active learning?

Active Learning

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A presentation I gave last September on Active Learning. Feel free to download and reuse it.

Comment: What I see is mere activity masquerading as learning | Education | The Guardian

"Genuine active learning ensures students gain a thorough conceptual understanding. It makes them reflect and check they have properly understood. It encourages them to test their understanding by applying the learning in different contexts. This is sometimes called deep learning."

This comment by Rosmary Clarke in the education supplement today really caught my eye, as this encompasses the main reasons for new builds (incorporating flexible learning spaces) and effective use of learning platforms (VLEs)! It fundamentally exemplifies good teaching/learning by ensuring differentiation is attained by group work, peer learning, etc.

The Guardian today also featured a mini supplement covering the building schools for the future (BSF) programme currently sweeping the country. It was encouraging to read of some local stories of good practice from Walsall, Telford, and Solihull. It's all about change management and supporting staff in the process. The supplemnet also covered in depth the option for local autorities to opt out of a managed ICT service for their schools (or consortia). Most have opted to saty in which means rich pickings for RM & other preferred suppliers. This links with my previous post on a managed service and Open source solutions. It appears thay BECTa & the BSF programme have already decided what's good for all - a managed service! Is that a good idea? It could be, but one size does not fit all, and where does the likes of Mahara , Mahoodle, and Magoogle fit into RM's plans? I constantly argue for the option to consider buying in external expertise for skill and cashh strapped orgnaisations, but this is the opposite end of that nightmare! surely there must be a middle ground in these two extremes?

BTW , I blogged this using SCRIBEFIRE a plugin for the Firefox web browser, whilst surfing the web in the way to a meeting , using my laptop + mobile connection. Truely deeply mobile & lovin' it :o)