Web 2.0: Enhancing Education Through Technology

As more schools go paperless, moving from the paper portfolio to a digital or e-portfolio requires careful planning. This article lists several questions which can be used for planning, along with brief descriptions of suggested tools or platform, some of which are free, and a list of links to them.

Miriam Clifford does a wonderful job of summarizing the works of many of the cutting edge theorists and the last half century and compiling them into her article "30 Ways To Promote Creativity in Your Classroom."

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This article published in TES Magazine explores the idea of teaching thinking in the classroom. The author(s) ask "Is it possible to teach thinking skills?" They say that most experts agree that you can but Philip Adey of the Centre for Advancement of Thinking at King's College London, says that "thinking skills described in the national curriculum are not skills, they are mental processes. You can't teach them directly. But you can create a learning environment that will stimulate their development." I somewhat agree with this assessment however, a teacher can easily provide examples that the student(s) could apply to different scenarios. I'd call that teaching.

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.

This article provides four points to increase parent involvement and communication: 1) Make a case for increased parent involvement, 2) Reach out to parents who want to make a connection, 3) Find ways to involve families in school culture, 4) Make the commitment to join the conversation with other teachers and parents. Within each of these four points, there are various links to more actively engage with tips, articles, and discussion groups.

Every school has a need to increase parent involvement for a variety of reasons, with such intended results as a better sense of "community" among families, faculty and students, improved student achievement, and the like. This can be a challenge for all these entities. It's helpful from time to time to have reminders of strategies that work.

Eleventh-grade English teacher, Lee Ann Spillane, describes how she uses Wordle to explore and analyze text patterns used by F. Scott Fitzgerald. How frequently does a word appear in the text? Students sit in table groups, with one computer per table. Using Google Books, students do a simple word search, creating a digital concordance.

This article succinctly describes the results of a comprehensive research study conducted by Harris Interactive for educational publisher, Pearson. Within the articles a link is provided to access the results, including a 40-slide PowerPoint presentation and a 32-page detailed report, each containing several statistical charts. The report is useful for schools deciding which device(s) to provide for students or to use in a BYOD situation.

This article reviewed or introduced some free or mostly free software that could be used for classroom collaborations across the miles. I liked the information on VRoom from Elluminate that is free for three people. Many others were noted such as Skype, UStream, and TalkShoe.

This article is lists and explains resources that can be used to bring classrooms together as mentioned 'Services that bring together distant colleagues or classrooms' listing software such as Skype, Ustream, Elluminate, Talkshoe, SightSpeed, and Vyew.

This article by Sharon Boller is a response to Ruth Clark's article "Why Games Don't Teach". Here Boller discusses Clark's inconsistencies and explains how GBL can work in the classroom. Most importantly, Boller discusses the level of engagement, the feedback mechanisms, and the "rehearsal and practice" that GBL offer.

This article by Ruth Clark in Learning Solutions Magazine is a bit misleading and a bit muddled. While it appears that her contention is that games can not teach she admits that students can learn from GBL if they are structured and designed well.

This article by Andrew Miller builds upon the initial posting by Grant Wiggins on assessing creativity. It provides suggestions on quality indicators, modeling thinking skills, reflective processes, and a few rubric examples with some very good descriptors.

Discussion, Teamwork, and Cooperative Learning Rubrics Middle School/High School Collaboration Rubric Six defined criteria for collaboration with strong performance descriptors

This was an excellent article addresses the changes in the Web from 1.0 - 3.0. The 1.0 education was teacher delivering the content to the student. 2.0 discuss how the student and teacher can equally access information. Web 3.0 delivers education 24/7 worldwide with authenticity and creativity. This articles address education through web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0.

This article about Blended Learning where some of the course is taken face-to-face and other parts strictly in an online environment - this is a new wave in teaching and another option for increasing information literacy for students at all levels of education from Elementary School to College!

This article discusses how some colleges and Universities are offering free course work online.  Essentially without it being official - someone could get a college degree for FRE!

This was an interesting article and I found it pertinent since I am getting certified as an online teacher. Public universities are moving toward offering more virtual degrees to lower tuition costs. Some of the courses will be traditional but others blended. This will help students obtain college degrees in non traditional ways.

This article discusses the success of setting up class blogs involving high school juniors. The author points out that 'students value an authentic audience for their writing'. A great starting read for any teacher that has had thoughts about working with blogs in their classroom.

This article covers the challenges and opportunities of code switching in digital spaces, at home and at school with students today. At the end of the article, the writer provides some classroom strategies to help students adapt in this 'code switching'. One suggestion is the use of a tool called TodaysMeet (http://todaysmeet.com/about), which seemed like an interesting concept.