21st Century Student Handbook: Teaching Today’s Web-Centric Kids. 2/27/2012 By: James Careless Lots of schools are talking about the importance of preparing their students for an increasingly inter-connected, Web-centric world.
Here are some districts that are “doing” it. Some of their advice may be able to help the reader avoid mistakes, etc. Creating ePortfolios Increasingly, job recruiters are not satisfied with paper portfolios: They want to know what prospective employees have achieved online. The best e-Portfolios are those that contain a wealth of materials compiled over time. “These portfolios represent purposeful collections of student work that serve as evidence for their individual abilities,” says Ken Holvig, the school’s Head Computer teacher. “Our seventh graders have responded to the challenge by building robust documents rich with chosen artifacts and personal reflection,” Holvig notes. Developing Internet Literacy Susan Luft is a first grade teacher at Fox Meadow Elementary School in Scarsdale, NY. Chats and Tweets as Teaching Tools.
What is a 21st century teacher? People toss around terms in education and attach the words “21st century” to appear cutting edge or on the front end of trending ideas.
As a teacher in the 21st century, I find it amazing to see some of the things that are so-called 21st century and yet are no different from ideas from the 20th or even the 19th century. With that in mind, I reflected on what it takes to be a teacher in the 21st century and what such a teacher looks like. Obviously, a 21st-century teacher should be tall, handsome and have a sweet spot for superheroes. Beyond that, I think there are some key characteristics that good 21st-century teachers need.
Be a connected educator. Be a master of technology. Interactive whiteboards are being used as chalkboards once were, computers are being used to make flash cards and tablets are being used to do word searches. Be a reflective practitioner. Be an advocate. None of these ideas is radical or groundbreaking. Why Technology Truly Matters To Education. This is the kind of story that makes me love what I do. If I’m ever feeling like the work I do (integrating technology) is not important, I should just watch this video and read the story.
This story dovetails nicely with this week’s story on how we’re about to see the end of teaching as we know it . Thanks to the Google Blog for shining a light on the story of Morgan, a 16-year-old student in Wells, Maine. Morgan has a learning disability but has been able to overcome much of the issues using technology such as Google Voice Search. While this is obviously an ad for Google’s products, it is an important look at the larger picture: technology enables learning like never before. Here’s the key parts of the story from the Official Google Blog : We all have memories of the great teachers who shaped our childhood. One teacher who has taken advantage of the web as an educational tool is Cheryl Oakes, a resource room teacher in Wells, Maine.