Interesting article… thoughts?   The Poverty Trap: Slack, Not Grit, Creates Achievement.

Natalie O'Neil is back on the show! She first appeared on the House of #EdTech on episode #10. Natalie is fresh off a summer trip to the Google Teacher Academy in California with great information and stories to share! Follow Natalie http://twitter.com/TeachNV House of #EdTech is sponsored by Audible.com. There are over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or other mp3 player. http://www.audibletrial.com/houseofedtech   All links and shownotes at http://www.chrisnesi.com/2014/09/20-inside-google-teacher-academy-with-NatalieONeil.html  FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: cnesi4602 Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Over two years ago, I complained about the cruel and frustrating rejection of my dad’s Canadian citizenship. It has been a long process. It is deeply discouraging to see your parent frightened and stressed that he will be sent back to a country that hasn’t been his home for over 40 years, leaving behind children and grandchildren. The recent immigration discussion in the USA takes on a new meaning in the light of this experience. In our case, my dad was a Canadian citizen. Had been one since 1978. Voted in municipal, provincial, and federal elections for decades. Was employed his entire time in Canada. And then suddenly he received a letter telling him that his citizenship was cancelled. He had to turn in his passport. He couldn’t enter the US as part of his work - a bit of a challenge as he is a truck driver and most of his routes were south. Still, Canada is a wonderful country. My dad calls it home. He loves it. He feels blessed. And today, he officially became a Canadian citizen. Version 2.0.

So, I learned about this app this past summer, but haven’t had time to play with it the way I wanted to.  Tonight, I made a little review note for my 8th graders. Check out Notability. 8th Grade_ Chapter 3 Review This app can be used in the classroom as a "live" note taking device […]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to re-invent your classroom? I have. For quite a while. Years, in fact. What would you do? Where would you start? What would your objectives be? The photo above is my lab as it appeared in September 2003, my first year teaching. Twenty-six Dell Optiplex PCs with 6.4 gb hard drives, 15″ CRTs and Windows 98SE. State-of-the-art equipment at the time. (Some will recognize that giant grey box on the right - it’s a projector.) Fast forward to this school year, nine years later (above). The PCs are still Dell Optiplexes, just several generations newer. Students use the SMART Board (donated to me & my classroom by SMART Corporation) every day. We have other cool tools too, like QX5 Computer Microscopes. It’s an oasis of learning technologies. While the hardware has changed over the years (and my lessons have too), my students still sit at fixed stations, working on their own, for 42 minutes, once a week. Everyone does the same thing, at the same time, using the same software. It’s time for a change. It’s time for something new… Let’s be honest: some consider fixed labs an anachronism, a throwback to a time when computers were so expensive only a small number could be purchased and they had to be housed in a single location so that as many people as possible could utilize them. And, while labs may be the most efficient way to provide students with a 1:1 computing experience (albeit for just part of the day), whether or not they are the most effective means to do so from an instructional perspective is another matter, and the essence of what is driving our ideology. We have been talking for months about an exciting new direction for our K-4 Computer Lab. It all began as a suggestion from a parent, Mrs. Amy Hughes, an elementary technology teacher in nearby Margate, NJ. Her suggestion turned into conversations with NCS teachers and district leaders. Brainstorms erupted. A formal presentation was made to our district Curriculum Committee, and ultimately, we received approval for what we are now calling "K4STEMLAB." The K4STEMLAB vision is to combine the best of what we now know as "Computer Lab" and hands-on, inquiry-driven "STEM" (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) projects in a brand-new, as-yet-undesigned mobile learning classroom space. Students will continue coming to my class, with their classroom teacher, on their assigned "Computer Lab" day. Lessons & activities will be either "ICT" (for Information & Computer Technology, essentially what we do now) or "STEM." The former may be similar to lessons we have used in the past, but reframed in a science context. The latter will be completely new units of inquiry incorporating, among other things, the Engineering is Elementary activities and curriculum. (I received a $3,000 grant from Raytheon Corporation to attend an EiE professional development workshop this summer and purchase materials for my classroom.) Our instructional foundation will be based on the newly-announced Next Generation Science Standards, as well as the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards for Science (5.x) and Technology (8.x), AND a creative interpretation of the Common Core Standards. Our new lab is going to ROCK! We have seen the future and it is MOBILE, COLLABORATIVE and ALWAYS-ON This evolution of the NCS elementary computer lab is the result of many forces converging at once. Thanks to a very successful pilot of Google Chromebooks in our 4th grade this year (funded by our generous community and amazing Parent-Teacher Organization), we are now confident that Chromebooks (the hardware) and Google Apps for Education (the software) are not only viable but essential to our instructional mission. We will still use Microsoft products, just not exclusively. We live in a blended world, a world where we interact with a variety of technologies every day, more and more of which are web-based. Therefore, we want to provide students with seamless access to the information and resources they need, on whatever device they are using, wherever they happen to be. Groundbreaking technologies available today (like Google Apps and Classlink’s Launchpad product, for example) can make this possible. Our district is evaluating highly competitive proposals for enterprise wireless connectivity and we are developing appropriate "bring your own technology" policies that make sense for us. Best of all, NCS teachers and staff are at the epicenter of this effort, dedicating themselves to finding creative ways to leverage these technologies in the classroom to help students learn. Goals of the New Program There are many things we want to accomplish with this "reboot" of our K-4 Computer Lab program. Some can be described with references to instructional standards, others with metrics relating to skill proficiency. Our district also adopted a strategic goal this year to develop a K-8 STEM program; our efforts represent a solid step in that direction. But the most important goal, in my view at least, is developing an appreciation for scientific inquiry - and in particular, the engineering process - as shown below in this graphic from the Museum of Science: We are confident that this framework will provide students with a powerful context to build a foundation of critical skills and an interest in careers in science, technology, math and engineering. At its core, education is all about inspiration, isn’t it? Join Us! We will launch our new program in September, 2012. (It’s going to be a busy summer.) More importantly, this is going to be a "learning year" for everyone. We are confident that we can develop a powerful new experience drawing on the strengths of our existing curriculum while we inject new, innovative and cost-effective technologies. We are looking for strategic vendor partners, collaborating classrooms, experts on learning space design, interested community members, anyone who wants to be part of this new, exciting adventure for our students. Follow the fun on our new blog: http://blogs.ncs-nj.org/k4stemlab/. This post is part of a series about our plans to "reinvent" my K-4 Computer Lab class as a STEM (Science, Engineering, Technology & Math) course starting in September 2012. By "thinking out loud" here I hope to keep stakeholders apprised of our ideas, activities & progress while I gain wisdom and perspective from anyone who cares to join the conversation.

Kasey Bell is a digital learning consultant with a MA in Educational Technology and she provides engaging staff development for all levels of educators. Follow Kasey http://twitter.com/ShakeUpLearning This episode of House of #EdTech is brought to you by TodaysMeet. Visit http://www.todaysmeet.com/houseofedtech  House of #EdTech is sponsored by Audible.com. There are over 150,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or other mp3 player. http://www.audibletrial.com/houseofedtech All links and shownotes at http://www.chrisnesi.com/2014/10/21-shakeuplearning-with-kasey-bell.html FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: cnesi4602 Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

I checked my email one last time before shutting off my computer Friday afternoon.  Why did I do that?  There’s an email forwarded from our Resource teacher from a parent.  Apparently, mom is upset with me. I "gave" junior an F in science for the trimester. According to HIM, I didn’t "let him" finish the […]

If you have been involved in academic distance learning you know about the University of Texas System TeleCampus. As it says on the UTTC wesite the Telecampus works with all 15 UT System institutions to build and deliver high-quality online...

Yesterday’s launch announcement was pretty exciting … reaction was universally positive and there was a lot of excitement in the conversations I had with stakeholders and other folks both online and in person. It looks like we’ve also secured our first donating sponsor (more details will be available once all the details are worked out and the donation is accepted by the Northfield Board of Education.) But the really big news is … we have the nascent beginnings of a casual collaboration with some very gifted and knowledgable people with experience in modern K-12 learning space architecture / interior design. I’ve known most of them for years via my personal learning network (PLN) and I’m thrilled to be able to converse with them about our project. I’ll let them introduce themselves via comment to this post if they wish to do so. I do want to share some book recommendations that came from these conversations and others via Facebook and Twitter. I’ve ordered both without hesitation and can’t wait to devour them. Make Space is described thusly on Amazon.com: An inspiring guidebook filled with ways to alter space to fuel creative work and foster collaboration. Based on the work at the Stanford University d.school and its Environments Collaborative Initiative, Make Space is a tool that shows how space can be intentionally manipulated to ignite creativity. Appropriate for designers charged with creating new spaces or anyone interested in revamping an existing space, this guide offers novel and non-obvious strategies for changing surroundings specifically to enhance the ways in which teams and individuals communicate, work, play-and innovate. Click here for an excerpt from the book. As you can see, it emphasizes simplicity, frugality, originality and the DIY mindset. Another book recommended to me by several people including 5th grade teacher Lisa Parisi is The Third Teacher. Amazon describes it this way (though I must say the reference to ‘failing education system’ stings a little bit): Created by an international team of architects and designers concerned about our failing education system, The Third Teacher explores the critical link between the school environment and how children learn, and offers 79 practical design ideas, both great and small, to guide reader’s efforts to improve our schools. Written for anyone who has school-age children in their life, from educators and education decision-makers to parents and community activists, this book is intended to ignite a blaze of discussion and initiative about environment as an essential element of learning. Including a wealth of interviews, facts, statistics, and stories from experts in a wide range of fields, this book is a how-to guide to be used to connect with the many organizations, individuals, and ideas dedicated to innovating and improving teaching and learning. Contributors include children’s singer and advocate Raffi, author and creativity consultant Sir Ken Robinson, scientist and environmentalist David Suzuki, inventor James Dyson, and other experts who are working to create fresh solutions to problems and create a new blueprint for the future of education. You can read Lisa’s own reflection on this book and how it changed her classroom and teaching here. I am delirious at the prospect of having these great thinkers - educators, architects, interior designers - involved (in any capacity, even from afar/virtually) in the design of our new learning space. Yesterday was a very exciting day, indeed! Onward, ho! -kj-  

I’m pleased to announce a new post doc position at LINK Research Lab at University of Texas Arlington (we will be announcing several additional positions in the next month in various topic areas). The first position, Post Doctoral Research Fellow, is focused on assessing labour market data, specifically how the changing nature of work impact higher education institutions. For example, what type of work will we be doing in an age of increasing automation? How do universities identify important trends that require alteration of teaching practices from current models? What will the university look like in a global learning and knowledge economy? What will we teach? How will we teach? How will our students (and employees) learn? We’ve taken a slightly different approach to this position, reflective of the networked and interconnected world of work and higher education. The successful candidate can work remotely from UTA for part of their time. Supervision will be done by Drs. Shane Dawson, Dragan Gasevic, & George Siemens. Additionally, the candidate will spend 2-3 weeks at University of Edinburgh and 2-3 weeks at University of South Australia (Adelaide). The international trip costs will be covered by participating universities, separate from the position salary. The formal stuff: The official position description is here: http://www.uta.edu/hr/eos/faculty-search/posting/DDTL02122015PDF Overview: The relationship between work and formal education is changing. A traditional view holds that formal education prepares individuals for a lifetime of employment. Education in this view is event based. Essentially, once the degree has been completed, the individual moves into the workforce. However, as a result of the complexities and challenges associated with the modern economy, this model is no longer the norm. The traditional full time student is now a minority in the USA, as part time learners and mid-career masters students and alternative programs (such as competency based and online learning) increase in numbers. The nature of work and employment is also changing, as routine labor is increasingly automated. Bill Gates recently stated that within a decade, 50% of today’s jobs will be automated. The repercussions that this has for the economy and the quality of life for people are significant. The impact on the future of universities and colleges, specifically in relation to how higher education prepares individuals for employment, is an important area of research. The skills/employment gap refers to the relationship between what learners know and can do when they graduate and what employers expect. A second gap, that of developing the whole person (such as in a liberal arts education) versus developing an individual for primary employment, also exists as work moves to a creative economy. The balance between formal education, learning, work, creativity, and knowledge advancement will be the primary focus of this post doc position. This position will appeal to individuals with strong awareness of labor data, employment trends, and how automation is altering work and how this in turn influences the role of higher education institutions in society. Experience of Applicants Applicants will have a completed, or soon to be completed, PhD in areas related to this position such as: higher education reform, higher education policy and strategy, job and labor market statistics and trends, impact of automation on work, expanded and changing learning opportunities through digital learning and emerging assessment models (competency based learning), or history of labor and the role work plays in the health and well being of members in a society. Position Details The position will run for a duration of three years with annual renewals. This position contributes significantly to University of Texas Arlington’s new strategic plan (http://www.uta.edu/strategicplan/), notably regarding sustainable communities (and megacities), sustainability, global impact, health and the human condition, and data-driven discovery. Specific activities include: - conducting research (including grant writing and co-supervision of doctoral students) - engagement with state and national agencies in assessing and evaluating prominent employment trends - identification and assessment of effectiveness of new higher education and work-to-university-to-work models - developing models of employment and higher education interaction (triple helix model) - evaluation of the economic impact of higher education on regional economies as employees return to universities to re-skill/upgrade - presenting at the main conferences in the knowledge domains relevant to this position - publishing in the major journals in the field; - interacting with some stakeholder (internal and external to the university) groups/partners; - institutional collaboration and knowledge transfer/translation to Texas and national university systems - analysis of international labour and education trends - translation of research findings to practice Position stipend: $50,000 USD annually The candidate will report directly to the LINK Research Lab Executive Director (Dr. George Siemens) and with input and collaboration with Professor Dragan Gasevic (Research Scientist, UT Arlington and Chair in Learning Analytics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland) and Shane Dawson (Research Scientist, UT Arlington and Associate Professor at the Centre for Teaching Innovation and Digital Learning, University of South Australia, Australia) and will have the option of remote research at collaborating institutions up to 60% external to the University of Texas at Arlington post approval from the Link Research Lab Executive Director). Applications materials should be submitted digitally to: Laurel Mayo, Director, LINK Research Lab email address: lsmayo@uta.edu