Coiner of the term “Digital Native” and author of seven books and over 100 essays, Marc has spoken in over 40 countries, and his writings have been translated into a dozen languages. He currently promotes a new civilization-level alternative in global education, championing an emerging new “Real-World-Impact Education” paradigm that more directly benefits students and the world in which they live.
Previously in his career Marc taught French, mathematics and music and headed an alternative school in New York City, worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group (and was its first Product Development Director), and founded and ran a computer game company. Marc holds an MBA degree from Harvard, with distinction, and a Master of Arts in Teaching degree from Yale.
his new education plan would work in practice. What would it take to get there from here?
Bullying in the workplace has been defined as:
The repeated actions and practices (of a perpetrator) that are directed to one or more
workers, which are unwanted by the victim, which may be done deliberately, or
unconsciously, but clearly cause humiliation, offense, distress, may interfere with job
performance, and/or cause an unpleasant working environment.
Bullying most often occurs within an organization where negative aspects of that
organizations’ culture aggregate.
The challenge for the library administrator is to identify where these accumulations are, and take steps to re-create the culture of that area and change the systems that allow bullying to occur. This is an essential function of an effective administraton
Bullies will almost always deny that what they are doing is bullying, particularly when the stated goal – or directive sent down from higher administrators – is to
move the organization “forward.”
Bullying includes but is not limited to unreasonable criticism of job performance, attempts to
control workplace interactions between peers, and creating unwritten policies. Other bullying
behaviors include assigning unrealistic workloads, ignoring and ridiculing suggestions about
library operations, and excessive monitoring that leaves employees excluded and isolated, not to mention exhausted.
Librarians would do well to honestly reflect and determine if they are participating in
bullying behaviors, and/or are watching it happen without attempting to take steps to call it out
for what it is.
Library administrators should be vigilant about identifying bullying and addressing it before it becomes ingrained in the institutional culture.
As Reed notes, “Toxic leadership, like leadership in general, is more easily described then
defined, but terms like self-aggrandizing, petty, abusive, indifferent to unit climate, and
interpersonally malicious seem to capture the concept.” 17 Distressingly, a library with a culture of bullying corrupts those who serve it, marginalizing those with initiative and new ideas and rewarding the sycophants. Ultimately, bullying creates a continuous fear of failure, so people work to avoid being bullied instead of attending to their assigned tasks. The result is an ineffective library that falls well short of its intended mission
21st-century trends such as makerspaces, flipped learning, genius hour, gamification, and more.
EdLeader21, a national network of Battelle for Kids.has developed a toolkit to guide districts and independent schools in developing their own “portrait of a graduate” as a visioning exercise. In some communities, global citizenship rises to the top of the wish list of desired outcomes. Others emphasize entrepreneurship, civic engagement, or traits like persistence or self-management.
ISTE Standards for Students highlight digital citizenship and computational thinking as key skills that will enable students to thrive as empowered learners. The U.S. Department of Education describes a globally competent student as one who can investigate the world, weigh perspectives, communicate effectively with diverse audiences, and take action.
Frameworks provide mental models, but “don’t usually help educators know what to do differently,” argues technology leadership expert Scott McLeod in his latest book, Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning. He and co-author Julie Graber outline deliberate shifts that help teachers redesign traditional lessons to emphasize goals such as critical thinking, authenticity, and conceptual understanding.
1. Wondering how to teach and assess 21st-century competencies? The Buck Institute for Education offers a wide range of resources, including the book, PBL for 21st Century Success: Teaching Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity (Boss, 2013), and downloadable rubrics for each of the 4Cs.
2. For more strategies about harnessing technology for deeper learning,listen to the EdSurge podcast featuring edtech expert and author Scott McLeod.
3. Eager to see 21st-century learning in action? Getting Smart offers suggestions for using school visits as a springboard for professional learning, including a list of recommended sites. Bob Pearlman, a leader in 21st century learning, offers more recommendations.
According to the comparison, the use of gamification elements in Western learning platforms and apps is balanced and well-developed, both in comprehensive and targeted ones. Conditions are different in China.The use of gamification elements is balanced and well-developed in targeted platforms and apps. But for comprehensive ones, it is not balanced or developed enough, especially in regards to online higher education.
Discussion and Future Work
Gamification in China has been combined witheducation for a long time, but not much in the aspect ofhuman-computer interaction. In the 1990s, peopleoften played games or held parties, while now peopleprefer online entertainment. From the comparisonabove, it can be inferred that the research ofgamification in China has laid a good theoreticalfoundation. We are still trying to apply gamification tothe area of online education, which has already madesome progress. However, the use of gamification isuneven, especially in comprehensive learning platformsand we started a bit late. In this respect, China hasfallen behind Western countries in certain ways ofapplying gamification.
Do we need to pay for services such as Turnitin? Are there comparable services for free? Do we need services such as those ones or we rather have faculty and students educated on plagiarism and faculty trained to detect plagiarism? Is it supposed to be a “mechanical” process or educational activity?
These questions following a posting of today from the Educause Blended and Online Learning Group
Are any of you using a non-Turnitin plagiarism checker that you’re happy with (besides Google or Grammarly’s free service)?
Thanks,
Jenn Stevens (she, her, hers)
Director, Instructional Technology Group
403C Walker Building
Emerson College | 120 Boylston St | Boston, MA 02116
(617) 824-3093
At Ursinus, we use PlagScan, which is affordable and meets our needs.
We haven’t been able to get it to fully integrate within our LMS yet but hopefully we will be able to soon.
Christine Iannicelli
Instructional Technology Librarian
Library and IT
Library 124
Phone: 610-409-3466 ciannicelli@ursinus.edu
interview with Christopher Loss, one of the editors.
What role does technology play in some of the convergences that occur or are happening?
There’s a great essay in the collection by June Ahn, which deals with the idea of technology as a key mediating source and mechanism for the creation of various kinds of convergences between and among different sectors (my note: K12 and higher ed).
Americans like to see themselves as among the best in the world in education. But lately, the education leaders have been looking abroad for ideas, I think. What can we learn from countries that do have closer links between K-12 and higher ed?
Today, despite major advances in ways to measure learning, we still don’t have common definitions for project-based learning or performance assessment.
In the absence of agreed-upon definitions for this evolving field, Education Week reporters developed a glossary
Proficiency-based or competency-based learning: These terms are interchangeable. They refer to the practice of allowing students to progress in their learning as they master a set of standards or competencies. Students can advance at different rates. Typically, there is an attempt to build students’ ownership and understanding of their learning goals and often a focus on “personalizing” students’ learning based on their needs and interests.
Project-based learning: Students learn through an extended project, which may have a number of checkpoints or assessments along the way. Key features are inquiry, exploration, the extended duration of the project, and iteration (requiring students to revise and reflect, for example). A subset of project-based learning is problem-based learning, which focuses on a specific challenge for which students must find a solution.
Standards-based grading: This refers to the practice of giving students nuanced and detailed descriptions of their performance against specific criteria or standards, not on a bell curve. It can stand alone or exist alongside traditional letter grading.
Performance assessment: This assessment measures how well students apply their knowledge, skills, and abilities to authentic problems. The key feature is that it requires the student to produce something, such as a report, experiment, or performance, which is scored against specific criteria.
Portfolio: This assessment consists of a body of student work collected over an extended period, from a few weeks to a year or more. This work can be produced in response to a test prompt or assignment but is often simply drawn from everyday classroom tasks. Frequently, portfolios also contain an element of student reflection.
Exhibition: A type of performance assessment that requires a public presentation, as in the sciences or performing arts. Other fields can also require an exhibition component. Students might be required, for instance, to justify their position in an oral presentation or debate.
Performance task: A piece of work students are asked to do to show how well they apply their knowledge, skills, or abilities—from writing an essay to diagnosing and fixing a broken circuit. A performance assessment typically consists of several performance tasks. Performance tasks also may be included in traditional multiple-choice tests.
Under the Dewey Decimal System that revolutionized and standardized book shelving starting in 1876, nonfiction essentially already gets the genrefication treatment with, for example, Music located in the 780s and Paleontology in the 560s. Yet most fiction is shelved in one big clump alphabetized by author’s last name.
Many librarians say the “search hurdle” imposed by Dewey classification (a system originally designed for adults) significantly reduces the odds of a child finding something new they’re likely to enjoy. In a genrefied library, on the other hand, a young reader standing near a favorite book need only stick out a hand to find more like it. (It’s a bit like the analog version of Amazon’s recommendation feature: “Customers who bought this item also bought”)
The Dewey-loyal also oppose genrefication in principle for, interestingly enough, the same reason others support it: self-sufficiency. Sure, they argue, kids might be better able to find a book independently in their school library, but what happens when they go to the public one? When they get to high school?
The debate has led to compromise positions. Some leave books for older students in the Dewey arrangement while genrefying for younger ones. Other librarians rearrange middle readers and young adult books but leave picture books shelved by author since it can be unclear how to categorize a story about a duck driving a tractor.
Maxwell Foxman