Netbooks, cloud apps encourage collaboration
Students who have access to mobile devices at home constantly communicate on Facebook, Twitter and other sites, said Wayne Weber, the Laconia High School principal. But at some schools, administrators tell them, "Stop collaborating, stop communicating and put those devices away."
"And so, this is a means of addressing that Digital Divide as John said, and then trying to capitalize on what they’re doing outside of school already and honing those skills to get them to be better at collaboration and communicating.”
For the past three years, students have collaborated through cloud apps such as Google Apps and Dropbox. And now, the netbooks provide more opportunities to collaborate.
In "Future Prep" class, a teacher has classes in four sections working on projects centered around the movie "Waiting for Superman." Each section split into eight groups that represent different education stakeholders, including students, school boards, communities and teachers' unions.
Randy Kolset on 04 Feb 14"f you've got school-age kids, you know when they're working on reading and math. But if their homework includes loops, goto commands, and branches, don't be alarmed. They're probably learning to code, and that's a very good thing. From Code.org's Hour of Code to coding camps and afterschool classes, computer programming is hot -- and, in a technology-fueled world that's only going to grow, coding is an invaluable 21st-century skill."