Educational Technology: infographic

Showing posts with label infographic. Show all posts

New Visual: 25 Success Features Characterizing 21st Century Teachers

December 9, 2014
Here is a good visual that features some of the things successful teachers do differently. This infgraphic is based on an article written by Julie DeNeen which I would refer you to for more details on each of the 25 ideas included below. Read the list and see the ones that resonate with you and also identify the ones missing in your teaching pedagogy.

Here is a quick round-up of the 25 things successful teachers do differently:

Successful teachers have clear objectives
Successful teachers have a sense of purpose
Successful teachers are able to live without immediate feedback
Successful teachers know when to listen to students and when to ignore them
Successful teachers have a positive attitude
Successful teachers expect their students to succeed
Successful teachers have a sense of humor
Successful teachers use praise authentically
Successful teachers know how to take risks
Successful teachers are consistent
Successful teachers are reflective
Successful teachers seek out mentors of their own
Successful teachers communicate with parents
Successful teachers enjoy their work
Successful teachers adapt to student needs
Successful teachers welcome change in the classroom
Successful teachers take time to explore new tools
Successful teachers give their students emotional support
Successful teachers are comfortable with the unknown
Successful teachers are not threatened by parent advocacy
Successful teachers bring fun into the classroom
Successful teachers teach holistically
Successful teachers never stop learning
Successful teachers break out of the box
Successful teachers are masters of their subject

A Good Visual on The Benefits of Music Education

11:02 PM infographic

November 13, 2014
For those out there who debase Humanities and Arts, evidence on the importance of subjects pertaining to these disciplines on the overall intellectual, mental and emotional wellbeing of learners is amply proliferating. Today we are taking a close look at the benefits of music education on students. According to University of Florida, music learning is a highly engaging learning task that has several benefits including :

Benefits to the brain and general learning skills

Improve reading skills
A better vocabulary
Stronger neural activation in native language
Enhanced fine motor skills
Superior working and long term memory

Benefits to academic achievement
Improves listening ability and allow children to more effectively filter out noise in a loud classroom.

Read on to learn more about the other benefits of music education. Enjoy

Via : elearning infographics

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This Is Your Kid on Screens Infographic)

10:15 PM infographic

November 6, 2014
Technology has become an essential part of our kids lives. They depend on it to do almost everything from studying to gaming and now social networking. As such, technology takes so much of their waking time and exposes them to several mental and physical hazards. Being exposed to the screen light for a prolonged period of time each day can result in some severe eye and heart problems. . Worse than that, excessive use of technology is now associated with sleep disruption and short attention span.

The visual below from Huffington Post features 8 mind-blowing facts on the impact of screens on our kids and teens. The purpose of the visual is not to scare you away from technology but rather help you envision better ways for your kids to use technology with the minimum negative side effects possible. Some of these ways are featured under the visual which you can access from this link.

Interesting Visual Featuring 6 Instructional Strategies That Sticks

7:04 PM infographic

September 30, 2014
I love these witty quips that ASCD intermittently share with the education community in the form of visually appealing infographics. The recent visual they shared in this regard relates to the topic of issue number two of Education Leadership magazine. Instruction That Sticks is a beautiful visual that features 6 quotations from leading thinkers and educationists. The quotes , different as they are in their scope, each speak to one of the essential areas in teaching methodology. Think of them as tips to help you better conceptualize your teaching strategy to meet the learning needs of your students.

Here is a quick round-up of these 6 quotes. You can download this infographic in PDF format from this link. Enjoy

1- "Rooting around in memory, trying (perhaps struggling) to remember something, is actually a great way to ensure that the memory sticks. " Daniel T. Willingham,p.10

2-"The essential element of cooperative learning is individual accountability for all team members." Robert E. Salvin,p. 22

3- "Teaching for understanding demands going beyond basic facts and procedures to ask, why do we do this? Why does this make sense?" Mayilyn Burns,p. 64.

4- "When students have clearly articulated learning targets, they begin to see learning as growing a body of knowledge and skills, rather than completing a series of assignments." Susan M. Brookkhart and Connie M. Moss, p.28

5- "Engaging students in literate conversations with their peers is a powerful instructional strategy for fostering reading comprehension". Richard l. Allington, p. 16

6-"As we walk around the classroom, what we choose to focus on, how long we spend with each team or individual, and what we choose to say or not say has crucial instructional value". Bradley A. Ermeling and Genevieve Graff-Ermeling, p.55

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An Insider Look Into The Brain of Struggling Readers (Poster)

9:54 PM infographic

September 22, 2014
There is a wide variety of factors that affect students literacy development. These factors can be divided into external and internal factors. The external part relates to things such as home environment, access to books, the social and economic standing of the family…etc. The internal factors relate to attitudes, emotions, psychological make-up and most importantly, the physiology of the brain.

As is shown in the beautiful visual below created by We Are teachers, struggling readers have certain brain peculiarities that are usually not found in normal students. These brain differences are part of why these students are struggling readers after all, but the great thing about this is that science proves that these brain differences can be redressed. The infographic below captures some interesting facts about the brain of struggling readers, how it works, and the different ways to help struggling readers become better readers.

Here are some of the facts that stood out to me from this visual:

Struggling readers suffer from an underdeveloped left brain part which is mainly responsible for phonological processing (creating connections between letters and sounds or phonemes).
For struggling readers, the WERNICKE'S Area (the area responsible for storing vocabulary and sounds) shows less activity and may even get inactive.This means that for some kids, every word they come across is a new word for them.
Auditory-processing problems might be behind some of the problems struggling readers face. When something interrupts the brain's ability to process sounds, it can be difficult to distinguish between words like rock, rocks, and rocked as an example.

Access the full downloadable version of this graphic from this LINK.

Awesome Poster Featuring 7 Ways to Engage Students in Class

7:55 PM infographic, student engagement resources

September, 2014
One of the daunting challenges facing each (new) teacher centres around getting students engaged in classroom learning. In a digitally focused age where focus gives way to multitasking, attention deficit becomes the current currency. I have already featured some of the techniques to increase students engagement in previous posts, today I am sharing with you 7 more tips from Reading Horizon. These 7 tips are also included in a beautiful visual below.

1- Use the 10:2 method
This means that after each 10 minutes of classroom instruction you provide students with 2 minutes to reflect, show what they learned, engage in mini discussions, ask questions …etc

2- Incorporate movements into your lessons
This is about about engaging students motor skills in thinking and learning. Instead of answering a question while being seated in their desks, students can move to a certain spot in class, go to the board..etc to answer the question.

3- Pick up the pace
According to Reading Horizons, several educational research studies (Carnine & Fink, 1978; Williams, 1993; Ernsbarger et al., 2001) have debunked the myth that the slower the instruction process the better the learning. According to these studies, a quickened instructional pace can also have some positive impact on students learning in that it provides them with a varied set of opportunities to engage, respond, and reflect.

4-Provide frequent and effective feedback
As I mentioned in 5 research-based tips to giving effective feedback, a timely feedback makes the whole difference in students learning in that it consolidates their learning and decreases the likelihood of making mistakes.

5- Allow students 5-7 seconds of ‘think time’ when asking a question
Always make sure you provide a reasonable amount of wait time for students to think before they can answer.

6- At the end of a lesson have students use the 3-2-1 method of summarizing
This is a summative method that allows students to recapitulate what they have learned. They can do this through writing the 3 things they have learned from the lesson, share two interesting things that stood out to them from the lesson, and pose a question about what was taught.

7- Periodically pause mid-sentence
By allowing students to fill in your unfinished sentences, you make sure they are following up with what your teaching.

Source: Reading Horizon

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7 Tips on how to Drive Students Motivation

7:59 PM infographic

August 30, 2014
Here is another awesome back-to-school resource. This is basically a graphic from ASCD featuring seven reminders on how to drive motivation. These reminders are quotes from popular thinkers which provide some smart tips on how to ignite learners motivation. Below is a round-up of these 7 reminders and you can download this free poster from this link.

Students pose two fundamental questions that relate to motivation to learn: Does the teacher see me? And how does the teacher see me? ( Carol Ann)
Rewards, punishments, incentives, threats, and other external strategies create finishers, not learners. ( Richard Curwin)
A key ingredient in fuelling passion to learn is making sure students feel intellectually challenged. ( Stevi Quate and John McDermott)
When students are focused on goals that they had a hand in choosing, it brings reading engagement, motivation, and progress t a whole new level.( Jennifer Serravallo)
Teachers must adopt the mind-set that there's no such thing as laziness. If a student appears lazy, there's something else going that we can't see. ( Rick Wormeli)
When students know there are supports in place to keep them from free-falling into failure, they're much more likely to take risks to deepen their learning. ( Robyn Jackson and Allison Zmuda)
We think control is going to make something better. But people have only two reactions to control: They comply, or they defy. ( Daniel Pink)

7 Icebreakers to Use with Students in The First Week of The New School Year

5:03 PM infographic

August, 2014
looking for some icebreakers to use with your students? The graphic below created by Busy Teacher features 7 practical icebreaker activities you can employ in your class using Post-it notes. These activities are:

Hidden treasure
Write several icebreaker questions on the sticky side of post-it notes and stick them to the board. Each students takes turns choosing 1 sticky note and answering the question on the back. He then chooses another student to answer the same question.

Two truths and a life
Give each student 3 post-it nots. On 2 notes, she writes something true about herself, on the third- something false. Students share in groups of 4-5 and try to guess which statement is each player's lie.

Question mixer
Write the name of a well known person on a sticky note. Stick a note to each student's back. Students ask classmates 1 yes/no question at a time until they have figured out who is on their back.

Where are you from?
For a class of internationals, give each person a post-it not flag to place on their home country on your classroom world map. After everyone has placed their post-it, students try to guess whose note is whose

Get to know you
Have each student write 5 facts about him/herself on a post-it note, then put the notes on the board. Choose one and read it aloud. Try to guess who wrote it. When you get the right S, that person takes a turn with the remaining notes. Continue until all the note are gone.

A matched set
Students write 5 fun facts about themselves, turn the paper in to you. Write each fact on a post-it along with a matching one with that student's name. When students are not in the room, put the post-it all around the room. Students race to match the names with the correct facts.

All star class
Have each student draw a self portrait and display them on a bulletin board in class. Each person writes a positive adjective describing each of his classmates on a star shaped sticky not and sticks it to the self portrait. Do this activity in 1 day or over a period of time, let students take their portraits home.

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Excellent Visual Summarizing The Main Learning Theories

5:03 PM infographic

August 4, 2014
All of us who are working in the field of education are operating from a given theoretical perspective that, knowingly or unknowingly, informs our practice. This perspective is also shaped by the ontological and epistemological stances to reality and knowledge underlying theory. We have all been introduced in the course of our careers as teachers and educators to various learning theories and most of us would easily identify the key theories that have stood the test of time (constructivism, connectivism, behaviourism, social theory…etc). Having a fair understanding of the different theories that are at work in the world of pedagogy and teaching can help teachers make informed decisions as to the teaching methods that work best for their teaching situation. It also enables them to make better choices about how to approach and diversify their instructional strategies in such a way that meets the different learning needs of theirs students.

If you need a good refresher of the most salient learning theories that inform much of the learning and teaching practice, the visual below is a great place to start with. It succinctly summarizes the major theoretical foundations that have shaped the education literature over years.

All thanks go back to Suvi Salo through whom I discovered this resource.

Check out the original full visual from this link.

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9 Characteristics of A Leading Educator

10:18 PM infographic

July 28, 2014
A few days ago I came across a post published by Teachthought on the 9 roles for teachers that lead. This post was based on a book that has recently been published under the title "The Educator As A Maker Educator". The book is authored by Jackie Gerstein (most of you would recognize her from her popular blog User Generated Education). As the book was both cheap ($2,90 on Amazon) and short (only 61 pages) I bought it and read on it on my kindle the same day. This book is an intellectual journey into the depths of the theoretical ideas that informs progressive education. It highlights the role of educator as a maker, which is an idea rooted in the experiential insights of John Dewey.

The concept of educator as a maker is further illustrated by the 9 roles Jackie thinks should be present in every teacher who is to lead a successful learning experience. These roles are :

1. Process Facilitator for producing, assessing, developing, creating, revisiting, revising

2. Lead Learner

3. Safe Environment Manager–creating environments where learners feel free to take risks

4. Relationship Enabler & Builder for face-to-face, online PLNs, and mentors

5. Technology Tutor

6. Tour Guide Of Learning Possibilities

7. Facilitator Feedback

8. Normalizer of ambiguous problem finding and solving; framer of “failure as iterative”

9. Resource Suggester and provider

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Handy Visual: Differentiation Is Vs Differentiation Is Not

12:19 AM infographic

July 21, 2014
Here is an interesting visual on the concept of differentiation in education which I came across on a tweet by Karen Friedman. This visual is created by ASCD and outlines some key differences between what differentiation is and what it is not. Have a look and share with us what you think of it.

Differentiation is :

An idea as old as effective teaching
Lessons designed around patterns of student need
Use of whole-group, small-group and individual tasks based on content and student needs
Necessary for success with standards for a board range of learners
Valuing and planning for diversity in heterogenous settings
Purposeful of flexible grouping
A student-focused way of thinking about teaching and learning
Teaching up
At the core of quality teaching
Designed to address learning and affective needs that all students have

Differentiation is not:

Tracking grouping students into class by ability
Incompatible with standards
Bluebirds, buzzards and wombats ( ability grouping within a classroom)\Dumbing down teaching for some students
Something extra on top of good teaching
A set of instructional strategies
Mostly for students identified as gifted
Mostly for students with identified learning challenges
IEPs for all
Individualized instruction
A synonym for group work

Excellent Periodic Table of Visualizations for Teachers

12:41 AM infographic

July, 2014
There are a variety of forms in which visual representation is materialized. Knowing these forms will enable you to diversify the visual channels through which you communicate information to your students. To this end, I am sharing with you this wonderful periodic table that features different visualization methods. When you Hover your mouse on any of the boxes in this periodic table, a pop-up picture will be displayed showing the name and a sample of the visualization.

According to this periodic table shared by Visual Literacy, visualizations are divided into 6 categories:

Data Visualization
Data visualization includes:

Continuums
Tables
Cartesian coordinates
Pie chats
Line charts
Bar charts
Area charts
Histogram
Scatterplot
Tukey box plot
Spectogram

Information visualization
Information visualization includes:

Radar chart cobweb
Parallel coordinates
Hyperbolic tree
Cycle diagram
Timeline
Clustering
Flow chart
Petri net
Entity relationship diagram
Information lense
Sankey diagram
Data map
Treemap
Cone tree
Data flow diagram
Semantic network

Concept visualization
Concept visualization includes:

Mindmap
Square of oppositions
Concentri cirlces
Argument slide
Swim lane diagram
Gantt diagram
Perspectives diagram
Dilemma diagram
Concept map
Concept fan
Critical path method
Decision tree
Toulmin map
Cause-effect chains
Minto pyramide technique
Layer chart
Soft system modelling
Synergy map
Force field map
ibis argumentation map
Process event chains
Pert chart
Evocative knowledge map
Vee diagram
Concept skeleton
Flight plan
Communication diagram
Meeting trace

Metaphor visualization
Metaphor visualization includes:

Metro map
Temple
Story template
Tree
Bridge
Funnel
Parameter ruler
Iceberg
Heaven 'n' hell chart

Compound visualization
Compound visualization includes:

Graphic facilitation
Cartoon
Rich picture
Knowledge map
Learning map
Infomural

Strategy visualization
Strategy visualization includes:

Supply demand curve
Performance charting
Strategy map
Organization chart
House of quality
Failure tree
magic quadrant
Life-cycle diagram
Porter's five forces
s-cucle
Stakeholder map
Ishikawa diagram
Technology roadmap
Spray diagram
Taps
Hype-cycle
Value chain
Strategy canvas
Bcg matrix
Decisión discovery diagrama
Affinity diagram
Zwicky's morphological box
Strategic game board
Portfolio diagram
Edgeworth box

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Teachers' Visual Guide to Twitter Chats

12:57 PM infographic, Twitter guides

June 25, 2014
In an earlier post here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning I talked about some of the ways teachers can leverage the power of Twitter for their professional development. One of the things I mentioned is the use of Twitter chats. I am a big fan of these chats and though I don't attend them regularly but I always check the archive to catch up with what teachers discuss and share on them. In fact several of the ideas and tools I share with you here come from those chats.

Today when I came across this infographic on Twitter chats I thought it would make a great follow-up post for my previous article. In this visual, Teamtait ( author of Edutait) provides some practical ideas to help teachers make the most out of Twitter chats. He starts with outlining some of the reasons why teachers should consider taking part in these chats, then moved to the ways to follow a Twitter chat. Next, he features the popular education chats on Twitter together with the time they take place and he concluded with useful tips to effectively use Twitter chats for professional development purposes.