Online learning:
1) In the world of STEM, what makes UCAR and NCAR unique? Can we use that uniqueness to offer something novel & useful in the online, blended, flipped, flat, collaborative, constructive, active, and/or distant classroom that’s rapidly emerging?
2) What trends are most relevant and promising in the Horizon Report in your opinion? What “CreAction” moves us in a direction in which we should be moving? What are some “low-hanging fruit” where we might consider using new educational technologies? CreAct: to both create and to act
3) What are the barriers for acting upon these trends? How do we help remove or limit barriers – ours, schools, educators, learners, administrators – to advance learning opportunities?
6) Of the six key trends the report identifies, which one excites, intimidates, worries you, or has the most promise for Spark from your perspective? Is there any trend in the report that you just can't wrap your head around or you have questions about?
7) Who are the early adopters addressing these trends best in informal and formal education? What ideas do you have regarding organizations to learn from or collaborate with? Who should we be talking to now?
8) What is the relevance of ConnectEd and E-Rate to this discussion? As a Federally supported entity, how should or should not Spark communicate this relevance to our various social circles including within UCAR and its members without taking an advocacy stand?
Others to Consider:
What ideas or examples can you share or envision for an online experience that supports student learning and community connectivity?
Why does anytime, anyplace, and on any device matter, and if so what might we offer that we don't now?
Imagine a world with access to adequate internet bandwidth in all schools. How might this development work with forthcoming technologies to offer greater equity and learning opportunities? How do you see education and Spark's own role changing?
What digital STEM learning tools might we design specifically to be accessed via mobile technologies?
What happens when mobile means connectivity to everything across the “Internet of Things?"
What are the low-lying fruit that you see us getting involved in immediately not because they are low lying, but because you think teachers and or learners are looking for such resources?
Creativity is a big topic in every field today and a skill that is at the top of employers' "most wanted" list. Give an example of creativity and a person who exemplifies it. How might you bring more creativity to what you do? How will you do it? How will you foster it in our resources and with educators and/or students? And... how does technology help or hinder?
Among the various trends and examples in the Report, which intrigued or surprised you the most? Which one did you feel was most applicable to NCAR and STEM teaching and learning?
What are we (UCAR/NCAR/UCP) expected to know and help prepare future students to know, and how might any of the trends identified help us do what we should to motivate and foster interest and deeper understanding?
Here are some HOT terms in educational technology: project-based learning, learning analytics, e-portfolios, collaborative learning, global learning, computational thinking, creativity, digital fabrication, makers, social media, interactivity, BYOD, 1-to-1 learning.... What term resonants with you as something worthwhile at its core?
Remote/virtual labs: What ideas do you have on this topic in particular? Who should/can we include in this discussion?