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February 2010 | Volume 67 | Number 5 Meeting Students Where They Are Pages 73-74 Why Teachers Should Try Twitter William M. Ferriter I've got an embarrassing confession to make: Until recently, I wasn't convinced that differentiating learning opportunities for students really mattered. Like many teachers, I would deliver one lesson each day, keeping my fingers crossed that I met everyone's needs. And even though I've always had a sense for the strengths and weaknesses of my individual students, I rarely drew on that knowledge to make specific changes in instruction or assignments.

HHelping students learn how to learn: That's what most educators strive for, and that's the goal of inquiry learning. That skill transfers to other academic subject areas and even to the workplace where employers have consistently said that they want creative, innovative and adaptive thinkers. Inquiry learning is an integrated approach that includes kinds of learning: content, literacy, information literacy, learning how to learn, and social or collaborative skills. Students think about the choices they make throughout the process and the way they feel as they learn. Those observations are as important as the content they learn or the projects they create.

"Our Space: Being a Responsible Citizen of the Digital World is a set of curricular materials designed to encourage high school students to reflect on the ethical dimensions of their participation in new media environments. Through role-playing activities and reflective exercises, students are asked to consider the ethical responsibilities of other people, and whether and how they behave ethically themselves online. These issues are raised in relation to five core themes that are highly relevant online: identity, privacy, authorship and ownership, credibility, and participation. The casebook is available for free online and you can access it here, on the Project New Media Literacies team website, among other places." Also see Part 2

"Information and communications technologies (ICT) policies in schools have two dimensions. One is to ensure that students are protected from pernicious materials on the Internet. The other is to enable student access to the extensive resources on the Internet for learning and teaching. While these two dimensions are not intrinsically in conflict, in actuality, such can become the case."

"Because Google Apps for Education accounts are tied to your school district, when a staff member or student leaves, they are not able to take their school issued Google account with them."

You know what the iGeneration in your classroom looks like. They're the students willing to experiment their way through anything, confident that trial and error can crack the code better than reading manuals or following directions. They're turning to the Internet first and the library second when assigned research projects. Their minds are working fast, but not always as deeply or as accurately as the adults in their lives would like. Yet teachers can capture the attention of the iGeneration and help them grow by integrating technology into classrooms in a way that focuses on the skills that have been important for decades. Teaching the iGeneration shows how to integrate proven instructional strategies with 21st century tools to make learning more accessible to today's technology-savvy students. Each chapter identifies an enduring skill that students need to acquire-information fluency, persuasion, communication, collaboration, and problem solving-and offers a digital solution to enhance, rather than replace, familiar practices to teach that skill. With this book, educators can make learning more efficient, empowering, and fun. Authors William M. Ferriter and Adam Garry provide: Practical solutions for using technology to teach essential skills A guide to understanding the pros and cons of Web 2.0 resources Over 70 handouts and activities for each skill and digital tool

This is the process behind the Inquiry Hub, a new initiative by Coquitlam Open Learning and School District #43.  The COL Inquiry Hub is a full-time grade 8-12 program which brings students together in a technology-facilitated environment and encourages them to explore their own questions from key themes: Community and global issues Environmental sustainability Media Art, design and technology

MIKVA student film and guide titled "Your Social Life"

Digital Citizenship curriculum PK-12 for students and teachers

"Innovative educators will appreciate these twelve first-person films that make up a series exploring three related themes, each in its own way at the center of current debate about what works, and what's needed, to help students succeed during school and in life. I notice some familiar names of these movie makers including Alan November, Elliot Soloway and Stephen Heppell. You can visit the website here where you'll find the following films grouped by the themes below."

The COETAIL program (Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy) is based on best practice student-centered online learning theories and techniques. Harnecing the newest and latest in Web 2.0 technologies the program leads educators through a process not only demonstrates how to use technologes but allows educators to apply their learning in their own school and classroom.