One of the wonders of the Internet is that it can bring the world to you instead of your needing to find the time and money to explore the traditional way. The following virtual tours bring opportunities to explore cities, famous landmarks and buildings, museums, college campuses, and even outer space. You can learn how things are made, explore the human body or that of a life-sized whale, and visit ball parks and theme parks. There is even a section of incredible virtual tours that Google Earth has compiled that shares the world in a whole new way.
"What are the characteristics we would expect to see in a successful 21st century educator?
We know 21st century educators are student-centric, holistic and they are teaching about how to learn as much as teaching about the subject area. We know too, that they must be 21st century learners as well. But highly effective teachers in today's classrooms are more than this - much more."
It's not hard to find information. It's harder to tell if it can be trusted. Many people are satisfied with their search skills because most of the time they find things they are looking for. Sure, they waste a lot of time getting there and miss a lot of relevant information in the process, but they get the job done.
The most valuable tool for your own professional development and sanity, I think. If you're not using RSS, try it. If your in ed media and not using RSS, you REALLY must use it!
There are so many cool ways to learn online now. The whole world is a school. This list is meant for continuous learners and for procrastinators looking for distractions in the coming year.
The mistake some people make is believing educators instantly need to become producers of websites, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social networks etc. Most educators need to become comfortable and familiar as participants in these environments before they can feel successful as creators in these areas. To follow are ideas that educators who want to get started with educating innovatively can explore.
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It comes down to knowing how to best use the tools at your disposal to maximize the impact of education for students, which has always been what separates good teachers from bad ones. The major difference between teachers of today and teachers of the future is that in the future educators will have better online tools and will require better specialized training to learn how to utilize them properly."