Vlogging

What is vlogging? As you can imagine it has something to do with blogging as well as videos! The vlog (video-blog) is a blog which mainly uses videos in each post.

This video is by Leigh Blackall and gives a good explanation of vlogging.

New Learning

Kalantzis and Cope (2008) have an article on the Curriculum Leadership web site. This is well worth a read. They are discussing the changes that are happening in education. They ask the questions "what will learning be like and what will teachers' jobs be like?" This is something that fascinates me as I am sure that there are going to be a lot of changes in the near future but just what the classroom of tomorrow will look like I am not too sure.

They discuss eight dimensions of learning today that may help to formulate a theory and practice of New Learning. These include; locations of learning, tools of learning, outcomes of learning, balance of agency, significance of difference, relation of the new to the old and the professional role of the teacher.

Another article I have been reading on a similar vein is by Rachel Bolstad. Rachel and Jane Gilbert wrote a book Disciplining and drafting, or 21st Century Learning? Rethinking the New Zealand Senior Secondary Curriculum for the Future . They have used a series of graphics to illustrate how students 'navigate' through their secondary school life. These graphics helped me to clarify these concepts.

A learning theory for 21st century learners

Marie Sontag has written an interesting article in the latest Innovate journal.

She argues that due to students being so involved with connective technologies that this impacts on cognitive processes and that educational theory must change to accommodate these changes.

She acknowledges the need to incorporate elements from other theories that are relevant and to restructure them to meet the needs of the students.

In the article she describes a social- and cognitive- connectedness schemata (SCCS) theory and presents a study to show increases in transfer by using a model designed on this theory. In the SCCS model she discusses student behaviours as 'link, lurk and lunge' (see graphic).

This article has many ideas for us to ponder and is worth reading.

PicLits

I have been playing around with PicLits. What a great idea to use this site to inspire writing in the classroom.

I can certainly see possibilies for children to work together to create these. What a shame that you appear to be unable to use your own graphics but at the moment using these ones enables children to understand the concept and then they could go on to make their own.

"PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with
carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the
right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence,
story, and meaning of the picture."