Group items tagged

teachers are being deskilled, unceremoniously removed from the process of school governance, largely reduced to technicians or subordinated to the authority of security guards. Underlying these transformations are a number of forces eager to privatize schools, substitute vocational training for education and reduce teaching and learning to reductive modes of testing and evaluation.

One of the problems facing many teachers is trying to make students aware of the need to respect copyright and fair use of digital content. Even though students can generally appreciate the principles behind the need to pay due regard to the originators of these artefacts too often they are unable to locate anything other than copyright material. Locating suitable Creative Commons licenced content can be a real nightmare for students and teachers alike. To this end SitePoint has gathered up over 30 of the best resources online for audio, video, images and more for finding just the perfect Creative Commons licensed item for use in your next project. So, have a look around and get inspired!

"Post discusses products created by students through project based learning experiences, with an emphasis on what students create to express their answer to a driving question than just read a summary of the project.  Gathered here are some samples can be used as inspiration for your class projects. And, critiquing these samples can help students think of ways to make their own productions better."

This is a student-centered narrative of systemic change. It is a narrative which understands the fundamental issues facing our students. A narrative which understands, in the words of the Sacramento (CA) schools, that "there is no magic bullet to our problems, no easy answers. But collectively and collaboratively, I believe we have enough power to change the lives of the children we serve."

A comprehensive rubric for student blogging from langwitches

An interesting task that introduces students to writing blogs and esp commenting. Includes a list of blogging rules and also another document about ideas for comments

The title says it all. Some useful tips.

"This is a blog dedicated to keeping people informed about what is going on in our prep/one classroom. It is also a place to show off some of the wonderful things the students are doing, creating, writing and learning about. This page will be maintained by myself, and the students."

Dr. Michele Borba shares 25 activities that can be used as journal prompts, class meeting topics, paired sharing or individual assignments to teach. Useful to use with the younger students at our school.

Post from @medkh9 "Digital citizenship is a key component of the technology and media literacy. We should not only teach our students how to be  good citizens in the real physical world  but how they can be good netizens of the online world  as well.Today's learning requires alot of use of technology and most imprtant of all, our students are using technology on a daily basis- text messaging, blogging, Facebooking, Twittering, watching videos, gaming and networking. They live in two different but interconnected worlds. What they do online can have a severe repercussions on their real life if not properly instructed on digital safety issues and this is where digital citizenship fits in."

A great post by Silvia Tolisano (@langwitches) about her frustration with teachers who are not taking responsibility and modelling good digital citizenship to their students nor playing fair with colleagues who share . We all need to be taking care to live by the creed of good digital citizenship as well as teach it to our students.

This blog post from Scott McLeod talks about the lessons he has learned via digital storytelling. "I've been working with digital storytelling for a couple of years now, first as a learner, and then as a facilitator. I find the process to be transformational, not only for me but for my students. I learn something new every time I work with students and teachers in this process."

"We've been getting a lot of questions ever since our GMAT Choose Your Own Adventure video went up. Well, one question, really: How can I make one for my students? Answer: It's easy! Youtube has a great tool called Spotlight that lets you make any video interactive. It's really handy for lessons and quizzes. Essentially, you can ask students a question - or a series of questions - and when they answer show them a personalized video response according to how they did."

A Blast Group is similar to a Ning, but FREE!! Allows the creation, for each of your students, their own page. It can have their own "stream", plus you can have a main page with a forum, blog, links, calendar etc. The idea is that students will contribute useful links etc, have a place where they can bounce ideas off each other, be aware of deadlines, as well as having their own space to capture their thoughts as we go along. Blast Groups can be private or public

Jonathan Bergann and Aaron Sams are two science teachers from Woodland Park, South Dakota who are leading a revolution in instruction called "The Flipped Class." Stated simply, their method involves flipping what happens in the classroom with what happens at home. Rather than lecture live, they make videos for their student to watch at home. Class time is spent working with students to better understand the material covered in the videos. Their motto is, "class is for conversation, not dissemination."

An asutue post by Sylvia Rosenthal Tolisano (langwitches) "While social media in schools deals primarily with policies around how to use (or not use) social media in the classroom with students, social media for schools is about storytelling and getting their stakeholders (teachers, students, administrators, parents, community) to spread these stories."

Edublogs has organized a community and blog directory, making it easy to find blogs that fit your area of interest

How one primary school teacher approached using and writing blogs with her class