"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
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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
Teaching Wikipedia in 5 Easy Steps:
*Use it as background information
*Use it for technology terms
*Use it for current pop cultural literacy
*Use it for the Keywords
*Use it for the REFERENCES at the bottom of the page!
4 ways to use Wikipedia (hint: never cite it)
Teachers: Please stop prohibiting the use of Wikipedia
20 Little Known Ways to Use Wikipedia
Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica
Schiff, Stacy. “Know it all: Can Wikipedia conquer expertise?” The New Yorker, February 26, 2006
And:
Yes students, there’s a world beyond Wikipedia
**Several years ago, Nature magazine did a comparison of material available on Wikipedia and Brittanica and concluded that Brittanica was somewhat, but not overwhelmingly, more accurate than Wikipedia. Brittanica lodged a complaint, and here, you can see what it complained about as well as Nature’s response.
Nature compared articles from both organizations on various topics and sent them to experts to review. Per article, the averages were: 2.92 mistakes per article for Britannica and 3.86 for Wikipedia.
-0-
Follow The Answer Sheet every day by bookmarking http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet. And for admissions advice, college news and links to campus papers, please check out our
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By Valerie Strauss
|
05:00 AM ET, 09/07/2011
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Excellent perspective on "The 'W' Word" - use it wisely for what it is - high school and college kids shouldn't be citing any general knowledge encyclopedias for serious research - but that doesn't mean there aren't some excellent uses for it.
The modern workplace's vogue is informal information exchange. We sit in open floor plan offices so that we can spontaneously collide, chat, and collaborate. An office setup for generating ideas can be fizzy and energizing, though when sparks aren't flying, the colliding can be noisy and distracting.
Jeff Bezos takes a totally different approach to management, far from that madding crowd. He has a contrarian management technique that's peculiarly old school - write it down.
"For innovative training professionals, one of the biggest challenges can be finding inspiration. Even the most experienced training manager can run out of ideas at times. So here's a monster list of online learning resources where we can learn from our peers and draw some inspiration."
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:
"I happened to be very ill for almost the entirety of the three weeks that I was off school for Christmas. Bad luck I guess, but I still managed to squeeze in a 3-day trip to Jeju Island, South Korea (highly recommended). I didn't get everything done on my list that I wanted too, but I did manage to get a few items checked off (including writing a reference for a former colleague - so pleased I could that done)."
A critical conclusion to be realized that can inform our assumptions as educators.
When teens are involved in friendship-driven practices, online and offline are not separate worlds—they are simply different settings in which to gather with friends and peers
these dynamics reinforce existing friendship patterns as well as constitute new kinds of social arrangements.
Homophily describes the likelihood that people connect to others who share their interests and identity.
One survey of Israeli teens suggests that those who develop friendships online tend toward less homogenous connections than teens who do not build such connections
Teens frequently use social media as additional channels of communication to get to know classmates and turn acquaintances into friendships.
Some teens—especially marginalized and ostracized ones—often relish the opportunity to find connections beyond their schools. Teens who are driven by specific interests that may not be supported by their schools, such as those described in the Creative Production and Gaming chapters, often build relationships with others online through shared practice.
there are plenty of teens who relish the opportunity to make new connections through social media, this practice is heavily stigmatized
the public myths about online “predators” do not reflect the actual realities of sexual solicitation and risky online behavior (Wolak et al. 2008). Not only do unfounded fears limit teenagers unnecessarily, they also obscure preventable problematic behavior
As she described her typical session on Photobucket, it became clear that a shared understanding of friendship and romance was being constructed by her and other Photobucket users:
The fact that they draw from all of these sources suggests that youth’s friendship maintenance is in tune with a discourse of love and friendship that is being widely displayed and (re)circulated.
“It’s like have you noticed that you may have someone in your Top 8 but you’re not in theirs and you kinda think to yourself that you’re not as important to that person as they are to you . . . and oh, to be in the coveted number-one spot!”
Taking someone off your Top 8 is your new passive-aggressive power play when someone pisses you off.
Top Friends are persistent, publicly displayed, and easily alterable. This makes it difficult for teens to avoid the issue or make excuses such as “I forgot.” When pressured to include someone, teens often oblige or attempt to ward off this interaction by listing those who list them
Other teens avoid this struggle by listing only bands or family members. While teens may get jealous if other peers are listed, family members are exempt from the comparative urge.
to avoid social drama with her friends:
The Top Friends feature is a good example of how structural aspects of software can force articulations that do not map well to how offline social behavior works.
teens have developed a variety of social norms to govern what is and is not appropriate
The problem with explicit ranking, however, is that it creates or accentuates hierarchies where they did not exist offline, or were deliberately and strategically ambiguous, thus forcing a new set of social-status negotiations. The give-and-take over these forms of social ranking is an example of how social norms are being negotiated in tandem with the adoption of new technologies, and how peers give ongoing feedback to one another as part of these struggles to develop new cultural standards.
While teen dramas are only one component of friendship, they are often made extremely visible by social media. The persistent and networked qualities of social media alter the ways that these dramas play out in teen life. For this reason, it is important to pay special attention to the role that social media play in the negotiation of teen status.
primarily a continuation of broader dramas.
social media amplify dramas because they extend social worlds beyond the school.
Gossip and rumors have played a role in teen struggles for status and attention since well before social media entered the scene
social media certainly alter the efficiency and potential scale of interactions. Because of this, there is greater potential for gossip to spread much further and at a faster pace, making social media a culprit in teen drama. While teen gossip predates the Internet, some teens blame the technologies for their roles in making gossip easier and more viral
That’s what happened with me and my friends. We got into a lot of drama with it and I was like, anyone can write anything. It can be fact, fiction. Most people, what they read they believe. Even if it’s not true (C.J. Pascoe, Living Digital).
finds the News Feed useful “because it helps you to see who’s keeping track of who and who’s talking to who.” She enjoys knowing when two people break up so that she knows why someone is upset or when she should reach out to offer support. Knowing this information also prevents awkward conversations that might reference the new ex. While she loves the ability to keep up with the lives of her peers, she also realizes that this means that “everybody knows your business.”
Some teens find the News Feed annoying or irrelevant. Gadil, an Indian 16-year-old from Los Angeles, thinks that it is impersonal while others think it is downright creepy. For Tara, a Vietnamese 16-year-old from Michigan, the News Feed takes what was public and makes it more public: “Facebook’s already public. I think it makes it way too like stalker-ish.” Her 18-year-old sister, Lila, concurs and points out that it gets “rumors going faster.” Kat, a white 14-year-old from Salem, Massachusetts, uses Facebook’s privacy settings to hide stories from the News Feed for the sake of appearances.
While gossip is fairly universal among teens, the rumors that are spread can be quite hurtful. Some of this escalates to the level of bullying. We are unable to assess whether or not bullying is on the rise because of social media. Other scholars have found that most teens do not experience Internet-driven harassment (Wolak, Mitchell, and Finkelhor 2007). Those who do may not fit the traditional profile of those who experience school-based bullying (Ybarra, Diener-West, and Leaf 2007), but harassment, both mediated and unmediated, is linked to a myriad of psychosocial issues that includes substance use and school problems (Hinduja and Patchin 2008; Ybarra et al. 2007).
Measuring “cyberbullying” or Internet harassment is difficult, in part because both scholars and teens struggle to define it. The teens we interviewed spoke regularly of “drama” or “gossip” or “rumors,” but few used the language of “bullying” or “harassment” unless we introduced these terms. When Sasha, a white 16-year-old from Michigan, was asked specifically about whether or not rumors were bullying, she said:
I don’t know, people at school, they don’t realize when they are bullying a lot of the time nowadays because it’s not so much physical anymore. It’s more like you think you’re joking around with someone in school but it’s really hurting them. Like you think it’s a funny inside joke between you two, but it’s really hurtful to them, and you can’t realize it anymore.
Sasha, like many of the teens we interviewed, saw rumors as hurtful, but she was not sure if they were bullying. Some teens saw bullying as being about physical harm; others saw it as premeditated, intentionally malicious, and sustained in nature. While all acknowledged that it could take place online, the teens we interviewed thought that most bullying took place offline, even if they talked about how drama was happening online.
it did not matter whether it was online or offline; the result was still the same. In handling this, she did not get offline, but she did switch schools and friend groups.
Technology provides more channels through which youth can potentially bully one another. That said, most teens we interviewed who discussed being bullied did not focus on the use of technology and did not believe that technology is a significant factor in bullying.
They did, though, see rumors, drama, and gossip as pervasive. The distinction may be more connected with language and conception than with practice. Bianca, a white 16-year-old from Michigan, sees drama as being fueled by her peers’ desire to get attention and have something to talk about. She thinks the reason that people create drama is boredom. While drama can be hurtful, many teens see it simply as a part of everyday social life.
Although some drama may start out of boredom or entertainment, it is situated in a context where negotiating social relations and school hierarchies is part of everyday life. Teens are dealing daily with sociability and related tensions.
Tara thinks that it emerges because some teens do not know how to best negotiate their feelings and the feelings of others.
Teens can use the ability to publicly validate one another on social network sites to reaffirm a friendship.
So, while drama is common, teens actually spend much more time and effort trying to preserve harmony, reassure friends, and reaffirm relationships. This spirit of reciprocity is common across a wide range of peer-based learning environments we have observed.
From this perspective, commenting is not as much about being nice as it is about relying on reciprocity for self-gain
That makes them feel like they’re popular, that they’re getting comments all the time by different people, even people that they don’t know. So it makes them feel popular in a way (Rural and Urban Youth).
Gossip, drama, bullying, and posing are unavoidable side effects of teens’ everyday negotiations over friendship and peer status. What takes place in this realm resembles much of what took place even before the Internet, but certain features of social media alter the dynamics around these processes. The public, persistent, searchable, and spreadable nature of mediated information affects the way rumors flow and how dramas play out. The explicitness surrounding the display of relationships and online communication can heighten the social stakes and intensity of status negotiation. The scale of this varies, but those who experience mediated harassment are certainly scarred by the process. Further, the ethic of reciprocity embedded in networked publics supports the development of friendships and shared norms, but it also plays into pressures toward conformity and participation in local, school-based peer networks. While there is a dark side to what takes place, teens still relish the friendship opportunities that social media provide.
While social warfare and drama do exist, the value of social media rests in their ability to strengthen connections. Teens leverage social media for a variety of practices that are familiar elements of teen life: gossiping, flirting, joking around, and hanging out. Although the underlying practices are quite familiar, the networked, public nature of online communication does inflect these practices in new ways.
Adults’ efforts to regulate youth access to MySpace are the latest example of how adults are working to hold on to authority over teen socialization in the face of a gradual erosion of parental influence during the teen years.
learning how to manage the unique affordances of networked sociality can help teens navigate future collegiate and professional spheres where mediated interactions are assumed.
articulating those friendships online means that they become subject to public scrutiny in new ways;
This makes lessons about social life (both the failures and successes) more consequential and persistent
make these dynamics visible in a more persistent and accessible public arena.
co-constructing new sets of social norms together with their peers and the efforts of technology developers. The dynamics of social reciprocity and negotiations over popularity and status are all being supported by participation in publics of the networked variety as formative influences in teen life. While we see no indication that social media are changing the fundamental nature of these friendship practices, we do see differences in the intensity of engagement among peers, and conversely, in the relative alienation of parents and teachers from these social worlds.
"When it comes to deciding how or whether to use iPads, schools typically focus on budget issues, apps, networking logistics, check-in and check-out procedures, school and district tech-use policies, hardware precautions, and aspects of classroom management.
But it's also important to think about instructional use, and to that end, consider the following questions."
I really don't know how I ever did anything without this program. It is perfect for scheduling student conferences, office hours, volunteer hours, sign-ups for presentations, etc. You set it up and provide the link. Those who want to sign up take over, they are e-mailed a google calendar and they are e-mailed a reminder automatically. EASY One of those "I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS FREE!" programs.
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
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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
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revisions
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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.
Calendar : Teachers can use it to keep their classes on track with upcoming assignments, test, due dates and many more
Courses : They can use it to create instructor page and manage their courses
Webinaria : This helps teachers record their class lectures and post them on Facebook for the class to review.
To-do-list ; Easily create a reminder list
Worldcat : easily search for material available at libraries around the world to help in with your research
Check out this List of Facebook Learning Apps to explore more.
days could more accurately be described as the electronic version of class
hand-outs. These courses usually consist of a course description, a syllabus,
lecture notes, reading lists, and assignment checklists. In other words,
whatever materials a student might have viewed on paper in the past are now read
onscreen, and whatever presentations a student might have watched in the
classroom are now observed on their screen
Online Course Design Pitfall #1: Upload your course materials, then call
it a day.Reading your course material on a computer screen does not
make for a memorable learning experience. Step back and take a fresh look at
your content in the larger context of the world and the Web
Online Course Design Pitfall #2: Let the course management system drive
your thinking.Course management systems (CMS) are usually
preconfigured with a course template that instructors are expected to populate
with their course description, syllabus, assignments, and announcements. Often
these templates
Web application(networked studentcomponent)
Tool usedin test case
Student activitylevel of structure
Social bookmarking (RSS)
Delicioushttp://delicious.com/
Set up the account
Subscribe to each others accounts
Bookmark and read 10 reliable websites that reflect the content of chosen
topic
Add and read at least 3 additional sites each week.
News and blog alert (RSS)
Google Alerthttp://www.google.com/alerts
Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic
Read news and blogs on that topic that are delivered via email daily
Subscribe to appropriate blogs in reader
News and blog reader (RSS)
Google Readerhttp://reader.google.com
Search for blogs devoted to chosen topic
Subscribe to blogs to keep track of updates
Personal blog (RSS)
Bloggerhttp://www.blogger.com
Create a personal blog
Post a personal reflection each day of the content found and experiences
related to the use of personal learning environment
Students subscribe to each others blogs in reader
Internet search (information management, contacts, and synchronous
communication)
Google Scholarhttp://scholar.google.com/
Conduct searches in Google Scholar and library databases for
scholarly works.
Bookmark appropriate sites
Consider making contact with expert for video conference
Podcasts (RSS)
iTunesUhttp://www.apple.com/itunes/whatson/itunesu.html
Search iTunesU for podcasts related to topic
Subscribe to at least 2 podcasts if possible
Video conferencing (contacts and synchronous communication)
Skypehttp://www.skype.com
Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with
the class.
Content gathering/ digital notebook
Evernotehttp://evernote.com/
Set up account
Use Evernote to take notes on all content collected via other
tools
Content synthesis
Wikispaceshttp://www.wikispaces.com
Post final project on personal page of class
wiki
The process and tools are overwhelming to students if presented all at once.
As with any instructional design, the teacher determines the pace at which the
students best assimilate each new learning tool. For this particular project, a
new tool was introduced each day over two weeks. Once the construction process
was complete, there were a number of personal web page aggregators that could
have been selected to bring everything together in one place. Options at the
time included iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes, and Symbaloo. These
sites offer a means to compile or pull together content from a variety of web
applications. A web widget or gadget is a bit of code that is executed within
the personal web page to pull up external content from other sites. The students
in this case designed the personal web page using the gadgets needed in the
format that best met their learning goals. Figure 3 is an instructor example of
a personal webpage that includes the reader, email, personal blog, note taking
program, and social bookmarks on one page.
The personal learning environment can take the place of a traditional
textbook, though does not preclude the student from using a textbook or
accessing one or more numerous open source texts that may be available for the
research topic. The goal is to access content from many sources to effectively
meet the learning objectives. The next challenge is to determine whether those
objectives have been met.
Figure 3: Personal web page compiles learning tools
Table 2: Personal learning environment toolset
Web application
(networked student
component)
Tool used
in test
case
Student activity
level of
structure
Social bookmarking (RSS)
Delicious
http://delicious.com/
Set up the account
Subscribe to each others accounts
Bookmark and read 10 reliable websites that
reflect the content of chosen
topic
Add and read at least 3 additional sites each
week.
News and blog alert (RSS)
Google Alert
http://www.google.com/alerts
Create a Google Alert of keywords associated with selected topic
Read news and blogs on that topic that are
delivered via email daily
Subscribe to appropriate blogs in
reader
News and blog reader (RSS)
Google Reader
http://reader.google.com
Search for blogs devoted to chosen topic
Subscribe to blogs to keep track of
updates
Personal blog (RSS)
Blogger
http://www.blogger.com
Create a personal blog
Post a personal reflection each day of the
content found and experiences
related
to the use of personal learning environment
Students subscribe to each others blogs in
reader
Internet search (information management,
contacts, and synchronous
communication)
Google Scholar
http://scholar.google.com/
Conduct searches in Google Scholar and library databases for
scholarly
works.
Bookmark appropriate sites
Consider making contact with expert for video
conference
Podcasts (RSS)
iTunesU
http://www.apple.com/itunes/
whatson/itunesu.html
Search iTunesU for podcasts related to topic
Subscribe to at least 2 podcasts if
possible
Video conferencing (contacts and synchronous
communication)
Skype
http://www.skype.com
Identify at least one subject matter expert to invite to Skype with
the class.
Content gathering/ digital notebook
Evernote
http://evernote.com/
Set up account
Use Evernote to take notes on all content collected via other
tools
Content synthesis
Wikispaces
http://www.wikispaces.com
Post final project on personal page of
class
wiki
The process and tools are overwhelming to
students if presented all at once.
As with
any instructional design, the teacher determines the pace at which the
students best assimilate each new learning tool.
For this particular project, a
new tool
was introduced each day over two weeks. Once the construction process
was complete, there were a number of personal
web page aggregators that could
have been
selected to bring everything together in one place. Options at the
time
included iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes, and Symbaloo. These
sites
offer a means to compile or pull together content from a variety of web
applications. A web widget or gadget is a bit of
code that is executed within
the
personal web page to pull up external content from other sites. The
students
in this case designed the personal web page
using the gadgets needed in the
format
that best met their learning goals. Figure 3 is an instructor example of
a
personal webpage that includes the reader, email, personal blog, note
taking
program, and social bookmarks on one
page.
The personal learning environment can take the
place of a traditional
textbook, though does not preclude the student
from using a textbook or
accessing one or more numerous open source texts
that may be available for the
research
topic. The goal is to access content from many sources to effectively
meet the learning objectives. The next challenge
is to determine whether those
objectives have been met.
AssessmentThere were four components of the assessment process for this
test case of the Networked Student Model: (1) Ongoing performance
assessment in the form of weekly assignments to facilitate the construction and
maintenance of the personal learning environment, (2) rubric-based assessment of
the personal learning environment at the end of the project, (3) written essay,
and (4) multimedia synthesis of topic content.
Points were earned for meeting the following requirements:
Identify ten reliable resources and post to social bookmarking account. At
least three new resources should be added each week.
Subscribe and respond to at least 3 new blogs each week. Follow these blogs
and news alerts using the reader.
Subscribe to and listen to at least two podcasts (if available).
Respectfully contact and request a video conference from a subject matter
expert recognised in the field.
Maintain daily notes and highlight resources as needed in digital notebook.
Post at least a one-paragraph reflection in personal blog each day.
At the end of the project, the personal learning environment was
assessed with a rubric that encompassed each of the items listed above.
The student's ability to synthesise the research was further evaluated with a
reflective essay. Writing shapes thinking (Langer & Applebee, 1987), and the
essay requirement was one more avenue through which the students demonstrated
higher order learning. The personal blog provided an opportunity for regular
reflection during the course of the project. The essay was the culmination of
the reflections along with a thoughtful synthesis of the learning experience.
Students were instructed to articulate what was learned about the selected topic
and why others should care or be concerned. The essay provided an overview of
everything learned about the contemporary issue. It was well organised,
detailed, and long enough to serve as a resource for others who wished to learn
from the work. As part of a final exam, the students were required to access the
final projects of their classmates and reflect on what they learned from this
exposure. The purpose of this activity was to give the students an additional
opportunity to share and learn from each other.
Creativity is considered a key 21st century skill (Partnership for 21st
Century Skills, 2009). A number of emerging web applications support the
academic creative process. Students in this project used web tools to combine
text, video, audio, and photographs to teach the research topics to others. The
final multimedia project was posted or embedded on the student's personal wiki
page.
Analysis and assessment of student work was facilitated by the very
technologies in use by the students. In order to follow their progress, the
teacher simply subscribed to student social bookmarking accounts, readers, and
blogs. Clicking through daily contributions was relatively quick and efficient.
Scholarly and important but also practical. Scroll down for an incredible chart of ideas that challenges older students to take charge of their own learning.
Here is the list of things that every productivity application should have:
Integration with iCal / Google Calendar - for those who rely on Google SMS texts as reminders
Powerful search – so I don’t have to waste time looking for the things that I need
Available on all platforms (Mac, PC, Android, iOS, Black Berry…) – so if I change the device, I don’t need to be left apart
Sharing options (Facebook, Twitter, @mail) – so I can share my thoughts with my friends without writing it twice and copy pasting
Tagging – so we can organize ourselves better
Reminders – so we can setup alarms without finding the native app
Offline access – so we don’t have to rely on internet in order for our system to work.
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
