Tryangulation

How can ICTs benefit learning environments?

Here's another resource I'm adding as a footnote to my post from 6 Feb 2006, How much have we learned about ICTs in education. This one's entitled Information and communication technologies in schools: a handbook for teachers on how ICT can create new, open learning environments.  To quote the Eldis summary,

This handbook is principally designed for teachers and teacher educators who are currently working with, or would like to know more about, ICT in schools. The handbook focuses on how ICT can create new, open learning environments and their instrumental role in shifting the emphasis from a teacher to a learner-centred environment -- where teachers move from being the key source of information and transmitter of knowledge to becoming a collaborator and co-learner.

Click here to read a summary and download the PDF document.

20 Tech skills for every teacher

T.H.E. journal has an article titled 20 Technology Skills Every Educator Should Have. I'll bet that when you look at the list, you will find several that many teachers would not consider essential. Nevertheless it's a great website to start learning about some of those technologies you've been curious about, since it includes links to online tutorials and other web-based resources. Click here to read the article.

Learning theory for the rest of us

The Creating Passionate Users blog has a great article by Kathy Sierra titled Crash course in learning theory. It's a little long, but reads fast because it's so well written and entertaining.  The article is actually as much a guide to learning praxis as it is to learning theory. In fact, I'm filing this under the Communication category as well as Learning because there's so much practical advice that's useful for meeting presentations and classroom instruction too.

How much have we learned about ICTs in education?

A report was released recently by the World Bank's Infodev program which attempts to assess how much has been learned so far about the use and effectiveness of information and communication technologies (ICT) in education. Such a report could be useful in setting priorities, planning new initiatives, and making sure program funds go where they will have the most impact.

Sadly, even though so much has been done, ICT programs have tended to operate in relative isolation from what's gone before. Lessons learned in one program don't get applied in other programs, and there are disconnects between theories about ICT's potential contribution to education and the actual design and implementation of programs. 

Just as there is a frequent disconnect between education and learning (and even between education and our learning about education), it seems there is also a disconnect between using ICTs and learning how they might be used as a tool for education reform. Instead, they have become a more expensive vehicle for the same old education.

Click here for an Eldis summary of the report Knowledge maps: ICTs in education, and to download the report in PDF.

For more on this topic, click here for another Infodev report, Monitoring and evaluation of ICT in education projects: a handbook for developing countries.

Update (26 Feb 2006): Eldis now has available another publication, Information and communication technologies in schools: a handbook for teachers on how ICT can create new, open learning environments. Click here for the summary and link to the PDF.

How to learn from your mistakes

I've been reading The Art of Project Management by Scott Berkun, taking it slowly and trying to absorb the practical wisdom in it.  I recently found out that Scott also blogs, and occasionally writes short pieces that complement the book.  One of the best so far is How to learn from your mistakes. Among the points he makes are:

• accepting responsibility makes learning possible
• observe what small mistakes, in sequence, contributed to the bigger mistake

We all make mistakes, so the sooner we accept that reality, the sooner we can begin learning. Scott writes:

The kind of mistakes you make define you. The more interesting the mistakes, the more interesting the life.

Click here for more.