Two Minute Soapbox

The Two Minute Soapbox (or TMS) blog http://www.intelligenic.com/soapbox/ is a social podcasting experiment where educators post their advice, inspiration, ideas and point of view in a two minute posting that extends across the curriculum and around the world…all in small digestible two minute portions. :) Select a podcast that interests you to listen to and describe it in your posted comments on this blog. Did you or didn't you agree with the podcaster's opinion, advice or ideas?

What Are You Doing In That Computer Lab?

Read this article from Technology & Learning magazine http://techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604984 to find out about one teacher's experience with his class' successful and not so successful computer lab usage. Which of these techniques, strategies and projects do you think you could adapt to your classroom setting? Why do you think some of his less successful lessons didn't work? Do you think a lot of teachers would benefit from sharing similar experiences? How might they exchange this information?

A Vision of Students Today

View this You Tube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o

According to the videographer: "This is a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime." It was created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.

Do you think this typifies the college student of today? Are we, as educators, addressing their needs? What can we do to better address those needs and more effectively prepare them for the world they will face when they graduate?

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

View this video on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

It is described by the videographer as follows:

"This project was created to inspire teachers to use technology in engaging ways to help students develop higher level thinking skills. Equally important, it serves to motivate district level leaders to provide teachers with the tools and training to do so."

Do you think it has fulfilled its purpose? Why or why not?

As the World Learns...

Go to the Edutopia article link: http://www.edutopia.org/global-education-2008

Read the article's introduction and then select a link to one of the countries included in the survey. Describe the educational system in that country and compare it to our own.

Internet Safety Statistics

Click on the link and read these statistics about the need to protect kids online: http://www.netlingo.com/statistics.cfm Then click on the link to The Top 20 Internet Acronyms Every Parent Needs to Know at the bottom of the page. Did you know any of this? Are you surprised? What can we do in our classrooms to help keep our students safe when they're online?

Learn what a Wiki is with this Wiki Walk-Through from the TeachersFirst Website.

Learn about wikis and how to use them in your classroom at this site: http://teachersfirst.com/content/wiki/

Stretching with Wikis will show you some practical classroom applications.

Now read this online article from 21st Century Connections to learn how to S-T-R-E-T-C-H with Wikis: http://21centuryconnections.com/node/406

These are just a few ideas. Have you seen a wiki that really stretched the boundries? One that couldn't simply be replaced by any other web page. Or have you tried any of these ideas in your own classroom? If so, please share your experiences for making the most of this ingenious tool!