Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology

Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program dedicated to showing K-12 students the importance of computer science education.

Online, interactive, standards-based science curriculum www.science4us.com

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Brenda offers some great suggestions and ideas for using Voicethread in classes. Brenda suggests using Voicethread as an assessment tool for teachers but I am thinking it might be a great tool for students to assess/comment on each other as well.

Laurel, I agree that students could also use Voicethread in class as a tool for commenting on peers' work. I could see groups viewing each other's work and offering feedback, as well. I like that you can add images to this. Have you used Voicethread before? I will have to spend some time checking this out.

MOOCs(Massive Open Online Courses) are now becoming important part of education and due to their quality and variety learners with different learning styles are adopting it in their education.

Degreed is a free service that monitors and validates your lifelong educational learning from internet learning and real world degrees.

This link is to the NY Times series about technology and neuroscience. Perhaps it might interest some of you as per our discussions (particularly the Growing Up Digital article).

What a good series of articles, Julie. I am going to pass these along to colleagues.

This is a PBS Frontline series that has been updated since its original showing. It is good to show parts in class - it has short segments that students identify with. Also check out the "Growing Up Online" portion of this.

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 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 is a short but sweet reminder of why and when teachers should use technology in their classrooms. Really, technology is the tool for learning, not necessarily the creation of a product. There is a great list to ways we should and should not implement technology tools. This list is actually a good reference to check as you are contemplating using tech in the classroom -- should I or should I not use it? References within the text.

A must-share with all faculty!

Science oriented flipped classroom

Really liked the link to this article to the infographic explanation of the Flipped Classroom.

This short article explains a new Pew study which explored the affects of broader access to the internet and social media and student performance. The article speaks of both the positive and negative affects that they are seeing as per standardized tests and teacher feedback.

I found this very interesting as our school goes to a Bring Your Own model and the entire High School becomes a 1:1 laptop zone. Many teachers have asked questions about this and the Pew study is something I plan to share with them.

This short article (that I hope you don't have to sign in to read) outlines survey data about how students and schools are using social media to enhance collaboration and the development of a school community. Notably 96% of students surveyed say they use social networking sites and 50% of those say they discuss schoolwork on those sites. The last 5 paragraphs of the article explains ways in which teachers and schools can capitalize on this. The subtext is that schools should move away from bans on social media.

According to this article, "Design thinking can transform your classroom into a space of creativity, excitement and possibility". Design thinking is an 8-step process where students 1) Define the problem; 2) Research the problem; 3) Analyze the situation; 4) Redefine the problem; 5) Ideate (brainstorm); 6) Prototype (find a solution); 7) Refine; and 8) Repeat. A classroom activity is detailed where students look at the ads that recently won Clios and go through the process as if they were the ads' designers. They are basically putting themselves in the designers shoes. They are trying to recreate what was done and why it was done. A followup activity is to have the students design their own ads for the products using the steps of Design Thinking. I must admit I wanted to do it!

This article lists some interesting statistics about the pervasiveness of social media. According to this post, 96% of students with internet access use social networking technology, and 56% of those talk about education-related topics while they are online. Educators say social networking gives them access to a professional community, and it encourages collaboration and the exchange of ideas. Parents say it helps them become more involved, helps them understand the teacher's expectations, and increases student-teacher communication. Social media helps students learn collaboration and develop important workforce skills. It also gives them a positive view of technology, stimulates engagement, and increases academic networking. Interesting statements, to be sure.

This professor uses blogs to have students discuss readings before they are due.  It supports HOTS because they are connecting the readings to current events as well as evaluating perspectives. Plus the prof. felt she was able to better tailor the class discussions after reading the posts to force students to think more deeply.  Students reported that the blogging helped them understand course content and improve their critical thinking and writing skills.  The prof. had students reflect as a part of their final about how their verbal exchanges on the blog shaped their understanding of the events.  In other words, students explored how they were constructing their knowledge through the blog.  Interestingly, this professor had her students post anonymously to the "class blog".  She believed this encouraged honest and open participation.

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.

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This TedTalk presenter shares experiences in teaching kids that "we don't need to know the answer, and it's possible there isn't just one answer", but rather to inquire and learn through the inquiry. She encourages teachers to create opportunities for authentic experiences for students. Teaching is about: "experiential learning, empowering student voic, and embracing failure"