What steps have you taken to move your classroom towards a 21st century learning environment?
I am currently doing research for a presentation to our faculty. I am the technology coordinator at my school and am working with our grade 2 teacher to "model a shift towards a 21st century classroom". We are looking into classroom organization and equipment, web 2.0 tools, and redesigning one or two social studies units in order to model for our school what steps need to be taken in order to move towards a more student centered "21st century" approach. We are also researching and grappling with all the "classroom of the future" theories in order to turn abstract research into a new dynamic classroom experience for our school. We also hope to inspire our teachers to take some of our suggestions and begin to implement step by step.
What specific steps have you taken in your classrooms/schools in order to move towards "the classroom of tomorrow" or "classroom 2.0"? Consider space, equipment, organization, tools, etc.
What specific steps have you taken in your classrooms/schools in order to move towards "the classroom of tomorrow" or "classroom 2.0"? Consider space, equipment, organization, tools, etc.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Vanessa Maffia on
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Hi Marsie,
I have been looking at the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow, 21st century school (great resource) http://www.21stcenturyschools.com/, and a few other sites I've come upon randomly. I am also part of the Bay Area list serve and have been taking notes on what tech coordinators are doing at their specific schools. I also came upon this link http://kimstringer.blogspot.com/2009/07/necc-2009.html that is a presentation from this summer's NECC conference.
We have interactive whiteboards in all of our classrroms and a mini lab with 4-5 desktop computers in every classoom. We have a mobile MAC laptop cart that teachers can check out as well. I'd love to hear about any ideas you and the teacher at your school come up with. What grade level are you focusing on for this project?
Vanessa
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Permalink Reply by paul Luke on
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Hi Marsie, I am keen to gather more examples and research that supports the ubiquitous deployment of technology in schools. I am in a similar situation in leading tech initiatives and looking at 1-1 for the older primary students. We have nearly completed (over a two-year cycle) a 1-1 program for our teaching staff of 25 with dual platform Macbooks - where the focus is on teachers learning tech. This is starting to pay dividends where teachers are more empowered to take hold of personal learning as they have access with the same device both at school and home. Some teachers are now purchasing iPhones as they are beginning to see the value and power of these devices being more than glorified phones.
Our curriculum / learning focus is very much Inquiry driven - using the Understanding By Design planning tools.
We are now looking at getting more devices into the hands of students rather than the weekly visit to the computer lab for a 60 min lesson. If you have any resources / docs / links / references that support this move, it would be greatly appreciated.
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Paul - we are considering a dual platform environment in our lab, which we are upgrading hopefully this summer. Any suggestions, pitfalls to avoid, etc? We have been an exclusively PC based district and except for a few of that have iPhones, touches and pads, we do not have much expertise with Apple software (nor support). So I'd be very interested to hear about your 2 year transition.
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Permalink Reply by Candice Walsh on
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I am in the interesting position of creating a 7th grade language arts class where the focus is on 21st century learning with an emphasis on collaboration. I am uploading the foundation of the proposal that was sent to the district office in preparing for this class. It covers equipment, set up, etc.
Also, check out my blog as I will continue to add information here.
http://clwalsh.blogspot.com/ - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Marie Linder on
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Hello Vanessa!
We have a ceiling mounted projector connected to an on-line computer in every classroom. It projects onto a large screen on the wall. This enables us to surf together with a whole class and find things out in collaboration. I find this very handy and very educational for the students.
We have stationary computers placed here and there in the school and the students have free access to them. There are about five students to one computer. Of course the dream is for each student to have a MacBook each but until this comes true ours is a reasonable arrangement.
We use a learning management system (LMS) which works wonderfully. It is Swedish and it is called Ping Pong. We are fortunate enough for all our students to be on-line from home, and through the LMS they have access to all school work also when they are not at school.
I write a blog about how I use ICT in the classroom. Maybe it can be of interest: http://marielinder.wordpress.com/
//Marie
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Pass on
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This doesn't answer your question, but did you know that Karl Fisch's "Shift Happens" started as apresentation to his school's faculty? So, good luck in whatever you decide to do. Perhaps "Shift Happens" could serve as the starting point for something,
www.lessontech.blogspot.com
Twitter: @passandr
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Thanks all. This has been a great start. I will definitely post our presentation when we get it all completed. We just received many of our tech orders for this year which included ipod touches. I am anxious to learn about innovative ways to put these in use as well.
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Andrew,
I have been following a conversation by community college professors at this site for a while. Did that group ever get together for discussions on Web2.0. I am Manager of the Technology Resource Center at a community college in Largo, MD. We are an instructional technology resource for the development of learning objects and instructional technologies. Our faculty have had little exposure to Web2.0 technologies and I need to begin to introduce them to the possibilities. I have seen many writing instructors discuss their use of blogs and here at my college I have one faculty member who used blogs for her Introduction to Art 101 class. Students displayed works of art they were discussing and wrote about them. Any ideas, best practices would be very helpful.
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