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Getting your Jing on!! The ability to enhance online courses with simple video elements helps students to complete assignments, readings, and discussions, and it motivates them to check into their classes more often which in turn helps instructors retain their students. The students will how to create a simple video, compress it, and access code to embed the file into a course management system or even upload it to a website, blog or YouTube. No expensive equipment or software is required, there is little to no cost, and the process is fairly quick and straightforward.

The pedagogical value and the challenges of integrating student blogging into your teaching is a recurring topic on ProfHacker. Some of our earliest posts dealt with student blogging, and we have revisited the issue frequently. Most recently, Jeff and Julie wrote about that age-old question-How are you going to grade this?-when it comes to evaluating classroom blogs.

Exactly as the title suggests- A rubric for evaluating Student bolgs

Maryellen Weimer, in her article sets out clear reasons why collaborative work, enhances creativity '. Students can see how different perspectives, constructive deliberation, questioning, and critical analysis can result in better solutions and performance.' Working effectively in groups demands students to think outside the box, and use multiple creative skills.

It was many years ago that I attended a seminar at the former GE Plastics headquarters here (now Sabic) outlining what for years has been obvious. Two key points included: 1) the need to adjust the school calendar, both in number of days and hours per day from the agrarian-based schedule which so many districts and schools still follow; 2) the need to include more group work in syllabi and lesson plans. The presenter emphasized that companies do not want to hire a person who is intelligent if that person cannot work well in a collaborative group situation. Opportunities abound to prepare our students for higher education and careers through group work in face-to-face instruction, the flipped classroom concept and the design of VHS courses.

Two teachers collaborating together with Biology, art and technology to create a video on DNA.

For any teacher that wants to experience what cross disciplinary, project based teaching and learning can be, I recommend the short video, " Team Teaching: Two Teachers, Three subjects, One Project http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ASO9FM6gDLs The video explores the opportunities that exist when a traditional physiology topic, blood, is integrated with multimedia. The results are motivating. The viewer experiences art and science coming together under the umbrella of one topic. The team teaching approach is aided by the fact that teachers begin their day an hour before students in order to meet and coordinate the team approach. Students engage in research as they work toward creating multimedia presentations that are placed on display at a local art gallery in order to promote blood donation. This project based approach allows students to share their works with a large audience while creating a community connection with the local blood bank as well as the local art gallery. The teachers guide students through the project and become a resource, rather than only a "holder of knowledge". Students are given real world deadlines and are held accountable by their teachers through online digital portfolios. The exciting part of this project, for teachers interested in attempting this approach to learning, is the opportunity it provides for the teacher to grow outside of their normal curriculum.

This post highlights the effects of digital technologies on student research habits. It is a good article to debate whether continuing new technologies and media are adding to the quality of student education.

University students create videos for younger, k12 students to help inspire future computer science students. This is two fold. The process of creating the video also reinforces topics mastered while benefiting society.

This is amazing on so many levels. Thanks for sharing. For us- great teaching resources, but also a great learning tool for the MIT students.

Developing these skills requires students to debate, write and master structured argument, the very activities that middle and high school teachers say they must abandon to respond to the demands of minimum-standards, test-driven curriculums. But such demands are smothering education.

This article showcases a virtual cultural exchange program between a school in New York and China. The students use web 2.0 tools to collabaroate and learn from each other in what could be a new wave of cultural exchange programs.

Our school was part of the NetGeneration of Youth program and we had a cultural exchange with two sister schools, one in LA and the other in Uganda. The students communicated over Ning and Skype and they collaborated during two celebrations "parties with a purpose" which allowed for a sharing of menus, music, and stories. The culminating project was a student/teacher exchange for three weeks in each country.

"Students were involved in creating their online textbook using a wiki that involved collaboration with students in 2 other schools where they peer reviewed the work posted by other students on the course". I think students would get a lot out of this!

Over the past two years, Forsyth County Schools in Cumming, Ga., has slowly allowed some of its 34,000 students to bring their own notebooks, iPhones or other computing tools to school and connect them to the district network. By allowing students to bring these devices into school they are allowing students to be creative in the classroom by giving the opportunity. So many districts have students "shut down" when they come into the building, and using mobile devices is what students know best, we need to embrace their knowledge, creativity and abilities in the classroom.

This articled details the efforts being made by New York's DOE to limit inappropriate online communication between teachers and students, while still allowing for constructive and appropriate use of social media in schools. It offers examples of teachers and students who had inappropriate interactions via social media such as facebook but also notes that students need to be taught to use such tools appropriately.

Socrative is an awesome tool used in Education to gain a better understanding of what our students have learned or are learning during a lesson by getting. In this post about socrative we see how it can be used assess writing in the classroom.

Four years ago we toured the Portland HS. They were all warm and fuzzy about their new 1:1 student laptops. We asked about blocking sites and they stated they were teaching responsible use over locking everything down. We must teach responsible use but everyone needs to realize that the lure of wasting time on connected devices is too much for many of them.

/we began our 1:1 initiative 5 years ago and each year we have a different image for the students. We have several eBooks and programs which are used for curriculum. Deep freeze was installed to prevent "distractions" and DyKnow is used by teachers to keep students on track. The district filters based on the State guidelines. Teaching guidelines really doesn't work, neither does locking the system--it prevents so much education using Web 2.0 tools. I'm not sure there is a happy balance unless the students are mature enough or afraid of consequences. Taking the tablet away hasn't helped either.

The days of the traditional cover letters and resumes sent through the mail are over. Today, people/students find jobs through social media sites -- Linkedin, FB, even Twitter. As we talk about digital communication, this is a "real world" application in how students need to know these tools as well as how to present themselves in a digital forum. This is the type of situation where all the writing skills and presentation skills taught in high school count, and we need to be sure our students can do this in a virtual environment.

This is a useful article! Gone are the hard copy resumes printed on nice, heavy weight paper with matching envelopes. Thanks, Christine.

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.

Here's how various technological tools help enhance student creativity.

List of 12 amazing online tools for students.

This news article explains that just because students have grown up in the technology age, doesn't mean they are experts in using that technology. It highlights the 3 areas students must master for success with using technology to research: "The ability to identify trustworthy and useful information; The ability to manage overabundant information; and The ability to communicate information effectively." As we use web 2.0 we must remember to teach our students how to use these tools effectively, not just assume they can use them because they've grown up in the tech environment.

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!

There is lots going on in regards to the offering in of online learning in post secondary education.  A new organization Coursera offers college level courses using new technology with well known professors.  How will this effect the world of education going forward?

Very interesting summary of MOOCs. They just downplayed the low percentage of students who complete the courses. (Though Thrunn's Artificial Intelligence graduated 23,000 students!)

Free courses that are available online allow for students of all backgrounds to have the opportunity to get higher education. Some programs allow students to receive a certificate that courses have been completed. Does this stunt a students social growth and/or ability to develop effective communication?