One Size Does Not Fit All:

1. One Size Does Not Fit All: An Educator’s Guide to Fostering a Learning Environment for 21st Century Students Brad FountainDiscovery Education

2. A bit of trivia...

3. Which age group has the highest percentage of its members online? • 12-17 • 25-29 • 30-34 • 40-44

4. What percentage of public school students are considered to be part of a racial or ethnic minority group? • 13% • 18% • 26% • 43%

5. One of the fastest growing websites in the world and has visitors watching over 100 million videos per day? • Google • YouTube • Yahoo • MySpace

6. If registered users of this website were a country, it would be larger than Germany, France and the United Kingdom. • Google • YouTube • Yahoo • MySpace

7. What is the percentage of students entering school that speak a language other than English? • 5% • 10% • 20% • 40%

8. We Must Know Our Students “When a teacher tries to teach something to the entire class at the same time, chances are, one-third of the kids already know it; one-third will get it; and the remaining third won't. So two thirds of the children are wasting their time.” - Lilian Katz as quoted in Teaching Young Children (1993)

9. Students Learn Differently Todayan obvious fact – but the basis for this part of the presentation They also pull media/information from different sources

12. Brains deal with images differently than with print. (Merringoff, 1983) Words: in the neocortex (Noble, 1983) Pictures: in the limbic system (Noble, 1983) Image from Discovery Science Connection Movies from Discovery Education Streaming

13. The way your students think has changed We now know to blame: the babysitter. “Those who watch more television at 5 and 7…difficulty paying attention at 13 and 15” “…studies show that stimulating environments can change young brains.” ”…effects the development of the brain when most malleable” “…makes ordinary life seem boring The Washington Post, Sept,, 2007, Sandra Boodman Pediatrics Magazine, long term study 1,037 kids

14. The way your students think has changed Attention span is only one factor. The change isn't necessarily bad… As media exposure grows, "these kids could be expressing 'the new brain.' They could be an advance guard that suggests we may need new ways of teaching children exposed to a lot of media stimulation.” psychologist Stuart Fischoff USA Today, 9/2007

15. What Does This Mean for Schools?

17. “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original. By the time students become adults they have lost that capacity. And national education systems are where mistakes are the worst things you can make. The result is we are educating people out of their creative capacities.” - Sir Ken Robinson

18. New Definitions for Schools • Schools will go “from ‘buildings’ to nerve centers, with walls that are porous and transparent, connecting teachers, students and the community to the wealth of knowledge that exists in the world while creating a culture of inquiry” • Teachers will go from primary role as a dispenser of information to orchestrator of learning and helping students turn information into knowledge, and knowledge into wisdom. 21stCenturySchool.com

19. New Definition for Students • In the past a student was a young person who went to school, spent a specified amount of time in certain courses, received passing grades and graduated.  Today we must see learners in a new context: • First we must maintain student interest by helping them see how what they are learning prepares them for life in the real world.  • Second we must instill curiosity, which is fundamental to lifelong learning.  • Third we must be flexible in how we teach. • Fourth we must excite learners to become even more resourceful so that they will continue to learn outside the formal school day.” 21stCenturySchool.com

20. Being Literate Today Means… • Finding the information • Processing different media • Decoding the information • Analyzing the information • Critically evaluating the information • Organizing it into personal digital libraries • Creating information in a variety of media • Teaching the information to find the user • Filtering the information gleaned

21. Inquiry Learning Dewey defines productive inquiry as that aspect of any activity where we are deliberately seeking what we need in order to do what we want to do. (Dewey, 1922 and Cook and Brown, 1999) In the net age we now have at our disposal tools and resources for engaging in productive inquiry – and learning – that we never had before. -John Seely Brown

22. Tools of the Trade • Online Collaborations • Blogs • Wikis • Google Docs/Spreadsheets • Skype • Flickr • RSS • Digital Storytelling • Photostory 3 • Movie Maker 2 • Adobe Premiere Elements/iMovie • Audacity • Freeplay Music

23. Tools of the Trade • Google Earth • Podcasts • Bubbleshare • Slideshare • Innertoob • NewsMap • Toondoo

24. What does it look like? • Cross-Curricular Projects on the Web • Johnny Appleseed Project • Journey North • Classroom Blogs • Mr. C’s Class Blog • The Secret Life of Bees • Classroom Podcasts • Room 208 • RadioWillowweb

25. What does it look like? • Google Earth • Grapes of Wrath Google Earth Littrip • Coral Reef Temperatures • Tree Coverage Percentage • Wikis • Vicki Davis • Tim Frederick • Technospud

26. How can I help my school? • Professional Development Needs Assessment • MILE Guide • How to Bring Our Schools Out of the 20th Century • enGauge • Visions 2020 • Building the Perfect School

27. Some good reads… • Blogs • 2 Cents Worth – David Warlick • Teach42 – Steve Dembo • The Strength of Weak Ties – David Jakes • Moving at the Speed of Creativity – Wes Fryer • Weblogg-ed – Will Richardson • Dangerously Irrelevant – Scott McLeod • Beth’s Thoughts on Technology in the Classroom – Beth Knittle • Books • Tested – Linda Perlstein • Don’t Bother Me Mom—I’m Learning! – Marc Prensky • A Whole New Mind – Daniel Pink • The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman • What Video Games Have to Teach us About Literacy and Learning – James Paul Gee

28. What Will You Do to Make A Difference? Brad Fountain brad_fountain@discovery.com