Comments on: Moving a district to engage in Web 2.0 teaching and learning

By: Maxx30

Maxx30 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:08:18 +0000

Delayed does that mean a few hours or a few days? ,

By: Twitted by sidehaan

Twitted by sidehaan — Thu, 28 May 2009 04:52:40 +0000

[...] This post was Twitted by sidehaan – Real-url.org [...]

By: Darren Walker

Darren Walker — Fri, 22 May 2009 18:08:15 +0000

Hi, if you are looking for suitable Web 2.0 tools you may be interested in my website. I have created a directory of around 300 free web 2.0 tools with a short description of each

By: Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:45:14 +0000

Great tool to use is http://www.etherpad.com….great for collaboration. We used it yesterday at an inservice about the integration of UbD and DI.

By: Matt Walsh

Matt Walsh — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:34:37 +0000

How are educators using Web 2.0 tools as one means of replacing textbooks in the classroom? BCSC will not be adopting new social studies textbooks this year. This is a progressive move on our part, but some educators are not supportive of this.

By: Engaging students WITH technology! - HOPE Foundation

Engaging students WITH technology! - HOPE Foundation — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 02:32:58 +0000

[...] Check out this AND cross linked here. Here is an example of the educational leader trying to model the use of technology…. so that teachers will model the use of technology…. so that students will stay engaged. Refreshing! [...]

By: Neil Rochelle

Neil Rochelle — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 03:16:30 +0000

Thanks for such positive feedback. Besides being ‘fun’, there is an entire world at our student’s fingertips. We talk about collaboration, learning about diversity of other cultures and countries, learning from others around the world in a conceptual framework but now we have the technology to really make that happen. There are no boundaries. I so want students to have those experiences as they learn “what they have to learn”.

In our district, it would be a rare student that doesn’t have a cell phone and an iPod on their possession all day. The possibilities of just using those 2 items are awesome to me but I think I’d either be carted off to the nut house or worse, out of district. I hope someday that will come. (shhh….don’t tell!)

The hardest thing to convey is that this is not all about the technology. It’s using it to teach and learn content. Many think I’m just pushing technology at the cost of content. Luckily, we have so many examples of teachers using the tools while teaching content. For me, it’s just another way we demonstrate good teaching which is all about differentiating instruction. So many students light up when you ‘connect them’. So many students (particularly those with disabilities) have so much difficulty writing, do research in a library and listening to lecture. Give them Web 2.0 and they are liberated from a system that has shut them down.

Last comment regarding the closed doors/firewalls. I understand law, I understand liability, I understand ‘in locus parentis’. I’m a Superintendent. But, we spend most of our energy “protecting” and very little on internet safety, responsible citizenship and intellectual property. If we started those conversations when students enter school, we wouldn’t have to continue to “protect” them through their graduation year.

How many parents do you know that keep safety hooks on their kitchen cabinets with a 16 year old in the house? At some point, kids do learn!

By: Anna

Anna — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 18:21:26 +0000

Wow! Great post. Thanks for sharing ideas to incorporate web 2.0 tools into the classroom. It sounds like your district is really taking steps to motivate students and teachers to connect and collaborate!

Some of your district’s educators (as well as other ISTE fans), may be interested in participating in the Curriki Summer of Content–a paid opportunity for teachers to share curricula with others around the globe on the open source education community Curriki. To learn more about the opportunity, read here:

http://www.curriki.org/xwiki/bin/view/Main/SummerofContent

Thanks again.
Anna

By: Jennifer Fischer

Jennifer Fischer — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:56:02 +0000

I would love to more Web 2.0 impact in my school district. The administrators talk a big game, but they don’t put their where their mouth is. Everything from Facebook to Twitter to Yahoo mail is blocked. Also, teachers are discouraged to communicate via email, etc with parents.

I’m gratified to see districts such as yours leading the charge, but saddened because it hasn’t made it to NE Ohio yet.

By: the_infonaut

the_infonaut — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:00:48 +0000

It’s really great to see teachers outlining how they are integrating Web2.0 into schools

I agree with Joe – never before have the targets of innovation in education (i.e. the students) been driving that innovation forwards so relentlessly through the tools and technologies which they use on a day-to-day basis.

Yet however much the students press to use new technologies as an additional learning tool, it still requires the institutions to sanction and even encourage this – and like any change, this scares some people.

Hats off to enlighted people like Neil who recognise that the only thing more dangerous than embracing technology is not embracing it…

I’ve written a few more thoughts on how Web2.0 technologies can stimulate innovation in education over at my blog

http://wayoftheinfonaut.blogspot.com/2009/02/hacking-education-part-iii.html