Sign me up for The Partnership for 21st Century Skills needed for students to be successful in life. There is a lot going on on the website. I was repeatedly drawn to the states that already have the partnership in place. I am wonder about the results of this program, not that I am a statistics kind of girl, but it would be interesting to take a look a the before and after effects. On the website I bookmarked several websites that I thought were useful. Kidsrgreen.org/krg.html was a great website that is kid friendly, but poses "Wicked" questions for the students to answer, such as Global Warming. I also found a website that teaches pretty much anything in online classroom setting for FREE! ICT is the company.
Honestly, not seeing California on the list of states that is participating surprised me, and not in a good way.
This partnership realizes the parmount importance of teaching our students technology, like other countries like Japan that subsidizes 98% of internet access in ALL household. Their High Schools have online learning. This is an example of one country.
The NCLB was mentioned several times on some UTube sites and it is obvious that there is not equal opportunity for all students. NCLB has a technology section mandating every student become technologically literate by the end of 8th grade. There is a law without the necessary tools, even with the tools there are so many variables that do not allow this to succeed, but closing the gap, is allowing all states access to programs like the Partnership in the 21st century. Thornburg and Dede supported the Partnership for 21st century. ( communication, thinking/reasoning, literacy) These are the keys to the future.
I did not disagree with anything on The Partnership for 21st Century Skills with my limited techonological experience, in fact, I love this site.
Schools need to change the focus of classrooms from book learning to a well balanced classroom of books and technology. Students must learn how to effectively work in a group that is not is not in the classroom with them. Groups should become world wide, since the government is creating a Cyber Infrastructure to work in a virtual setting around the world, that should be complete by 2020. Companies are already using technology to assist them. As described by Dede Technology Interface must be taught properly to students(World to desktop, virtual environment, and augmented reality)

How to use a blog in the classroom

Today I went surfing or blogging, which both sound like a lot of physical activity. The only activity involved was to let my fingers do the walking. I came up with some great ideas for a classroom blog. I teach history, so I thought that a current event news article about one of the civilizations that we studied, preferably the one we are "currently" studying would be great. I would have the students tie the article to our society, the past civilization and write any questions or comments about the article. The parents would be invited to respond to the article. A biweekly article would be a great way to bring history from the past into the present, not to mention getting parents involved in the learning. I would also have a requirement that each student must respond to a minimum of one student. Each student would be assigned a buddy.
Another way to use the blog would be to post a primary source and have the students analyze and respond to each other on the source. Again, parents are encouraged to participate. Students will learn how to create reponses and how to properly respond to others, share their ideas with the world, and use critical thinking skills.
When I was looking through other blog sites, I found a site that had 10 ways to use blogs in the classroom. I noticed that our new internet grading system called School Loop has already allowed a lot more communication, including assigning group discussions, class newsletter, post assignments. I have some studying to do with this new technology. The teachers were only trained for 1 hour prior to using School Loop, just like blog sites. I did see some rubrics for blogs, so the actual grading is not illusive, but I teach 187 students, and I wonder how do you efficiently check all blogs. I must admit this seems quite daunting.

Technology in the classroom

Is technology really set up for 1-12 grade classes? A technological revolution is occurring in our society and most schools are not keeping up with the new advancements. In fact, there are so many filters on websites that new technology cannot be implemented. There are many changes that must happen, in order to have technology based schools. What changes need to happen? A lot of training is needed for teachers and students. Teachers need to learn how to teach technology and include ethics into their curriculum. Districts need to provide access to computers for all students. My school district has a great grading program called School Loop. It is linked to the internet. This is a great tool that allows students and parents easy access to grades. The problem is with students who do not have a computer at their house. These are the students really need to check the grades, but are not able to utilize the advanced technology. Technology is only beneficial if you learn how to use and have easy access to the tool.