Explore Avenues of Learning

“The sweetest path of life leads through the avenues of learning, and whoever can open up the way for another, ought, so far, to be esteemed a benefactor to mankind.”

—David Hume (1711−1776)

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Certainly, Hume wasn’t envision- ing paths such as massive open online courses (MOOCs) when he mentioned the “avenues of learning.” But his acknowledgment that there is more than one avenue to learning seems even truer today.

Not only has technology dramatically expanded possibilities for providing education to scads of students in online learning environments, but opportunities to do it simultaneously and less formally have also increased exponentially. TED Talks are a great example of some less formal learning opportunities available now. See Resources for a link to Daphne Koller’s talk on what we are learning from online education.

Wouldn’t it be great if we
could measure the amount
of learning that the internet
allows us to achieve infor-
mally? This kind of learning
happens in ad hoc ways,
when someone asks a ques-
tion at a party or you stum-
ble on an interesting factoid
that you then explore. And
before you know it, you’re
off the main thoroughfares,
heading for side streets, and
lurching down alleys on a
journey that would have
been too slow and too dif-
ficult to undertake in the
pre-internet era.

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❝“How can I keep all of the resources that I want to use in my classroom together in one place?

See page 34

❞

tech we like Check out the useful sites the L&L team discovered while producing this issue.

Digital Learning Report: 1.usa.gov/101n0Bo Andra Brichacek is interested in what this report from the U.S. Department of Education has to say about ed tech (page 10).

Mrs. Davison’s Kindergarten: davisonkindergarten.blogspot.com Tamara Kidd loves how this kindergarten teacher’s blog models real-world applications of digital age tools for her students (page 26).

Google Chrome Store: chrome.google.com/webstore Diana Fingal likes the free educational apps available from the Chrome Store (page 30).

Adaptive Curriculum Math: www.adaptivecurriculum.com Paul Wurster likes the compelling graphics this software uses to engage middle and high school math students (page 44).