The Relationship between Technology and Teaching

http://chronicle.com/article/Dont-Confuse-Technology-With/133551/

This thoughtful article from the Chronicle of Higher Education makes the important distinction between technology and teaching.  As the author says, "A set of podcasts is the 21st-century equivalent of a textbook, not the 21st-century equivalent of a teacher."  She goes on to equate educators with "coaches, personal trainers in intellectual fitness. The value we add to the media extravaganza is like the value the trainer adds to the gym or the coach adds to the equipment. We provide individualized instruction in how to evaluate and make use of information and ideas, teaching people how to think for themselves."

As we at Friends continue to embrace the ever-expanding technological developments in the field of education, we will need to keep this relationship between teaching and technology in optimal balance, for the good of our students.

The Flipped Classroom

This article from TechCrunch.com argues that, while the much-heralded launch of online access to Harvard and MIT's lectures and supporting materials is both positive and laudable, it misses the point.  Effective education, in this author's (and my own) opinion, takes place not through the passive absorption of instructors' words, but rather through students' active engagement in applying their knowledge, thinking critically, and solving problems.  This explains his excitement about the proposal by two Stanford professors to move to the "flipped classroom" model at Stanford Medical School.  For those who've never heard of this approach, it involves using existing or teacher-created materials (often online) as homework assignments to provide students with the kind of background information that is, in traditional classrooms, transmitted by lectures.  Having this information digitally rather than orally allows students to view and review it as often as they need to.  The greatest benefit of "flipping," though, is that students can then use class time to apply the knowledge they have gained from these sources, in collaboration with classmates, and with the supervision and feedback of their instructors.

Our teachers at Friends have begun to make use of this model to enhance their students' learning experiences, and it is sure to become even more prevalent in the years to come.

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/09/move-over-harvard-and-mit-stanford-has-the-real-revolution-in-education/

Dr. Tony Wagner on the "Seven Survival Skills" for the 21st Century

http://bit.ly/HJ3Kzc

This YouTube video features Dr. Tony Wagner, author of The Global Achievement Gap, sharing and elaborating on the "survival skills" he outlines in that book.  The skills he enumerates bear important similarities to the qualities we've identified in the Teaching and Learning at Friends School paradigm http://bit.ly/oQ6dsJ that guides our program.  This video is 29 minutes well spent. http://bit.ly/HJ3Kzc

Study Proves that Students Benefit when Teachers Collaborate

The link below gives a brief overview of an important - if unsurprising - finding from researchers at Stanford University.  The article (also linked below), entitled "The Missing Link in School Reform," states that students gain when teachers are given the opportunity to collaborate with and learn from each other.  Close collaboration has always been part of the professional culture at Friends, but we are taking an important next step towards this goal by introducing 8 PLUSS days into the calendar for the 2012-2013 academic year.  On PLUSS (Professional Learning to Uphold Student Success) days, faculty will have 2 hours to collaborate in a variety of ways, all with the goal of enhancing student learning.  We'll share more about the plans for and results of these days in the future.

Overview - http://bit.ly/y5EqNd
Article from Stanford Social Innovation Review - http://bit.ly/wPgPqN

A Marvelous Animation about the (Never-Ending) Learning Process

If you haven't yet seen any of the "Born to Learn" animations that have appeared online, here is a great place to start.  http://vimeo.com/20924263

The thinking that, well, animates this video is at the heart of the evolving paradigm of teaching and learning at Friends.  The ongoing and accelerating breakthroughs in brain research have helped us to understand the learning process in new and exciting ways, and it is incumbent on all of us as educators to put these new understandings to work in our classrooms.  This is just one of the factors that makes this such an exciting time to be a teacher and a learner.