Let’s start with a simple question: are your students spending any of their free time watching videos on YouTube?
Here’s the answer: most likely.
While there is little direct statistical evidence of YouTube use by elementary-aged children, 81 percent of parents of children under age 11 who were surveyed report that their children are consuming content on the popular video-sharing website.
Marketing companies—who produce some of the most detailed statistics on YouTube use—report that 74 percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 24 use YouTube on a weekly basis, that YouTube captures about 30 percent of the total screen time of teenage users, and that the average teen spends about an hour each day watching YouTube.
Now another question: do you know what kind of YouTube videos your students are watching? Read more
Based on Implementing Project-Based Learning
When Hurricane Harvey flooded neighborhoods and destroyed property in Houston, Texas, teachers didn’t take long to turn the natural disaster into meaningful learning. In schools across the Humble Independent School District, students engaged in a wide range of projects that focused on protecting and restoring the Lake Houston Watershed—using drones to survey riverbanks, inventing devices to filter drinking water, and participating in hands-on conservation efforts.
These students have no reason to ask the tired question, “When will we ever need to know this?” Read more
Based on Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning
Is there a school that isn’t trying to purchase and integrate technology into its classrooms? If so, such schools are few and far between. And yet, despite the ubiquity of this work, most schools are doing it poorly. Read more
Based on the book Growing Global Digital Citizens.
By this time of year, most of us have reflected on the past and thought about the lessons learned and resolutions made. 2017 has been a year of milestones, events, and changes. There are many that we can examine critically, but there are two that are significant and worthy of discussion and review: “Wanna Cry” and fake news. Read more
Jeremy Adams
