Georgia State University students who don’t want to yell their questions from the back of a cavernous lecture hall now have another option: They can send text messages to their professor, who reads the queries from an overhead screen.

Text-messaged questions, McDonald said, are compiled on a class web page—known as a wiki—where other students can answer the questions. “It creates a knowledge base, and a knowledge base has real power,” he said. “And students love to show how smart they are.”

I was concerned with my Writing Proficiency class, their journal entries were getting progressively worse instead of better. I found that students were becoming very lazy with their journal writing. It wasn’t just the content, but the grammar and spelling. They were not paying attention to detail, and making very careless mistakes – I was worried that their writing skills were regressing! Something had to be done…

Although, we knew that a blog would be a good tool for writing, we had a few concerns; exactly how were we going use the blog? How would we edit their writing? How would we give meaningful feedback without losing the momentum of having students just write? How would we assess their writing? Despite our concerns, we decided to throw caution to the wind start a classroom blog, and iron out the details later.

Although, it is not perfect, students acknowledge the value in using a blog as a writing tool. They recognize it as an opportunity to become more thoughtful writers, and editors; they realize that unlike many other pieces of writing submitted, it cannot be tucked away in their notebooks never to be seen again.

Global, online learning communities offer an unprecedented opportunity for teachers and students to follow and connect around their passions. But they also challenge almost every aspect of traditional schooling as we know it. The Powerful Learning Practice cohort model offers a unique approach to introducing educators to the transformative online technologies that are challenging the traditional view of teaching and learning. A PLP cohort for professional development is an ongoing (7-8 month), job-embedded opportunity built around emerging social Web technologies. Each cohort connects: 20 school or district teams from around the state (or world) 5 educators (administrators/teachers) from each school 10- PLP Fellows (Champions) selected from participating districts Within these cohorts, participants are supported in an intensive community building process online and in person by an passionate team of experienced educators. Outcomes for participating Administrators and Teacher Leaders By participating, you can expect your team and your leadership to gain: Knowledge: An understanding of the transformative potential of emerging technologies in a global perspective and context and how those potentials can be realized in schools Pedagogy: An understanding of the shifting learning literacies that the 21st Century demands and how those literacies inform teacher practice. Connections: The development of sustained professional learning communities and networks for team members to begin experimenting, sharing and collaborating with each other and with online colleagues from around the world. Sustainability: The creation of long term plans to move the vision forward in participating districts at the end of the program. Capacity: An increase in the abilities and resources of individuals, teams and the community to manage change.

I’ve recently been working with a district that over the last two years has given over 300 workshops on various tools, but when I asked them to talk about what significant, real change had come about because of those workshops, there was basically silence in the room. I’ve started saying that the only workshop we should offer our teachers is one titled something like “How to Learn Online,” one that gives teachers some context and some strategy for directing their own learning but places the expectation for DIYPD squarely on their shoulders. That’s what I find really compelling about PLP, that it supports teachers in developing their own learning goals and strategies, yet at the same time gives them a great sense of potential of these online communities as well. Ultimately, this still is about us, about the decisions we make as “solo practitioners.” But we have to have a different frame, a different context for those decisions now, one that helps us understand our roles as truly connected educators as well.

A new feature currently in calendar labs adds the ability to attach a Google Doc to a calendar event. This makes using Google Calendar for lesson planning a powerful tool. After create a lesson or unit, you can share your calendar and relevant documents with other teachers in your building or district, fostering collaboration.

o why is it that I hate to write and love to blog? First, I think a lot of it has to do with the computer and word processing. As I type this in my Firefox extension Performancing every misspelled word is underlined in red for me, giving me instant feedback on what I have misspelled. Does it catch all my mistakes, heck no, but you should see a post before it actually goes live. Secondly, I can type faster then I can write…about 75 words/minute and you can actually read what I’ve written when I’m done. Finally, I don’t see blogging as writing…it’s idea generation, it’s the free flow of ideas between people and it is a conversation. I love to talk (if you have a hard time writing you usually do…coping skill). I would rather stand in front of a group of parents and give a presentation, or have a face to face parent conference than write a letter home.

Blogging gives me an audience, just like giving a presentation…I almost feel that way sometimes…like I’m presenting information, my thoughts rather than writing. It could be a podcast, a video, or blogging…it’s about having an audience. I wonder if I would have blogged in school, given the chance? It would have depended, I bet, on how the teacher used it as a tool. Was it a reflective journal to layout your thoughts, or did every period, capital and ‘ie, ei’ combination have to be perfect. If that was the case I’d have hated it. Blogging is different…it’s not writing in the sense we think about it. People ask me why I blog and I truly can’t give them an answer…I just do, because it’s an outlet for me. I’d bet that I’ve blogged more in the past year then I wrote my whole life leading up to it. It’s been that powerful for me as a tool, and I see it in my students as well. In myspace and youtube…this networking, conversation, sharing atmosphere is contagious!

I think you hit on the larger issue, though, is that blogging is much less structured (mostly) than a typical piece of writing. Blogging is much more stream-of-consciousness than writing. As I am writing this, it is a direct connection from idea to publication. I think that is the blogging revolution. I would wonder how different your post would have been, or my comment for that matter, had we outlined it before writing it.

Crash Course Tutorial The Crash Course Tutorial is available for faculty to use to learn Copyright basics, especially in the distance learning context.

Google Specifically for Education From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school. Google Scholar. Use this specialized Google search to get results from scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, and academic publishers. Use Google Earth’s Sky feature. Take a look at the night sky straight from your computer when you use this feature. Open your browser with iGoogle. Set up an iGoogle page and make it your homepage to have ready access to news stories, your Google calendar, blogs you follow in Google Reader, and much more. Stay current with Google News. Like an electronic clearinghouse for news, Google News brings headlines from news sources around the world to help you stay current without much effort. Create a Google Custom Search Engine. On your own or in collaboration with other students, put together an awesome project like one of the examples provided that can be used by many. Collect research notes with Google Notebook. Use this simple note-taking tool to collect your research for a paper or project. Make a study group with Google Groups. Google Groups allows you to communicate and collaborate in groups, so take this option to set up a study group that doesn’t have to meet face-to-face. Google Code University. Visit this Google site to have access to Creative Commons-licensed content to help you learn more about computer science. Study the oceans with Google Earth 5. Google Earth 5 provides information on the ocean floor and surface with data from marine experts, including shipwrecks in 3D. Learn what experts have to say. Explore Knol to find out what experts have to say on a wide range of topics. If you are an expert, write your own Knol, too.

Just 18% of last year’s high school graduates in Michigan were prepared for college-level English, writing, reading, mathematics and science, according to the ACT’s Profile Report for the Class of 2009.

Nationwide, it has been estimated that one in five students at universities enroll in a remedial class. At community colleges, which do the heavy lifting in remedial work, it has been estimated that 60% of first-time students need at least one remedial course. Many of those students, certainly, are returning adults who left high school years ago. Others are students who have mild developmental disabilities. But what bothers educators and policy-makers is this: Many are also recent graduates who have left the high school stage with a diploma, only to find out a few months later that they’re not ready for even basic college work.