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adults and students alike now share a platform for consuming and authoring information like our society has never seen

So how do we integrate standards and skillsets that prepare our K-12 students for an interconnected, digital world that can often be incendiary and hurtful?

5 fantastic ways to use Wallwisher in the classroom: Writing activities – Wallwisher has a 160 character limit for each comment/post that you leave on the wall. Which is, in a way, a good thing! It allows for short story/collaborative projects, essay plans, note-taking, memos, poems, etc… the writing possibilities are endless! Brainstorming activities – This is a great ice breaker for the beginning of class! And better yet, it’s a great way to post a homework assignment/food for thought for that evening and then discuss it the next day. Vocabulary/Grammar Activities – You could easily use Wallwisher for practicing tenses, definitions, vocabulary matching (you can even use audio or video!), or even find a theme and have the students fill the sticky notes with their ideas for the vocabulary theme! Speaking activities – I was never one to love speaking in front of people so Wallwisher is a great way to create short speaking activities to help students feel more comfortable in front of a group of people. These activities could be to talk about a photo or video for X minutes, create a story based upon X number of photos, or even put debate topics on a sticky note for the student to create. Notifications – That is the original thought, right? You could use Wallwisher for orientation information, classroom rules, student profiles, daily/weekly plan, or even fun messages to other students who might be out sick or on trips with their families.

Innovative technology and marketing strategies might be able to nudge students toward better decisions without limiting their freedom to choose. For example, it would be much easier for students to identify and compare relevant courses if academic catalogs were less like phone books and more like, say, Netflix. Then students could interactively search and browse on dimensions like course subject, timing, difficulty, prerequisites, major requirements or instructor ratings. Over time, students could be offered personalized suggestions based on their previous choices. New students could even be offered the equivalent of a prix fixe menu, offering a limited selection of prepackaged pathways while still allowing students to choose à la carte.

« Thoughts on Collaboration and Developing Higher Level Questioning Skills Twittering with a Purpose: A Starter (or Restarter) Guide » Book In An Hour: A Classroom Strategy April 30, 2009 by Ellsbeth This past winter I had the opportunity to attend a workshop with Organization of American Historians distinguished lecturer, Dr. Lendol Calder.   This is the first place where I came across the strategy called Book In An Hour.  Since then I’ve tried to find additional internet resources on this strategy, but they appear to be few and far between.  I know other people would find it useful, so I decided to write up the strategy and post it here on the blog.  If you know of additional resources or ways to adapt this strategy, I would enjoy hearing from you. What: The Book In An Hour strategy is a jigsaw activity for chapter books.  While the strategy can take more than an hour depending on the reading and presentation method you choose. Why: While many teachers view this activity as a time saver, I view it as a way to expose students to more literary and historical materials than I might have been able to do otherwise.  There are many books that I would love my students to read, but I know that being able to do so is not always my reality.  This st

y gives me an avenue to expose them to additional literature and other important historical works without taking much time away from the other aspects of my courses.  It also provides opportunities for differentiation.  This strategy can be adapted to introduce a book that students will be reading in-depth.  Instead of j

ng to divide students up into groups or jigsaw with individual students.  If you are using groups, I recommend making them heterogeneous or creating them in a way that subtly facilitates differentiation.  I also encourage you to give each student in the grou

great teachers engineer learning experiences that maneuver the students into the driver's seat and then the teachers get out of the way.

great teacher will devise a way to give the students an urgent reason to learn skills or knowledge and then let them show they have learned it by what they can do. This is called project-based learning.

Students learn best when they are in control of their learning

It's no secret that curiosity makes learning more effective and enjoyable. Curious students not only ask questions, but also actively seek out the answers.

"Instead of assigning students to go write, we should assign them to go read and then link to what interests them and write about why it does and what it means."37

Blogging is about, first, reading. But more important, it is about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read—reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting.

For blogging in education to be a success, this first must be embraced and encouraged.

When students are prepped and prepped and prepped to pass the state tests, they aren’t necessarily better educated, just prepared to take a specific test. Too much prepping distorts the value of the test.

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Make (and use) a Twitter account for one of your classes – You’ll need to provide us the link to the Twitter profile you’ve created (example: www.twitter.com/edudemic)

Use Skype (or similar service) to have your students connect with someone(s) for a project, interview, ‘pen pal’ class activity – Provide a short description of who your students connected with, and the purpose of their task (and if they used a service other than Skype, what service was it!?)

Make a Facebook page for one of your classes (and use it) – You’ll need to provide the link to the Facebook page that you’ve created (example: www.facebook.com/edudemic)