A Glimpse of the Future??

This is simply fascinating!!  Please share!!

Digital Portfolios and Final Presentations!

Tomorrow will be the swan song for our class!!  With that said, please be sure that your final presentations are complete, as we should start with them before lunch.  If you have any last-minute questions, please e-mail me or call me at (508) 216-0384 (Google Voice- hah!). Before them, we will explore a bit around the idea of how digital portfolios may be used to get a richer picture of student proficiency.  Please be sure you read the two articles I gave you, Digital Portfolios: A Dozen Lessons in a Dozen Years and 3 Keys for a Successful E-Portfolio Implementation.  They will give you a nice theoretical construct as to the essential questions schools must wrestle with before starting a digital portfolio program.

Also, be sure to continue to share all of your sources (links and descriptors) for your final presentation on your personal page of our class wiki.

Have a good night!

For Sunday Morning, Aug 21

Hello Williamstown cohort!!  Great to see all of you again!

Here are the links to your "Partnering" Wordles:

Karen & Jeff-  Curriculum Wordle     
                         Instruction Wordle
Patricia & Karen:  Curriculum Wordle     
                              Instruction Wordle
Rommey, Paul & Donna:  Curriculum Wordle    
                                           Instruction Wordle

For Sunday morning, please copy and paste one of the above Wordles your group created in class today into a posting that you have created in your personal blog. This posting should be your thoughts regarding the following:

Is Prensky's idea of partnering realistic? Could a teacher (particularly one faced with high-stakes testing, pressure to achieve AYP, etc.) realistically set up his/her curriculum and instruction to use this approach daily? Why or why not? What could you do as a school leader to foster the partnering approach?

Social Media- A Tool or Taboo for Educators?

Good morning, Boston!!  Consider these three video clips:

1.  An interview with New Milford, NJ High School Principal Eric Sheninger:

2.  This clip from CNN's Headline News to hear "Your Views"

3.  And what one Florida school district has decided to do with regard to social media:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Clearly there is a divide in opinion as to whether or not social media tools should be used in the classroom.  Not just in Florida, but also locally school boards are crafting policy narrowing or outright banning their use.

For a quick write in the comments below:  Should educators and students be allowed to use popular social media sites such as Facebook or Twitter as instructional tools?  Or are school committees justified in taking such action?

For Friday, June 15

For tonight, please copy and paste the Wordle you created in class today into a posting that you have created in your personal blog.  This posting should be your thoughts regarding the following:

Is Prensky's idea of partnering realistic?  Could a teacher (particularly one faced with high-stakes testing, pressure to achieve AYP, etc.) realistically set up his/her curriculum and instruction to use this approach daily?  Why or why not?  What could you do as a school leader to foster the partnering approach?

For the Boston Cohort...

Hi ladies-
For Thursday, please do the following:

1. Respond to the prompt regarding the Richarson interview two posts below.
2. Read the "Unleashing the Future"study on emerging technologies from Project Tomorrow.
3. Read chapters 2-6 (pp. 31-110) in the Prensky's Teaching Digital Natives.
4. Commit to a research topic- start to post links, data, research, etc. to your personal wiki page on our class wiki.  If you need any help or guidance, please e-mail me.
5. Work on your personal blog... add some gadgets and complete at least one post with your original thoughts.  Be sure that you post the address to our Resource Sharing Page on our class wiki so we may be able to follow each other's blogs.
6. Make sure that you have marked up chapters 2 and 3 of the Collins and Halverson text.... we will begin our next class with a text-based discussion of it.

Take care!

For the Williamstown Cohort...

It was great meeting and connecting with all of you this weekend! I hope the classes were informative and enjoyable.  I believe I have addressed a glitch that was inherent in how the comments were configured for this blog.  You should be able to post your responses to the Richardson article post below right now with no problem.

As a reminder, for the next time we meet in August:

1. Read the "Unleashing the Future"study on emerging technologies from Project Tomorrow.
2. Read chapters 2-6 (pp. 31-110) in the Prensky's Teaching Digital Natives.
3. Narrow down your research topic- start to post links, data, research, etc. to your personal wiki page on our class wiki.
4. E-mail me your topic sometime in the next two weeks.

Also, below is a decent video on the basics of creating your blog on Blogger and starting with a first post.  Good luck with this experiment in just in time learning! 

Contact me if you need help.  Take care.