21st Century Educator

It is easy to collaborate with your colleagues around you. What about other people in your PLN? Can you collaborate with 50, 100, 1000 people? "Collaborate", "Collaborative", "Collaboration" were the most frequent words I heard last year and I believe it will be more important and popular in this new decade. Here is my first 20 web tools to enhance collaboration among us!

A range of research reports suggest that digital literacy should be a key part of curricular developments in both primary and secondary schools. Digital literacy is about far more than functional ICT skills: it requires support for children to access, create and communicate using ICT, as well as to be evaluative and critical about the influences and impacts of new media.

May 2008 : THE Journal. The challenge for teachers is to find ways to support in-depth learning and increased student achievement, "...while also employing a variety of measures, including standardized tests." What kinds of new methods would provide the kind of learning environments and learning measurements that truly reflect the learning that is taking place? What new skills are needed if instructors are to meet this challenge?

Howard Gardner, the founder of multiple-intelligences theory, discusses the challenges ethics and education face as digital media become more prevalent. He looks at five ethical issues through his GOODPLAY PROJECT: Sense of identity, sense of privacy, sense of ownership/authorship, trustworthiness/ credibility and participation in community.

CELLT Center for Experiential Learning, Leadership and Technology. Demonstration of eportfolios. Students provide examples of work representing these skills at the beginning, and at the end, of an academic term. By comparing their work at the two points in time and reflecting on how it has changed and what they have learned, they develop better analytic and presentation skills. The faculty and students work together to use ePortfolios to improve the students' learning experiences

Otumoetai Intermediate School will pioneer a first in New Zealand education by allowing students to use cellphones as part of everyday learning. Students will be able to use phones to assist with projects, with the added ability to speak up if they see other students behaving inappropriately in the playground.

We need to stop talking cyberbullying and start talking cybercitizenship. Flip to the positive. Our focus in schools needs to shift towards responsible, positive use of social media. We need to stop ignoring and blocking and start embracing and amplifying. It is our duty to our students to start modeling responsible use of social media and encouraging them to follow our lead.

Teachers wishing to foster digital literacy in their classrooms and states wishing to demonstrate it in their students face a common challenge: no comprehensive, established approach exists to guide the teaching, learning, and assessment of specific digital literacy skills. To begin addressing this challenge, we have developed this website, which was part of a two-year project funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. The site articulates the skills comprising digital literacy with the goal of helping schools and districts implement a new approach to digital literacy teaching.

Revised to include use of Web 2.0 collaborative tools and 21st century skills in the communication spectrum.

Executive Summary of a white paper on the same title, available at http://www.pearson.org. The study begins a discussion of how digital media is changing the way children learn and whether the way they learn is evolving to meet a new, dynamic digital media format.

Like Alice, many educators, policy makers and even the general public respond resoundingly with "That's impossible!" when challenged to adopt a new paradigm of education for the 21st century. Most people today adhere to a paradigm of education that is strictly 19th century. But, like the Queen, a growing number of educators are believing in and accomplishing "the impossible".

It's no secret that we live in a world of moral panics -- where new technologies are feared by those who don't understand them, often leading to regulations that block their potential. For years now, a number of politicians have sought laws to ban social networks in schools, assuming that they are either bad or simply inappropriate for schools.

The purpose of this resource is to provide "Just in Time" training through an online interface for K-12 educators based on the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS-T). These standards are the basic technology skills every educator should possess. In the process, educators will develop their own skills and discover what students need in order to meet the NETS for Students, as well as the new MMC Online Experience requirement.

Supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation, New Image for Computing (NIC) is currently in the first stage of what is planned as a multi-phase project that aims to improve the image of computer science among high school students (with a special focus on gender and ethnic disparities) and encourage greater participation in computer science at the postsecondary level. Download the full report.

Part of an 18-unit curriculum developed by Renee Hobbs and integrating media literacy into common state standards in English, Social Studies, Math, and Health. Provided by Temple University's Media Education Lab.

Blocking access to these tools in classrooms discourages student-centered learning, leading education technology consultant says

The Common Sense Media policy agenda aims to empower parents, teachers and young people themselves to take control of the media and technology in their lives, in order to help keep kids learning, thriving, and safe.\n\n * Promoting Digital Literacy and Citizenship - Key to 21st Century Learning and Online Safety.\n * Addressing the Major Public Health Issues Related to Media\n * Improving Consumer Tools and Ratings to Empower Families to Make Smarter Choices\n

Part of a wider effort to use technology to extend learning beyond classroom walls and the six-hour school day. Internet buses may soon be hauling children to school in many other districts, particularly those with long bus routes. The company marketing the router, Autonet Mobile, says it has sold them to schools or districts in Florida, Missouri and Washington, D.C.

Months before the newly hired teachers at Philadelphia's Science Leadership Academy (SLA) started their jobs, they began the consuming work of creating the high school of their dreams -- without meeting face to face. They articulated a vision, planned curriculum, designed assessment rubrics, debated discipline policies, and even hammered out daily schedules using the sort of networking tools -- messaging, file swapping, idea sharing, and blogging