These are the slides from Project 24's first webinar. The focus of this webinar is to give an overview of what the project is and begin to explore some of the areas in which we are working with learning and technology.

To watch it live, visit:
http://media.all4ed.org/registration-feb-13-2013

Archives of the webinar are found here:
http://www.all4ed.org/events/past

For more information on Project 24, visit:
http://www.all4ed.org/project24

Choice is important to learning. Choice helps the learner to want to learn more. When students have choice, the learning is more personal and meaningful.

We can often feel like our hands are tied with adopted curricula or state standards. We feel we, the teachers, don't even have any choice in what the students will learn.

There are still ways that innovative educators can provide choices and multiple learning opportunities to students, while still ensuring that they are learning grade level content and standards.

Choice in schools leads to self-direction and self-organization of learning.

In many cases, we allow students to jump right into a topic and get a feel for what it is all about. Eventually, we ask them to think about what their big questions are and to record them. They then use these questions to help guide and focus their learning for the remainder of the experience.

During all this, students use various tools to collect and curate information that they will share and use to complete the assignment or activity.

One of the best ways we've found to support our students through this process is to give them time; time to dig in, reflect, share, and create.

Every student is different. Not all of them enjoy working in groups all the time. Learning space is important.

Student are often asked to brainstorm and discuss their learning with peers in pairs or groups. If a collaborative project is underway, students structure their groups so that everyone as a contributing role. In most cases, these roles can function as part of the group or can be performed by an individual and later brought back into the group work.

Mobile devices allows students to come together or be on their own without having to schedule computer labs or share desktop computers. Tablets and laptops allow students to utilize the best spaces in the classroom or school that fit their personal learning preferences or those of their team.

Fear of failure cannot get in the way of learning. Things such as grades and assessments often program students to think that mistakes are bad.

Throughout the learning process we must model good learning--which includes failure and persistence. Failure provides students a chance to pause, reflect, and try again. And sometimes again and again and again. This re-learning of things is critical to moving from simple rote knowledge to application and creation of content.

We must model failure and persistence. As teachers, we need to be willing to be vulnerable in front of students. We cannot expect students to take risks in their learning and stretch themselves if we are unwilling to do the same in front of them.