I am searching for a free course management system that can be hosted completely externally. The one I keep coming across is Edu 2.0. I’ve taken a tour of its features and am very impressed. I was wondering if anyone else out there is using Edu 2.0 and can tell me what they think about it. Also, are there other free online course management systems worth looking at? Cheers.
I am happy to announce that I have accepted a teaching position this fall at Jackson Memorial Middle School in Stark County, Ohio. I will be the 7th grade instructional technology teacher at this large school.
I will be visiting the school this week to familiarize myself with their edtech program, as well as the hardware and software I will be using. It is my hope to collaborate with other teachers around the world so I can foster a global view with my students. I certainly welcome any proposals from you. I’m sure as my brain starts spinning this summer, I will seek advice on lesson ideas and creative teaching strategies. I look forward to working with you.
I just read a fascinating article in The Journal entitled 21st Century Teaching and Learning: Assessing New Knowledge by Dr. Ruth Reynard. The article discusses the evolving role of teachers as they respond to new demands of the global, hi-tech, inter-connected world. Dr. Reynard states:
Much has been discussed about the new roles teachers and students play in learning environments created by using new technology and the types of skills required of students in this century. Those skills tend to be softer skills like team building, cooperative communication strategies, self-direction, and the academic skills of critical and applied thinking, new knowledge construction and collaborative learning techniques.
Dr. Reynard goes on to say:
… current educational trends based on standards and tests lean towards teacher-driven instruction, while the required 21st century skills of higher order thinking skills, application of technology, and adapting to change and workplace skills, among others, require new methods and new assessment measures.
To address the skill requirements of the 21st century, teachers should assess the process
of learning rather than just the outcome. Evaluating the methods in which a student reaches an outcome should hold just as much importance as the outcome itself. As you can see, the content of instruction does not change, just the method of assessment. In this scenario, students still gain the content knowledge, but they also strengthen their own metacognitive skills. They learn how to think, not just recall information.
Recognizing and valuing the “how” and the “why” (ie, the thinking process) will help our students build the cognitive and problem-solving skills required to meet the ever-changing demands of the 21st century.
I just read a very interesting article in Edutopia entitled Reinventing the Big Test: The Challenge of Authentic Assessment by Grace Rubenstein. This article discusses the shortcomings of today’s high-stakes state proficiency tests. According to the article, “The educational assessment tests states use today have two fundamental flaws: They encourage the sort of mind-numbing drill-and-kill teaching educators (and students) despise, and, just as important, they don’t tell us much about the quality of student learning.”
I couldn’t agree more. Assuming the schools I currently work in are representative of the whole, teachers have lost control over how and what they teach. The stakes are so high for children to pass the Ohio Achievement Test that the teachers are under immense pressure to focus their fast-paced lessons entirely on test preparation. According to many teachers I talk to, this has significantly dumbed down their students. Children are losing their ability to think critically about real issues (the ones that exist outside of textbooks) and to apply creative solutions to everyday problems. As well-intentioned as the No Child Left Behind Act is, it is actually a major obstacle to the preparation of children for the demands of the 21st century workforce.
The article goes on to explore alternatives to standardized, multiple-choice, one-size-fits-all testing. Some test makers are actively working on more authentic forms of assessment that measure a student’s resourcefulness and problem-solving skills. These tests are more complex, more subjective and much more complicated to grade. This, of course, makes them expensive to administer.
I suppose in today’s environment of hyper-accountability, we will never see the end to standardized testing. We have gone too far. The tests are here to stay. The question is, how can we realistically improve or alter standardized assessment to reflect society’s need for accountability while also recognizing the need to prepare a generation of creative, problem-solving, critically thinking children?
I wanted to share with you an excellent commentary published in Education Week (April 2, 2008) by Andrew A. Zucker, author of Transforming Schools with Technology: How Smart Use of Digital Tools Helps Achieve Six Key Educational Goals.
The article, entitled Smart Thinking About Educational Technology, argues that educators need to stop thinking simplistically about educational technologies and begin thinking about how to use these digital tools well. Too much time is spent arguing whether or not educational technology improves student achievement, rather than focusing on how it can help us reach key educational goals.
Zucker proposes using a widely-accepted framework of six key educational goals to help concentrate our focus and meet multiple aims. These educational goals are not technology specific - they meet wider educational objectives. However, upon inspection, one can easily see how educational technology can be employed to help achieve these goals.
As I have always argued, educational technology is not an all-or-nothing notion. Productive pedagogy must always be the main focus. The use of educational technology can enhance learning in significant ways only when it is backed by sound pedagogy and wider educational goals.
For those of you who like to use videos to help promote the benefits of technology-infused education, I came across this one entitled A Vision of K-12 Students Today. Worth a watch, I think it is a good way to introduce a staff inservice about 21st century learning and integrated technology education.
I just discovered the exciting news that ePals is now completely free!!! I have been using this education global collaboration site for many years and have been limited to I believe 30 free student accounts. If I have received my information correctly, teachers can now created an unlimited amount of free student ePals accounts.
ePals offers free student email addresses with built-in safety features that allow teachers to monitor outgoing and incoming email messages for spam, viruses, profanities, etc. SchoolMail can also translate messages into different languages. The teacher has complete administrative control over the emails. You can have heavy or light administrative control - your choice. You can set it up so that you have to individually approve every email message. Or you can set it up to screen messages for profanities. Or you can lift all of these restrictions if you wish. The the interface is completely web-based, making it easy to use at school and home.
ePals also offers free SchoolBlog. Teachers can host their own classroom blog and reach out to students from all over the world with their collaborative messages and projects.
ePals has come a long way since I started using it five years ago. I have used ePals to connect with teachers and students from all over the world. We’ve ended up establishing email pen pals and collaborative projects. We’ve sent greeting cards and care packages to each other. It is truly an excellent resource for global collaborations and partnerships.
The British Library and the Joint Information Systems Committee just released a report that exposes the myth that the Google Generation (people born after 1993) are more Internet savvy than older adults. The report, entitled Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future, indicates that while our youth are generally quite comfortable with using technology, they lack the basic Internet searching skills of their adult counterparts.
In my own teaching experiences, I find this report to be highly accurate. A myth exists amongst older generations that our children are incredibly Internet savvy. While it is true that our children are comfortable and regular users of the Internet, many of them primarily use basic and simple features of the web. The skill of doing smart Google searches must be explicitly taught and then reinforced. Without proper education in web searching techniques, children will resort to typing entire sentences in Google, overlooking crucial keywords and abstaining from employing even basic techniques to narrow search results.
The first step in improving the information literacy skills of our students is to educate our teachers. Once our teachers are competent in performing more advanced Google searches, they can pass these skills and expectations onto their students. Without explicitly addressing this issue in schools, our students will continue using Google to find a needle in a haystack.
Wow, it’s been a month since my last posting. Things have been very busy as we Australians complete another school year. I apologize for falling off the radar. I plan to reinvigorate iTeacher in 2008 after re-establishing myself in the United States.
I have been living and teaching in Australia since 2003. I grew up in Ohio and married an Australian in 2001. My wife and I are moving back to Ohio in February to live closer to family. We will miss Australia greatly but know we will visit this country throughout the rest of our lives.
I will spend the next few months re-settling and job seeking, so you may not see much activity on iTeacher in the meantime. If you know of anyone in Ohio looking for a technology integration specialist, by all means direct them to my portfolio at http://robitaille.weebly.com. (Hey, it’s worth a plug!) Have a happy holiday season everyone.
I just discovered an excellent reference website that coins itself a “one-stop shop for 21st century skills-related information, resources and community tools.” Route 21 is an initiative of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. It is an invaluable resource for locating information, resources and examples of effective 21st century teaching. Be sure to visit Route 21 for some excellent teaching ideas.
