"Flip" the switch on learning!

I am a HUGE advocate of Flipped Learning (which is part of the Blended Learning Model).  Don't believe me... see my blogs here, here and here just to mention three of my many posts on the topic!

Why am I such a nut about this?  Well, back in the late 90's, when I was teaching middle school science - before Blended and Flipped Learning was a "thing" - I was creating "help" videos that I would post on my website and have my students watch them prior to coming to class.  In the early 2000's I fell in love with Macromedia's Breeze eLearning suite and started using that.  It was sometime around 2008/09 that I came across blog posts by Jon Bergman and Aaron Sams, whom I consider two of the "Fathers of Flipped Learning" and the rest is, as they say... History!

Jon Bergman and Arron Sams

But, just as in everything else in education, Flipped Learning is changing and evolving constantly. As a result, I have to keep tabs on the latest ideas and case studies coming from dozens of different Ed-Tech blogs and tweets.  Imagine my exuberant happiness when my wife forwarded me a link to the Flipped Learning Global Initiative.  

This site, founded by a team of individuals that includes "Papa" Jon Bergman (well, what do you call one of the "fathers" of Flipped Leaning?? :-) is taking the dialogue and implementation of Flipped Learning even higher.  As a matter of fact, their most recent blog post (at the time that I am writing this) "We Didn't Know What We Didn't Know: Flipped Learning 3.0" is a MUST READ for anyone who is seriously working with, or is considering working with, Flipped Learning.

So, rather me wasting your time with rehashing the information from this blog series, get yourself over to the GFLI blogsite and subscribe!  It will be well worth your time!

As always, I solicit your comments on my blogsite.

Yossie

Then in

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist, CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

Story as old as time... (with apologies to Disney's Beauty and the Beast)

In my last blog post, I wrote about how we educators need to prepare students for life in a future world that is difficult to imagine and for careers that don't even exist yet! 

Would it surprise you to learn that this is NOT a new dilemma for a new century? 

My colleague Rabbi Aryeh Hoffman sent me this video clip from the 1950's.  It is quite amazing at how the concerns it raises then are still applicable today! (BTW... The Bill from Arkansas in this video is NOT Bill Clinton...)

(click this link to view)

So what do you think?  Does this sound like a concern from the 50's or is it something concerning us right now? 

Do you remember the Space Shuttle?  It stopped flying in July, 2011.  

(Space Shuttle Atlantis - touching down for the last time)

So now, Houston, we have a problem... what are we going to use to get to the International Space Station (ISS)?  (I am writing this on Superbowl Sunday and I just couldn't resist throwing in the "Huston" pun!!) 

One solution is the Boeing Starliner...

Did you know that this amazing craft is scheduled to take crew to the ISS starting in 2018.  Did you also know that the spacecraft will have 3D printed parts in it?!!  According to Boeing and Oxford Performing Materials, there is a 60% cost savings by using the high quality PEKK-based material (prints like plastic but is stronger than metal) over traditional manufacturing methods - amazing!! (Here is a great article from 3Dprint.com that goes into detail.  If you don't subscribe to 3Dprint.com, you should!!!)

So, how do we prepare our students to live and work in this world?  Well, one potential methodology from the 21st Century Educational Tool-kit is using STEM/STEAM techniques.  Now, I can hear many of you saying that there is no way to find the time in the curriculum not to mention that it is difficult to train our teachers how do do this.  I hear you! That's where CIJE jumps in...

With programs like Technology: In Plain English, we connect you with people and schools that are doing this already - successfully and within the confines of their curriculum.  Do you want to know a cool thing?  These schools are all part of the CIJE network and they want to help YOU by sharing their stories and strategies!  So, please join me this week... 

LIVE at the Adelson Startup Incubator
Thursday, February 9th, 2017
https://youtu.be/KQXUJAEOvTc

as I speak with the folks who run the Si. 

Join us LIVE so that you can ask your questions.

As always, I solicit your comments on the blogsite.

Yossie

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel

Do you know where you're going to? (with apologies to Diana Ross)

The theme song from Mahogany asks:  "Do you know where you're going to/ Do you like the things that life is showing you/ Where are you going to/ Do you know?"

Do you know?...

I think that this somewhat sums up the dilemma facing our educational system today.  We are trying to prepare students for life in a future world that is difficult to imagine and for careers that don't even exist yet!  

Don't believe me?  Check out this list of "hot jobs"  for the next 10 years:

• Augmented Reality Designer, 
• Chief Drone Experience Designer, 
• Human Organ Designer, 
• Interventionist (what the blue-blazes is an "interventionist?!!") 

So what do we do to prepare our kids??

The folks over at the Startup Incubator (Si) at the Adelson Campus in Los Vegas have created a great solution that involves STEAM/STEM.  In a previous post, I told you about a very cool curriculum that the Si was running and now, I can give you all a full tour, LIVE, on the Technology: In Plain English webcast!

Please join me on

Thursday,

February 9th at 4PM PST

https://youtu.be/KQXUJAEOvTc

We will get to speak with Leon Wilde and Dr Yvonne Houy, two of the "shakers and movers" from the Si and, as long you are watching LIVE, you get to ask REALTIME questions!  I will also be taking you on a tour of this fantastic facility concluding with Adelson students showing us CIJE's STEM based CIJE Bytes program.  (CIJE Bytes are a synthesis of Arduino programming with external "bytes" that integrate electronics and Internet of Things concepts. This program is specially designed for middle school students).

So grab your popcorn and bunny slippers and see you on Thursday!

Regards,

Yossie

PS... As always, I would love to see your comments on the blogsite!

Yossie Frankel

Tech Specialist - CIJE

Checkout my blog: www.technorebbe.com

Twitter @yossiefrankel

YouTube Channel: YossieFrankelChannel
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/yossiefrankel