Category Archives: 21st Century skills
Web 2.0 Smackdown at TechForum « Thumann Resources
I was fortunate to present with Adam Below, Howie DiBlasi and David Andrade today at Tech Forum NY. We shared a Google Doc at the morning session of the Web 2.0 Smackdown.
After the lunch break, Adam and I facilitated a session giving the participants time to show what tools they feel are useful in the classroom. The ideas started flooding in before we even met. They were coming in via Twitter, suggestions from the the morning group and folks that came to say hi after we were finished.
Wikis: Pulling It All Together Online — THE Journal
David Lindsay discovered wikis in 2005, several years before collaborative Web 2.0 innovations would officially infiltrate the educational space. Armed with Web site design experience, this elementary school teacher started tooling around with the idea of wikis after seeking out a better way to manage an annual competition that paired students with a local business alliance.”I was looking for an easier, free way to manage the competition,” said Lindsay, a fourth grade teacher and technology coordinator at Rosedell Elementary in Saugus, CA. Through the event, students work closely with the business alliance to develop their own online businesses. Lindsay coaches students through the process, which finds children using the Web to experience hands-on entrepreneurship at a young age.”At the time, there was software available for what I wanted to do, but it was cost-prohibitive,” said Lindsay, who was also challenged by the fact that Web site design five years ago still required the developers in this case, the students themselves to write code. “Programming and HTML were still pretty complicated for a fourth grader to learn and use,” said Lindsay. “While I was looking around for better options, I stumbled upon wikis.”
Education Week’s Digital Directions: Web 2.0 Fuels Content Filtering Debate
In one corner are the Web 2.0 tools—the relatively new blogs, wikis, discussion forums, and social-networking sites that are gaining popularity among teachers looking to connect with their students and one another. By their very nature, such tools can be edited by a wide range of contributors, and they can host a wide range of content—some of it educational, and some not so much.
In the opposite corner are the Web filters—software designed to block students from distracting or potentially harmful material, with roots in the more static online environment of the 1990s. In most cases, filters block whole websites rather than individual pages, based on a filtering company’s database of sites that contain questionable material.
via Education Week’s Digital Directions: Web 2.0 Fuels Content Filtering Debate.
Award-winning teacher gets kids ‘wild about blogging’ :: News :: PIONEER PRESS :: Wilmette Life
On a recent afternoon, third-grade students in Stephanie Rick’s classroom at Avoca West School would seem to be playing an educational video game. But they are actually reviewing what they’ve learned about European explorers in preparation for a social studies test the following day.
As the students register their multiple-choice answers on hand-held devices, the results are tallied and projected onto a Promethean screen so Rick can readily see if most or all of her students have plugged in the correct answers.
via Award-winning teacher gets kids ‘wild about blogging’ :: News :: PIONEER PRESS :: Wilmette Life.
Tech-focused academies give East Bay students hands-on training for jobs – ContraCostaTimes.com
CONCORD — How much would you pay for a futuristic drinking cup that plays music or videos and includes a hidden camera?
Although the idea may sound far-fetched, it’s on the drawing board in an engineering class at Mt. Diablo High School, where students in a “Project Lead the Way” class are using real-world science and math to design class projects, in the hopes that their knowledge and skills will lead to college and high-tech careers.
“I like designing things and building them with my hands,” said Jeffrey Mosher, 16, a junior who designed a collapsible metal cup in class. “It wouldn’t be any fun if there was no challenge.”
via Tech-focused academies give East Bay students hands-on training for jobs – ContraCostaTimes.com.
How Smartphones and Handheld Computers Are Bringing on an Educational Revolution | Fast Company
As smartphones and handheld computers move into classrooms worldwide, we may be witnessing the start of an educational revolution. How technology could unleash childhood creativity — and transform the role of the teacher.
via How Smartphones and Handheld Computers Are Bringing on an Educational Revolution | Fast Company.
FCC plan could bring high-speed web to campuses, communities | eCampus News
College faculty whose campuses are surrounded by neighborhoods that rely on antiquated dial-up internet connections are hoping the Federal Communication Commission’s National Broadband Plan will bring faster connections that won’t send students running to their campus’s high-speed network every time they need to complete an assignment online.
The plan, unveiled March 16 after a year of intense deliberation among the FCC and various stakeholders, seeks to bring broadband internet to 100 million U.S. homes by 2020. Fourteen million Americans don’t have broadband access, even if they want a high-speed option, according to federal estimates.
via FCC plan could bring high-speed web to campuses, communities | eCampus News.
Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences – NYTimes.com
A report on the underrepresentation of women in science and math by the American Association of University Women, to be released Monday, found that although women have made gains, stereotypes and cultural biases still impede their success.Dima Gavrysh/Associated PressMae C. Jemison says she encountered bias in her studies for chemical engineering.RSS FeedRSS Get Science News From The New York Times »The report, “Why So Few?,” supported by the National Science Foundation, examined decades of research to cull recommendations for drawing more women into science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the so-called STEM fields.
via Bias Called Persistent Hurdle for Women in Sciences – NYTimes.com.
