Partnership for 21st Century Skills

After reading about The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, I was pleasantly surprised to hear about the nation wide support for technology being implemented in the educational system. Their goal is to bring "together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers, we have defined a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child’s success as citizens and workers in the 21st century." I see this as a great thing as so many different groups, people, and companies are involved in the process. It seems to have the right ingredients for success as its mission is supported by so many. The website has a wealth of information that contains articles about them, their movement and support, video links of seminars, and professional development opportunities.
With technology leading the way in our personal lives and in the classroom, I think that by businesses, schools, policy makers all taking a hand in this, that the students of America can be prepared for the world they will face outside of school. I would really like to see more states get involved in such organizations. There is no way to deny the impact technology is having and will continue to have on us. Since it is our jobs as educators to provide our student's with the ability to succeed in the real world, it would only make sense that we put more emphasis on what we will be faced with tomorrow.

Group Wiki Page Experience

As I recently had the opportunity to collaborate with my peers on a group wiki page, I found the experience to be informative. I was a little skeptical going into it. I was able to see the main purpose of it, but for some reason while the process was taking place of us adding information and doing our own individual parts, I had a hard time seeing it unfold into what I had initially visualized the end product being. However, after the page was completed, I saw the what I had initially thought it would be like. It is a great tool for teachers to share their resources and through the process I was educated on some great resources available to me as a educator. There were some that did not relate at all to the specific courses that I teach, but I could still see the value in them for other educators teaching other courses.
I believe that my students can also gain a lot from a page like this. It not only would be great for teachers who teach the same content in the same school to be able to share information, but also for teachers world wide who teach the same course. This would allow students to have access to the content and have many resources available to him/her. I think that this opens up a whole new way of learning for our students. It is just one way of organizing all of the available information online in way that can be easily understood by our students.

Blogging in the classroom

Im in agreement with liking the idea of post up assignments, papers, notes, and any other any other relevant information that may pertain to the classroom. I even think the idea of allowing students to submit their work via the blog page. Since our students tend to have different schedules (work, sports, family commitments, etc.), it is probably best to allow them to have multiple time periods to post comments or ask questions. Let them know that you will check the blog at say 5pm and 8pm. This does require the teacher to work outside of their contract hours, but most of us do anyway.
There will still be issues concerning students who do not have internet access. Most schools (if not all) should have some sort of access to the internet. For the students who do not have the internet at home, well I think its possible that they can use their schools internet on their own time (before and after school, lunch, study hall). Internet access to the blog is one of the biggest issues that I can see having. There will probably never be perfect solution, but it doesn’t mean that we cant do out best to TRY and please everyone.

Blogging in the classroom

I teach World History and U.S. History for 11th and 9th graders. I believe that blogging can be used very effectively out of the classroom. It would be a great place for the teacher and student to communicate outside of school hours. Teachers can post current and upcoming assignments, extra credit opportunities, upcoming tests, study guides, video clips that may enhance what had already been taught. Videos, articles or short clips can all be posted that supplement what has been taught. You could even post clips of things that will be taught to help your students get a jump start on an upcoming chapter. Most importantly, it would provide a great open forum for students to ask questions to their peers and their teacher.
Obviously, the advantages of doing this are great. This would encourage students to use technology that they may not have used before and it is a great learning tool. For those kids who forgot to write their assignments down or maybe missed a day of school, they would be able to log on and check out the blog site. Fianlly, this would add just another way students can prepare for an exam. They could utilize others comments and questions and take the posted material and study from it.