Blogging Communities 101

The assignment to search for blogs was not easy to complete. I finally had to review Jen's hints on how locate educational blogs (they are incredibly well hidden in a general Google search!). Then I was able to understand and begin to complete the assignment.

I reviewed two blogs. The first concerned a school in the South Bronx and its decision to institute learning stations so that each child could choose learning that addressed his or her best modality. This school had seen a 28% increase in test scores in one year.

The second blog addressed how the iPad impact education. My comments compared the conversation I'd had with my vice principal concerning the Kindle, the Nook and the iPad The. We are both eager to see how students respond to the dropping prices of the first two and the availability of the third: the newest, hottest item to hit the market this past year.

The blogs reviewed or at the following addresses:

http://1to1schools.net/2010/03/teacher-centered-technologies-do-not-transform-education.html

http://1to1schools.net/2010/06/the-ipad-and-education.html?cid=6a00d8341c855d53ef0133f2b7814b970b#comment-6a00d8341c855d53ef0133f2b7814b970b

As long as I'm thinking about it...

The nation is preparing for the new school year and, with it, another year of adolescent sleep debt. How are we supposed to teach classes full of sleepy children? Students sleep with their cellphones close by (or under their pillows), check their Facebook status in the middle of the night and generally are targeted nightly with the "why aren't you in bed yet?" parental rant.

The following articles examine sleep deprivation in adolescents and ideas for change.

http://nysut.org/research/bulletins/981202adolescentsleep.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/teenbrain/from/

It's an interesting topic, especially when you consider that 21st century learning skills can, effectively, time-shift learning opportunities and take advantage of adolescents' most alert hours. How can we use this? Would it be effective? And how can we assess the results?

(http://wilsonshistoryclass.com/blog/2008/11/)

New Skills for New Times

When we say that the world is changing quickly, we need to understand that even our children will have different perspectives on technology. My son, four years younger than his sister, is far more facile with technology than she. She wants more minutes on her cell phone, and he wants more texting and data capability. She doesn't want Skype on her computer, and he uses it to keep his girlfriend company while she studies.

Even my databases are changing, and at a rate that's difficult for me to continue to absorb. I will spend time in September to re-learn the library's online resources. Then I'll adjust my lesson plans to reflect those changes.

Still, I have skills now that weren't mine a month ago. I'm planning a suite of podcasts to bring the databases to my students: in their own home, on their own time, and at their own pace.