Plagiarism vs. Collaboration on Education's Digital Frontier

Perhaps, writes school-based technology leader Jennifer Carey, instead of focusing our concerns on technology as a wonderful aid to plagiarizers, we should focus on its ability to foster creativity and collaboration, and then ask ourselves (we are the clever adults here) how we can incorporate those elements in our teaching and assessment.

What is Your Ideal School?

International distance educator Smadar Goldstein has been teaching students in the U.S. and elsewhere online for more than 10 years, from her company headquarters in Israel. The connected world is finally melting down the traditional education mold, she says – so what should school be instead? She offers some of her ideas in this PLP Voices post.

Sharing Real-World Projects Sharpens the Literacy Skills of Connected Students

When students are connected, all learning has the potential for being language intense and leveraged to build literacy skills, writes STEM coach Brian Crosby. Opportunities arise that motivate your students to interact at a high level and require them to be articulate to be understood. Add constructivist learning activities around STEM and Maker projects and watch the literacy skills grow.

Are You a Thought-Provider or a Thought-Provoker?

Our job as educators is to be thought-provoking instead of thought-providing, says Wisconsin principal Matt Renwick. One-to-one technology is only as good as the meaning students make with it. Our students will make meaning if what we present is meaningful to them. This means taking advantage of strengths that may in the past have been seen as problems. “Talking” and “arguing” are fine examples.