Education: Two 'visionary' talks Sir Ken Robinson & Bill Gates

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Okay, okay, summer holiday for the most part of schools, I know ! Students are on holiday and teachers are finishing the school year or preparing the new school year.

For some days, I will continue to share with educationalists some resources, ideas or suggestions for the next school year, in August or September depending of the country.

Sometimes, I like to present some good talks about Education: Sir George Martin for Music in school curriculum. Sir Ken Robinson for private schools vs. public schools, Jane McGonigal for games in school or Ali Carr-Chellman for re-engaging students in learning, Professor Noam Chomsky for the future of Education.

Today, I remember two interesting talks of 2013 about teachers and education. Bill Gates and Sir Ken Robinson.

Bill Gates talking about "Teachers need more" on TEDTalks suggests that even great teachers can get better with smart feedback - and lays out a program from his foundation to bring it to every classroom.

Until recently, many teachers only got one word of feedback a year: "satisfactory." And with no feedback, no coaching, there's just no way to improve. 

“The system we have today isn’t fair to them,” he continues. “It’s not fair to students and it’s putting America’s global leadership at risk. So today, I want to talk about how we can help all teachers get the tools for improvement they want and deserve.”

Bill Gates

Sir Ken Robinson outlines on TEDTalks 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish - and how current education culture works against them. 

In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

We all know Sir Ken Robinson! He is an author, educator and creativity expert who advocates for diverse a curriculum, local input into education strategies, and moving successful aspects of "alternative" education programs into the mainstream.

Finding Your Element

Sir Ken Robinson

http://sirkenrobinson.com/

Sir Ken Robson's latest book, Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life has been published in May 2013 by Viking. 

The Element, introduced readers to a new concept of self-fulfillment through the convergence of natural talents and personal passions. 

Finding Your Element comes at a critical time as concerns about the economy, education and the environment continue to grow. The need to connect to our personal talents and passions has never been greater. 

As Robinson writes in his introduction, "wherever you are, whatever you do, and no matter how old you are, if you’re searching for your Element, this book is for you."

Education:

As an educationalist I think these two talks about different ways of Education are interesting to listen and discuss. Two innovative thinkers of the 21st century. It's up to us to reflect and reach some conclusions.

G-Souto

17.07.2013

Copyright © 2013G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

Education: Two 'visionary' talks by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

And now, Alice for the Ipad

Alice - Ipad screenshot

http://itunes.apple.com

Of course I love paper books. But I have to admit that ebooks can, indeed, do stuff that paper books cannot. 

Education:

A good example of this is Alice for the iPad, Lewis Carroll’s story of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland turned into a children’s storybook but with an interactive twist.

Every illustration is restored from the original Alice in Wonderland book, by Lewis Carroll, then rendered in mesmerising full-color. 

This iPad app includes 52 pages and 20 amazing animated scenes. It’s stunning!

Alice - Ipad screenshot

http://itunes.apple.com

It will be a lovely educational resource to be used into the classroom, on Primary education.

The story will never be the same twice because you’re Alice’s guide through Wonderland.

Yes, still I bealive (and practice) that reading should be a quiet and relaxing activity, and that there’s nothing quite like communing with the pages of a well-read classic, but this video makes reading “Alice in Wonderland” look likes like a lot of fun. 

Techonologies and imagination don't stop! Marvelous!

G-Souto
15.04.2010

Copyright © 2010G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

And now, Alice for the iPad by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

EDEN : The 7th Open Classroom Conference 2009

http://www.eden-online.org/

Researchers, teachers and some organisations from 30 countries participated in the Seventh Open Classroom Conference - European School Web 2.0, Porto, 15-17 October 2009.

The "EDEN Porto 2009" had been hosted at the Alfandega do Porto Congress Center, in downtown Porto, by the Douro River.

Alfândega do Porto

Fotografia: APedrosa

www.google.com

"To bring up and reflect upon these considerations, EDEN in the framework of its Open Classroom Initiative is organizing this Conference on The European School 2.0: Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation, together with the Universidade Aberta, the Portuguese Open University, and the University of Porto as well as the support of other European and international expert bodies."

EDEN

The conference programme included plenaries, parallel sessions with paper presentations and workshops. The event started in the afternoon of 15 October, with registration and the Opening Plenary Session and ended with the Closing Plenary  Session on 17 October.

Conference themes:

"In the age of the Social Web (Web 2.0/3.0), virtual learning environments empower teachers and learners to open their classrooms and be part of emerging folksonomies – the social construction of learning. Upcoming learning solutions gradually replace presentation tools with shared discussion and work spaces, offer coaching utilities instead of help desks, and learning resource repositories instead of ready-made digital materials. Teachers and learners alike are now using ICT very differently from one another and ever more creatively."

EDEN

OnFriday afternoon, the 17th October, I participated with a scientific paper at The Seventh Open Classroom Conference - The EDEN Porto 2009 in Portuguese Parallel Session.

My participation was included on the session C3, topic ICT & Education. 

Sessão C3 (Speakers)

 photo: Paulo Moreira*

My presentation and theme discussion, a research and pedagogical experience ICT & Curriculum in Secondary Education Anatomia de Aplicacoes Digitais e Locais Virtuais de Conteudos Educativos: Geracao N-Gen has been very apreciated for the participants in the room.

Presentation and theme discussion, a research and pedagogical experience ICT & Curriculum in Secondary Education, was Lugares & Aprendizagens : Roteiro de Travessias em e-Learning has been very apreciated for the participants in the room.

The conference programme included plenary sessions, and parallel sessions with paper presentations and workshops. 

It was an interesting event! You can read the EDEN Porto Classroom message here

We certainly need to face the increasing Policy inter‐dependence between Educatiom, Growth and Social Inclusion. In other words, the new Equity Challenge

implies that we have to re‐engineer our school education systems, better than delivering “massive” education to the engagement of people in “massive” knowledge experiences, by up‐grading their Learning‐to‐learn Competence!

Creativity and Innovation in School Education

Alfândega do Porto

Fotografia: APedrosa

Entre os dias 15 e 17 de Outubro 2009, decorreu no Porto a Seventh Open Classroom Porto 2009. 

Teve lugar no Centro de Congressos da Alfândega com uma belíssima panorâmica para o Rio Douro.

Incubating Creativity and the Capacity for Innovation:
Open Content, Social Networking Tools and
Creative Learning for All

15-17 October 2009
Porto, Portugal

EDEN Porto 2009 organizada em colaboração com Universidade Aberta e Universidade do Porto, teve ainda o apoio da Comissão Europeia e do Ministério da Educação.

O programa era vasto, dado que envolvia o uso da Web 2.0 na Educação.

Foram muitos os autores que compareceram, oriundos de diferentes países europeus e intercontinentais.

A escolha era portanto diversificada, o que fez com que investigadores, professores e analistas de diferentes quadrantes partilhassem dos mesmos espaços e alguns trocassem ideias entre si mediante os seus interesses.

Tentadora, mais uma vez, esta oportunidade de poder participar, ouvir, partilhar conceitos sobre os actuais paradigmas da evolução das aplicações da Web 2.0 ligadas ao ensino e aprendizagem nas escolas, neste Ano Europeu Criatividade e Inovação.

Na sessão de abertura, Alan Tait, presidente de EDEN deu as boas vindas a todos os conferencistas, seguindo-se os representantes das organizações acima mencionadas.

Deu-se então início aos trabalhos! Nesse dia, a apresentação de António Dias Figueiredo, da Universidade de Coimbra denominada Innovating in Education, Educating for Innovation foi talvez a mais interessante, na minha perspectiva.

No dia 16, David Instance (Senior member of OECD) apresentou Innovative Learning Environments - Insights from recent OECD/CERI analyses. Como  participara na NML Conference, Setembro 2009, pude seguir com maior interesse a análise complementar daquela que Francesc Pedrò apresentou em Bruxelas, como principal orador.

De assinalar também, Bjorn Teistung, representante da Globalskolen, um departamento da Net School da Noruega com Kids going global e Pilar Lacasa professora da Universidade de Alcalá, perita no uso de videojogos no Ensino, com refrescante apresentação New media Ecologies: Children Lives in Real and Virtual Worlds.

As sessões em inglês tiveram uma maior afluência, embora, o panorama humano fosse alterando de dia para dia, visto que a cidade se mostrava tentadora com temperaturas muito amenas para aquela altura do ano. Os conferencistas internacionais aproveitaram muito do seu tempo a visitar a cidade. E  o Porto sob tal luminosidade era bem digno do seu interesse!

As sessões em português foram um pouco esquecidas pela própria organização. Mas, talvez já fosse de esperar! No entanto, os conferencistas nacionais sentiram essa desigualdade.

Sessão C3 (Speakers)

 Fotografia: Paulo Moreira*

No dia 16 Outubro, sessões da tarde, participei na Sessão C3 (Sessão em Português), apresentando  "Anatomia de Aplicações Digitais e Locais Virtuais de Conteúdos Educativos: Geracao N-Gen".

No dia 17, durante a manhã, algumas apresentações tiveram ainda lugar, até que por voltas das 11 horas deu-se início à sessão de encerramento com entrega de prémios e leitura das conclusões finais.

Muitos conferencistas já tinham regressado a seus países de origem na véspera.

A organização foi razoalvemente impecável, o apoio a todos os participantes nem sempre atencioso e prestativo.

No entanto, os três dias decorreram num ambiente académico e informal em tempos de convívio entre pares.


Com presença no Twitter, a conferência quase ia virando um fait-divers, em alguns casos.

G-Souto

30.10.2009

Copyright © 2009G-Souto'sBlog, gsouto-digitalteacher.blogspot.com®

EDEN : The 7th Open Classroom Conference by G-Souto is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

* Agradecimento ao colega Paulo Moreira (fotografia)