Technology Survey

This week my Walden classmates and I embarked on a journey that took us down the road of Podcasting. This simple and very affective technology application can be used for both the students and the teachers to enhance the learning environment in the 21st Century. This week I conducted a survey of one of my classes asking them to share how they use technology in school and at home. I have recorded some of my students and their responses, and created a Podcast that displays the demographics of my classroom and the use of technology of my students.

(click the link below to listen)
Technology Survey

21st Century Skills

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is a public-private organization focused on preparing students to succeed in the 21st century by learning important 21st century skills. This website provides an overview of the mission, 21st century skills, partnership members, and cooperating states, as well as tools and resources for teachers to use to integrate 21st century skill learning in the classroom. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills website is full of information and resources aimed at helping teachers teach their students necessary skills they will need in 21st century workplaces and communities (http://www.p21.org/).

My overall impression of the website is positive, though I find it a little difficult to sort through the masses of information. One piece of information I find quite useful is the "Skills Framework" page. This page of the website provides a very specific visual representation of how the 21st century skills and core subjects should be taught simultaneously. It also addresses the individual skills a student must possess for life, career, learning, innovation, information, media and also technology (“Skills Framework”, 2011).

There is one thing that I find surprising about this site. On the “Strategic Council Members” page of the website, all of the Strategic Council Members are listed. They include big name companies such as Ford, Adobe, Apple, and Dell to name a few (“Strategic Council Members”, 2011). With such a large base of supporters, why are so few states participating in this initiative?

Teaching 21st century skills are a must! Students need to possess such skills in order to succeed and thrive in the future global market. Without these skills, employers will look to other sources, such as foreign countries, for skilled workers. In the highly competitive global economy, our students will be competing against the world. As teachers, we need to consider this and prepare them for success.

References:

Strategic Council Members. (2011). Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved March 20, 2012 , from http://www.p21.org/about-us/strategic-council-members

Skills Framework. (2011). Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved March 20, 2012, from http://www.p21.org/overview

Using Blog's in the Classroom

I have been incorporating Blogging in my lessons for about a year now. And so far I must say I am really impressed with the outcome! I teach U. S. Government to 11th and 12th grade students at a career and technical high school. Getting my students excited about writing and working collaboratively has always been a high priority and sometimes a challenge. But I have found that though the use of my class Blog site, my students are more engaged in their interactions with one another and their writing has seemed to improve.

I have experimented in a number of different ways in using Blogging to get my students to work collaboratively, interact with one another, showcase their work, and reflect on lessons and projects we have done in class. Here are a few examples.

Last December my classes did an examination of the 8th amendment and the use of the Death Penalty in the United States. I first created an assignment for them to respond to a question on the class Blog site that stated, "Do you believe in the Death Penalty? Why or why not?" This gave students the ability to talk about their feelings on the subject and respond to each other’s posting. Next we conducted a project where the students worked in groups to create a presentation on their views of the Death Penalty, the constitutionality of cruel and unusual punishment, and an examination of the methods of execution. I had the students use the Blog site to post ideas, in and out of class, to help them put their presentation together. This got a lot of good response. Many of my students said they liked that they could, at any time during the day, post a comment or a suggestion for the groups PowerPoint or speech on their individual groups page. I saw a lot more collaboration during the use of the Blog site than in past years. It also gave me a better understanding of who was contributing what ideas.

Another example of using Blogging in my classroom is for reflections. Sometimes I will post a question, video, poll, or even a podcast dealing with a subject or project we have done. The students will then have the opportunity to respond and show what they have learned. In some cases I have used their responses as their assessment. Just recently we did a project on the Race for the Presidency. The students got together in groups and did research on a particular candidate and then gave a campaign speech. Afterwards, I posted a few questions in response to how they truly felt about the candidate they were assigned, how the other groups did in their presentation’s, and what it was like working in their particular groups. Again the responses were great!

I have begun to see that there are many different uses and advantages for a Blog site in the classroom. Most notably is the increase in my students willingness to participate and the increase in the quality of their writing. I believe that using Blogging as a tool and a forum for student work appeals to the students of today more on their level of communication. I also feel that their writing increases because of the audience that they are portraying to is much larger than if they are writing on paper or typing out an application. I plan on continuing my use of Blogs in my classroom and finding new and innovative ways to incorporate them in my lessons.