The truth about teenagers and how they’re learning from the Internet

 

http://topnews.in/

We recently did a survey and asked a group of 12-18 year olds about how they use the Internet to support their learning.

Of the 83 who responded,  92.11%  said that they used the Internet for learning at least once a week: nothing unexpected there.

The interesting bit came when we asked them about the sites they’re using. We’d assumed that they’d be using a whole range of sites to suit their varying styles of learning and needs. Wrong!

Those who responded said they used a very small range of sites – just 11 in total, with the most used being Wikipedia (31.81%) Google (20.45%) BBC (13.63%) and My Maths (13.63%).

We thought that was a real shame. They’re missing out on so much good stuff and really not making the most of what the Internet has to offer for learning.

That’s when we decided to do something about it – and created Rockfig.

So if you know of any teenagers who could do with learning from a much broader range of resources from across the web, and  would like to save time trying to find the right ones, please let them know about Rockfig.

Catharine

 

Do videos really help people to learn?

 

If you’ve used Rockfig you’ll know that Rockfig members love video. Most Collections contain at least one video and many contain more.

But why do people like learning from videos and how can videos enhance learning?

Take a look at this great infographic from CISCO: It has all the answers.

 

Myths about how easy it is to use the internet to help kids with homework

http://live.guru/

As parents we all know how important it is to be involved in our kids’ education.

Numerous studies have shown that children who are supported by their families with homework are likely to perform significantly better in exams at 16 years old and beyond, than those who aren’t.

But how easy is it to help teenagers with their homework? In my experience…not very:

1. They don’t listen (in general)
2. They don’t want to listen (to you in particular)
3. The stuff they’re studying is actually quite tricky (and you’ve forgotten how to do it /you never learnt it at school)

So what do we all do? We turn to the internet and within 5 seconds we’ve found the perfect resource to help and motivate our child, whatever their age. Right? Wrong.

We surveyed 50 parents and found that things are actually quite different:

Myth#1:  It’s easy for parents to find internet resources to help their children with homework

Our survey results:  65.21% said they found it moderately difficult or difficult to find age and ability appropriate resources to help their children with learning

Myth#2: Parents are using resources from a huge range of sites

Our survey results: When parents were asked to list those free Internet learning sites they used most, they identified a common, very small range of sites (7 in total), with the most used being BBC (40.54%), Wikipedia (24.32%) Google (10.81%) and My Maths (8.1%).

So parents and children are missing out on some amazing resources to help with homework, just because they don’t know where they are or haven’t got the time to go out and find them.

And that’s why we decided to launch Rockfig: From now on, every parent can quickly and easily find the very best FREE resources to help their child with their homework. And that’s not a myth…that’s a fact!

Catharine

 

 

Follow these rules to be a great parent

http://youshotmedown.wordpress.com/

A joint NAHT and Family Action Partnership campaign, being backed by the Government, aims to raise parents’ awareness of their role in children’s learning – something we at Rockfig are very keen on.

The guide, which will be distributed by schools, tells parents to:

• Praise your children’s efforts and let them know it is “okay to make mistakes”

• Listen to your child and show them that you value their views and opinions;

• Help your child understand about a balanced diet and the importance of eating fruit and vegetables to keep them fit and healthy;

• Let your child help with baking and preparing family meals so they understand about food;

• Encourage children to exercise for 30 minutes a day and adopt at least one hobby involving physical activity, such as dance, swimming or football;

• Get out and about as a family, including playing tag in the park or going for a bike ride;

• Think twice before lighting up cigarettes in front of children;

• Talk to children about the “importance of personal hygiene, such as showering regularly, having clean PE kit and using deodorant when they need to”;

• Tell your child that you love them every day

My thoughts:

Things like this make me realise how lucky I was to have had a good parent as a role model.  All of this seems like common sense to me ( although of course I’m not claiming I always achieve it!). Sadly many children are brought up in households where their parents didn’t get such good advice from their own parents. I just wonder if that advice can be replaced with a leaflet.

Catharine

 

How Rockfig helps you meet the challenges of flipped learning

Flipped learning is on the rise.

According to recently released research from the Speak Up National Research Project, flipped learning is surpassing all other digital trend in US schools and is growing in popularity in the UK too.

What is flipped learning?

In a nutshell, it’s ‘using videos as homework while using class time for more in-depth learning such as discussions, projects, experiments, and to provide personalised coaching to individual students.’

KNEWTON.COM

The research found that:

• Among district administrators, 25 percent identify flipped learning as already having a significant impact on transforming teaching and learning in their district, surpassing other trends such as educational games and mobile apps (21 percent). An additional 40 percent of administrators said they were interested in their teachers “trying flipped learning” this year (2014)

• One out of six maths and science teachers are implementing a flipped learning model using videos that they have created or sourced online
•  Almost one-fifth of current teachers have “learning how to flip my classroom” on their wish list for professional development this year
• 75 percent of middle and high school students agree that flipped learning would be a good way for them to learn, with 32 percent of those students strongly agreeing with that idea

But what are the challenges of flipped learning?

CHALLENGE 1

Students may not have internet access at home  – but with the ever increasing number of students with smart phones this challenge is slowly diminishing.

CHALLENGE 2

Teachers need to know how to ‘best use’ the additional classroom time – but with support, shared experience and appropriate professional development this challenge can be overcome.

CHALLENGE 3

Teachers may need help finding the high quality, age and curriculum appropriate videos they need to give to their students for homework – and that’s where Rockfig comes in!

Rockfig has been created to help Teachers, Students and Parents find and share the web’s best learning resources for 11-18 year olds – and it’s FREE.

So if you know of a great resource that might help those wanting to flip their classrooms, please share it on Rockfig and help overcome this challenge.

And don’t miss out on our offer to find resources for you!
Find out more in this blog post.

 

We’d love to hear about your opinions on and experiences of flipped learning so please get in touch.

Here are a few links if you’d like to find out more:

http://www.flippedclass.com/

http://flipped-learning.com/

http://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/flipped-classroom

Catharine

 

 

We’ll find FREE resources for your topic this term- send us a request NOW!

Rockfig’s growing all the time and there are great resources available for 11-18 year olds across Biology, Chemistry, Physics, ICT and Computing. In total, there’s already over 450 Collections to view. But we won’t pretend there aren’t gaps; it’s frustrating if you’re revising, studying or teaching a particular topic and you’ve found there are no relevant resources. So here’s a completely FREE offer to help you out!

• Just send us the name of a topic you’re doing and the age-group you need resources for and we’ll do the rest.
• We‘ll search the web, find the FREE resources you need and add them to Rockfig.

But hurry! This is limited to the first 10 requests we receive.

Email info@rockfig.co.uk now with your request!

Should parents on the school run have a dress code?

I had to smile when I recently saw one of the mums at my daughter’s school, dropping off her child whilst wearing her pyjamas and slippers. It turns out they had overslept and subsequently decided that wearing pyjamas was better than her daughter getting a late mark in the register.

So does it really matter what parents wear on the school run?

Dr. Rosalind Osgood, School Board Member at a Florida High School thinks it does. She has recently suggested that there should be a dress code for parents. This follows the arrival of children at school with some parents in hair curlers, and others wearing baggy trousers that expose their underwear. She believes that parents should lead by example and arrive at school dressed appropriately.

So what do you think? Is it OK for working Mums like Colleen Rooney to drop the kids off whilst wearing rollers? Perhaps…

And what about baggy trousers and exposed underwear? Mmm…I think Dr. Rosalind might be right.

Catharine

REX FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

Common grammar mistakes that can reduce your GCSE grade

With 5% of marks in English Literature, History, Geography and Religious Studies GCSEs now being allocated for spelling, punctuation and grammar ( SPaG),  improving these skills could mean the difference between a C grade and a D.

With Mr. Gove ( Education Secretary) announcing that the marks allocated in English Language will increase from 12% to 20% by 2015, the importance of SPaG is not going away.

So if your grammar could do with a bit of a brush up, take a look at this ‘common mistakes’ infographic from shortstack.com.

Hopefully it will help alot… I mean a lot.

Catharine

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brains need a break and sleep to run at their optimum capacity for exams

No amount of diet coke or coffee can make me truly alert after just four hours sleep, even if a boiling hot shower can convince my body in the short term that I’m refreshed and rested.

Research supports this. Work by Karen Bradley (2011) suggests that the brain needs sleep to consolidate learning and memory. It also needs the right kind of breaks.

If the break can rest the tired part of the brain, then this will strengthen memory traces. However, following on from research by Duke University (2006), if the break activity is emotionally charged it will cause the student’s performance to decline.

Study breaks should not cause stress that engages the tired area of the brain. Exercise and listening to music can rest the brain, but engaging with social media may exacerbate its exhaustion.

Those conscientious students – and there are many of them – brave enough to organise their own revision schedule must remember not to sacrifice sleep for study.

Research by Andrew J. Fuligni, professor of psychiatry and bio-behavioural sciences at UCLA showed that if a student gives up sleep in order to study more than usual, he or she is more likely to have academic problems the following day.

He said: “Academic success may depend on finding strategies to avoid having to give up sleep to study, such as maintaining a consistent study schedule across days, using school time as efficiently as possible, and sacrificing time spent on other, less essential activities.”

David

Are last-minute Easter cramming sessions harmful rather than helpful?

The popularity of holiday revision classes are growing rapidly with one tutoring organisation expecting more than 3,500 students this April.

Whether students are attending sessions run by their own schools or those set up by independent enterprises, it strikes me that they are going back to the classroom, when what they need to be doing is consolidating their own learning.

Most of the course content for GCSEs, AS and A2s will have been taught by Easter. Most of the assessment and portfolio work will be completed and moderated.

It’s the perfect time for students to sit down with their own notes and text books to figure out what they have learnt and what is still a slight mystery to them.

These two weeks empower them to fix these gaps and come back to their teachers with the questions they still need answering.

If, instead, they are sitting in some ‘fits all’ revision session that is covering a number of key points, they are not targeting the areas that they personally need to develop.

There is so much unhelpful spoon feeding that we are taking away the ability of some students to discover and plan for themselves. They will need to be able to study independently when they go onto further education and we should allow them to begin now.

The worry is that for some students knowing that a revision class is scheduled for Easter may make them believe this to be some sort of magic solution and that their simple attendance will wipe away the fact of not enough effort until that date.

I think they can have false hopes as to how much progress these sessions can bring them.

David