"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15.
05.04.15
TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM.
7:00 AM
INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION
Click to Open Overlay Gallery
Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED
SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it.
At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird.
On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about.
Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say.
And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
How many members of the Diigo Ed group are using this forum? I don't want to be overwhelmed by too many social networking groups that I become inundated with too much information to be a truly participating member of any of them. I like the Diigo Ed group, so far!
While I am new to the Diigo Ed group (and like it so far), I joined CR 2.0 a year and a half ago and have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations, info, and (especially) the webinars! Lots of good sharing all around.
I've been using Diigo and the group Diigo in Education for quite some time, but Classroom 2.0 is active with tons of ideas for all of us.
social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education
Classroom 2.0 is a free, community-supported network. We especially hope that those who are "beginners" will find this a supportive comfortable place to start being part of the digital dialog. Because of spammers, we have to approve all memberships here. While your membership is pending you are still welcome to peruse the site or attend any events!
I just joined the Classroom 2.0 ning about a week ago. It appears to have some valuable information. I am new to social networking, but am looking forward to the experience. I am very interested in Web 2.0 technologies so the ning seemed like a good place to start.
Having a classroom website can benefit everyone involved including the students, the teacher, and the parents. Classroom websites are great places to post news, pictures, homework instructions and teaching resources. This guide explains how to create a free classroom blog or website using weebly.com
"Conversation is
key
. Sawyer succinctly
explains this principle: "Conversation leads to flow, and flow leads to
creativity." When having students work in groups, consider what will spark rich
conversation. The original researcher on flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, found
that rich conversation precedes and ignites flow more than any other
activity.1 Tasks that require (or force) interaction
lead to richer collaborative conceptualization.
Set a clear but
open-ended goal
.
Groups produce the richest ideas when they have a goal that will focus their
interaction but also has fluid enough boundaries to allow for creativity. This
is a challenge we often overlook. As teachers, we often have an idea of what a
group's final product should look like (or sound like, or…). If we put
students into groups to produce a predetermined outcome, we prevent creative
thinking from finding an entry point.
Try not announcing time
limits.
As teachers we
often use a time limit as a "motivator" that we hope will keep group work
focused. In reality, this may be a major detractor from quality group work.
Deadlines, according to Sawyer, tend to impede flow and produce lower quality
results. Groups produce their best work in low-pressure situations. Without a
need to "keep one eye on the clock," the group's focus can be fully given to the
task.
Do not appoint a group
"leader."
In research
studies, supervisors, or group leaders, tend to subvert flow unless they participate as an
equal, listening and
allowing the group's thoughts and decisions to guide the
interaction.
Keep it
small.
Groups with the
minimum number of members that are needed to accomplish a task are more
efficient and effective.
Consider weaving
together individual and group work.
For additive tasks-tasks in whicha group is
expectedtoproduce a list, adding one idea to another-research suggests that
better results develop
Responsive Classroom Website-
Has a great wealth of resources on classroom management- Great website- will also send you free printed newsletters to your home!!
Save important websites and access them on any computer.
Categorize websites by titles, notes, keyword tags, lists and groups.
Search through bookmarks to quickly find desired information.
Save a screenshot of a website and see how it has changed over time.
Annotate websites with highlighting or virtual "sticky notes."
View any annotations made by others on any website visited.
Share websites with g
Diigo can provide a way to enrich or extend learning about a topic.
Beyond extended student learning, Diigo can be used as a form of professional development.
Research
Teaching students to research is a common standard across all grade levels, elementary, middle school, high school, and beyond. Diigo excels as a research tool:
Students can save relevant websites to lists in their Diigo student accounts. Each saved bookmark captures the URL and a screenshot, and can be searched later.
Students can highlight important information right on the website, using Diigo. Later, when students return to the website, they find the reason they saved the bookmark in the first place.
Students can use virtual sticky notes to summarize the important points of information from the website. This activity will mimic the time-tested procedure of using note cards to summarize and organize research projects.
Students working on similar topics can create and join groups in order to collaborate.
Later, when students need to document their sources, Diigo can be used to recall website URLs for citing sources.
How in the WORLD do I do the social part of it??
This seems useful, but I'm still trying to figure out how to let the kids collaborate on Outliners and then share the Outliners with me easily. I bet there's something huge that I'm missing here...
Blended learning, with its mix of technology and traditional face-to-face instruction, is a great approach.
Blended learning combines classroom learning with online learning, in which students can, in part, control the time, pace, and place of their learning. I advocate a teacher-designed blended learning model, in which teachers determine the combination that's right for them and their students.
Tip 1: Think big, but start small.
Tip 2: Patience is a virtue when trying something new.
Tip 4: Weaving media together makes them stronger.
Tip 5: Students need to know where they can get online.
Student-centered classrooms are the goal of my teacher-designed blended learning model. Giving students control over the learning process requires that they know how to communicate, collaborate, and solve problems in groups, pairs, and individually. This work can be messy, loud, and disorganized, but in the end, the learning is much more meaningful.
Then I found Collaborize Classroom, a free, dynamic discussion platform. I used it to replace many of my pen-and-paper homework assignments with vibrant online debates, discussions, writing assignments, and collaborative group work.
Remember that mistakes lead to learning. The best resources I've designed and the most effective strategies I've developed were all born from and refined through mistakes.
I anticipated that students might hit some bumps as they navigated their first TED-Ed lesson, so I set up a TodaysMeet back channel so students could ask questions, make comments, and access a support network while going through the online lesson. A back-channel tool makes it possible for people to have a real-time conversation online while a live presentation or real-time discussion is taking place.
I asked students to reference specific details to support their assertions, as did one student who commented on the town's poverty by noting that the local doctor often took potatoes as payment for his work. She also showed how the characters nevertheless reflected the country's "cautious optimism" about its future: That same doctor was still able to support himself, she pointed out, and he enjoyed his work. Students posted their responses, complimenting strong points made, asking questions, and offering alternative perspectives.
I asked students to analyze examples of strong discussion posts and revise weaker posts. I also realized that I needed to embed directions into our discussion topics to remind students to respond to the questions and engage with their peers. I started requiring them to thoughtfully reply to at least two classmates' posts, in addition to posting their own response to the topic.
It's crucial for students to see that the work they do in the online space drives the work they do in the classroom so they recognize the value of the online conversations.
For example, during the To Kill a Mockingbird unit, we researched and discussed the death penalty in preparation for writing an argument essay. The students debated online such issues as cost, morality, and racial inequality and then delved into these topics more deeply face-to-face in class.
In the classroom, the teacher might give small groups various topics to research. Then he or she could ask students to go online to research and discuss their topic on a shared Google Doc and create a presentation using Glogster, Prezi, or Google Presentation Maker.
When we read Romeo and Juliet, I use this strategy to encourage students to research such topics as the monarchy, entertainment, and gender roles in Elizabethan England so they have a better understanding of the historical context in which Shakespeare wrote. Back in the classroom, each group then presents its findings through an oral presentation.
Compared with traditional in-class group work, which typically yields a disappointing finished product, online work provides the time necessary for students to complete quality work together.
Some teachers think that incorporating online work means they have to be available 24 hours a day. This is not the case. When students are connected online, they have a network of peers they can reach out to for support, and they begin to see one another as valuable resources in their class community.
I've embedded a Google map in my website that has pins dropped in all the locations on our campus and in our community where there are computers with public access to the Internet.
I even wrote the local computer recycling center to request a computer for my class.
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining what
should be highlighted in an article or passage. Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
About diigo.com
page
Details and Tags
Print
Download PDF
Backlinks
Source
Delete
Rename
Redirect
Permissions
Lock
discussion
history
notify me Protected
Details
last edit by cmh459 Sunday, 7:53 pm - 36 revisions
Tags
none
About diigo.comDiigo or
Digest of Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff is a social bookmarking
site that allows its users to bookmark and tag websites. Users are also able to
highlight information and put sticky notes directly on the webpage as you are
reading it. Your notes can be public which allows other users to view and
comment on your notes and add their own or it can be private. Sites can be saved
and stored for later reading and commenting. Users can also join groups with
similar interests and follow specific people and sites. Teachers can register for an educator account that allows
a teacher to create accounts for an entire class. In an education account,
students are automatically set up as a Diigo group which allows for easy sharing
of documents, pictures, videos, and articles with only your class group. There
are also pre-set privacy settings so only the teacher and classmates can see the
bookmarks and communications. This is a great way to ensure that your students
and their comments are kept private from the rest of the Internet community.
Diigo is a great tool for teachers to use to have students interact with
material and to share that interaction with classmates.
Best Practices for using Diigo tools
Tagging
Tool
Teachers or students can tag a website that
they want to bookmark for future reference.
Teachers can research websites or articles that
they want their students to view on a certain topic and tag them for the
students. This tool is nice when
researching a certain topic. The teacher can tag the websites that the students
should use eliminating the extra time of searching for the sites that would be
useful and appropriate for the project.Highlighting Tool
Diigo
highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to
highlight in an article or a web page
.
1The key
concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted
to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining
what
should be highlighted in an article or passage.
Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate
how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
Sticky Notes
Tool
The sticky note tool is a great addition to the
tools of diigo. Students may add sticky notes to a passage as they are reading
it. The sticky notes could be used to make notes or ask questions by the
students.
Teachers could postition the sticky notes in
the passage for students to respond to various ideas as they are reading.
Students could use sticky notes to peer edit
and make comments on other student's work through Google docs.
These are just a few ideas of how to
apply the diigo tools to your teaching practices. Both students and teachers
benefit form using these tools. The variety of uses or practices give both
groups a hands on way of dealing with text while making it more efficient.
Bookmark/Snapsho
islt9440 - Group 7: Diigo for Education
guest · Join · Help
· Sign In ·
Join
this Wiki
Recent Changes
Manage Wiki
Group 7 Project HomeDiigo RSS FeedsSample Lesson Plans
Social Studies
Spanish
Math
(Functions)
Math (Geometry)
Collaboration Pages
Collaboration Home
Job Assignments
Project Info
Lesson Plan Ideas
About
diigo.com
page
Details and Tags
Print
Download PDF
Backlinks
Source
Delete
Rename
Redirect
Permissions
Lock
discussion
history
notify
me
Protected
Details
last edit by
cmh459
Sunday,
7:53 pm
-
36
revisions
Tags
none
About
diigo.com
Diigo or
Digest of
Internet Information, Groups and Other stuff is a social bookmarking
site
that allows its users to bookmark and tag websites. Users are also able
to
highlight information and put sticky notes
directly on the webpage as you are
reading it.
Your notes can be public which allows other users to view and
comment on
your notes and add their own or it can be private. Sites can be saved
and
stored for later reading and commenting. Users can also join groups with
si
Diigo or Digest of Internet Information, Groups and
Other stuff is a social bookmarking site that allows its users to bookmark
and tag websites
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page.
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher
or
student to highlight in an article or a web
page.
The key concepts
or vocabulary words could be
highlighted
to check for understanding
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher or
student to highlight in an article or a web page.
The key concepts or vocabulary words could be
highlighted to check for understanding.
Some students have problems determining what
should be highlighted in an article or passage. Teachers could use this tool to
demonstrate how to correctly highlight and find the key points.
Diigo highlighting tool allows the teacher
or
student to highlight in an article or a web
page.
Teachers or students can tag a website that
they want to bookmark for future reference.
Teachers can research websites or articles that
they want their students to view on a certain topic and tag them for the
students.This tool is nice when
researching a certain topic. The teacher can tag the websites that the students
should use eliminating the extra time of searching for the sites that would be
useful and appropriate for the project.
The sticky note tool is a great addition to the tools of diigo. Students may add sticky notes to a passage as they are reading it. The sticky notes could be used to make notes or ask questions by the students.Teachers could postition the sticky notes in the passage for students to respond to various ideas as they are reading.Students could use sticky notes to peer edit and make comments on other student's work through Google docs.
Physics Games.net, as the name implies, is a website of games based on simple physics concepts. Physic Games offers dozens of games based on a physics concept or two. Each game can be played directly on the Physics Games website or embedded into your blog or website. The one downfall of the site is that before each game starts there is a short commercial. I checked out a few different games, and I did not see any advertising that would be unacceptable in a public school classroom.
SuperTeacherTools.com is dedicated to providing technology tools for teaching that are quick and easy to download, learn, and start using in your classroom.
In the site, you will find a variety of review games, classroom management software, and other miscellaneous tools for educators.
a website to empower teachers to solve their own technology shortfalls by connecting classrooms with their communities using the Internet. A year later, www.digitalwish.org launched with a simple wish list feature and a few technology products. The need for classroom technology was so great that 1,000 teachers posted wishes in the first month. With such high demand, we began the process of turning Digital Wish into an official nonprofit organization.
new options for converting a wikispace, now called a basic wiki, into an editable website. Can publish a classroom wiki once work is completed to a website to share with a wider audience. Looks like it has lots of potential for classroom teachers.
« 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
This website will be used for the investigation of Web 2.0 tech tools and how they may be integrated in teaching and learning. Selected tech tools have been organized by their potential application and those titles are listed on the left navigation bar.
Each page of this website includes a variety of free tech tools that address areas in which students and faculty may want to try something different than what they are currently doing in and out of the classroom.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Essentially, Bouncy Balls is a website that activates your microphone and detects noise level. The more noise in the room, the more the balls bounce. The quieter the room is, the more still the balls remain. Although this tool has a number of applications outside of classroom management, I thought it was a fun, engaging way to monitor noise levels. Ask students to try to keep the balls as still as possible during class, and maybe reward them by allowing them to sing and be noisy on their way out of class
Lisa C. Hurst on 05 May 15"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat
Cached
