Have you mastered the 21st century skills every teacher should know? That means, says teacher Susan Lucille Davis: Being a model learner for your students and fellow educators; stepping up and taking charge of your own learning to gain the skills you need; learning from the best teachers you can find, and, finally, giving back to your professional community by sharing what you learn.
Dropbox is many things — a multifaceted tool that’s so powerful, you’ll continue to discover new ways to use it. But the short and sweet of it is this: you can use it to store and sync documents and files across computers, tablets, and smart phones. And it’s great for teaching and school.
Management of our iPads is more of a hassle than I had anticipated. But it is clear to me that these devices ARE making a difference. When I see the students’ engagement, their learning, their sharing and their pursuit of their passions, I can’t help but be convinced that these devices have the potential to transform my classroom.
I think blogging is the new persuasive essay. If we’re trying to prepare our students to think critically and argue well, they need to be able to blog. It allows for interaction. It allows for ideas to be tested. And the best posts anywhere in cyberspace tend to have a point that can be argued.
After accessing the Internet for the first time during a high-stakes exam, one Norway student wrote: “I felt more secure on my facts and it made it so much easier for me to write my paper. I hope that in the future it will be normal to use the internet during the exam because you can support your arguments with facts you find from reliable sources. The future is technology, and we should be able to use what we can to prove what we are able to do!”
Done well, social media and technology integrated into the classroom feels like a familiar old leather softball glove. It becomes an extension of your hand and you almost forget that it’s there. Done badly, it’s a waste of time and the return on your investment is nil.
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