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A look at how technology use in formative assessments improves feedback and how this formative feedback directly helps students improve their performance.

How using social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus and Edmodo can enable formative assessment and improve student achievement. Students become more engaged in learning through the use of these tools in the classroom

Being a student of the PRS (Personal Response System) ideals through the UMASS/NSF Funded program, I have personally embraced and concur with so much of the data and thought process of using digital forms of assessment, that it has become a cornerstone in determining the understanding and competency of my students through both Formative and Summative assessments. If the life of a teacher is not going to change, and more is to be placed on the plate, something either needs to be removed or made simpler. Digital assessment offers a solution to teachers struggling with the load and tasks of being a reflective and responsive teacher. By keeping students more in the loop on progress and using the data to determine many of the factors associated with duration and direction of lessons, teachers can remain most informed and proactive.

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.

This blog post describes the Web 2.0 tools that are being used in the author's school to help students reach each level of Bloom's Taxonomy.

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.

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.

Helpful information for teachers to provide assessments and rubrics --subject specific and general-- including the categories of Multimedia and Web 2.0. Also includes graphic organizers and report card/progress reports.

Is it time to rethink the learning enterprise? I think that our profession has to be flexible in order to benefit both the student and the teaher. This article notes how to empower teachers by making differnt forms of technology available to them so that learning can be differentiated to improve students performance.

This article made me think of some of our discussion topics this week about blogging and how it engages students. I had wondered about the use of threaded discussions rather than a blog. However, this article focuses on how students preferred the blogging. They felt an online discussion was more academic whereas blogging allowed students to engage with their learning by applying to their existing lives and knowledge base. Students felt they could develop their own voice and create a more meaningful sense of community with their online classmates. I thought this was interesting because I have used both forms in my VHS and f2f classes. I really find the threaded discussions to be more productive, but it appears that students feel the blogging is more productive. I will need to rethink my tools.

Sarah D. Sparks in her article above, suggests that recent research indicates that 'video-chat or avatar environments' actually can lead to natural engagements between students. To View the complete article you can either subscribe or sign up for a two week free trial.

This article supports the argument that no one education method is the best on its own. The blend of social media, technology and face-2-face interactions help students to effectively communicate and form bonds with their classmates.

Explore parts 1,2,3 information literacy and web 2.0 tools for the classroom

A discussion forum does not have to be question and answer. There are many different ways to use a discussion board. Their discussions need to be divergent, formative, and reflective.

This article explains that critical thinking skills are needed everywhere in life - not just in the classroom. As teachers, we need to help our students realize that just because information exists, doesn't mean that it's correct. Using web tools can help students do this by having them take information and present it in a different form, or by having them create their own presentation based on correct information gathered.

I agree with you that students need to question what they read and be able to see through the writers agenda. I think that is why I worry about the websites that students are getting their information. As teachers we need to help students'analyse and question each source they use before they accept what the web articles have posted. I also need to align my curriculum with standards that include critical thinking. It will be the next step in my journey from guidance counselor to teacher.

This article is about how the Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning has changed. The new higher order thinking is the following. Creating, Evaluating, Analyzing, Applying, Understanding, Remembering. The article also includes the three domains of learning: Cognitive, Affective, Psychomotor.  As stated in the article, Bloom's Taxonomy was create in 1956 and the old taxonomy included the following: Evaluation, Synthesis, Analysis, Application, Comprehension and Knowledge. The auther feels the new taxonomy , "reflects a more active form of thinking and is perhaps more accurate".- See more at: http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/bloom.html#sthash.BeAdOInN.dpuf. Questions to ask are how does the new technology fit into the new definition of "Bloom's Taxonomy". At what stage will all education require technology as the main component and source for educating students?

This article by Melissa Venable deals with the skills one needs to effectively communicate in an online class. Whether it is between the teacher and the student or student to student communication. This is a skill that needs to be developed especially for the online teacher. The 7 C's are - Clarity, Completeness, Conciseness, Concreteness, Correctness, Courtesy, and Consideration. She further points out that there may even be more C's that need to be part of this equation - Confident, Conversational, Coherent, Creative, Convincing and Check. Her basic message is "More effective communication practices lead to a more effective learning process."

While the Cs in the article are associated with online courses, they can also be applied to face-to-face instruction, as well as written and oral communication. In all forms of communication, it is worth striving for these Cs.

While online courses bring concerns for underdeveloped face to face skills, these courses help students develop a more effective communication. In this platform students are more aware of what they are saying. Students must present their thoughts in clear, concise, correct sentences. They must also take care to be considerate of their audience. That the written word doesn't allow for tone of voice or body language to help get their ideas across. Students must really think before the "speak."

This article, from eSchool News, summarizes the features of two free social networking sites, Wiggio and Sophia. In Wiggio online groups can be formed and then users can communicate through email, voice, and text messages, and can share links and files. Teachers can use Wiggio to "set up chat rooms for after-school help" and for "peer-to-peer collaboration within group projects." Sophia "has been described as a mashup of Facebook, Wikipedia, and YouTube focused solely on education." It consists of user created "learning packets" on various subjects that use Web 2.0 tools. Each packet can also be rated on a five star system by the users as well as be given a "green checkmark" to be considered academically sound by experts in the appropriate field.

This is a Prezi presentation created by a science teacher all about how she uses her blogs (and wow it looks impressive!) in her classes and other forms of technology to improve the student learning.

I think I'll be sharing this with my science department. Nice find, Katy!

This is actually a video including ideas from film director George Lucas. The main point of the video is that teaching "communication" in the future should involve much more than just teaching writing but should involve all the ways that students can express their ideas.

This article looks at how students can use data bases to process the information they are gathering online while doing research. It is an excellent article promoting ideas to move away from multi-tasking and stealing ideas form the net.

Here is another useful resource for planning and successful integration of technology in the classroom.

Donald Clark, Blogger, has quite the following of online community which he is respected and supported. I can agree with some on his comments yet wonder where he stands on how connectivist, constructivist theories and what role making meaning from the information one is learning and making connections to current knowledge base plays when using these tips. Donald Clark reviews Salman Khan's work with Flipped classrooms. "He understands the difference between learning and teaching, between classrooms and self-paced environments between formative and summative assessment, between scalable and non-scalable components in education. Most of all he is not encumbered with traditional methods and thoughts about what education needs to be."