Group items tagged

This is a digital book published in February ,2104. It is about the connected classroom and how to use it to engage students both locally and globally.

"Mobile devices are now found in the hands of most children, and school leaders are using that to their advantage by incorporating devices that students already own into classroom lessons and projects. Concerns remain about students who are unable to purchase or borrow a device for use in the classroom, but districts might find creative ways-such as asking local businesses or community organizations for help-to provide devices in such instances, advocates of the trend say. With access issues in mind, allowing students to bring their own devices from home can offer educational benefits, as well as some surprisingly positive results when it comes to creative thinking and classroom behavior."

It's interesting that the school districts mentioned in this article are embracing "BYOT", while other schools around the world continue to clamp down on students' tech use, banning devices instead of educating about ethical use.

"This paper deploys notions of emergence, connections, and designs for learning to conceptualize high school students' interactions when using online social media as a learning environment. It makes links to chaos and complexity theories and to fractal patterns as it reports on a part of the first author's action research study, conducted while she was a teacher working in an Australian public high school and completing her PhD. The study investigates the use of a Ning online social network as a learning environment shared by seven classes, and it examines students' reactions and online activity while using a range of social media and Web 2.0 tools. The authors use Graham Nuthall's (2007) "lens on learning" to explore the social processes and culture of this shared online classroom. The paper uses his extensive body of research and analyses of classroom learning processes to conceptualize and analyze data throughout the action research cycle. It discusses the pedagogical implications that arise from the use of social media and, in so doing, challenges traditional models of teaching and learning."

Google classroom update

'The Connected Classrooms Program is a NSW Government initiative to provide the department's staff and students with new opportunities to connect with each other across enhanced technology facilities for sharing resources and data collaboration.' TLs applying for jobs in NSW will need to know about this, and will be at an advantage if they have some experience with it, it seems.

QuadBlogging builds writing skills and digital and global citizenship skills. Digital citizenship beyond the classroom.

"I set out to answer these questions through a study of attitudes, which compared digitally literate students' to digitally-challenged teachers and visa versa. In this study being undertaken at Swinburne University and sponsored by the Wesley College Institute for Innovation in Education, 321 students in years 9 and 10 and 100 educators were surveyed about their attitudes to digital literacy and the use of digital technologies. The schools were co-educational independent schools with laptop programs and significant differences were observed in student and educator attitudes towards each other's digital literacy. The hypothesis, "that there is a disconnect between the digitally capable students and digitally challenged educators in schools with laptop programs, limiting effective use of digital technology in the classroom" was supported in the findings. This has repercussions for educating "net generation" students and implications for the implementation of the National Secondary Computer Fund and National Broadband Network. The disconnect was revealed in terms of attitudes towards technology in the classroom, teaching pedagogy, internet use, adoption of cutting-edge technologies and limitations placed on school laptops and networks. In this study 57 statements were provided to research participants, who were then grouped into four groups: digitally capable students, digitally challenged students, digitally capable educators and digitally challenged educators."

"It's a problem and the schools are ready to address it, yet they aren't doing so in a robust way. Why? Maybe because, and this is just conjecture, at some level the schools and teachers understand that cyberbullying does not belong in the classroom. That is, it is not solely the schools' problem. Maybe schools and teachers are hesitant to take on cyberbullying full force because they don't like the idea of pigeonholing it as an educational system problem. Maybe they recognize it as a social system problem. Maybe they understand that cyberbullying prevention and response belong in the culture-the student culture, the family culture and the social culture-not just the classroom. "

"Twitter, without a doubt, has become the social network for educators to take their professional development into their own hands. Twitter allows teachers to connect with other educators from around the world, join discussions related to their interests and have a steady stream of resources (to help them teach and learn) available to them whenever, whereever and however. Creating a network on Twitter has catapulted educators to be part of a connected world where learning happens anytime, help is only a tweet away, collaboration partners meet and communicate, conversations that directly or indirectly impact their physical lives take place 24/7. Twitter is helping educators gain many 21st century skills and literacies which could easily transfer to their classrooms."

"How to integrate My Online Neighborhood into the classroom: My Online Neighborhood is a nice entry point for teaching Internet safety. Use the video to spur classroom discussions about online safety. The video also makes a nice lead in to the Internet safety lessons from Common Sense Media on Digital Life (sending email, online communities, rings of responsibility), Privacy (follow the digital trail), Connected Culture (screen out the mean, show respect online, power of words, group think, writing good emails), and Respecting Creative Work (whose is it, anyway?). These units and lessons are detailed, fun, and get right to the heart of the matter of raising digitally responsible citizens. The lesson plans are leveled by grade and can be used for kindergarten through fifth grade."

An excellent article about providing alternative learning opportunities via a digital backchannel facility in the classroom

A recent article by Lauren Davis in the Schoology (LMS) website that unpacks a survey of 16000+, mostly USA teachers, about the impact of digital learning. It includes some interesting insights into enablers and barriers for DLE. A good starting point for the 523 Assessment 3 environmental scan.

This is a "social network for those interested in Web 2.0, Social Media, and Participative Technologies in the classroom." Looks like a good resource to be part of for your PLN.

This article suggests ways to bring global perspectives into the classroom through: * Books - global stories * Textbooks that specifically feature global perspectives * Involvement in global projects * Bringing personal travel experiences into the classroom * Connecting with global educators online * Connecting with classrooms overseas, e.g. Pen Pal Schools

Often times, 1:1 tablet programs aren't financially feasible. However, classroom teachers can still utilize a tablet creatively and work on essential standards of the Common Core. Monica Burns highlights free apps for learning and promotes collaboration in the process through small group work.

What are teachers doing to support online learning both locally and globally? When interacting and collaborating with others beyond the immediate classroom, what are expected protocols or norms of behavior, and what are the essential understandings needed to forge working relationships between learners? Julie Lindsay, an education leader in digital technology, online learning, and curriculum across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and author of the new book, The Global Educator: Leveraging Technology for Collaborative Learning and Teaching, explores. Please also join us on Twitter next Thursday, July 28, for a special #globaledchat with Julie Lindsay on her new book!

Teaching digital citizenship and keeping students in the classroom safe online (and off of course!) is a priority for teachers when using iPads, Google Apps, and other devices & websites in the classroom. While even the best laid digital citizenship plans can lay the foundation, teachers need to continue revisiting topics and guiding students all year.

Here's another way to break down the boundaries of the classroom and schoolyard using Web 2.0. There are other sites and blogs providing examples and tutorials which are relevant to senior students in particular.

"Using social and digital media, teachers are reaching past the classroom in unprecedented ways." Here are the most important things we, as teachers, should integrate into our practice so we can help this generation learn