I must say that I am not a writer; writing does not come naturally to me. I don’t like writing. Blogging involves writing so it definitely is not my favorite thing to do. I know that I have to write in order to think through, clarify, and summarize to make what I am learning mine. But having to publish those thoughts for other people to read makes me uncomfortable and takes a lot of time.
I believe that students need to learn to write well and blogging is a tool that should make the process more enjoyable for them. In fact I believe it may be a way to actually get them engaged in writing again. Teachers often believe that giving students simple writing assignments will magically make them want to do the work. Instead we need to find real reasons for students to write. Teachers can use ePals, http://www.epals.com/, to give students a real-life reason to write. It can be use in all of the core classes- reading, writing, geography, science and even math. Word problems created and shared by students in another country just might be the way to get students to like solving them. It looks like elementary level students are already making good use of it. I wonder how many middle school geography classes make use of this tool. What a fantastic opportunity if you could locate at least one class to correspond with in each country of study.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Week 4 Blog Posting #7 - SecondLife
Second Life isn’t the problem, I am. I just don’t seem to find time to go into Second Life enough so that I can find my way around to get the information I am looking for. I did find the "Communities" location but could not find any useful information in that area. When I get frustrated I do not enjoy the experience at all. I am sure there is an easier way to find information but I just haven’t run across it yet. Content changes in SL and it is difficult to know whether or not the information from a Google search is accurate. I know there are great things going on in Second Life but honestly, right now I am feeling that the time I am spending there is not a good use of my time. I work with middle school students and am not able to access Second Life at school. I would love to get into Teen Life, learn about it, and see how I could use it with my students, and I would even be willing to pay the yearly subscription fee for the class to have a site they could develop.
The video we watched was an example of how teachers can bring Second Life content into the classroom without having to access the site online. When I have some free time, I will start looking for ways to share SL content with my students. First I need to get better at finding information!
The ISTE site located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/93/83/30 provides networking, collaboration, and learning.
I found ED TECH Community and asked to join it. ED TECH is a free resource for all teachers. They offer a variety of spaces for inworld education events and teaching, a sandbox, and an informational center. Limited condo space is or was available for free to teachers. Teachers can IM Bcreative Wilde inworld to reserve event locations.
CAVE Island is an island located just south of EDTECH. There is a building for Teacher Education called the Playground. The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is a professional association of educators and others who improve instruction through technology. They publish Educational Technology Research and Development, the only scholarly journal in the field focusing entirely on research and development in educational technology. This is a relatively new site still under construction so I will check back on it later.
Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning is located at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CAVE/11/242/42. It is an American Education Research Association SIG for educators, scholars, and practitioners researching computer-mediated 3D communities. The purposes of the SIG are to, “steward a community of educators, scholars, and practitioners dedicated toward research in and on virtual environments. Using a variety of research methods, we support a diverse approach to understanding the optimal use of virtual worlds and environments for educational purposes. We're interested in developing a comprehensive research agenda, intended to encompass the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, challenges, and shortcomings of immersive virtual learning environments.”
The video we watched was an example of how teachers can bring Second Life content into the classroom without having to access the site online. When I have some free time, I will start looking for ways to share SL content with my students. First I need to get better at finding information!
The ISTE site located at http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/93/83/30 provides networking, collaboration, and learning.
I found ED TECH Community and asked to join it. ED TECH is a free resource for all teachers. They offer a variety of spaces for inworld education events and teaching, a sandbox, and an informational center. Limited condo space is or was available for free to teachers. Teachers can IM Bcreative Wilde inworld to reserve event locations.
CAVE Island is an island located just south of EDTECH. There is a building for Teacher Education called the Playground. The Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is a professional association of educators and others who improve instruction through technology. They publish Educational Technology Research and Development, the only scholarly journal in the field focusing entirely on research and development in educational technology. This is a relatively new site still under construction so I will check back on it later.
Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning is located at:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/CAVE/11/242/42. It is an American Education Research Association SIG for educators, scholars, and practitioners researching computer-mediated 3D communities. The purposes of the SIG are to, “steward a community of educators, scholars, and practitioners dedicated toward research in and on virtual environments. Using a variety of research methods, we support a diverse approach to understanding the optimal use of virtual worlds and environments for educational purposes. We're interested in developing a comprehensive research agenda, intended to encompass the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, challenges, and shortcomings of immersive virtual learning environments.”
Monday, September 21, 2009
Week 3 - Blog Posting #6 - Communities of Practice
Communities of practice do occur everywhere, except in many of our classrooms. We design brand new classrooms with individual desks, set them up in rows, and occasionally allow the students to work in groups. Many teachers still believe that their job is to fill students with knowledge that will be given back on a test. Many administrators still praise teachers for having a “quiet classroom”.
How do we bring communities of practice into today’s classroom? I believe that we need to begin by building trust in our classrooms. Students are not very likely to share information or ideas when they are not comfortable with one another. Ideas must be accepted from everyone not just a select few.
We need allow students to set goals for themselves as a class and as individuals. Then we need to encourage them as they work toward the goals. We need to celebrate when the goals are met.
We need to share student’ learning data with them as a whole group and as individuals. They need to receive timely feedback when they turn in work and take tests. How do they use this information to set new goals?
We need to allow students time to collaborate with one another. Students with like interests should be encouraged to work together, to challenge one another and share what they learn with the community.
Teachers need to model a love of learning. We need to keep knowledge fresh. How can we be excited when we have taught the same activities for the last fifteen years? Knowledge is evolving and changing daily. We need to carry books and read them (in front of the students) so that they know reading and learning is important to us. We need to share what we learn with our students.
When I started this topic I thought of community as classroom and school. The Kettering Foundation’s researchers asked three groups of community organizers how their communities came to emphasize education over schools; what made people move from concern to complementary, broad-range public acting; and how concerned citizens learn from their work together. The foundation wanted to better understand the ways school-to-public engagement can be aligned to relate to the work of citizen-to-citizen engagement. Some questions to consider as you read:
How can a community come to recognize education as a shared, multifaceted challenge?
How can expanding the definition of educator help more community members see that they too are responsible for educating young people?
What story can you share of local work that illustrates that responsibility?
This article is available at: http://www.kettering.org/readers_forum/readers_forum/readers_forum_articles/ Communities_as_Educators
I am very impressed with the NSTA Communities available for NSTA members. Since this is available for members only I cannot post a link. I just became a Community member but have not taken time to fill out all of the questions. Other content areas would do well to copy NSTA's lead and provide this type of resource for members!
How do we bring communities of practice into today’s classroom? I believe that we need to begin by building trust in our classrooms. Students are not very likely to share information or ideas when they are not comfortable with one another. Ideas must be accepted from everyone not just a select few.
We need allow students to set goals for themselves as a class and as individuals. Then we need to encourage them as they work toward the goals. We need to celebrate when the goals are met.
We need to share student’ learning data with them as a whole group and as individuals. They need to receive timely feedback when they turn in work and take tests. How do they use this information to set new goals?
We need to allow students time to collaborate with one another. Students with like interests should be encouraged to work together, to challenge one another and share what they learn with the community.
Teachers need to model a love of learning. We need to keep knowledge fresh. How can we be excited when we have taught the same activities for the last fifteen years? Knowledge is evolving and changing daily. We need to carry books and read them (in front of the students) so that they know reading and learning is important to us. We need to share what we learn with our students.
When I started this topic I thought of community as classroom and school. The Kettering Foundation’s researchers asked three groups of community organizers how their communities came to emphasize education over schools; what made people move from concern to complementary, broad-range public acting; and how concerned citizens learn from their work together. The foundation wanted to better understand the ways school-to-public engagement can be aligned to relate to the work of citizen-to-citizen engagement. Some questions to consider as you read:
How can a community come to recognize education as a shared, multifaceted challenge?
How can expanding the definition of educator help more community members see that they too are responsible for educating young people?
What story can you share of local work that illustrates that responsibility?
This article is available at: http://www.kettering.org/readers_forum/readers_forum/readers_forum_articles/ Communities_as_Educators
I am very impressed with the NSTA Communities available for NSTA members. Since this is available for members only I cannot post a link. I just became a Community member but have not taken time to fill out all of the questions. Other content areas would do well to copy NSTA's lead and provide this type of resource for members!
Week 3 - Blog Posting #5 - Social Media
If education is to change, perhaps we need to be the agents that set the change in motion. How do we incorporate social media into our classrooms? We know that social media is being used in businesses all over the world; however, many school districts have banned their use in school. Changes in these types of policies must occur if we are going to prepare our students for the future world of work.
In July 2009 Social Media Club launched a new project to bring education and professional communities together to develop social media curriculum in our schools. Even though the project is designed for higher education, all levels of education will benefit from their work. According to Chris Heuer, they plan to “co-create a combination of mentoring programs, internships, professional development opportunities and a repository of Creative Commons licensed Social Media curriculum.” Located at http://socialmediaclub.pbworks.com/Directory-of-Social-Media-Teachers you will find a list of colleges and universities where social media is currently being taught. Starting October 1 they plan to offer a free Social Media webinar/ teleclass. Their ultimate goal is to formally connect local social media club chapters to universities so that changes in policies can begin.
Another new resource is the Social Media Classroom and Collaboratory located at http://socialmediaclassroom.com/index.php/. It is a free and open source web service providing teachers and learners with “integrated forum, blog, wiki, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, widgets, and video commenting tools” along with curricular materials, resource repositories and an online community of practitioners. It was initiated by Howard Rheingold and is funded by the MacArthur Foundation. The wiki is hosted at https://www.socialtext.net/medialiteracy.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Week 2 - Blog Posting #4 - 21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning
Lifelong learning has been the norm rather than the exception for professionals and even blue-collar workers. So why all of the attention today?
The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives in partnership with AARP’s Educator Community has published a paper titled Staying Sharp: Learning Throughout Life at http://www.dana.org/uploadedFiles/The_Dana_Alliances/European_DanAllianc_for_the_Brain learningthruoutlife_en.pdf. The booklet reveals what neuroscience has learned about lifelong learning. Does the way we learn change through our lifetime or does it remain the same? If we continue to learn throughout our lives, does this learning have an impact on how we age? Can we do anything to prepare our brains for learning? Recent studies offer good news for anyone wishing to maintain a healthy brain as they age.
Today adults as well as young people populate the university system. People take part in organized learning activities throughout their adult lives, and seniors are no exception. An article titled Seniors-Old Brains Learning New Things at http://www.simplyseniors.com/health/seniors-old-brains-learning-new-things.php offers Brain Resources for people over 50 who are interested in locating local learning opportunities. Elderhostel is an example of an organization that provides “Adventures in Lifelong Learning” programs for seniors. Seniors who want to learn new skills may opt to participate in a learning vacation. Through regular, complex experiences, the brain continues to grow, process and store memories.
“The current and future health of America’s 21st Century Economy depends
directly on how broadly and deeply Americans reach a new level of
literacy—‘21st Century Literacy’—that includes strong academic skills,
thinking, reasoning, teamwork skills, and proficiency in using technology.”
-21st Century Workforce Commission National Alliance of Business
http://www.workforce21.org/downloads/report1.pdf
Everyone involved in education must agree that the academic skills of yesterday are not sufficient for today. To prepare students, they must learn skills and content found in the 21st century skills.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Week 2 – Blog Posting #3 – Media Literacy
What is it, and who should teach it? How are you going to fit it into your already too-full curriculum?
Media Literacy requires active student participation and critical thinking about messages received and created; and the development of informed, reflective students who use their own skills, beliefs, and experiences to construct meaning and solve problems dealing with important issues in their lives and communities.
As educators we must find creative ways to incorporate media literacy into literature, science, history, math, fine and performing arts classes, and even physical education. Students can explore, create, and share and perform dramatic texts using online media. Science teachers may use media literacy to provide students with more realistic educational experiences. Simulations and games allow students to assume roles of scientists in labs, in the field, and in real time. They can collect and interpret data, make decisions that affect communities, and experiment to solve problems. Math students are exposed to numbers and statistics every day in the media. Are the numbers accurate? How can statistics be misrepresented? Looking at numbers and statistics in sports and the news is a great way to get students to think about and question where numbers come from.
The Media Education Lab at Temple University has a resource that should be required reading for every teacher. The Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy Education is located at http://mediaeducationlab.com/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education. In addition there is an extensive collection of lesson plans and other free resources.
Play is where children make sense of their world. They discover ideas, experience and practice new knowledge, are bound to fail (angst-free) and retry because they are intrinsically motivated. If we would transfer this play-world into the classroom, we would have an ideal educational setting.
UC-Irvine has established a center for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds. The mission of the center is to “expand campus-wide research activities that draw upon UCI’s strengths spanning the social and technological aspects of games and virtual worlds.” According to senior research scientist Walt Scacchi, “We now realize that scientific and cultural achievements go beyond the current concepts of what games and virtual worlds are good for, or how they may be developed or applied. The centre will support our research in demonstrating the sustained ability to invent and reinvent the future of computer games and virtual worlds.” http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/09/uc-irvine-establishes-games-research-center/ accessed September 14, 2009.
Creative play experiences like My Pop Studio http://mypopstudio.com provide students with an engaging means of developing media literacy skills. Even though the site is meant for girls, boys would also benefit from it. Teachers could challenge boys to design similar activities that would interest them.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Week 1 – Blog Posting #2 – Learning 2.0
Ken Robinson’s talk about Education and Creativity is right on target. Everyone that has any influence on the education of students should be required to watch it. Students are molded and shaped to fit teachers’ expectations year after year. As students get older, teachers expect them to be able to create, design, write and interpret and then wonder why they cannot.
How much more would our students learn if they could make choices based on their interests? If a student wanted to learn a foreign language that was not offered at his school, why don’t we allow him to learn online? Sometimes there is a small window or opportunity for learning and if we do not allow a student to pursue that interest, the desire to learn may be gone forever.
Not all students develop at the same rate. Some students are more mature and are ready to learn beyond what is offered. Yet he is required to sit through lessons he already mastered. Why is he not encouraged to study lessons that challenge him? Why do so many of our students drop out of school before they graduate?
Students who do not receive guidance at home should have the opportunity to talk to someone at school about planning for his future. When a student is not happy with the education he is receiving, he should be able to choose a different program, setting, or method.
I also agree with Yong Zhao’s position on American education. We do have some problems in public education and the problems need to be fixed. We need to stop the insane amount of testing. We need to teach students to love math, reading, and writing again.
Engaging students in learning is a challenge every teacher faces daily. Tristan de Frondeville coaches teachers on how to use project learning in their classrooms. He offers a list of Ten Steps to Better Engagement at http://www.edutopia.org/print/6124.
How do teachers assess student learning while using the Web 2.0 tools? In a article by Bobby Elliiott at http://wiki.cetis.ac.uk/images/d/de/Assessment_2_v2.pdf he provides a list of characteristics for assessing Web 2.0 learning.
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