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June 7, 2011 | 2:37 PM | By

Content Providers Old and New Partner to Make Searching Easier

Flickr:A Trying Youth

Google “photosynthesis” and you’ll see a long list of links to everything from Wikipedia to PBS to the University of Illinois, with plenty of YouTube videos thrown into the mix.

To streamline this somewhat random page of results for both educators and learners, a group of education content providers is teaming up to create a better defined framework for education-related searches online.

In a move that brings together for the first time traditional content companies and free, open content sites, the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP) and Creative Commons (CC) are partnering to improve search results online the through the creation of a metadata framework specifically for learning resources. That means teachers looking for content — much of it aligned to Common Core standards — will be able to more easily find information they need. At least that’s the hope.

“This can do for students what John Dewey did for readers 150 years ago when he created standardized card cataloging.”

“Easy access to high-quality learning resources is the end goal of this project,” said Charlene Gaynor, CEO of Association of Education Publishers at the Context in Content conference today.

Many of the big-hitters on both sides of the spectrum are involved, including Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), Curriki, McGraw-Hill Education, Monterey Institute for Technology in Education (MITE), Pearson, Promethean, Scholastic Inc., and SMART Technologies, BetterLesson.

“Educators and students miss out on education resources available online because it is takes too long or is too hard to find appropriate content,” said Catherine Casserly, CEO of Creative Commons in a press release. “A common metadata schema will make this search more efficient and effective so educators can quickly discover the educational resources they want, including those they can reuse under Creative Commons licenses.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Tech Tools, Association of Educational Publishers, creative commons, Curriki, HippoCampus, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, ISKME, McGraw-Hill, OER, Pearson
January 27, 2011 | 4:00 PM | By

Videos + Teacher in Class = Learning

Lenny Gonzalez

Jeannetta Mitchell asks her students to watch videos in class. That may sound counter-intuitive — why have them watch a video when she’s right there?

Because, as both she and her students put it, sometimes they understand on the third try, or when it’s explained differently. “There’s more than one way to solve something,” Mitchell says.

It’s also important to note that students aren’t watching videos for the entire class time — they watch the videos intermittently, between solving problems on the board and working in groups, and answering Mitchell’s questions.

Here’s a short video by Lenny Gonzalez showing what that looks like.

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Tech Tools, HMH-Fuse Pilot Study, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, iPad, Presidio Middle School
January 27, 2011 | 1:00 PM | By

What Do Students Like About the iPad?

Eighth-grade students at the Presidio Middle School are trying out using the iPad instead of the textbook as part of a pilot study. Here’s what they have to say about it.


Lenny Gonzalez


KATE NAKATO

You can watch videos and it explains stuff to you. The “view in motion” goes step by step with you and I can go back and understand stuff. And it’s easy to carry, it’s not heavy like a book.

Q. When you get stuck on a problem, how’s the iPad different from a book?

With a book, I would just skip it, and wait to figure out what’s happening in class for Ms. Mitchell to explain. But now I can go back and look at examples. It’s actually more fun than a book.  A book’s kind of boring.

Sometimes I could be lazy, so I wouldn’t go online, so this is right there on the next page. The videos are my favorite.

Q. But do you think the videos are helping you learn or they’re just making it easy to get the answer?

It helps me because it shows me how the steps go.




KYLE LEE

It’s a lot more fun. You can have notes that may be essential for tests, or a graphing calculator which is cool. I have a math game app, which is also fun.

I watch the videos. They help me understand a little more. They give you step by step instructions. Sometimes I don’t understand the step-by-step the teacher gives me, but I watch the videos over and over again, and I can get it when I need the help.

Plus it’s a lot lighter than the math book. It’s fun. My backpack is big everyday.



JEFFREY FUNG

It’s easier, a lot lighter, and you can access videos a lot faster than going on the Web and signing into accounts.

Usually when a person’s explaining it, it’s a lot easier to listen to. But when you’re reading it on paper, you actually have to think more about what’s on the paper.

Q. Which way you think you learn better?

With video, it’s a lot faster. And sometimes the video would say something extra, so I’d learn something more than what’s just in the textbook.

Q. How is the teacher different with the iPad than with the book?

She’s telling us to watch more video, but she’s also talking more.

Q. Do you like algebra?

Yeah, it’s pretty fun once you get it, but the learning process is a long time.


KIANA MOODY

I learn a lot more and a lot faster with an iPad because we get to watch videos. But I’m gonna be kind of sad when we turn them in.

I like that we can watch videos, and the questions are multiple choice so it’s a little bit easier to answer.

Q. Are the questions easier or easier to work the problems?

The problems are the same as in the book, but it makes it more fun because you’re using an iPad, it makes you kind of like do it more.

Because it’s like having a teacher at home. You can watch it anytime you want to. I use it for homework and to study for tests.

Q. Is there anything you would change about it?

I would like it to be able to zoom in because the questions are smaller than they are in the book.

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Research, Tech Tools, Apple, HMH-Fuse Pilot Study, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, iPad, Presidio Middle School
January 27, 2011 | 10:00 AM | By

Teaching With a Tablet: One Educator’s Experience

Lenny Gonzalez

Teacher Jeannetta Mitchell

For more detail about my visit to the Presidio Middle School’s iPad algebra class, here’s the complete Q&A with eighth-grade teacher Jeannetta Mitchell. She talks about the practicalities of forgoing the traditional textbook and seeing students find different ways of learning the material.

Far from being afraid of the technology — or believing that it will be the beacon of hope — this veteran teacher is a pragmatist. She’s determined to find the best way to grab her students’ interest and get them to enjoy learning.

Q. Do you think the iPad is actually changing the way students learn?

A. I definitely believe it’s changing the way they learn. The iPad is more than just a textbook. It has example videos to watch, so if I’m teaching in class and explaining something, they take notes. They think they understand, they go home, they might forget to do something or they’re not sure. They watch the video at home and it’s a teacher explaining the very same concept. So it’s like taking the teacher home with them.

It wasn’t the magic wand that was going to do everything for them, that they still had to think.

Given the fact that it’s on an iPad, they’re more apt to use it. Because the other students using print textbooks who have the same access to the videos online but who are not using iPads, they have to go to the computer and the Internet. And a kid doing homework at home, they’re not going to go to the computer, find the site, put in their user name and password. They’re not going to bother, because they think, “She’ll just explain it to me tomorrow.” But the kid with the iPad — it’s right there. All they have to do is hit a couple of buttons and watch the video. They’re more apt to use it. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Research, Tech Tools, Apple, HMH-Fuse Pilot Study, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, iPad, Presidio Middle School
January 26, 2011 | 1:14 PM | By

A Day in the Life of the iPad Classroom

Lenny Gonzalez

“This is not a magic wand. This just makes it more fun for them to learn.”

Halfway through a year-long pilot study using iPads instead of textbooks, a San Francisco eighth-grade algebra class is showing signs of every teacher’s dream: the spark of engagement in her students’ eyes.

Jeannetta Mitchell, a veteran teacher of 20 years, is encouraged by what she sees so far. “This is not a magic wand,” she says. “This just makes it more fun for them to learn. Nobody’s just sitting there writing down the answer, saying I don’t know how I got there. They know how they got there.”

During my visit to her class last Friday, it was apparent that she was a big part of the reason they understood those problems. Mitchell walked up and down the aisles of the class for the entire duration of the period, asking questions, offering explanations, and giving one-on-one help when it was needed.

The students never had a chance to tune her out – they were constantly being asked to participate one way or another, whether it was working out problems on the whiteboard (not interactive), watching instructional videos on the iPad, or working in groups.

If the goal of learning is to figure out the “how” and not just the correct answer, then the gadget is doing its job.

The class at Presidio Middle School is part of a study of a 1,000 California students, 400 of who are learning algebra with iPads. The pilot program for the iPad algebra application was developed by textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and follows the traditional textbook page by page.

But one of the differences between the book and the app is that students can watch videos of instructors explaining each problem as many times as they need in order to understand.

“That’s one of the best things about the iPad as opposed to the book,” Mitchell says. “It shows how to solve. The textbook just has answers in the back, no explanations as to how to get there.” Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Learning Methods, Research, Tech Tools, HMH-Fuse Pilot Study, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, iPad