroom distraction, the mobile electronics designers, or kids who have successfully mastered the art of focusing on their screens?

Self-Directed vs. Self-Determined Learning; What's the Difference?

"We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for ourselves." - Stephen Downes In this age of abundance of information, shifting classroom pedagogy isn't nearly enough to make learning in school more relevant and authentic for the learner. Self-directed learning ( andragogy ), and self-determined learning ( heutagogy ) are the ideals necessary in making students " future ready " to live and learn in a web-connected world. While original research applied these concepts to mature learners, it has become apparent that even young children have an abundant capacity for recognizing and directing their learning. Anyone who has observed toddlers learning how to walk and talk understand the motivation and skill development that quickly develops during these processes. Considered by some to be on a learning continuum, self-directed learning, and self-determined

Board Games in the School Library: 3 Reasons Why It's a Winning Play

"Play is the highest form of research." - Albert Einstein “Play is the work of the child.” – Maria Montessori In our recently remodeled school media center, we have a space dedicated to active engagement in fun learning activities. Part maker space, part literacy lounge, board games are being incorporated to promote a culture of joyful learning. Whether it's a game of Rummy , Yahtzee , or Scrabble , family game night serves as a communication elixir and solidifies our domestic climate of togetherness. Shouldn't similar opportunities for interaction, challenge, and fun exist somewhere in our schools? Broken families, cultural fragmentation, and poverty are impacting opportunities for children to play. As we unpacked and tagged our new media center games, I was more disappointed than shocked by the number of students who had never played Monopoly , Boggle , or Sorry . One skeptical teacher commented, "Oh great, now we're letting students pl

The Classroom Experiment - Strategies to Promote Engagement and Learning

Dylan Wiliam is a prominent educator in the United Kingdom. His ideas and strategies are consistently mentioned in education reform circles. On an uncharacteristically quiet evening at home, I stumbled across these BBC videos, The Classroom Experiment . Although it took nearly two hours to get through the videos, I came away thinking that the teacher is certainly the most important factor in student learning, and that student learning can be improved with persistence and a willingness to become better at failure. For those folks that feel that teachers can be replaced by technology, these videos suggest otherwise. The Classroom Experiment - part 1 (58:00) The Classroom Experiment - part 2 (59:00) Dylan Wiliam at The Schools Network Conference (38:00) Here is a summary of the strategies and changes that Dylan Wiliam instituted to increase student engagement and advance student learning. No raising of hands - use Popsicle sticks, or some other mechanism to randomize th

Nocking the Arrow

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