Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology

This is a How-To guide for using Acrobat to create, edit, and interact with assessments. This includes adding and commenting on video and audio elements in the document. We have this program on our school computers so it may be worth giving this a shot!

This article suggests how to use Web 2.0 tools to assess students in the digital age. The article has many useful links. I wish that the examples of the actual rubrics were larger. Overall, I found the article to quite helpful.

How do we assess students' learning in these in Web 2.0 environments? We want to go beyond assessing the mere mechanics of using these tools; unfortunately, most current rubrics for Web 2.0 learning devote only a minuscule amount (usually 16% or less) to actual student academic learning.

This article is about standards-based learning and 21st century skills. How to improve student learning through teacher's decisions and technology. He has a excellent list of rubrics Web 2.0 tools. Some examples "rubrics" are......Wiki/Blog, Images/Photo/Flickr, Video/YouTube,Podcast, Social Bookmarking, Twitter, Videoconferencing, General Assessment: Prensky's 21st century skills, General Assessment: enGauge's 21st century skills, General Assessment: Partnership for 21st century skills. I really liked the links and rubrics and found them very helpful. However the rubrics were small and a little hard to read.

Mathcasts.org

An interesting look at an "objective" method of assessing student work. Rather than looking at the Web 2.0 tool, this looks at the level of Bloom achieved and the amount of time spent.

An overview commentary on the use of EPortfolios for teachers and students. The article addresses what and how to use electronic portfolios and addresses how one should go about setting one up and how to assess the contents. One point not addressed but one I encountered in another technology class I took was what happens when the computers or programs are incompatible between the teacher and the student (using a mac versus a pc for instance). Very interesting.

This website is a guide to effective assessment In a Digital Age. The online resources from this website enable teachers to investigate the potential of enhancing assessment and feedback through technology.

Utilizing the concept of storyboarding as a collaboration tool during all steps of a project's process to facilitate sequencing, planning and management. "The more time devloted to the storyboard, the less time needed for development." What a great thing for students to learn!

Taking a risk means that failure is an option. Many students may see taking a risk as a negative. If we want students to take risks, we must not only create an environment that encourages students to take risks, but makes risk taking seem like the best option.

This article talks about how to encourage students to take risks in the classroom. These "risks" can range from just questioning to imagining to trying out something new. This is a very important higher order thinking skill that many students have trouble comprehending and acting on because they would rather stick with what they know (or what they think will get them the highest grade). I think the ideas in the article can be applied to high school classrooms as well as college classrooms.

A great article about helping students be more creative by incorporating risk-taking activities in the classroom. Create an environment where taking risks are rewarded. Also start with small risk-taking activities and build up into more complex ones.

Annual Survey shows teachers are requesting more access to technology, more time for collaboration would help differentiate instruction.

This article is a follow up to an article titled "Readers: These 10 education policies need to go," Readers responded and eschoolnews posted the top five. I am not sure I agree with students have a 4 day week and teachers having a 5 day week (5th day would be for teachers to plan and collaborate), but I do agree that teachers need more time for this

you are presented with a very simple text editor perfect for student journals. Each note can include images, links and attachments as well as tags to help with searching. For example, journal entries for a history unit might be tagged, "WWII". In addition, multiple notebooks can be created with one account. NotePub, like many online writing tools, works great for role playing assignments. Have your students assume the role of a person they are studying or character from literature. Then, your students write a daily journal entry. Completed entries can be shared in several ways including email.

Platform for combining writing and stories from social media into a unique mashup. Once signed in, create a story by searching various social media platforms for content. For example, you can search Twitter for a certain keyword or hashtag. Then, drag selected content into the story pane. Content from multiple searches can be included in one story. The key feature is the ability to add text throughout the story. For example, you could ask students to take a stance on the budget battles in the U.S. Content from social media and the web can be pulled into the story. Then, students create their own content, justifying or disagreeing with the stories incorporated into the story. Completed stories are published and then shared. Give Storify a try for current events projects as well as teaching media literacy.

helps you remember what's happened in your life. Once signed up, you receive an email every day asking to reply with your thoughts. This works great for longer curricular units. For example, if you are studying the 1920's, have students post to OhLife as a person living during those times: The only way to publish content is via email.

Super easy way to publish and share content. It differs from blogs because it produces single pages not linked to each other. It is not a series of posts. Think of it as a single piece of paper that can include multimedia. Once out of beta, no accounts will be needed which will be great for the educational setting. Students can create projects with text, multimedia and widgets such as Google maps. Pages are then published and a URL is generated for the page which can be shared.

blogging platform for posts larger than Twitter and smaller than a traditional blog. Posts are usually rich with a combination of text and multimedia. A unique feature is the ability to "tumble" blog posts. This takes a post of a friend and posts it on your page. If you use Twitter, this is similar to retweeting. Tumblr is a nice tool for teachers and older students but everyone will need accounts. Create an account for your class and have your students create accounts as well. Then, follow your students' accounts and vice-versa. Now you are all connected and can interact in numerous ways. Your students now have an excellent vehicle for all manner of writing and multimedia projects.

61 slides with definition of portfolios, reasons to use them, google tools to use, and examples. "Portfolios are purposeful collection of work that exhibits efforts, progress, and achievements over time"

Interesting commentary

Having students express themselves with this tool allows them to be creative and have some fun too.

A timeglider is a web-based timeline software for creating and sharing history and project planning. Our computer apps students learn about the history of computers and technology. The timeglider I looked at could incorporate video sound and images. I also think the timeglider would be fantastic in a history class. It could make the lesson so much more interactive and engaging, rather than just listening to a teacher lecture.

Storify is a website which allows you to make stories using tweets, photos, videos, or anything on-line. Storify creates a file by gathering content from all over the web and putting into one place (making a story).