Edge-ucators' Way

"I know it works, but is the theory valid? Common sense tells us that learning is enhanced by social activity, which is the basic idea underlying the use of Web 2.0 tools. But is there educational theory to support it? Of the three dominant theories, one strongly emphasises the importance of social interaction. The theory of Social Constructivism is well established. Vygotsky is considered the father of the concept. As the Wikipedia says in its excellent entry, "Where Piaget argued that people should create their own version of the truth, Vygotsky added the importance of discussing this version of truth with others, in order to, through the process of mediation, get to a higher order of truth that has also been socially tested (Derry 1999)""

"A year after seventh grade teacher Elizabeth Delmatoff started a pilot social media program in her Portland, Oregon classroom, 20% of students school-wide were completing extra assignments for no credit, grades had gone up more than 50%, and chronic absenteeism was reduced by more than a third. "

I like how this picture mimics that of the SixthSense video - makes the reality that much closer and shows some of the steps along the way - giving up information to get discounts.

Another step in the New WWW- Whatever, Whenever, Wherever

Free mp3 audiobooks and stories

"When you collaborate on an outline you and your collaborators get on the same page right away. The outline structure lets everyone see where you're coming from and puts your ideas in context. Meetings get shorter. Lectures and presentations are more enlightening. Project plans actually become useful."

Here's a report that confirms my thesis that the 20th Century's "One Size Fits All" has shifted to "All fit to one's sighs" in the 21st.

How can you communicate this big message to your students and help them take risks in their learning? What does this mean in a concrete sense? There are at least three areas where teachers can help students learn to feel comfortable taking risks in their thinking: 1) The environment must support risk-taking in learning; 2) The curriculum needs to allow for some uncertainty and ambiguity about exactly what children will learn; and 3) Students need opportunities to learn forms of thinking that embody risk-taking and openness

"Free PDF of the Web-Based Portfolio series I've been working on for the past couple of months. I've taken the four blog posts and put them into this PDF that you can download and use if you would like."

"Holocaust Literature Remembrance - Relevance - Responsibility"

cpanel add-in that improves on Fantastico - Here's a list of the apps it can install and update: Wordpress & Wordpress MU, Moodle, elgg (sometimes), Webcalendar, drupal, joomla, etc.