Kagan Online Magazine - Spring 2011
Kagan Online Magazine, Spring 2011, Issue #44
Articles
Spencer's Thinkpad
Why Call on Just One When We Can Call on Everyone?
In which class will students learn more: The class in which one student at a time is engaged or the class in which all students are engaged? The answer seems obvious. How, then, do we change traditional classroom learning to engage all students? Dr. Kagan shares his approach that is taking education by storm.
Featured Structure
Flashcard Star
Flashcards are great for memorizing content. But flascards can get old quick. Add an interactive twist to flashcard learning with Flashcard Star.
Teacher & Training Tips
Differentiated Instruction with Kagan Structures
13 Tips to Make the Curriculum More Accessible to All
Here's a baker's dozen of DI tips to reach students at every level in your classroom. Provide more onramps onto your curriculum for students who struggle to learn while providing a mentally stimulating curriculum for your advanced learners.
Training Opportunities
Kagan's Summer Academy
Kagan's 25th Annual Summer Academy is just around the corner. Join Kagan for our premier training event of the year. There are a myriad of institutes and workshops to choose from that will give you the structures and tips to elevate student engagement to new heights.
New Products
Balanced Literacy Series
Make language arts and literacy more balanced and more interactive. You'll find engaging Kagan Structures to teach a balanced approach literacy with activities for comprehension, word study, fluency, writing, and vocabulary. The Balanced Literacy series includes 6 books, kindergarten through 5th grade.
Tech Tips
Evernote
Imagine having a file cabinet with all of your important lesson plans, notes, passwords, files stored away nice and neat. Now picture that file cabinet as a virtual cabinet available at all times. That's what Evernote is. Your information—available wherever you are. Access your info on your computer, your phone, your tablet, the Internet. And it's all synched up.
A+ Anecdotes
RallyCoach on the Court
Successful sports teams have something to teach educators. Think teamwork, teambuilding, positive relationships. Now basketball coaches are learning from cooperative learning in the classroom. Can you say cross pollination?
Learning to Laugh
I Want To Be A Kid Again
What Participants Are Saying
Hear what educators across the country are saying about Kagan trainers and recent Kagan workshops.
Brain Matters
"Does Practice Make Perfect?"
Jeff clues us in to research that describes a simple concept to make practice sessions more effective. If we have our students practice right, they will better remember whatever they are learning because it will be ingrained in the brain. Make practice sessions more perfect with this brain-friendly tip.
Where in the World is Kagan?
KAGAN TRAINING THROUGHOUT THE NETHERLANDS
Nearly a decade ago, Kagan began a collaboration with RPCZ, a professional development and publishing organization in the Netherlands. Today, thousands of Dutch-speaking teachers have learned the power of Kagan to transform teaching. The power of engagement is not lost in translation.
Special Article 1
The Essential 5: A Starting Point for Kagan Cooperative Learning
Which 5 Kagan Structures would you consider indispensable? Gavin shares his top 5 favorites for creating engagement. If you're wondering where to begin with Kagan Structures, take a good look at The Essential 5.
Special Article 2
Students Work Together with Kagan Structures
See pictures of some favorite Kagan Strutures in action in Ms. Smithhisler's 5th grade math and science classes. With structures such as Quiz-Quiz-Trade and Fan-N-Pick that have students work together in pairs and teams, students are fully engaged and enjoy the learning process.
Special Article 3
Transforming High School Learning
Santa Rosa High School is in the process of transforming learning from teacher-centered lessons to full student engagement. Teachers of all subjects are finding innovative ways to make learning more successful with Kagan Structures—even the Welding class.
Special Article 4
I'd Never Go Back to Rows
"Bueller, Bueller…?" Why is this familiar movie reference, so funny? Because it is so true for so many classrooms. Not in Ms. Van Fleet's classroom anymore!
Special Article 5
Kagan on TV
Principal and Kagan Trainer David Jones shares Kagan's vision for classroom engagement with a live studio audience of award-winning teachers on the TV show, Teacher Talk.
Letter from the Editor
Technology is good. But too much technology is dangerous.
Paul Revere in his famous Midnight Ride warned, "The Redcoats are coming! The Redcoats are coming!" This marked the beginning of the American Revolution.
Fast forward two hundred plus years and another revolution is looming: The technological revolution. There will probably be no heroes riding through the countryside yelling, "Technology is coming! Technology is coming!" And even if they did, what sane person among us would heed their warning? Technology is good, right? It makes our lives better, right? Yes and no.
Make no mistake about it. The technological revolution is coming…if it isn't already here. Technology pervades our every day lives and the lives of our students. It will become increasingly prevalent in the years to come. Our kids have more access and exposure to technology than we thought possible just a few short years ago. That's exciting, or scary depending on your vantage point.
Technology is getting faster. Not only is it getting faster, but it is getting faster, faster. It is growing at an exponential rate. Some scientists and futurists use this observation to make some wild predictions about our near future. Perhaps the most out-there theory that is gaining serious traction among some very intelligent people is the singularity theory: "A hypothetical event occurring when technological progress becomes so rapid that it makes the future after the singularity qualitatively different and harder to predict."
The line of thinking goes something like this: We will create computers that are smarter than we are—superhuman computers, if you will. Then, they will create computers and advance technology so quickly and differently that our limited human biological brains can hardly predict how this new world will operate. Of course, this raises some serious questions: Will these supersmart computers be friendly to us humans, or will they become our overlords? Will they team up with us for the betterment of humanity, or will they perceive humans as a threat and annihilate us?
I know, it sounds crazy. Like pulp science fiction. But so did instant access to the world of information. Cloning animals. Handheld devices with millions of astonishing apps downloaded over an invisible network. And that's all here now! Reality is proving to be stranger than fiction. Computers are far superior to human brains in many regards already. Can you do millions of mathematical calculations in your head? My kid's toy can. Remember when Deep Blue, IBM's chess-playing computer, defeated the reigning world champion? Now we have Watson, IBM's new artificial intelligence incarnation, handily defeating two record-holding quiz show wizards. (I guess those guys are mere mortals after all.) We've mapped the human genome. Scientists are now turning their sights on reverse engineering the human brain with the idea of matching the intelligence of the human mind, and of course, improving on it.
Hopefully these geniuses who predict the future of artificial intelligence are victims of their own wild imaginations; hopefully technology won't wreak havoc. Hopefully! History is rife with examples of smart people who got it wrong. Steven Hawkings predicting the arrow of time would reverse with a contracting universe. Now he realizes that ain't gonna happen and we're just not going to grow young like Benjamin Button. How about the Y2K bug that was gonna cause massive computer failures and society would devolve into chaos? That millennium bug didn't bug you too much did it? Shall I go on?
Even if the technological singularity never approaches, we still have plenty of reason to be dubious about technology overload. As educators, we know the brain is incredibly plastic. It rewires itself based on it's own experience. Children with constant exposure to technology have brains that rewire themselves to interact well with the computer and technology. Neuronal budding is good. But what about the flip side: Neuronal pruning: All those circuits dedicated to interpersonal interactions are candidates for the chopping blocks. Use it or lose it, baby. Think of the caricature of Mark Zuckerberg who is portrayed as a socially inept geek. He comes across as awkward as a teenager's first date. Think of the IT geek who works in isolation and has a hard time communicating with others, reading their nonverbal messages. Those are just stereotypes, right?
Social interaction and learning is needed now more than ever
to counterbalance the impact of technology.
But it's not simply social graces that are at risk. Research has shown that those who are too deep in logical thought are less capable of acting with emotion. They are less compassionate towards others. Emotional Intelligence teaches us that smart people can act very dumb if they lack social and emotional development. Most technology has us face the computer and not each other. As we tune into technology, we often tune away from each other. (Social networks, however, are creating a re-orientation of sorts, but interactions in the computer world abide by a different set of norms, and not always for the better.)
So what can we as a society do to prepare for this inevitable technological revolution? We can stick our heads in the sand and pretend the Redcoats aren't coming. Or we can counterbalance high tech with high touch. We have in schools the ability to shape lives and to shape the world. Technology isn't the only sheriff in town. We can narrowly define our role as educators to make smarter kids or we can broaden our definition of education to make kids not only smarter, but better—better people. We can help our students become more caring, more compassionate—and in doing so we paradoxically help them become more successful. They'll have better relationships at home; they'll be better leaders at work. The lack of social intelligence is at the root of a lot of personal misery and failure. Lives and careers get derailed when people don't know how to handle interpersonal issues, can't work well with others, don't know how to disagree without being disagreeable, can't work with diversity, don't know how to motivate and lead others. This is need-to-know stuff! Arguably, equally or more important than historical facts and math algorithms.
What does all this have to do with Kagan? Kagan offers a way of teaching and learning that relies on social interactions. Not only do students process the curriculum in greater depth when they work together, but they master another curriculum—an embedded curriculum: The social curriculum. As students work in teams, students learn to be team leaders. They learn how to follow when necessary. They learn to play their part. Students learn to respect each other's positions. Students learn how to motivate their teammates; how to keep them on task. How to get everyone on the same side; how to reach consensus; how to disagree politely. After learning the Kagan way, students come away from school smarter, but they come away more socially literate too. They are more socially smart.
Technology is good. But when it used to build brighter brains at the exclusion of free and open discourse it is dangerous. Social interaction and learning are needed now more than ever to counterbalance the impact of technology. Democracy vests the power in the people to make the right choices. We need pro-social development and cooperation in school now more than ever. If not in schools, where will kids learn compassion and empathy? Families are disintegrating. The church no longer has the same influence it once did. Schools are the last bastion of social character for all. Education is compulsory for our kids. They spend many of their waking hours for most of their youth in schools and classrooms. Yes, we want them to learn to become high tech, but not out of touch with each other and with our shared societal values.
Technology is good, but too much can be dangerous. Let's embrace the power of technology to teach, but not be blinded by the stimulating flashing lights and beeping sounds. In school let's counterbalance high tech with face-to-face interaction and pro-social development.
Miguel Kagan
Miguel Kagan, Editor
Kagan Online Magazine
Kagan Publishing & Professional Development
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