Roundtable Discussion with David Thornburg and Chris Dede

Last Friday, after the district institute, we had a round table discussion with Chris Dede and David Thornburg.

Here are the highlights:

Topics Discussed in the Roundtable Discussion:

Games and Education:

There can be real power in the engagement level of kids playing games. However, the transition from using them as a form of entertainment to that of an instructional tool has not been successful. Referenced several projects:

River City: http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/

NASA’s MMO Proposal: http://ipp.gsfc.nasa.gov/mmo/

Lucas Learning: http://www.lucaslearning.com/

Additional Resources:

Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?print&i=53586

Video – Video Games in Education http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6117726917684965691

Marc Prensky Videogame & Education References: http://www.marcprensky.com/dgbl/Prensky%20-%20Selected%20URLs(web).htm

Cellphones and Learning:

Should we be looking for ways to have students leverage the computing power of the technology they are carrying with them? There are some teachers in the US doing this already.

Referenced: http://www.cellphonesinlearning.com/ as a website where real lessons are posted. There are also additional resources on this page and great links.

Open Source Software:

Allows schools to leverage the cost of software to their advantage. Good discussion of this topic is available here: http://www.netc.org/openoptions/ Make sure to check out open office www.openoffice.org

Assessment:

The power of technology in education in the future may be directly related to assessment. Technology may give us the ability to gather lots of data about students’ performance in authentic settings and allow us to analyze it. Would allow for more formative assessment leading to better models of differentiated instruction.

Where do you go to learn about technology in education?

Websites to visit:

· TED www.ted.org

· Classroom 2.0 Ning http://www.classroom20.com/

· TechLearning http://www.techlearning.com/index.php

· Commoncraft Howto Videos http://commoncraft.com/show

· Edtechnot: http://www.edtechnot.com/index.html

People to read or follow their blogs:

Seymour Papert: http://www.edtechnot.com/notpapert.html

David Warlick: http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/

Will Richardson: http://weblogg-ed.com/

Vicki Davis: http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach: http://www.21stcenturycollaborative.com/

Assistive Technologies:

An area that is growing rapidly – but something that requires a lot of creativity.

Referenced:One2OneMate: http://www.one2onemate.com/ and E-Blocks: http://www.eblocks.net/n/index.php

High Tech High Schools: Is there a high school that is integrating all of this? Here is one: http://www.scienceleadership.org/

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