Communicate and Collaborate

Why did I take that class dealing with Communication and Collaboration I asked myself? As I was going through PBS’s courses for teachers, one class caught my attention- Communication and Collaboration. When the class first started, I really did not have an idea of what it was going to be about or how I could use it. In the first week I found out that it was for getting our students ready for the future by providing some 21^st Century skills through the use of technology. Technology is an integral part of our student’s lives. Students want to be engaged and the use of technology engages them. Of course, they love to communicate with each other, too. Why not use this educationally to help them learn. At the moment, educators are preparing students for jobs that have not been invented. To help prepare our students we could use some Web 2.0 tools. There are plenty of Web 2.O tools that students can be used to communicate with other classrooms nearby or across the world. Also, learning to work in groups that depend upon each other to learn is also important. One last thing that was really stressed was moving from a teacher centered class to a student centered class was really important where we as teachers are facilitators of learning.