Sunday, January 28, 2007

Things I wish I knew:


'Who is doing what?' - which tasks are being delivered by which groups/classmates?
How is everybody progressing?
Why can't a blog be like a baseball field?
"If you build it they will come."

Saturday, January 27, 2007

To do list and timeline

Yes, I know each of us is as independent as a hog on ice, but we need to get all of this done by next Thursday's class. May I suggest the following to help us prioritize our tasks:

Saturday:
Must do:
1. Become fully familiar with the assignment, deliverables and scoring rubric.
2. Create a group plan to deliver your phase of the project: discovery through synthesis including task delegation and deadlines.
3. Generate a fall-back plan if dependencies fail (e.g. summaries/reactions to readings to other group's work is not available in time for you to produce your deliverable).
3. Have each of your group members react to at least one different item on the required reading list on this blog.
4. Delegate and deliver your group's expertise on this blog based on the suggested readings.
5. Establish group communication methods and escalation procedures based on agreed-upon timeline.
6. Elect a group leader as the primary contact person and post that person's name and other group members on the 'Who's doing what' entry (3rd oldest post below).

Nice to do:

1. Establish a more detailed architecture of your deliverable.
2. Deliver sub-tasks to feed your final project.
3. Read, evaluate and incorporate posts from other group's 'experts'.

Sunday:
Must do:
1. Finish 'nice to do' list from Saturday
2. Complete all reading reactions that were not done on Saturday
3. Revisit blog for more input.
4. Hold virtual 'status meeting' for your group on blog to revise delivery plan.

Monday through Wednesday:

1. Revisit blog for more input from all groups.
2. Assess & revise sub-project task deliverables.
3. Revisit rubric to confirm compliance with all deliverables
4. Complete project.

Any complaints or concerns? Post here or contact me directly.

Technical 2(e): Website

Website. As a group, develop a website for teachers and families explaining 21st Century Schools and the changes teachers need to make in classrooms. Include critical content from each area studied. Use the newsletter, brochure, and PPT your group developed to provide direction. Website expert, submit completed website. In addition to content, include concept map, newsletter, brochure, and PPT on website.

Post any process delegation and deliverables here.

Technical 2(d): PowerPoint

PowerPoint. As a group, develop a slideshow for teachers explaining 21st Century Schools and the changes teachers need to make in classrooms. Include critical content from each area studied. Use the newsletter, and brochure your group developed to provide direction. PowerPoint expert, submit completed PPT.

Post any process delegation and deliverables here.

Technical 2(c): Brochure

Desktop Publishing with Brochures. As a group, develop a three-fold brochure for teachers explaining 21st Century Schools and the changes teachers need to make in classrooms. Include critical content from each area studied. Use the newsletter your group developed to provide direction. Brochure expert, submit completed brochure.

Post any process delegation and deliverables here.

Technical 2(b): Newsletter

Desktop Publishing with Newsletters. As a group, develop a two page newsletter for families explaining 21st Century Schools and the changes we need to make. Include critical content from each area studied. Newsletter expert, submit completed newsletter.

Post any process delegation and deliverables here.

Technical 2(a) Project Manager and Blog initiator

Project Manager -- send group and instructor an email telling each person's roles. As project manager it will be your responsibility to keep the group moving and keep course instructor informed of any problems or questions. You will also be responsible for setting up the blog and encouraging people to dialogue via the blog. Go to Blogger.com to start your blog. Send me the url of your blog

Blog. The project manager will set up your group's (read class') blog and show the group how to use it. As a group, use the blog to share what you are learning about your topic, its importance in the classroom, classroom tips, and additional resources one might use to explore the topic further. Everyone will need to contribute at least 5 entries to the blog by February 28.

N.B.: need to check this date with Dr. M

This task being delivered by: Tom Josephson, Chris Burnside, Rob Reynolds

Content 1(f): Millennials and technology in schools

Managing Millennials

The Ever Shifting Internet Population online article or http://www.pewinternet.org/index.asp - or one of the other articles dealing on internet/connectivity trends on this page.

Net Day - Students and Teachers Speak Up

Oblinger, D. Boomers, Gen-Xers and Millennials: Understanding the New Students. http://www.nationaledtechplan.org/resources.asp and other resources at this site.


Read and react below.


Friday, January 26, 2007

Content 1(e): Project Based Learning

Tom Josephson, Chris Burnside, Rob Reynolds, Alan Rabb

Clarification of title:
Project Based Learning, Problem Based Learning, and other names which sound about like this including constructivist learning. Focus on the general concept, not the specific name.

New Skills for a New Century -- Edutopia article

Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy site

Samford University site

George Lucas Educational Foundation

Gentlemen, divide and conquer: pick one to read and post your summary comments and reactions below. First come, first served...so post your intent to read first; react later.

Content 1(d): 21st Century Skills, Contemporary Literacy

Partnership for 21st Century Skills (see especially Prepare Students to Succeed in the 21st Century Learning for the 21st Century and MILE Guide)

Key Building Blocks for Student Achievement in the 21st Century CEO Forum's School Technology and Readiness Report, Year 4

enGauge 21stCentury Skills: Literacy in the Digital Age

Contemporary Literacy article

Read and react below.

Content 1(c): Posing Questions, Essential Questions

The Great Question Press

From Now On Educational Technology Journal

Asking better questions


Read and react below.

Brochure delivered by: Ciro Greco, Ted Jenkins, Suzanne Ketchum & Michael Tromblee

Content 1(b): Differentiated Instruction

Differentiated Learning – a hotlist of resources

Differentiated Instruction

How to Plan for Differentiated Instruction

CAST - National Center on Assessing the General Curriculum

Read and react below.

Delivered by Maggie, Jocelyn, Kaisha, & Alan

Content 1(a): Teaching ELL, ESL, Bilingual learners in a regular classroom

National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction

Everything ESL

Project MORE

English Spoken Here article, American School Board Journal

National Science Foundation Special Report on Language and Linguistics

Effective pedagogy, video clips

Read & react below.

Required reading 4

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills The leading advocacy organization infusing 21st century skills into education.

Read and react below.

Required reading 3

ISTE NETS (International Society for Technology Education, National Educational Technology Standards) standards and performance profiles for teachers and students. These are the standards everyone should be teaching towards.

Read and react with comments.

Required reading 2

National EdTech Plan Puts Students Front and Center.
Check out what the plan is saying. Please react with comments/summaries below.

Required Reading 1 (pick 1, ID it and share)

The Digital Disconnect OR Listening to Student Voices on Technology: Today's Tech-Savvy Students Are Stuck in Text-Dominated Schools

Pick a partner, one reads one article the other partner reads the other article, share findings. This will give everyone baseline information on what tech savvy students are seeing lacking in today's schools.

Who is doing what?

Let's have each group respond with who is responsible for each portion of the assignment:

Content Expert:

(a) Teaching ELL (English Language Learners), ESL (English as a Second Language), and/or Bilingual learners in a regular classroom. Denise, Janet and Roe did a brochure.

(b) Differentiated Instruction

(c) Posing Questions, Critical Thinking, Essential Questions. Suzanne Ketchum, Ciro Greco, Ted Jenkins & Mike Tromblee created a brochure.

(d) 21st Century Skills

(e) Project Based Learning : Tom Josephson, Chris Burnside, Rob Reynolds, Alan Rabb created the Blog.

(f) Millennials and technology in schools

Technical Expert:

(a) Project Manager and Blog initiator (required): Tom Josephson, Chris Burnside, Rob Reynolds, Alan Rabb. (all inclusive)

(b) Newsletter

(c) Brochure: ELLs (1a) & Essential questions (1c).

(d) PowerPoint

(e) Website (required)

Good Morning Classmates!

This Blog is designed to be the central repository for the assignment: 21st Century Classrooms: Teaching All Students - A Webquest.

Please note: a Blog is a chronological record of postings by the author (me) using a LIFO inventory model (Last In First Out). Each post may be responded to by anybody at any time. I suggest you sign up for a Google blogger ID when you post comments (anonymous postings are enabled, but don't forget to sign your name (5 post minimum per the grading rubric).

The next post will be a call to organization: Who's doing what?

The next several posts will recast the assignment in the context of this Blog so we may react to our universal and group reading assignments. The groups who need to deliver other artifacts (Newsletter, Brochure, Powerpoint & Website) will be able to draw from our individual reading summaries and reactions.

Call to arms! The earlier and more often we post here, the easier it will be for each of us to achieve our deliverables by gaining understanding from each other's newly aquired knowledge.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Let's get organized


'21st Century learning' is the focus of this collaborative effort. The image to the left was chosen to reflect the underlying theme of 'Diversity'. I've forwarded Dr. M the email addresses she requested. Our goals will become better focused after she forwards the assignment.

In the time being, I urge you to reply to this with any thoughts regarding the assignment or at the very least send out a 'hello world' message proving you've found this place.