Changing Paradigms: Personalized Playlists for Education

The personalization of music and video began with playlists. With media providers like Netflix introducing a personalized recommendation system, movie-buffs could finally interact with their favourite content, building a base of videos, brandished with their own personal stamp. Education is now taking a similar path with adaptive systems offering educators and students alike the ability to interact with educational resources, allowing them to build personalized playlists, promoting the importance of forming a connection with the content we consume. Building Connections One of the keys to assembling an engaged community of learners is establishing this essential bond between students and the…
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Education Revisited: Innovation, Not Conformism

“Education, for most people, means trying to lead the child to resemble the typical adult of his society. But for me, education means making creators. You have to make inventors, innovators, not conformists.” – Jean Piaget When I think of how we have moved into the age of the innovator, a few examples spring to mind: The candidate who contracted a billboard outside an employer’s office to promote himself (and was later offered the job). Google offering employees the 80/20 rule allowing them to dedicate 80% of time to their primary job and 20% working on passion projects. The fact that…
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3 Essential Elements of Inquiry and Project-Based Learning

Inquiry and project-based learning (PBL) are essential pedagogical tools for the 21st century educator. Encouraging creativity, rigor, collaboration and independent learning, such student-driven methods provide educators with the ideal opportunity to embrace their status as “guide on the side”. With the right preparation, inquiry and project-based learning can be a game-changer. The challenge for educators often lies in the planning, that essentially means the difference between a successful project, and a complete flop. Ensuring the essential elements are in place before embarking on a project is the first step to ensuring class-wide success. #1. Accessibility to Resources Providing students with…
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Education Reform: ‘Pedagogy First, Technology Second’

“Pedagogy is the driver, technology the accelerator.” This popular thought has been making the rounds on social media, instilling the importance of “pedagogy first, technology second.” This kind of thinking speaks volumes to educators for many reasons. Technology is often branded ‘disruptive’, a term justly despised by many. After all, what educator wants disruption? By placing the emphasis on ‘disruptive’ technology, over pedagogy, we’re making the wrong argument for education reform. For an educator, changing pedagogical method is not as easy as many would like to believe. Changing method with ‘disruptive’ technology? Forget about it. What we should be looking…
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The 21st Century Skills of the Flipped Classroom

For many, flipping the classroom simply involves turning the traditional classroom on its head – moving the class work home, and the homework to class. Others argue there is a lot more to flipping than meets the eye. Rather, as flipped learning pioneer, Jon Bergmann states, it’s moving from “sage on the stage” to “guide on the side.” For students, the obvious benefit lies in the ability to pause and rewind the teacher at will. For teachers, it means less time creating lectures, and more engaged students as the boring introductions are pushed out, and the fun practical work is…
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The Personalized Textbook of 21st Century Education

The future of education publishing has been the topic of popular discussion of late. As classrooms, schools and districts move steadily towards the paperless, personalized classrooms of the future, the textbook is attempting to claim its place within the 21st century learning sphere. As previously argued in The Fate of the Textbook in the Paperless Classroom, even as the delivery mechanism of the content evolves to meet the expectations of the digital age, the textbook remains an invaluable component of the learning environment. Learning platforms like Fishtree are reinforcing the necessity for the textbook as a key driver of effective…
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Critical Thinking: The Key to Digital Literacy

How should we define digital literacy? Educational leader and PhD student, Lynnea West, explains her research on the principle ways of redefining education through technology, using digital literacy as a key driver: “I would hope that moving forward, we just call them ‘literacies’ and they’re just considered essential components of good literacy practices. We’re living in an online world and digital tools are our reality, so literacy in the broader context is just how we make meaning of what we’re reading or interpreting and how that joins together with our place in the world.” The concept of digital literacy has…
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The Fate of the Textbook in the Paperless Classroom

In 2012, U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan declared: “Over the next few years, textbooks should be obsolete.” As schoolbags decrease in size and paper and pen take a backseat, the questions surrounding the fate of the textbook continue to escalate. “Textbooks offer structured teaching and learning in a well-organized, aligned and unified manner” says Jim Butler, founder of adaptive learning platform, Fishtree. “The paper form of a textbook probably will disappear, but the compendium of material in a textbook still holds great value.” But as schools move with deliberate speed towards the paperless classroom, can textbooks maintain the pace?…
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7 Ways Fishtree Has Transformed My Classroom For The Better

One of my main priorities as a teacher is to make math meaningful and relevant to my students’ lives. I believe in fostering a school culture that strengthens 21st century learning skills, and empowers every child. Knowing that all students have their own unique needs, abilities and interests, I have been searching for a resource to incorporate mobile and personalized learning, as well as one to help me “flip” or “tilt” my class. Fishtree has been the perfect solution to help me accomplish this, as it allows me to provide everything needed for a lesson in one place. A teacher…
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7 Blended and Online Learning Facts for iNACOL 2014

On November 4th, iNACOL’s Blended and Online Learning three-day symposium will commence in Palm Springs, bringing together more than 2,500 experts and educational leaders worldwide, focused on K-12 next generation learning. The annual conference has been labelled the industry’s leading event, with over 200 sessions and tracks for K-12 online and blended learning, competency-based pathways, research, and policy, among others. Attendees at the event will have the opportunity to explore all the latest trends, research, and technology making the biggest impact on 21st century education. With the world’s leading education leaders in one space, the symposium offers invaluable networking opportunities…
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