Monthly Activities: November 2011

21ST CENTURY TEACHING AND LEARNING

Monthly activities will provide hands-on opportunities to learn a variety of skills, strategies and best practices to improve teaching and learning for both teachers and students.  Goals are to promote essential 21st century skills while enhancing effective technology integration all subject areas.

21st Century Teaching and Learning 

"We need a new vision for a 21st century education system

- one where we aren't just supporting existing schools,

but spurring innovation..."

Barack Obama

To Meet the Demands of a New Age from Steven H on Vimeo.

ACTIVITY 1: Why 21st Century Teaching and Learning:

1. As you view the videos linked below, keep the following questions in mind:

• What are 21st Century Skills?
• How can I teach them when I am already being asked to teach so much?
• What role does technology play? 
• What higher-order thinking skills do you want to target?
• Pay Attention
• Why 21st Century Skills and Tools?

    2.  Choose one resource below to explore.

• 21 Century Digital Learner

• New Skills for a New Century: Students Thrive on Cooperation and Problem Solving

• Twenty-First Century Skills

• Push against 21 Century Skills (article)

• Additional 21st Century Resources

ACTIVITY 2:

New Technoscientists complete Glogster Activity at edu.glogster.com  (see below)

Returning Techno4's - complete Motivational Posters activity at BigHugeLabs. In addition, please feel free to post any other similar resource you have tried or have always wanted to try. You may also post a Glogster Activity.

GLOGSTER
Glogster is an online poster that includes links, graphics, photos, videos, music and text

1. Explore step set for getting started with Glogster
2. Create a Glogster poster introducing a unit/lesson of your choice..using the 21st Century Skills Words.
3. Include learning objectives, tasks etc
   
4. Include link of your Glogster poster in the Engage Community Techno Group and post your thoughts about 21st Century Teaching and Learning in the Discussion Forum section entitled Motivational Posters and 21st Century Skills
   
5. Comment on each other's posts
6. Explore additional Glogster resources

BIGHUGELABS

Create your own motivational Posters at BigHugeLabs

1. Create at least 2 of your own customized Motivational Posters using the 21st Century Skills Words.
2. Include learning objectives, tasks etc
   
3. Post your motivational posters in the Engage Community Techno Group and post your thoughts about 21st Century Teaching and Learning in Discussion Forum section entitled Motivational Posters and 21st Century Skills 

ACTIVITY 3:Cyber Safety

1. Review Cyber Safety information
2. Forum Post - This discussion is dedicated to learn what we should and should not do when posting to social networks and other Web 2.0 resources. It is important to understand what is posted online is available to everyone and once it is out there, it is out there forever. What should we consider when posting? Who should you friend on social media sites?  How do you draw the line between your personal and your professional life?
3. Go to the Discussion Forum in Engage and reply to the post on Teacher Use of Social Media. Click on reply to this post,and not create a new discussion forum topic.
   

ACTIVITY 4 :Discovery Education on the iPad!

• Share a resource that you used by using Discovery Education iPad appl.See information below.
• Post your resource and experience in the Discussion Forum Thread -  Discovery Education located the Engage Techno Group
  

Discovery Education revolutionized education almost ten years ago by being the first company to introduce streaming educational media into America’s classrooms. Now, we are revolutionizing education again by launching a new iPad-optimized version of our streaming platform, the only educational streaming service scientifically shown to improve academic achievement. If you’re already a subscriber, you can access it right now using your current DE login information. Visit http://mobile.discoveryeducation.com and you will gain access to more than 33,000 videos that are available to stream immediately, and have been digitized specifically for the iPad’s incredible screen.

Discovery Education’s ground-breaking iPad web app is focused on student exploration of safe and appropriate educational content.   Whether assigned by their teacher, or spurred by their own imagination, students can explore thousands of video clips covering all core, K-12 curriculum areas. Students can find content using Discovery Education’s targeted keyword search, or explore content via the visual subject browse.

Additional features of the Discovery Education web app include:

* A new browse function allowing users to search two level deep on a given subject from the home page

* Touch navigation for scrolling through search results and player pages

* A refined design providing students access to the best content in a manner that is native to the tablet form factor and touch interface

* The ability to filter search results by subject, which helps users view content by criteria including most popular, recently added or best match

If you have an iPad, what are you waiting for??  Visit http://mobile.discoveryeducation.com now to check it out for yourself!  And if you want to learn more information about the release, visit http://discoveryeducation.com/ipad

Activity 5: Engage Community and Wiki Pages etc.

1. Post, share etc in the Engage Techno Group
   
2. Continue to set up your Techno4 Wiki pages
3. Practice using your ipad.
   
4. Collect signed talent release forms from your students
5. Post favorite iPad/iPod apps in the Techno4 Engage Group and on our google document