Multiple Intelligences, Drawing and Kids Neuroscience..

Today I found several new items of interest one was a Kids site to explore Neuroscience! It would be great to use with your classes and teach study skills and ways to make their brain more effective! Another is a site on Multiple Intelligences. I have been facinated by the ways this can help teachers to reach their students on different levels, all teachers use some of these strategies but thinking about them as you plan lessons can really impact your teaching. And finally the third interesting thing I found today was to refute a poster on another website that thought coloring could be of no value to high school students. It is called Mindscaping A Learning and Thinking Skill for All Students!

Brain Fit for Life

Brain Fit for Life is a new book coming out on brain fitness. Its authors are experts in the field and have some interesting things to say on their blog. Today their post is about the link between childhood obesity and developing Alzheimer's later in life.

'Disruptive Innovation'

Excellent article online today about Disruptive Innovation This article is available online courtesy of EdWeek.org. Clayton M. Christensen, Michael B. Horn, and Curtis W. Johnson are the authors of Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns (McGraw-Hill, June 2008). The book applies the theories of disruptive innovation pioneered by Mr. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, to the education sector.

Very interesting discussion on the implementation of technology to create individualized lessons for students. Highlights the need for technology integration in schools at all levels to serve students on their level. Two sites several of those that replied refer to are Hey Math used by 2/3 of the math students in Singapore and many U.S. schools and HeadSprout a phonics based program for reading instruction also mentioned.

Offline Processing...Wow I must be on overload!

I have been learning many things this summer in my Integrating Technology course, often I wonder will I remember them all. I have also noticed I am tired and sleeping more. Now I know why, I am processing all the incredible things I am learning.

Brain Collage

I found an interesting brain collage on Flickr that I wanted to post here. I emailed its creator Jason Ramsay and here is an exerpt from his letter to me.

Happy to let you use it for your blog. The photo is a
collage of images that I made using the program MRIcro. It
is a sequence of the same slice of white matter, taken from
a series of scans I made using diffusion tension imaging.

I think it is important for your blog, for these reasons:

1) People underestimate the importance of white matter in
learning. WM is the cable that connects all portions of the
brain.
2) If you lose cable, your brain starts to have to work
much harder to process information.
3) If you work past capacity, you start showing
neurocognitive deficits.
4) White matter can be eroded by chronic stress. Its
development can be hindered by chronic stress or neglect
(e.g., impoverished children).
5) I really think that intelligence is in large part
dictated by the robustness of the white matter.

All food for thought for your blog. If you want to learn
more about stress and the brain (or, for example, poverty
and its effects on the brain), check out the work of Robert
Sapolsky.

Quantum Learning...More food for thought!

Quantum Learning is another new perspective on learning. It is based on Brain Research that shows how the brain learns. It seeks to integrate research based methods to help students become life-long learners. Quantum learning focuses largely on the environment in which students learn and how best to shape that environment to make our students more productive. The focus is on building a dynamic learning environment for children to be successful!

Kids Learning and Communicating

Communication is the key to success in our society. Those who communicate well often rise to the top. One way to help our students be more successful is to help them learn to communicate ideas and learning to others. Kidlink is one way to do this. It is a website devoted to helping children learn to communicate, collaborate and share learning online. Projects on this site incorporate curriculum from around the world. Their are projects such as Time Machine where teachers can sign up and their students can visit and record their responses. They can see others responses. Users to the Kidlink site must register and teachers must also register and sign up for projects. Here is another link to an article making the case for using technology in education.

Learning An Active Approach!

Active Learning is a new buzzword so to speak in the educational community. However for many teachers active learning is nothing new. Active Learning is simply students doing something rather than being passive while learning. Great teachers know that students learn and remember more easily when they are active participants in their learning. The site above shows many different ways teachers can use active learning in their classrooms to assist their students and increase their potential! Active learning powers the brain to process information in a variety of multi-sensory ways. When a student watches a video and then responds to it they not only see and hear the video they are retelling, relating and responding to it.

Technology The New Fuel for Education

Technology is in essence a new fuel for education. Previously education was driven by books, lectures and thought. While thinking continues to be the most important part of education, technology is driving a new frontier for teachers who embrace it. Technology allows students to process knowledge in new ways and apply knowledge to new situations. Technology increases productivity and allows students to use knowledge in multiple disciplines.

Teachers are crucial to creating learners who are able to use technology to drive their learning. Teachers must become capable users of technology effectively in their classrooms. They must encourage students to use technology effectively to enhance their learning. Teachers should create projects in their classrooms that allow students to see the potential for learning when using technology. They should create projects that cover several subject areas allowing students to apply technology to solve problems. These projects can have tremendous impact on a students learning and potential to solve problems in the real world. Here is a related article on the New Economy, Technology and Learning Outcomes. It highlights the importance of information literacy, techonology fluency and competent competencies together to our students existance in the society of the future.

Using Technology to Power Up Your Classroom

Technology is amazing as it has the power to help students learn and recall information. Teachers who use technology in the classroom can allow their students to experience a multi-sensory approach to learning material. Brain research shows that when students are exposed to material in a multi-sensory approach they are able to remember it more easily. They also create an experience with the material that translates to new experiences.

Teachers in science can use this approach to incorporate videos from United Streaming or Teacher Tube to enhance their lessons. They can allow students to blog about experiments and create websites to show their experiences in the classroom. When students must retell or relate experiences they are reliving them in their brains and making new connections that will enable them to recall that experience on a different level with an emotional attachment. This will enable the student to remember the experiment long term rather than just a blip in their mental recall. The following video is from teacher tube and has some important points for teachers to remember!