One of the areas that I would love to try to establish in my classroom is to set up a virtual learning environment, where students collaborate with other students, not just in our school, but in other schools as well, throughout various times in the day. I learned this week about how teachers collaborate with other schools and it is quite beneficial for all students (Laureate Education Inc, 2009). I want to try to create a learning environment for all of my students. My biggest concern is the giant mountain I have to overcome to get started with this. Our school is not to supportive of social networking in regards to learning because of some previous situations, so I need to convince them that these endeavors would be beneficial to our students. One of the points that Vicki Davis made was how using online collaborative tools really helps to differentiate lessons, which is one of the biggest areas my district is trying to promote this year (Laureate Education Inc., 2009). Hopefully that approach will work out best for me.
References:
Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2009a). Program nine. Spotlight on Technology: Social Networking and Online Collaboration. Part 1. Integrating Technology Across the Content Areas. Baltimore: Author.
Good luck with getting your district to unblock some the collaborative tools that are available. However, I do like your approach for making it happen. Just mention to them that some of the greatest minds in science make themselves available to interact with school children. It would be a great thing for your students to be able to chat with the likes of Stephen Hawking. I wish I could go back in time and be able to email or communicate with some of the greatest composers. Once you can break down the initial barriers of contact, they are very open to an ongoing dialog.
ReplyDeleteMy school district also has a fear of letting the students express to much through blogging, e-mail or social networking. They are always afraid of something inappropriate happening. I like your approach though of proposing it using one of their key words. Sometimes this is able to open doors. On your videocast, do you videotape you explaining the concept in class or do you find appropriate videos on the Internet or United Streaming type resources? I would like to add this option to my website to help students who are absent when a concept is presented. Keep up the good work!
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