Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

Blogging the Learning Process Just as blogs can help foster conversation among students and faculty, instructors are discovering that they can also serve a more personal role, as a tool of reflection and self-appraisal. “The blog’s biggest strength is in the development and authentication of the student voice in learning,” notes Ruth Reynard, associate professor of education and the director of the Center for Instructional Technology at Trevecca Nazarene University (TN). Reynard uses blogs as a way to get students to reflect on their coursework–essentially by keeping an online journal in which they track their learning. As opposed to a traditional journal that is read only by the instructor, student

When used as a tool for reflection, blogs allow students to write at length about their own experiences as learners, and to read and comment on the insights posted on their classmates’ blogs. This type of public, shared self-reflection is difficult to achieve in other forms of collaborative online writing, such as discussion boards. “If the

Reynard has also found that blogs are a great tool for helping her graduate students learn to write academically. She requires her graduate students to embed hyperlinks to online sources that are influencing their thinking in their reflective blog posts.

Content can be revised and updated continuously. Textbooks no longer need to be text but can be any media. And a tablet can administer tests, enable students to engage in collaborative projects or support remote education for rural children. Since a tablet is a full-fledged computer, it can also support specialized applications that cater to children with learning disabilities or different learning styles. The possibilities are endless

If all this were to come true, the biggest losers will be dogs—they’ll no longer have any homework to eat.

Practice logs can promote these helpful activities. Such logs can show how often teachers use a new practice, how it worked, what problems occurred, and what help they needed (Sparks, 1998).

Professional development for technology use should demonstrate projects in specific curriculum areas and help teachers integrate technology into the content.

Specific content can help teachers analyze, synthesize, and structure ideas into projects that they can use in their classrooms (Center for Applied Special Technology, 1996).

It turns out that passion, a sense of humor, and knowing how to recover from setbacks are also critical readiness factors when it comes to tackling real-world problems.

For teachers who want to develop students' collaborative skills from a young age, Scobbie offers this advice: "Put students together in situations they're not comfortable with, so that they have to deal with conflicts in a useful way."

create a game that was hard to beat but harder still to quit

games themselves could feasibly replace tests

whether children learn more when playing individually or collaboratively.

Even some high school valedictorians are taking remedial courses in college. Too many students are completely unprepared for the future.

Last year, the unemployment rate for Americans without a high school diploma was 14.1 percent. For those with a Bachelor's degree, it was 4.9 percent.

Common Core State Standards, orient instruction around critical thinking and problem solving, requiring students to demonstrate a deep understanding of concepts and then apply them to new situations.

Literacy Design Collaborative

strategies