Dan Hill's Blog (9)

Microblogging Comparison

Best Practices in Educational Blogging

Guidelines/Norms

Just like most district’s AUP policies, blogging needs to be included.  With blogging just starting to come a mainstay in the educational realm, districts should review their policies to ensure blogging is included.  If not, students are going to take full advantage of “no policy.”  Just as with AUP’s, a blogging section…

21^st Century Classroom/Learner

What is a 21^st Century Classroom?  It is one unlike anything I grew up in.  When I was in school it was a teacher centered classroom.  The teacher was the instiller of knowledge and as a student we listened and soaked it…

1. 1.       This day in history.  The students could research an event from history and post about it.  No two students can post the same event, so it forces them to look into history.
2. 2.       Distance Learning.  If helps with the connection of students and teachers who are in the distance learning environment.…

The course I chose to take and review was on Alison.com.  It was a short course on personal health and fitness.  It was divided into 5 learning modules with a varying number of topics per module.  I covered the first 5 topics which was all of module one.  It gave an overview of what health is and how it is defined differently (physical, emotional, mental) depending on who you are talking to.  It was presented in a PowerPoint type fashion.  You read the…

After doing research during this lesson on virtual reality (VR), I can say my opinion has shifted some to the other side of supporting VR in the classroom.  When I initial think of VR, I think of the sci-fi stuff you see in the movies such as the Matrix.  To me that is VR.  Living in another world.  But in reality, it is not.  It can be as simple as taking a virtual tour of the something.  I think VR will keep the students more engaged in learning if used in the…

Social Networking.  Does it have a place in the classroom?  I am torn on this issue.  While I see the advantages to it such as being able to still have school on bad weather days or while traveling for a vacation, I do see some drawbacks to it as well.  I have talked to several individuals about homeschooling and the cyber school areas.  For those which homeschool, they love it because it gives them flexibility.  They can take family vacations during the year…

According to the National Education Association, they suggest that an effective AUP should contain the six elements of a preamble, definition section, policy statement, acceptable uses section, unacceptable uses section and a violations/sanctions section.  After contacting my children’s principal and getting a copy of the AUP, I quickly realized their policy does not follow the NEA suggested format.  The first thing I noticed was the name.  The district does not call it an AUP.  They refer…

The thing I noticed the most about Bloom’s Taxonomy verbs was they stayed relatively the same from the revised chart to the digital chart.  The basis for each verb was very similar in “old school” vs. “new school”.  For example, the lowest order of thinking skills is remembering.  The basic concept of remember is the same between both trains of thought.  It is the ability to remember or recall information.  The difference is how it is accomplished.  Under the…