Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology

This article offers interesting ideas on how to integrate social media into the classroom as a device for communication. Although the article focuses on MLK Day, it can be used for other lessons. It explains a variety of social media that can be used as resources and even offers ideas of how they can be used. They even go into the use of hashtags and liking Facebook pages. That will keep lessons current and motivating for students and teachers.

Similar to the flipped classroom, "The essence of the JiTT pedagogy is timely pre-instruction assignments, usually called warm-ups that inform the upcoming lesson by encouraging the students to examine their prior knowledge and seek information about the upcoming topic before coming to class." When lessons are done well using JiTT, students are more actively involved in their learning and are able to attain metacognition, thereby building higher order thinking skills.

For anyone who is interested in literary theory and philosophy, this is an interesting article about Facebook and how it related to Foucault's concept of heterotopia. My AP students have had discussions about how social media changes our view and perspectives on time.

Project-based learning, and especially examples such as this, require the students to create so much of their own learning both mentally and physically, a top priority to higher-order thinking. These were younger students, but how can we apply ideas such as this in upper-ed?

Multimedia allows for students to express their creativity and show their understanding of material in a fun way. Multimedia is also a great way for teachers to represent information and allow their students to take in information an alternative way (compared to the traditional textbook, powerpoint slides, etc.). This site highlights some great apps for educators and students to make their own media!

This article emphasizes how PBL can be effective, and help students think critically and not just memorize the facts. According to the article, PBL is not just for gifted students, and can help all students, at every learning level, achieve higher order thinking skills.

This article by Vicki Davis, author of the book Reinventing Writing and the blog post "Cool Cat Teacher Blog," is for educators who have decided to use Twitter in the classroom. Davis provides "the essential apps, hashtags, and tips to help." Davis discusses 100 ways to use Twitter in the classroom, safely and for maximum benefit. She discusses apps that allow teachers to manage classroom Twitters (Hootsuite) and create schedules (Buffer) as well as offering 14 tips for writing Twitters. Lastly, she offers three valuable hashtags for classroom use.

This is such a great little video that hits on so many possibilities of Pinterest. It may seem a little tempting to merely think of this tool as a bit lightweight compared to other collaboration tools, but I think this informercial may change some minds. Pinterest - to my mind hits on so many of the buzzwords beginning with "c". It is creative, communicative, collaborative, colorful, curative (is there such a word?!) and it is definitely cool!

Introducing Guided Search: Find what you're looking for and make a few discoveries along the way.

This is a fascinating article to read about a NJ school that took on the Google Platform. Much of what is documented in the article reminds me of why school district went with Google. The ease of emails, calendars, saving documents and designing websites through one platform is so helpful. What I found interesting is that the principal of the school operates with a BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) policy. Her arguments being that as soon as schools make investments in iPads, or laptops etc. the "hardware" is obsolete in no time. She advocates a "learn anytime, anywhere on any device" approach - which I find refreshing and so innovative. At my school, there are many teachers who want to outright ban all personal electronic devices in school - well...for students! This article is a powerful reminder that with guidance and careful, thoughtful planning and implementation, we can make use of everything students bring to school with them - including personal electronic devices.

Blogger Raleigh Werberger, a high school history and humanities teacher, describes a PBL unit that flipped a class from 'just good enough' to creating a working business model and seeking funds to launch a startup. The creative approach to teaching students on multiple levels, including how to market a start-up, and how to make sure students have genuine vested interest in success shows a great way for students to be engaged in their own learning. As the article points out, "[Students'] social media use took on more significance and had a more authentic stake for them, as students began communicating with web journals and community organizations to expand their online presence and gain 'endorsements' for their products." This is a great way to bring students together for a project that demonstrates real life lessons.

This article explains which interview questions you should not be asked and why,

The Dublin City University of Ireland site popped out at me. As I got into exploring the site, it reminded me of all the things we have discussed on "communication" and online education. The President of the university, Professor Brian MacCraith said of the learning experience at DCU "Online platforms are changing the traditional teaching and learning paradigms. Technology is providing an enhancement of choices and flexibility. Learning happens any time, any place." The website also displayed specific and detailed regulations for students to be good digital citizens! Along with lots of other great stuff!

A great article to read at this time of year when we are finished with school for the summer. The six questions are powerful and reflective. Though it is recommended that the questions are asked and answered between a colleague or two, I found them helpful for me as I look back on my teaching and the different age groups of students who came to class every day.

This site overviews the importance of using media in instruction and provides some Web 2.0 tools to achieve animation for teaching.

This is a very cool article. I loved the comparison of a teachers introduction of education background is compared to a computer " It's like going to Dell's website to shop for a computer and getting nothing but photos of the factories and descriptions of how the computers were built." Use a video to introduce ourselves and explain all we can do in the classroom. We should be making them look forward to what they can do during the year with me. Very Cool.

This is a very cool article. I loved the comparison of a teachers introduction of education background is compared to a computer " It's like going to Dell's website to shop for a computer and getting nothing but photos of the factories and descriptions of how the computers were built." Use a video to introduce ourselves and explain all we can do in the classroom. We should be making them look forward to what they can do during the year with me. Very Cool.

This site overviews some AV products designed to help students, educators, and other professionals work together on projects and easily share information. The systems allow for two-way collaboration between teachers and students using any device.

..."unlock or create layers of digital information on top of the physical world that can be viewed through an Android or iOS device." Through augmented reality, you can hold your device up to an image and watch it come alive. With tools like Aurasma, students can create their own virtual reality.

It is usually difficult for a student to concentrate on writing their academic paper because there are so many things to do online, including social media, online music, movies, chatting with friends... A perfect reason of procrastination! This tool will make a student write in a clean space with no distractions around, helping them concentrate and make writing quicker.

Good article on teaching students how to be decent digital citizens. Emphasis on parental involvement too. I found this interesting as we struggle with the admin's decision to ban mobile devices in the middle school. This article gives helpful advice on communicating with students on how to monitor and use the devices appropriately and safely.

I really thought I had bookmarked this the other day - but I guess I didn't. Maybe I blogged about it instead. Really insightful and interesting view of all stakeholders in the classroom being responsible for making it a safe and dynamic workplace.