Technology & Learning - February 2008 - (Page 18) “They didn’t just read about alluvial fans, they actually ‘visited’ them using Google Maps. They knew what plucking looked like because of some unbelievable licensed pictures from Flickr. One student in particular created time-intensive animations to demonstrate his personal learning process. “Days later, when we started our Comparing Soils labs, students demanded that I give them back the digital cameras. They wanted to do Photo Story lab reports instead of what they described as ‘your boring ones.’ They wanted their audience to see all the amazing differences and similarities between our soil samples garnered from the network connections students had across the country.” taught in a hybrid format, with both face-to-face and online components. A class blog supports learning by giving students a voice and an audience, and compiled posts become a studentauthored textbook for the course. Additional motivation comes from the opportunity for outstanding posters to be inducted into The Scribe Post Hall of Fame wiki. station contacted Crosby to commission his students to do another piece on race and diversity issues. In addition to being featured on the Apple Web site, his students’ digital media creations have won many awards. A New Kind of Teacher What then is the teacher’s role in a world where students have instant access to information and no longer have to rely solely upon a teacher to read and judge their scholarship, ideas, or opinions? Darren Kuropatwa, a high school mathematics teacher who blogs at “ADifference,” argues that while 21st-century teachers may no longer serve as dispensers of information and ideas, they will continue to provide the most essential service of professional educators: creating learning opportunities that help students develop the skills and motivation that result in success throughout life. Kuropatwa’s AP Math classes are Connecting Learning to Social Change Another important shift in teaching and learning in the 21st century is finding ways of using the new participatory media to teach students about citizenship. Brian Crosby, a blogger at “Learning is Messy,” and elementary teacher at Agnes Risley Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada, is using many Web 2.0 tools such as Skype, Flickr, blogs, and wikis to infuse character education into his classroom. “Many of my students do not have consistent access to 20th-century tools much less 21st-century tools,” he says. In a recent presentation, Crosby tells of how the new communication tools have enabled his elementary students to use their creativity and voice to send a message of hope to the rest of the world. “Digital video is a powerful, transformational tool. When students participate in video projects, they practice all their academic skills in a productive, real-world context.” Recently, after viewing a student-created clip on bullying and conflict resolution, the local PBS Skype www.skype.com ThinkFree www.thinkfree.com VoiceThread http://voicethread.com Twitter http://twitter.com UStream www.ustream.tv YackPack www.yackpack.com/ The Digital Classroom If we want to remain relevant in the lives of students, then we must use strategies and materials—such as global networking—that fit the learning styles of the digital native. Classrooms in the 21st century need to be collaborative spaces where studentcentered knowledge development and risk taking are accepted as the norm and where an ecology of learning develops and thrives. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach speaks on leadership and virtual community building. Learn More George Hall Elementary Alabama Best Practices Center 21st Century Learning project http://abpc21.org Joseph H. Kerr School Clarence Fisher’s blog http://remoteaccess.typepad.com ThinWalls Classroom Project http://thinwalls.edublogs.org/, http://thinwalls.wikispaces.com/ Darren Kuropatwa Darren Kuropatwa’s blog http://adifference.blogspot.com Agnes Risley Elementary School Class blog http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php? blogger_id=65078 Class videos link www.learningismessy.com/video.htm Class wiki http://crosbyclass.wikispaces.com/ Brian Crosby’s blog http://learningismessy.com The Scribe Post Hall of Fame wiki: http://thescribepost.pbwiki.com/Scribing Classes Tools AIM www.aim.com Flickr www.flickr.com GoogleMaps http://maps.google.com/ iGoogle www.google.com/ig Moodle http://moodle.org 18 | www.techlearning.com http://abpc21.org http://remoteaccess.typepad.com http://thinwalls.edublogs.org/ http://thinwalls.wikispaces.com/ http://adifference.blogspot.com http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=65078 http://www.learningismessy.com/video.htm http://crosbyclass.wikispaces.com/ http://maps.google.com/ http://www.skype.com http://twitter.com http://learningismessy.com http://www.aim.com http://www.google.com/ig http://www.thinkfree.com http://www.ustream.tv http://thescribepost.pbwiki.com/ScribingClasses http://www.flickr.com http://moodle.org http://voicethread.com http://www.yackpack.com/ http://www.techlearning.com
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