Group items tagged

In this article, teachers are urged to push students beyond simply providing personal opinions as answers. By offering better prompts and questions, students need to be pushed into "critical reflection and evaluation" of the topic at hand. Having students move beyond simply Q/A formats, they are more engaged in their learning in terms of both the process and the outcome. Teachers need to provide feedback, challenging prompts, and encourage the discovery process (among others) to improve critical thinking skills. In addition, teachers can post open-ended questions, provide models of what synthesis looks like, and refrain from being the authority on the subject. While this article was not specifically related to Web 2.0 tools, the elements of how to increase critical / higher order thinking skills apply to all of the elements of technology use in the classroom.

This article explores ways to enhance online communication between students.

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.

this presents an opinion on Instructors commenting on students discussions. Many observations. The author statesher best advice is "" to be a presence in each discussion room and... what was most important was not the quantity of the interactions with students but the quality of those interactions." The author found if she did not comment students were disappointed and lost interest in the discussion so the teacher is the cheerleader to highlight important things and clarifiy any confusions.

"As companies grow, in the age of the internet, they are drowning in electronic documents. Some people get so many e-mails each day that they don't even bother opening them. Official documents are nice, but they are no way to communicate." This article encourages and promotes the use of videos to communicate and tell stories.

This article by Sam Somani, explained the new fad at universities call MOOCs- massive open online courses. These courses are free and open to the public, and thousands of students can take each course. The author, being skeptical of MOOCS, decided to try one. He found that not only were students benefiting from the course, the quality of instructional videos was such that it could be used as a tool to ,"to see on a fundamental level how other schools may approach teaching differently and how these schools are able to better reach out to students through their teaching."

Interesting short article on impact of social communication devices on students. Should they be allowed and if so, should they be limited? It's good to read opinions of different people outside of your own school system and their take on social devices and how they affect students and learning. It's also nice to see that we are not alone in our struggle to find a balance in our schools concerning the boom of social devices.

Really?

Student debate has the capacity to both deeply engage the students in relevant learning, and to encourage students to be deep thinkers. Debate is more than simply arguing. It has structure and rules that are designed to keep both sides calm.

This article highlights the academic and intellectual benefits of student debate activities. According to the article, students who study and practice debate are able to think more deeply and critically and defend their opinions with evidence--definitely elements of HOTS.

This is the article about deep reading of fiction and how that works in your brain compared to other forms of reading, as per the discussion about students not reading deeply.

The article From 'e' to 'we' Learning is about empowerment through collaboration of networking. According to article this more than" 80 millions adults use social media for health-related issues-creating or sharing content on blogs, message boards, and chat rooms". Soem example of network tools are Twittter and Facebook.. This article was not an easy read.

This site looks at information literacy and looks at the 5 different "minds". They relate them to ethical, disciplined, synthesizing, creative and respectful minds when talking about students using web 2.0 applications.

Interesting article that discusses how our brains change when using Web technologies. The term "partial attention" is explained as "a state of constantly scanning for information." Insightful description of how our world has changed significantly now that technology is here to stay.

This article from eLearn Magazine discusses how neuropsyhcologists are studying the effects of using new media and Web 2.0 tools on our brains. Their results show both positive and negative findings. Some of the benefits include certain areas of the brain being worked harder and making strong neural connections allowing us to process and evaluate large amounts of information quickly. A downside is that we are not retaining information for extended periods of time and we are losing the ability to communicate with feeling because we are not always in face-to-face contact with others. The article also discusses Psychologist Howard Gardner's "Five Minds of 2.0 Learners." These are higher order thinking skills he believes individuals need in order to be successful in the digital world. These include disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful, and ethical minds. This is an interesting read and could start a great classroom discussion about technology use with your students.

This article struggles with the difficulty of determining whether or not a student has cheated in an online class. It doesn't, however, provide many real-life solutions other than requiring short response answers.

This article focusses primarily on exam taking methods when students take online course. The writer gives a variety of suggestions on how to promote academic honesty when her students take tests. It did give some good suggestions on how to do this but essentially during test taking situations we have to trust our students.

Every teacher should read this

This teacher makes a really strong argument that you should not feel that you have nothing important to say. This is the way to make some strong networked relationships. I like her quote "This has led to many great conversations with other educators about teaching issues." Blogging has connected her to peers throughout the world. I find that being an online educator is lonely so this may be the way to go to share resources and to discuss with others that share our online world.

I really enjoyed reading this article because I'm feeling the same excitement as the author did when she first began blogging. While I'm just learning how to "officially" blog, I have been using Edmodo with my students as a way to connect with my students outside my classroom. It allows us to communicate and ask questions to one another outside of normal school hours, yet in a more structured classroom like forum, unlike Facebook. But because it works similar to Facebook, the students love it and don't mind logging on and doing their assignments. One day when I was out sick, I was able to log on an have real time discussions with my students. If they had questions about the assignment they were able to ask. They can also turn in their assignments via Edmodo instead of waiting for the next day/week. My feelings are if the students are into it, then it's something we need to be doing as well to keep up with them. Teachers who use Web 2.0 tools such as blogging have an advantage over those that don't because these are the social networks that students know and are familiar with. Also, the author of this article points out the fact that teachers have a new way of connecting to each other and share ideas. From what I remember when I was younger, the traditional teacher's only way of communicating and sharing ideas or concerns with other teachers were via phone or before/after school meetings. I don't know how often that actually happened, but now with blogging you can share your information any time with any body.

In my opinion, participating in the webinar discourages students from surfing the Internet, playing games and Facebooking, which is rampant and distracting in regular classes."

I am a huge advocate of blogs as ongoing, reflective portfolios of student work. my opinion, They are the perfect container for sharing, organizing and reflecting on student learning.

I enjoyed this blog post very much and realized afterwards that I have met this woman in my staff room last year. She is a very dynamic and forward thinking teacher. The post provided practical points that I will use in my own school's portfolio program.