Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology

Sophia uses Web 2.0 tools and methods to create a crowd-sourced platform where information is organized in "learning packets" - bite-sized tutorials tagged to specific academic subjects or topics, including standards-aligned objectives. The packets can be created by anyone, anywhere using text, images, presentations, video, audio and more. Packets are rated for quality and evaluated for academic soundness by users and experts within the community.

looked at the irregular area "learning packet. Looked like a great into lesson. Thanks

This teacher makes a really strong argument that you should not feel that you have nothing important to say. This is the way to make some strong networked relationships. I like her quote "This has led to many great conversations with other educators about teaching issues." Blogging has connected her to peers throughout the world. I find that being an online educator is lonely so this may be the way to go to share resources and to discuss with others that share our online world.

I really enjoyed reading this article because I'm feeling the same excitement as the author did when she first began blogging. While I'm just learning how to "officially" blog, I have been using Edmodo with my students as a way to connect with my students outside my classroom. It allows us to communicate and ask questions to one another outside of normal school hours, yet in a more structured classroom like forum, unlike Facebook. But because it works similar to Facebook, the students love it and don't mind logging on and doing their assignments. One day when I was out sick, I was able to log on an have real time discussions with my students. If they had questions about the assignment they were able to ask. They can also turn in their assignments via Edmodo instead of waiting for the next day/week. My feelings are if the students are into it, then it's something we need to be doing as well to keep up with them. Teachers who use Web 2.0 tools such as blogging have an advantage over those that don't because these are the social networks that students know and are familiar with. Also, the author of this article points out the fact that teachers have a new way of connecting to each other and share ideas. From what I remember when I was younger, the traditional teacher's only way of communicating and sharing ideas or concerns with other teachers were via phone or before/after school meetings. I don't know how often that actually happened, but now with blogging you can share your information any time with any body.

This is an interesting idea on how to use facebook as an educational tool instead of the social media giant it has become. My school just went to a 1:1 laptop school and there has been talk of baning facebook. This article makes quite the arguement for an educational use of this social media.

Great site to learn about the latest in technology itegration .

Over 35,000 teachers and other staff members took a survey and results were compared from 2008 and 2010 for ways technology is used in the classroom. It was very interesting to see the changes in just a two year span.

Great graphic. This really validates the reason why schools need to educate educators to be more tech savvy. But, the graphic itself is a little deceiving. I love the information, but its depiction seems to show more than what the growth actually is. The graphic give the impression that the base line established at the left of the scale, the useage in 2008, and then the ADDITIONAL useage beyond that in 2010. This, however, is not what it shows. What is in fact being shown is a baseline that SHOULD run down the CENTER of the graph. By not doing this it appears for example that teachers have doubled their use of technology to provide feedback, when in actuality it remained the same in 2010 as it did in 2008...38%. I don't want to discount the quality and impact of this data...I just wish that it would have been represented in a more accurate and less deceptive manner.

Some fun problems to solve interactively. Students have to plan the best way to transport items across a river. Fun and challenging.

Great article on using podcasts, from kindergarten through high school, to help with enrichment and review at home. Also the article discusses a switch in lecture and homework - do the lecture at home and front load or review the information and do the lab, experiment, work, activity during class time.

This article outlines some helpful apps for high school students with iPads. These apps range from notetaking to SAT prep. These would be really helpful ideas for struggling students.

Using Web 2.0 students design and carry out their own service-learning projects, individually, in pairs or small groups. A blog site that shares ideas with utilizing technologies with service-learning. Pam

This article introduced a PBS site that provides idea of daily activity to involve students in reading.

And because of my lifelong interest in creativity, I was thrilled to read the "Creativity and the Joy of Learning" article and reflect a bit on what I've learned and have yet to learn. .... as Jim Groom says "to practice my creativity habit" and to actually learn ... for credit or simply for the joy of learning and creating.

"This site is for teachers and educators of all grade levels and subject areas. It hosts short tutorial videos on many of the best digital tools to use with students. Its also a growing community of ideas submitted by teachers for classroom use." This should be a great resource!

Article reports on #140edu conference on benefits of tweets and many educational uses of tweeting including collaboration.

This article is about MERIT, a one-year program for educators of grades 4 through 12 that teaches teachers how to best utilize and integrate innovative technology in the classroom.

This blog entry references an article and describes how Coldwell Banker provides training for associates and finds that giving them social connections and letting the associates drive the learning works better than designing instruction for them. Learner centered!

I have been hearing a lot of buzz in education lately about this site.

Canadian site. Tons of info here on media literacy, e.g. "Media Literacy: What is it? Why teach it?", lots of instructional and resource ideas.

I like how this site has options for many age ranges.

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.

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.