Skip to main content

Home/ Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology/ Group items tagged teaching practice

Rss Feed Group items tagged

Shelly Landry

Creativity on the Run: 18 Apps that Support the Creative Process | Edutopia - 3 views

  •  
    'We do not need to teach creativity, but rather inspire its daily practice.' This opening sentence is intriguing yet inspiring to me. As said in the title, this article introduces 18 apps to support students developing creativity at different thinking stages. The writer also suggests some practical strategies which could be incorporated in our daily teaching practice. Nevertheless, what strikes me more is the reminder that we, as a class, school, or community, need to build a culture of trust in the first place to cultivate culture of creativity and innovation.
  •  
    What a great article about creativity.  What I loved is that the article states that schools do not need to teach creativity.  Schools need to foster it by providing students a safe place to take risks and providing them tools that make that risk taking possible.  Creativity is about finding solutions to problems using one's own ideas and thinking skills.  Students can do this when given the power and opportunities to do so.
  •  
    Like Chris, the opening to this post caught my eye. "We do not need to teach creativity, but rather inspire its daily practice." Ms. Darrow's article captures the importance of creating a school that values it's students, encourages them to take some risks, and lets them practice these skills with abandon. With support and coaching from teachers, students can work through the steps outlined in this article using technology to streamline the process, help them develop real life/career skills, and appeal to their interest in digital media. I like how Darrow labels this process; there are clear steps to increase understanding. Collaboration or group work can use this format as well, group members' jobs are easily created with the resulting structure. It also creates natural places to scaffold the process for individualizing learning in a classroom full of all kinds of learners. Each activity we do in a class may not need all these steps and some may need more, but I plan to keep this article in mind as I tweak my courses this summer.
weirba11

Practice writing in the classroom with Carnigie's MyStory Maker - 2 views

  •  
    My Carnigie's story maker is an excellent tool that can be used for teaching creative writing to your students. With this tool, students will be able to create a story in minutes, with animation if desired, and then share their story with somebody else or even create a print out.  My Carnigie Story Maker is extremely user friendly and students can get started within minutes and won't need much training to do so.  Students will be able to get their creative juices flowing as they practice their English Language skills and if you happen to be a Foreign Language teacher, this site would be great for your students as well.
Miss OConnor

32 Ways to Use Google Apps in the Classroom - 5 views

  •  
    A shared slideshow that showcases the many uses for Google Apps in education, not just as a teaching tool, but to support productivity as well. It has great suggestions and practice for different level users
Matthew Pincus

A Counterpoint to Ruth Clark's "Why Games Don't Teach" - 0 views

  •  
    This article by Sharon Boller is a response to Ruth Clark's article "Why Games Don't Teach". Here Boller discusses Clark's inconsistencies and explains how GBL can work in the classroom. Most importantly, Boller discusses the level of engagement, the feedback mechanisms, and the "rehearsal and practice" that GBL offer.
Karen Bradford

The Facts on Higher Order Thinking - 4 views

  •  
    Article that opens up the Chicken and the Egg discussion when it comes to Higher Order Thinking Skills. "Are beginning courses the best time to teach facts? Must students know the facts before they can think at higher levels? Asked a bit differently, is knowing the facts all that's needed to think at higher levels? Must students practice making connections, integrating facts and applying information, or can they do that automatically (once) they've got the facts?
  •  
    Teaching students to think using higher order thinking skills may require teachers to think using higher order thinking skills. This article surely has me pondering the question, "Must students know the facts before they can think at higher levels?"
Norma Glennon

In the Google Age, Information Literacy is Crucial - 4 views

  •  
    Ensure quality of information by teaching retrieval practices that include alternative sources as well as Google. Using workshops and presentations is important, as it takes time for students to recognize the most valuable and up-to-date content.
Tara Dillon

Student Presentations: Do They Benefit Those Who Listen? | Faculty Focus - 3 views

  •  
    February 21, 2013 By: Maryellen Weimer, PhD in Teaching and Learning Almost everyone agrees that student presentations benefit the presenter in significant ways. By doing presentations, students learn how to speak in front a group, a broadly applicable professional skill. They learn how to prepare material for public presentation, and practice (especially with feedback) improves their speaking skills. (Much of what we want for our students is to work, respect, support, find the good in one another, have fun and use web tools together! Highlighting the peer evaluative piece was one I am doing my best to work on. Great resource!) ~Tara
  •  
    Tara, Good find. A nice way to get more students engaged. An interesting, approach to student presentations. The author does a nice job of describing advantages, as well as disadvantages, to requiring students to critique their classmate's presentations. The image of the "comatose" classmates in their seats as yet, another presenter tries to impress the teacher is comical, yet accurate. The students doing the critiques also had a vested interest as it represents a portion of their grade. A significant statistic was that," Seventy-three percent of the students agreed or strongly agreed that completing the evaluations made them pay more attention to the presentations. " A final point of interest is that students were clear in not wanting their classmates critiques to have an impact on their grade. Tom
Janet Chandler

Explore Teaching Strategies - 1 views

  •  
    This article deals specifically with how online writing through the use of either asynchronous or synchronous tools can enhance the traditional classroom. The use of a blog to discuss ideas and debate issues may not be as dynamic or interactive as some of the other Web 2.0 tools we have been discussing and using. However, this article makes the point that using blogs can make content more engaging, provide a way for students to be reflective, allow them the opportunity to practice presenting ideas and arguments and finding their voice. The author, Robert Baird from the University of Illinois, argues that these discussion tools are not used up to their potential. I resonated with this article because as a teacher of an online course that uses discussion threads extensively, I completely agree that students level of engagement and understanding of issues, as well as becoming better thinkers, finding their voice and being forced to use evidence in their answers is remarkable.
Katy Williams

Differentiated instruction allows students to succeed - 9 views

  •  
    This article discusses the importance of differentiation and especially the need for students to "redo" their assignments until they get them correct. By allowing students to "redo" they are improving their higher level thinking skills. Good and short article with practical reminders.
  •  
    I love this article! Great reminders for all of us as educators to simply differentiate learning for our students. -vary the length or quantity of the assignment. -extend or curtail the duration of the assignment. -change the language of the assignment. -scaffold the learning activity from hard to medium to easy. -compact the activity and teach only what they don't know. -give them learning activities that let them perform the same learning objective with multiple mediums like summarizing a story they have read through narrative, drama, song, poetry, art, or design They also discussed the ability to redo assessments and I agree with this but somewhere in my teaching experience this has been engrained in my head only once. But I realize the feeling of success this allows a student.
  •  
    In this blog, Ben Johnson reiterates the misconceptions in education about all students getting concepts in education at the same time. He goes on to discuss the importance of true differentiation in the classroom and that it is not creating an imbalance among students but a way for all students to succeed. He emphasizes the things teachers already do in the classroom to help students succeed and ends with a suggestion to allow students to redo their work in all areas (not just English and history).
Libby Turpin

Making Online Discussion Boards Work for Skills-Based Courses - Faculty Focus | Faculty... - 10 views

  •  
    This article explores ways to enhance online communication between students.
  • ...9 more comments...
  •  
    How to make a disucussion board effective. Divide a large group into smaller study sections. Make certain to post application questions, not fact-based or calculation questions. Apply the questions to the students' life/future.
  •  
    The author describes using discussion boards for his accounting course.
  •  
    This article highlights some key points about how to successfully integrate online discussions into core subject content. He does this by pairing down the discussion groups much like we are doing in the Web 2.0 course right now ,"When I did discussions with the class as a whole, the students grumbled about having to read repetitive messages. They were much more willing to participate in the study group if there were relatively few messages". He is also looking for an inital post and a follow up post written with correct grammar and spelling.
  •  
    In this article, Rob Kelly discusses how he uses online discussion boards to enhance the learning in his classroom. Students end up helping one another, and the conversations go beyond accounting so that students really see the applicability of the subject matter to their future lives. Students who really excel in accounting help students who struggle, and the split classroom discussion helps to make it manageable for all students.
  •  
    This article talks about how to make online discussions work for skills-based courses. Using Professor Roger Gee's practice and approach as an example, the author offers examples to guide students in expressing themselves creatively and persuasively, which engages and motivates them. The class is divided into study groups for the discussions. Each discussion begins with a posting by Professor Gee, the discussions are to begin after students have read the material, viewed the PowerPoint, and taken a quiz. Professor Gee encourages students to work within the study groups to help each other.
  •  
    This article shows how to let online discussions allow for higher order thinking skills to flourish in a skills-based classroom.
  •  
    "Making Online Discussion Boards Work for Skills-Based Courses" is an article written by Rob Kelly and posted in a higher education newsletter. The author describes ways on how online discussions can enhance learning in skills-based online courses. He suggests rather than having students resolve math problems for example, steer students to coming up with an opinion supported by facts they have learned. Students should have the opportunity to have read the lesson, PowerPoints and other related resources before a discussion takes place. The discussions should also give students the opportunity to share opinions and how the material may affect their personal life. Like our class, the author suggest each student to post a reply to the instructor's question and reply to at least one other student's reply. The posting should have good spelling and grammar as if they were in the business world. Another way to enhance learning is to have students work collaboratively and help each other out. The suggestions offered by the author are similar to what we have received in this course. Although the article is written for higher education, I would assume, but I have to also wonder if this is valuable information at the secondary level too?
  •  
    This is a first-rate article on how to run an online discussion for a class on a technical subject. The article elucidates the techniques used by an accounting professor at San Diego Messa College. Issues addressed include whether to focus on calculations or opinions, the size of discussion groups, at what point in the lesson plan students should post, and what role the teacher should play in introducing a topic. Professor Gee advocates that posts focus on opinions rather than facts or calculations, since the latter provides an opportunity to spread error. He also discusses dividing a class of 35 into two groups, having students post after they have reviewed a substantial part of the lesson, and the teacher introducing discussion topics and modeling the first comment.
  •  
    As a teacher of a 2 year high school accounting program, I enjoyed reading this article about Professor Roger Gee's use of online discussion boards. I introduce my students to several elements of personal finance as it relates to a service business owner's personal finances and wondered how I could engage my students to delve a bit deeper into their own thoughts on their personal finances now and in the future. I will be using Gee's suggestion as it helps students use some critical thinking to plan for their future. Some of the items mentioned actually are part of the "flipped classroom" concept; students already having read the lesson, watched the PowerPoints, and taken the test. Then comes the discussion using the learned skills. I appreciate this information for a skill-based course be it high school or community college. As we articulate with our neighboring community college, and attempt to make our students college-ready, this concept fits the bill.
  •  
    Rob Kelly discusses how to he used online discussion boards in a skills based course. This concept could be followed for any type of study group. Given students learn best when they not only teach the information but share and collaborate with others, this idea enhances the learning process.
  •  
    I'm the only Accounting teacher and have been teaching for 2 years at the high school level. I feel this article does a great job not just on how discussion boards can help and guide deeper levels of thinking among Accounting students, but provides the opportunity to take baby steps including technology in the classroom and push critical thinking. I can appreciate this article greatly because I believe we all learn through experience and as Gee mentions, some of the students have worked in the field and may be able to offer their peers another insight.
Norma Glennon

JTE v7n1 - Collaborative Learning Enhances Critical Thinking - 2 views

  • For collaborative learning to be effective, the instructor must view teaching as a process of developing and enhancing students' ability to learn
  •  
    In this study of collaborative learning, the researchers distinguish between the effects of group study on two categories of questions. On the test administered after the study period, the scores on the "critical-thinking" questions showed a significant difference between students learning individually and students learning collaboratively. The scores on "drill-and practice" items (factual information) did not.
  •  
    Studying together pays!
Jason Finley

eSchoolNews.com » Five lessons from the nation's best online teacher » Print - 3 views

  •  
    Not an amazing article. But, it is important to note that four...maybe all five of her "five lessons" are based on communication. "1. Keep the student at the center of every decision that needs to be made. 2. Foster relationships with students and parents, because parents can be a teacher's biggest help. 3. Talk with your students every day by phone. Dove said that the majority of her day is spent talking directly with students to build a one-on-one relationship with each of them. 4. Celebrate every effort and success, no matter how big or small. "Always be positive in your feedback, even if the assignment may not be stellar. The written word is so powerful online, and you always want your students to feel that you are cheering them on and appreciate their hard work," she explained. 5. Build relationships with fellow teachers. Share resources, best practices, and stories to feel less isolated or alone in the home office."
Florina Merturi

Project-Based Learning: Success Start to Finish - 7 views

  •  
    This is a link to a video of a high school that uses only Project-Based learning PBL, a teaching/learning style where students create projects to demonstrate their learning of the objectives set out by the teacher. It goes through the process of how to set up PBL projects as teachers. It's a decent introduction to the process: something to pique one's interest. At the end there are links to other videos with more information about PBL.
  • ...1 more comment...
  •  
    I really enjoyed this PBL video. The teachers in the video explained the process, allowed the students to do the research on the topics and decide what the best form of their final presentation would be for each group. The students appeared to be actively engaged during their class time. I was impressed by their dress for the final presentations. The principal mentioned that they do speeches 60-65 times each year so by their graduation the students are very versed in public speaking; most impressive. I would like to see our school do more PBL.
  •  
    Project-based learning has come to the forefront of education as it is being used to assess what the students know and how they can use the knowledge in the "real world" to problem solve. The approach by the school to implement PBL into their curriculum goes directly back to state standards. I thought the video was well informed and I was impressed with the 60-65 times the students speak in front of others (public speaking).
  •  
    Go inside Manor New Technology High School, part of the New Tech Network of schools, where an unwavering commitment to an effective schoolwide PBL model keeps both students and teachers motivated and achieving their best. More to this story.
1 - 13 of 13
Showing 20 items per page