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"Brainstorming, for example, which has been practiced for decades in every boardroom and classroom across America, has been shown almost never to work. Brainstorming relies on the conceit that any idea is a good idea, and that feedback is the same as criticism which kills spontaneity. Both of these notions are completely false, and taken as the underpinnings of creativity, they yield surprisingly few and alarmingly thin suggestions in response to any group-think exercise."
Beth Dichter's insight:
So does brainstorming work? Check out the 2 minute video that looks at this issue (embedded in the post) as well as many other great resources including: * An infographic "Move Beyond Brainstorming" that provides suggestions for more effective group work and discusses the concept of "lateral thinking". * A second infographic "Are We Brainstorming the Wrong Way?" that looks at ways to generate ideas through interpersonal learning. * And one final infographic from Mindjet 'Between Minds" that provides "an ongoing taxonomy of team dynamics" by comparing the left brain and right brain. 
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"As educators, we constantly strive to prepare our students for the ‘real world’ that exists around them. We teach them how to read, write, and calculate. Then, of course, there are the less tangible skills we teach; such as how to work in a team, think critically, and be curious about the things they encounter each day. We want to prepare them to lead productive and successful lives once they leave us and enter into the realm of adulthood. But what lies ahead for our students in the future? Did educators of twenty years ago know that so much of our world would be based on computers and technology now? Could they have known what skills would be needed in the job market today?"
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post focuses on work published by Tony Wagner back in 2010 but the information is still relevant. Wagner interviewed CEOs of 100 major businesses and was able to come up with seven essential skills students should have for the 21st century (and yes, we are in this century). The skills are listed below and more information may be found in this post, which lists the skill and then discusses how to prepare students to meet this skill. * Critical Thinking and Problem Solving * Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence * Agility and Adaptability * Initiative and Entrepreneurship * Effective Oral and Written Communication * Accessing and Analyzing Information * Curiosity and Imagination
Mohini Lata's curator insight,
May 20, 2013 8:34 AM
As technology is becoming powerful and life changing how can we prepare students for the 21st century survival. The seven survival skills purposefully apply in a classroom. This links with Using Mathematical Higher order thinking - Critical Thinking and problem solving prepares students to see problems from different angles and formulate their own solutions. Collaboration encourages students to take on different roles. Agility and Adaptability – be willing to adapt to the changes around them.Initative and Entrepreneurship - always try. Effective Oral and written communication - how to speak confidently and clearly. Accessing and Analyzing Information- learn the difference between factual information and factual-sounding opinions. Curiosity and Imagination - teach them how to apply them creatively and purposefully. Technology has become an essential and important tool for education, helping teachers with their work and most importantly supporting the students. This also links with brief design technology and the digital technologies strand of the National Technologies Curriculum as students are taught how to use the technologies available to them.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Mark Gleeson takes an infographic that he learned about on Scoop-it and brings the discussion of leadership and leadership building into the classroom, by taking each of the eight leadership qualities in the infographic and discussing them at three levels (quoted below from the post): * Peer Leadership (School Leadership teams/Curriculum leadership teams or individuals) * Teacher-leading-Class and * Student Leadership The eight leadership qualities are: * Courage * Humility * Accountability * Trustworthy * Communication * Conviction * Collaboration * Aligned What made this post valuable to me was his discussion on each of the eight qualities within the framework of the three levels of leadership that are in our schools. You may find yourself asking questions about leadership in your school or district, and wondering how you might use this information within your classroom (or school if you are an adminstrator).
Sophie Colas's comment,
February 25, 2013 7:37 AM
A ces qualités nécessaires, j'ajouterai la maturité, la générosité et la duplicité.
Sophie Colas's curator insight,
February 25, 2013 7:37 AM
A ces qualités nécessaires, j'ajouterai la maturité, la générosité et la duplicité.
Sophie Colas's comment,
February 25, 2013 7:48 AM
Excusez-moi, toutes les qualités contraires à la duplicité : droiture et franchise. Oups
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"I believe that creativity is necessary in today’s classroom. In fact, creativity is one of the important 4 C’s (Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity) that make up part of the foundation of a 21st century education. The remaining foundation is of course another C (Significant Content). I believe that when you put all of these C’s together you get two more C’s which make up the 'Common Core'."
Beth Dichter's insight:
This post is the first in series and discusses free resources that may be stored on a local computer or a network. The list includes Scratch, Sketc-Up, Gimp, 3 free office suites, Alice, a variety of tools that will help you make movies and more. Most are described in some detail and there are links to additional resources to help you learn the tool. Additional posts will discuss Web 2.0 apps that may be used on the Internet (and across platforms), web apps and sites that promote literacy and student publication and web sites that promote student creativity.
Randy D. Nichols's curator insight,
January 15, 2013 9:30 AM
A good list to help you start (or continue) bulding a "digital toolbox" for multimodal compositions. (I will steal some of these ideas for my delicious links!)
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Why have your students work collaboratively? "Collaborative learning teams are said to attain higher levels of thinking and preserve information for longer times that students working individually." This post provides 20 suggestions to help collaborative groups work more effectively. A few are: * Establish group goals. * Keep groups mid-sized. * Build trust and promote open communication. * Consider the learning process asa part of the assessment. The post includes links to a variety of resources and each point has an explantion with additional information.
Channylt's curator insight,
April 7, 2014 10:56 AM
Great tips on how to facilitate collaborative learning. Learners that work collaborativley are engaged in their learning and have better learning outcomes. 
Marina Cousins's curator insight,
April 10, 2014 8:06 PM
I liked this article, as it highlighted to me the importance of collaborative learning is much better than individual learning. As I have mentioned several times, the learning and assessment that takes place within my workplace has a strong behaviourist foundation of learning and repeating key words and actions to pass an assessment (it is a very individual approach to learning).
Many of my colleagues view this experience of learning & assessment in a negative way. What are some of the ways to overcome this negative view of learning?
After reading this article, I will seriously consider using a collaborative learning style within my workplace (if I get the opportunity). The advantage of using real world problems or clinical incidents is that it offers the learner the opportunitity to improve their critical thinking skills and problem-solving ability.
Therefore, by using collaborative learning you can apply the following learning theories of cognitivism, constructivism, objectivism. 
Hazel Kuveya's curator insight,
April 10, 2014 9:22 PM
Keeping the groups at moderate levels will ensure an effective exchange of ideas and participation in all involved, I can echo the same statement that two heads are better than one. It is also interesting to learn that collaborative teams attain higher level thinking and preserve information for longer periods as compared to their individual counterparts., yes the use of technology makes collaborative learning manageable.
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A suggested but not exhaustive list of possible applications that may help foster 21st Century Skills in today's language learners. Although geared to language learners the applications suggested work well in any course. The skills listed (with applications to go with them) are: communication, collaboration, critical thinking and problem solving, creativity and innovation, information literacy, media literacy, technology literacy, flexibility and adaptability, iniative and self-direction, social and corss-cultural skills, productivity and accountability, and leadership and responsibility.
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"In an increasingly knowledge-based economy, where the daily tasks required in a large number of jobs require not repetitive button-pushing but independent and complex thinking, we are often exhorted to "be creative" or "use some creativity." Which would be fine, if creativity were a little dance one could do on command like a well-trained circus seal. But, for better or worse, the act of creation contains a certain morsel of irreducible mystery. It's intuitive and holistic, rather than analytical and linear (which is the gear we're usually in when we're struggling to get work done).' This post provides a list of eleven factors that impact creativity, each with an explanation. Some of the factors are: shame, ego, politics, collaborators and deadlines. For more information click through to the post.
Rona Lewis's curator insight,
February 7, 2014 7:06 PM
Some good points about what stops the creative flow...
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A look at how Wikipedia is "misunderstood because many educators have yet to recognize the distinction between Wikipedia as a tool for teaching and Wikipedia as a tool for research." Why use Wikipedia? This post suggests that the collaboration that takes place provides a number of incentives including (quoted from post): * Similar benefits to traditional writing assignments. * Digital literacy training. * Multi-layered feedback. The post also looks at using Wikipedia as a tool for research. This portion of the post is a response to some of the arguments made by Brian Proffitt's post that "recommended against Wikipedia's use in the classroom." The response suggests that the use of Wikipedia teaches one information literacy. More information may be found in the post.
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Have you considered using a wiki in your classroom to help students actively contribute to their learning? In this article Jason Bedell discusses his experiences using wikis with classes from Grade 4 though high school seniors and provides a variety of reasons. "The technology relies on the ideas of social constructivism that suggest that students consistently learn from one another, hone their own understanding, and actively create new knowledge in a discussion format, instead of passively receiving it in a typical lecture format..." He provides a video that show how to set up and use a wiki using Wikispaces, and discusses how wikis promote collaboration and help make connections (and they are great for sharing professional knowledge). If you would like to use wikis this year with your class this article will assist you.
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Project Based Learning - there are many views on this subject. This post provides a great diagram that helps to see the continua that one may consider when designing PBL. It looks at six issues: Trust (locus of control), Questioning, Collaboration, Content, Knowledge and Purpose. For example, with Trust the continua moves from teacher directed to student directed. Based on the project you may find that the location varies. A short description is provided for each of the six issues that you may want to consider as are additional resources.
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Find out how educators can make the most of today's 'small world' by turning classrooms into global communication centers and collaborating with fellow teachers and students from all over the world. This is a short article, with a link to a webinar by Alan November where he "proposes a pathway to a 21st century educational paradigm that is centered around information, collaboration, and empathy."
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Free tools from Microsoft. Engage your students, energize a lesson plan, and save time using free tools for photos, videos, collaboration, and education.
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So who would think that a graduate student at Columbia Teachers College would be able to write their dissertation as a comic? If you think comics may not work for you may change your mind as you read this interview.
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Beth Dichter's insight:
Ross Parker has posted another infographic that ties into an earlier one (that looked at Style Comparison and was posted in this Scoop.it). This one looks at mindsets and how there are similarities today in the mindsets of teachers and students. He states "The two visualisations below are part of an ongoing attempt to define my views on education, and make these accessible to my students, fellow teachers, parents and leaders." If you click through to the post you will also see the first infographic and you may download them in a variety of formats.
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"Welcome to a continuing series of posts based on the eight essential elements (BIE) that make up Project Based learning. In this post I would like to focus on "significant content. I have ten ideas..."
Beth Dichter's insight:
Gorman begins this post by providing a definition of Project Based Learning that looks at the final project as the "desert." He states "In true Project Based Learning the project uncovers and facilitates the learning of significant content. In PBL there is a balancing of learning that occurs through out the project duration." He discussed PBL in relation to the four C's (Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking, and Creativity) noting that often PBL becomes too focused on the four C's. There is also the need to make sure that there is sufficient scaffolding for the learners. To assist in learning how to plan there is list of ten ideas that may be considered in the planning process and the first three are listed below (quoted from the post): * The entry event should show a relationship to the Driving Question promoting a “need to know” of significant content. * The Driving Question should allow students to uncover the curriculum in a student friendly and understandable manner. * The PBL planning sheet for students should line up with significant content in the curricular area being studied and assessed. Gorman has also provided a link to a PBL Planning Reflection Sheet.
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We're hoping to save you some time by personally trying out these free video editing tools in hopes of making your life and projects a bit more magical.
Beth Dichter's insight:
Are you looking for a collaborative project that will engage students? How about having them create videos? This post provides information on five free editing tools, three for the PC and two for the Mac. Along with a description of the tool they also provide an idea for how to use the tool with project based learning (which is not required!). The tools listed are: For the PC: * Windows Movie Maker * Wax * StoryBoard Pro For the Mac: * iMovie (not free for the iPad) * Blender There are screenshots of the first four tools and there is a brief trailer for Blender.
Carmen Chavez, Ph.D.'s curator insight,
March 17, 2013 4:06 PM
VoiceThread, Wallwisher, Edmodo, ClassDojo, several tools to the entire PBL.
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What is the most important element in PBL unit? There are8 elements to choose from: * Significant Content * A Need to Know * A Driving Question * Student Voice and Choice * 21st Century Skills * Inquiry and Innovation * Feedback and Revision * Publicly Presented Product This post states that a driving question is most important. "If you find the right questions then most of the other factors identified are covered automatically." The question then becomes "How do you generate a great question and who is the right person to generate that question?" To this the answer would be the students. If this is an area where you are not sure how to work with students then look into the the work of the Right Question Institute (RQI) and their Question Formation Technique (QFT). To help you better understand this they provide a look at "how question generation was embedded at the heart of a PBL unit."
Victor Marín Navarro's curator insight,
March 16, 2013 8:59 AM
¿Cuáles son los elementos más importantes en un Proyecto de Aprendizaje? Aprendizaje significativo, necesidad de saber, un hilo conductor en forma de pregunta, aprendizaje activo por parte de los alumnos que implique elección, heramientas para el siglo XXI, descubrimiento e innovación, feed-back y revisión, presentación oral y pública del producto. 
Tamra Dollar's curator insight,
July 23, 2013 2:53 PM
PBL's begin with a driving question, one that is relevant to the learner and fosters engagement. Feedback is ongoing and essential for learner to happen.
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A look at why you might want to connect your students with students in other parts of the world (by two educators whom do this) as well as three resources to help you start on global collaboration. Five reasons with explanations are provided for the why, such as: * Working with students from different culture motivates students * It's easy to incorporate core curriculum lessons into global collaborations * It encourages problem solving For more information click through to the post.
RichardBulpittSchool 's curator insight,
November 4, 2014 11:44 PM
Collaboration for students on-line. Some motivational strategies.
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How do you assess 21st century skills? This post explores this issue and sugests that "the term 'assessment' needs to be examined. "At its core, assessment should be thought of as an opportunity to give feedback. Without giving students specific, targeted feedback on how they are performing these skills, students will have little opportunity to understand how to improve their level of creativity, become better researchers through increased information literacy skills, become better at collaborating with groups for project creation and problem solving, or develop good habits of mind to become self-directed learners." The question then becomes how do we effectively assess these skills? What criteria should be used? The post provides some suggestions as well as links to a number of resources.
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Have you wondered what Project-Based Learning? Are you interested in watching a short video by Common Craft, a well know organization that creates short animated films that discuss the key elements of the topic at hand? The Buck Institute for Education commissioned this video (and they are know for Project-Based Learning). Why concern yourself with Project-Based Learning? A key reason is that projects help promote 21st century learning including collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills.
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"In his book, 'Outliers: The Story of Success', Malcolm Gladwell hypothesizes that 10,000 hours of practice at something makes someone an expert, and if they can get those hours under their belt ahead of others..." If this is true, many young children today will have reached the expert level when they are 11 or 12. One question to ask, what does game based learning teach us? Think 21st Century skills. This post discusses the following skills and how game based learning helps to meet them. * Critical Thinking * Problem Solving * Collaboration/Communication * Digital Citizenship * ICT Literacy (defined in the post)
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What happens when you allow students to play 'games' in the classroom? Based on the games you may see problem solving skills, tinkering skills, basic physics, trial and error, collaboration, coaching, and more. This post by Will Richardson explores how games are on the rise in classrooms and the potential impact on student learning. Participatory games have been developed to help students learn curriculum while providing "a challange-based context for students to work within." Much more information may be found in this post.
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One of the most common laments that educators have is that our profession tends to isolate us from our peers. This is a list of 10 ideas that educators may use "to spark creative colloboration among...colleagues."
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"Twitter may have started off as a fun social media site for keeping up with friends and sharing updates about daily life, but it’s become much more than that for many users over the past few years as the site has evolved and grown...Whether you’re an academic or just interested in building your Twitter profile, keep reading to learn some tips and tricks that can help you take the first steps towards using Twitter for coursework, research, building a professional network, and beyond."
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Ever since video games found their way into arcades and homes across the country, the debate over whether they hold any educational merit or learning opportunity has been a fervent one. Today – with approximately 56 percent of households owning at least one gaming console – it has become more essential to assess what and how kids learn while playing video games, and if these tactics can be applied to other areas of education.
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The SCAMPER technique can help. http://www.brainstorming.co.uk/tutorials/scampertutorial.html