Twitter

First, I am against twitter. To me, it always seemed like a web tool where you could tell the world what you're doing and when you're doing it. My opinion -- I don't want the world to know what I'm doing and when I'm doing it!

I read Chapter 6 and have seen a potential use for it. I liked the idea of a "Network at my fingertips." The idea of having your school teachers on a network, or even a "hotline" if you will, ready to help if needed.

Perhaps I need to reevaluate Twitter and see what other uses it could have.

"Enlighten us, but make it quick."

I read an article on why teachers need to be great story tellers. I personally like to incorporate my students into a rather flashy, crazy story when it comes to designing Physics problems, as it seems to get them a little more interested in it.

What this article made me think about -- and what it encouraged you to ask as a teacher -- is when did you (others) learn the most?

Well, I reflected and thought about what sticks out in  my mind is when material was presented to me in a good story. I also thought about what do we often do in social gatherings? We talk about our lives -- in some sort of story format, we watch TV shows or movies, which are stories. When we don't go out to do something like bowling or golf, etc, but instead stay in and talk or watch something together, it's story time!

The quote in my title for this post is about how people do want to learn -- humans are naturally curious -- but the attention span is short, so tell us a story and don't let it drag out!

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/why-educators-need-to-be-great-storytellers-suzie-boss?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Wikipedia Registration

So when I read the Wikipedia Article, I noted that it was dated June 2007. I came across this line, "Although Wikipedia encourages contributors to create accounts, registration is not required." I wondered if after six year this had changed, and according to the site itself, you can still edit without an account. I guess I was a little surprised to see that was the case even today.

The only counter measure for this is that a site is flagged if it has not been checked for accuracy recently, but otherwise, it's totally fair game.

You are your own substitute

"...create their own TV shows online in just a few clicks." (Will Richardson, pg. 126)

I first saw this happen in my own school this past March. 4 or 5 teachers were going to Chicago for a leadership conference and would miss three days of school. They decided that it was too much to miss and that students would suffer without their help over the half week they would be gone. As a solution, they went ahead and videotaped their lessons and posted it online for the sub to play during class.

The feedback from the students was that it worked -- but wasn't the same. The students learned, but still struggled because they were unable to ask questions. Overall, the teachers that attempted these video lessons felt it was certainly not perfect, but certainly worth doing.

Math Puzzles

I'm a math major, so it's easy for me to say that math is fun and I enjoy doing math problems. I've always found them to be a puzzle of their own. But I understand how easy it is for the class to become boring for students -- not hard, not frustrating, but boring. I found this article on using puzzles to teach math and thought this would be a great idea. After all, I've seen people who label math as "boring" be in love with sudoku puzzles.

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/recreational-educational-value-math-puzzles-deepak-kulkarni?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29

Wiki Definitions

As I was reading through Chapter 4, I came across a the section of creating an online text for the curriculum. I thought about how this could be useful for me.

When I begin a new unit, one of my favorite things to have students do is share at least one thing they already know about the topic. For example, when we start magnetism, students make a list of what they know and each student must contribute one item for the whole class -- and it cannot be repeated.

I thought about taking this in-class activity and making it an online activity on the night before a new unit begins.

20% Time

The idea it that 20% of the day at school, students would be able to work on a project of their choosing -- that still meets the graduation requirements, of course. The idea is that students will work harder on something they are passionate about. It came originally from google.

"The idea for 20% time in schools comes from Google's own 20% policy, where employees are given twenty percent of their time to work and innovate on something else besides their current project."
(A.J. Juliani)

http://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-percent-time-a-j-juliani?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EdutopiaNewContent+%28Edutopia%29