Life Long Learning

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Permalink Reply by Eileen Ward on August 14, 2009 at 7:04pm

Wow! Great questions! As we envison ourselves, as educators, to be life-long learners, so should we envision our students to be life-long learners. Are we achieving this goal? Only if we realize that our students are living in a digital world NOW, and we are able to integrate their technology into the their classroom learning. Notice the emphasis on the word their. Students should have ownership of their learning.
Are we teaching learners to be proficient in a global society? Not yet, but we are trying. The internet has limitless applications for us to integrate technology in the classroom. We've all heard of Twitter, Skype, and You Tube. Let's start a discussion about SchoolTube, Wikipedia for Schools, and the latest of web 2.0 innovations: Ning, Jingprogect.com, and Screencast.com. Instead of students writing endless book reports, have them write book trailers using SchoolTube or Screencast. Instead of using Microsoft Word, let's have them use Googledocs, which is where teachers and students can collaborate in a Web browser window and view the process of writing in real time.

Jen, your final inquiry, and my final reponse regarding defining literacy in pen and paper only... .
I think it is safe to say that we all know that the major form of media in our world today is the Internet. We need to reflect that in our classrooms. Although copyright (now called "transformational use") and district band-width issues exist, we have to weigh the long-term benefits of helping our students succeed in this global society vs. costs (especially with relevance to the revised NJCCCS). My life motto is that obstacles are only challenges with solutions.
Eileen Ward

Permalink Reply by Doreen Lee on August 26, 2009 at 7:01am

Hello - I was also at this workshop and found it very interesting - Alan November shared many technical tips that I didn't know about. One that stands out is using site: when you search a topic and the country you would like the information to come from. (UK would be United Kingdon) This would allow students who study say the Holocaust to read a German student's view point on the topic. What a great way to compare/contrast to the US viewpoint! Perhaps our library classes could teaching these tips on how to narrow a search on the Internet.