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This article suggests how to use Web 2.0 tools to assess students in the digital age. The article has many useful links. I wish that the examples of the actual rubrics were larger. Overall, I found the article to quite helpful.

How do we assess students' learning in these in Web 2.0 environments? We want to go beyond assessing the mere mechanics of using these tools; unfortunately, most current rubrics for Web 2.0 learning devote only a minuscule amount (usually 16% or less) to actual student academic learning.

This article is about standards-based learning and 21st century skills. How to improve student learning through teacher's decisions and technology. He has a excellent list of rubrics Web 2.0 tools. Some examples "rubrics" are......Wiki/Blog, Images/Photo/Flickr, Video/YouTube,Podcast, Social Bookmarking, Twitter, Videoconferencing, General Assessment: Prensky's 21st century skills, General Assessment: enGauge's 21st century skills, General Assessment: Partnership for 21st century skills. I really liked the links and rubrics and found them very helpful. However the rubrics were small and a little hard to read.

Author -Dan Ponterfract proposes a new Model for education in which student collaboration is the "default behavior". Learning is done " at any point in time, through any medium, and at any location", and curriculum focuses on the "community of learning". This article presents educators with the ABCs necessary to transform our system into a 21st century learning environment.

"Due Diligence and Social Media, Gaming and 21st Century Learning. Will education Institutions be held accountable"

I found this video on Twitter tonight thanks to David Walker (@drdjwalker) who re-tweeted the video from The Partnership of 21st Century Skills. The video is called "Above and Beyond: the story of the 4Cs". Enjoy "In an increasingly complex, demanding and competitive 21st century, students need to learn more than the 3R's they are tested on in school. Although the 3R's are the foundation of learning (most especially reading), students must be prepared to Think Creatively and have Intellectual Curiosity in order to excel in the 21st century.

Oh, what fun! This video is a great tool to share with students. It's simplicity is a delight. The notion is that we all have different talents and skills we can bring to collaborative projects. We need to encourage students to take the time to share their creative ideas together; plan, explore, negotiate, compromise and problem solve together. My fifth and sixth graders will enjoy this video.

This video is fun, interesting and great for students to see. It stresses the collaborative nature of projects and how much more we can do together rather than alone. It reminds me of Odyssey of the Mind type projects, and I will definitely show this to my Advisory. I think they will find it interesting and funny, but more than that it can jump start a discussion about the creative power of collaboration. It also makes me think that it will demonstrate to students that diversity of ideas is powerful.

A great summary of how and why web2.0 technology supports 21st century skills and  and the future of learning.

This truly is a great summary of 21st century direction. Teaching and learning will consist of digital delivery, it will be interest driven, and Web 2.0 skills will be the focus. I believe that this trend is very accurate and that this shift will, ultimately, improve the motivation for learning of our students. I think the drawback is the teachers who do not wish or are not willing to make the shift. I believe the future of education is exhilarating!

"Advice and First Steps for Educational Leaders to Lead by Example Please provide Advice, First Steps, or Next Steps to Educational Leaders (superintendents and principals and other key leaders) on what he or she must do to lead by example to further 21st century learning for students and staff."

Effective 21st century assessment reaches beyond traditional testing to look at the broader accomplishments of learners. Assembling an e-portfolio, or electronic portfolio, is an excellent method for assessing students' progress toward school, state, or national academic standards, as well as 21st century skills. An electronic portfolio is a purposefully limited collection of student selected work over time that documents progress toward meeting the standards.

Eporfolios would be great for the current teacher to view the strengths and weaknesses of their students. I can find the grade my students received last year but since each teacher grades so differently it really does not give much information.

A discussion of e-portfolios and their use as assessment.

Many educators are looking for more outside the box methods to learning and understanding. Many teachers have tried implementing more technology inside the classroom or tried to create a more blended classroom. This article shows another method of instruction that brings higher order of thinking and that is using games to differentiate instruction. Our students have been playing games since they were no more than 2 years old. Why not implement a learning method that they are already accustomed to. This has transformed classroom learning into a more interactive learning style that has shown great success. The articles talks about the importance of moving your lessons to the students strengths so why not lean them towards what they know best? Using games for higher learning is no different then a classroom review. It is no different then a quiz. The only difference is that it is more interactive and it is electronic. This style of high order thinking or critical thinking creates a learning environment that is geared to challenge the students in a way that they want to be challenged.

Sir Ken Robinson really has his finger on the pulse of what needs to happen within educational systems to bring education into the 21st Century for all students. We cannot pay lip service to Bloom's Taxonomy or students' different learning styles, if - as Sir Ken says - we keep trying to do it, using educational models from the past. This is a great and empowering resource to listen to - for the benefit of our students.

This article includes a Mindmap that visually shows differences between the social media or personal side of learning vs the collaborative side of learning. As stated in the article education is now using 21st century tools for teaching and learning internet-based tools for use in teaching and learning.

Interesting interview with Dr. Chris Dede, Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, about using technology in the classroom and re-imagining teaching and learning. You need to be a member of the Thinkfinity Community to view the video.

This was a very good video and put into perspective what the 21st Century Learning Classroom would be like.

There are some amazing tools listed on these sites, including a Mind42 map of Web 2.0 Tools. I can see that my map is quite lacking compared to these. But, now I have an idea as to what to aim for. It would be great to set my students loose of some of these tools. "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." (John Dewey). This has been one of my favourite quotes along with "We need to prepare our students/children for jobs that have not been created yet" (Unknown). For me, they sum up what we as teachers need to strive for and that we need to keep on trying to stretch ourselves and our students...after all, we are 13% of the way through the 21st Century. It's exciting.

One of a series of posts on different types of internet based tools and their use in education; backchannels engage students who otherwise might not contribute, evens the playing field; students ask questions on the fly without interrupting; gives teacher feedback on the level of understanding or confusion in the class; does not recommend twitter for classroom alternative backchannels teacher can manage ; It will improve writing and a student's ability to articulate themselves quickly using text. Students must have Effective Digital Communication Skills in order to be successful in the 21st century. One digital communication skill that is needed is to have the ability to articulate quickly and succinctly using text.

This article presented that a common discussion point amongst schools is how to engage the student in order to make them more successful in the 21st century. It provided an angronym "SAGE" that helps the teacher focus on how to engage students so that they are using techniques to problem solve and process their learning. It is based on "Instruction that supports the development of globally competent student provides multiple opportunities to investigate the world, recognize and weigh diverse perspectives, communicate ideas and take action." I feel this article does provide great "coaching" for the teacher to help students use HOTS.

This article gives a great description of flipped classrooms and how a flipped classroom will expand on media and 21st century learning skills in the classroom and outside of the classroom. It develops a sense of the changing paradigm of the typical sage on the stage teacher and creating the digital literate classroom.

I really appreciated that this article acknowledged the efforts being made by educators and administrators to adapt the process of teaching in response to the communication revolution that technology has created. It is much more involved than simply giving students computers or iPads. And though the buildings and classrooms may look similar to how they have looked for 100 years, what is happening inside in terms of learning and multimedia communication is quite different!

This article provides an overview of Glogster, tips for teachers in using Gloster and links to tutorials for using Glogster in the classroom.