The two videos I choose were "Transforming Teaching and Learning with an Authentic Audience" by JTHS Ed Tech and Dan Meyer at TEDxNYED (videos posted below).
The first video exemplified how one high school transformed the teaching and learning process by providing an authentic audience for student work. Rather than turning in a paper or test and relying on a few comments from one teacher (only later to throw that same paper in the trash), students publish their work to student blog (platforms such as Kidblog or JTLearn). Now suddenly the audience changes to peers, teachers and people around the globe. Having an entire virtual audience, the kids work harder with much greater focus on what they're trying to accomplish because they want comments from others. It makes them feel good about themselves. At the same time they are learning digital citizenship and creating a positive digital footprint which looks good for colleges and employers. I really appreciated this video and would like to seek out similar resources to incorporate in my classes.
The second video was of Dan Meyer's TED talk on a Math Curriculum Makeover. He speaks to rethinking educating specifically in the field of mathematics. Dan Meyer, a mathematician, educator, international speaker and advocate for better math curricula, is a leader in teaching with Three Act Tasks. He introduces this as an antidote to the 'paint-by-numbers' problems offered in standard textbooks. He challenges, "Ask yourself what problem have you solved ever, that was worth solving, where you knew all of the given information in advance, where you didn't have a surplus of information and you had to filter it out; where you didn't have insufficient information and you had to go find some?" The answer, there isn't one...no problem worth solving is like that. Seeing this issue, Dan started creating Three Act Tasks. He uses multimedia to capture a quick perplexing, real-life video or graphic (to replace the standard line drawings in textbooks with all the information already labeled) and visually hooks all of his students. The tasks are simple in the beginning to engage students on every level and then require the students to ask questions and determine what else they need to approach the problem. His students are engaged and talking about mathematics. They're making conjectures on their own initiative and bouncing ideas off one another. All in all, I think the mathematical storytelling framework is a fantastic way to engage students and encourage deep level thinking while promoting collaborative learning. I highly recommend checking out his TED talk and Three Act Task.
The first video exemplified how one high school transformed the teaching and learning process by providing an authentic audience for student work. Rather than turning in a paper or test and relying on a few comments from one teacher (only later to throw that same paper in the trash), students publish their work to student blog (platforms such as Kidblog or JTLearn). Now suddenly the audience changes to peers, teachers and people around the globe. Having an entire virtual audience, the kids work harder with much greater focus on what they're trying to accomplish because they want comments from others. It makes them feel good about themselves. At the same time they are learning digital citizenship and creating a positive digital footprint which looks good for colleges and employers. I really appreciated this video and would like to seek out similar resources to incorporate in my classes.
The second video was of Dan Meyer's TED talk on a Math Curriculum Makeover. He speaks to rethinking educating specifically in the field of mathematics. Dan Meyer, a mathematician, educator, international speaker and advocate for better math curricula, is a leader in teaching with Three Act Tasks. He introduces this as an antidote to the 'paint-by-numbers' problems offered in standard textbooks. He challenges, "Ask yourself what problem have you solved ever, that was worth solving, where you knew all of the given information in advance, where you didn't have a surplus of information and you had to filter it out; where you didn't have insufficient information and you had to go find some?" The answer, there isn't one...no problem worth solving is like that. Seeing this issue, Dan started creating Three Act Tasks. He uses multimedia to capture a quick perplexing, real-life video or graphic (to replace the standard line drawings in textbooks with all the information already labeled) and visually hooks all of his students. The tasks are simple in the beginning to engage students on every level and then require the students to ask questions and determine what else they need to approach the problem. His students are engaged and talking about mathematics. They're making conjectures on their own initiative and bouncing ideas off one another. All in all, I think the mathematical storytelling framework is a fantastic way to engage students and encourage deep level thinking while promoting collaborative learning. I highly recommend checking out his TED talk and Three Act Task.