Over the weekend, I created some additional wordles to share with others. I created and printed out this one for one of my friends on his birthday: http://www.wordle.net/gallery/wrdl/1006180/Brandon1 . I was just thinking of the many applications for this in the classroom. For example, kids could create from their spelling words, history or science vocabulary, etc.
I also created a webspiration visual (much easier than I thought it would be!) for use in the presentation on classroom applications of video camcorders. Didn’t want to put them all on the visual: click here for more ideas that I got from the web: Classroom Applications for Video Camcorders.
Today, we were exposed to viewpoints of teaching and learning in the 21st century. Using jigsaw, we read parts of a document on 21st Century Learning and Teaching. My comments on the discussion board follow:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2m5zzm_36c89d6sgz&hl=en
We also watched some videos and shared our impressions with the class. Kim Cofino from the Quatar Academy created an interesting sideshow about The 21st Century Learner.
The website http://the21stcenturylearner.wikispaces.com/ was quite interesting. It was information presented by Kim Cofino from the Qatar Academy, Doha, Qatar in February 2009
Her slideshow is an interesting presentation of learning in the 21st century. The slideshow is broken into 3 sections, as follows: (1) learners, (2) literacy, and (3) classrooms.
(1) LEARNERS. Learners today are “always on.” They are connected to one or more persons, one or more groups, one or more blogs, or perhaps all at the same time! Constant interaction is expected as are immediate responses. Fortunately our social learners are willing and eager to respond. They are prosumers: producers and consumers. Many have highly customized experiences and areas of expertise, and, again, are willing and eager to share! These students are often masters of multi-tasking — I think it is the norm rather than the exception for the 21st century learners. Teachers must think and plan both carefully and critically about how best to motivate and engage these learners. When my children went off to college a few years ago, I went to a presentation for parents. They emphasized that if you want to hear from your children, you need to communicate they way they communicate. My husband and I purchased and learned texting on our cell phones; and it is one of the primary ways we often hear tidbits of our children’s lives. The same is true of teachers: if the students are using particular technologies, it is best to incorporate use of such technology in the lessons as one of the ways to engage them.
LITERACY. Slide 18 contains an interesting visual called the Vision for Learning. The three-sided triangle has sides entitled International Mindedness, Reaching Academic Potential, and Experts In Their Learning. Take a look at it. Today’s effective learners are effective communicators, lifelong learners, leaders and followers, creators, global collaborators, have no or limited boundaries, and are natural navigators. They are also critical thinkers and evaluators, and are very comfortable communicating across myriad cultures, times and distances. In fact, they are decreasing the “distances” in many different ways! How are you helping them to do so in your classroom?
CLASSROOMS.
In our classrooms, the focus needs to be on big essential questions using customized networked and connected learning. While rote learning still has its place, the focus today needs to be on critical thinking, creativity, problem-solving, real-world challenges, innovative teaching and relevancy to life in the 21st century.
Tags: 21st century learning, webspiration
