Portal

This is a website with a collection of podcasts. I have seen several episodes of one of the podcasts- "Driving Questions in Education" which is about technology integration in education.

Edu 2.0 is located at www.edu20.org

Edu 2.0 is a unique site founded in 2006 by Graham Glass. It is a free online service where you can host an entire class, enroll in public classes, share resources or have a dialogue in an online community.

How was the technology integrated into the assessment environment?

Edu 2.0 is a simplified version of Moodle, Blackboard, etc. It is completely web-based. An educator can privately enroll students and then host a diverse group of assessment tools including quizzes, wiki's, blogs, forums, chats, debates, and feeds. A gradebook, calendar and other tools are also available.

-What method (observation, selected response, written response, personal communication, performance, student reflection) of assessments were implemented using the technology? (Questions, see Stuart chapter ?)

Most, if not all, of these assessments could be implemented using this technology.

Was this a technology that replaced a current method of assessment or does it provide assessment opportunities previously not available without the advent of this technology. (For an in depth discussion of this, refer to the NAP article)

This technology could potentially replace move many traditional assessments online which would save an enormous amount of time for educators.

In your opinion, what were some of the benefits of the tool?

The benefits of this technology are numerous, but among other things it's free! It is also very easy to learn and use, I created a mock class in about 5 minutes. The other incredible part of Edu 2.0 is sharing resources, any lesson you submit is archived and usable by the other thousands of educators on the site. What an incredible way to create an online community of professionals sharing work?

In your opinion, what are the limitations of the tool?

So far I haven't found many. The quiz generator takes a while to write a quiz, but the payback for the educator is in the grading time. I also noticed that I can't "preview" the actual pages that students would be using. For example the only way that I've found to preview a quiz that I've written is to create a fake name and enroll in my own class. Anyone who has given written directions to a teenager knows that the format in which they're delivered is very important. I'm not so sure how easy it would be for a traditional classroom student to adjust to a complete online class.

Do you see this as a tool that could be used in your educational setting?

I've got plans to use it next year, assuming that there is sufficient hardware in the classroom, the school, and the home to give students equitable access to their schoolwork.

Where did you learn about the tool (formal evaluation reports, vender case studies, etc.)?

I learned about the tool from our school's technology PLC group.

This is a weekly list of interesting web sites and services compiled by "Internet Librarian" Marylaine Block, an Internet trainer and speaker. Good synopsis of sites, and regularly updated with archives available as well.

Mission Statement
To bring 21st Century Skills to every child in America by serving as a catalyst for change in teaching, learning, and assessment and as an advocate among education policy makers through a unique partnership among education, business, and government leaders.

TWENTY FIRST CENTURY CHILDREN
Every child in American needs 21st century knowledge and skills to succeed as effective citizens, workers and leaders in the 21st century.

There is a profound gap between the knowledge and skills most students learn in school and the knowledge and skills they need in typical 21st century communities and workplaces.

To successfully face rigorous higher education coursework, career challenges and a globally competitive workforce, U.S. schools must align classroom environments with real world environments by infusing 21st century skills.

This skills set includes:

• Information and communication skills (information and media literacy skills; communication skills)
• Thinking and problem-solving (critical thinking and systems thinking; problem identification, formulation and solution; creativity and intellectual curiosity)
• Interpersonal and self-direction skills (interpersonal and collaborative skills; self-direction; accountability and adaptability; social responsibility)
• Global awareness
• Financial, economic and business literacy, and developing entrepreneurial skills to enhance workplace productivity and career options
• Civic literacy

This is a web site that allows teams to create and develop projects that involve change within an organization. Registration is free but you must request a user id and password from IBM.

An online portal for administrators concerning implementation of information technology. You need to register as a user first to access all their materials but registration is free. This site includes Forum Discussions of Hot topics and A Resource Database that contains over 500 carefully selected and annotated resources to help you find quality educational technology resources in a hurry.

Dr. Hotlist is a guide to online educational resources and a feature of District Administration: The Magazine for K-12 Education Leaders.

The educational links to standards, curriculum, schools, etc. and the discussions of emerging technologies, make this site a helpful one-stop resource for anyone who must find resources for others as well as stay on top of new developments.

District Administration magazine is an excellent online publication for education. There are so many online educational journals available for free that we can (almost) replace the rack of education magazines in the teachers' room (haven't they been collecting dust anyway?). 

"The Internet Public Library (IPL) is a public service organization and learning/teaching environment at the University of Michigan School of Information. We will engage in activities in the following areas:

SERVE

Provide library services to Internet users. Activities include: finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing, describing, and creating information resources; and direct assistance to individuals.

TEACH

Use a learn-by-doing approach to train information professionals and students to work in an increasingly digital environment.

BUILD

Develop technology and best practices for providing library services via the Internet, including digital reference service and collection management.

LEARN

Conduct research aimed at improving our services and increasing the body of knowledge about digital libraries and librarianship.

SHARE

Promote our services. Share what we've learned with the professional community. Participate in efforts to create and promote relevant standards. Disseminate technology and practices to others. Develop relationships with organizations pursuing similar goals. Provide leadership in these activities.

GROW

Develop a model and plan for long-term sustainability and growth for our organization and services.

We approach the above activities via the values and principles of the profession of librarianship. "

Filamentality is a fill-in-the-blank tool that guides you through picking a topic, searching the Internet, gathering good Internet links, and turning them into online learning activities. Support is built-in along the way through Mentality Tips. In the end, you'll create a web-based activity you can share with others even if you don't know anything about HTML or serving web pages.Blue Web'n, the main site, also gives you a searchable database for web sites and lessons across all grade levels and disciplines.

* Note: Use the navigation bar on the left side of the screen.

Topic: Professional Development / technology / all content areas

Intended Purpose: The purpose off the NECC Website is to house all details leading up to, during, and following the annual National Education Computing Website.

(but…. WAIT…. There is much HERE for those who are not able to attend the website)

(see below)

Intended Audience: Any educator interested in technology and learning

Justification: Three ways I found this website valuable were

1. Generating ideas about tech integration for educators (even if they can’t attend)
2. Access to handouts of workshops I wish I could have attended
3. Reading blogs and listening to podcast of sessions I wish I could have attended)

I was trying to convince our literacy coach to attend NECC to get more ideas about how technology integration could help with our READING initiative. She searched through the sessions offered using the sites convenient SEARCH features and soon became interested in the conference. Turns out that family matters prevented her from attending, but she got so excited about some of the ideas she saw presented that she signed up for my summer course in hopes of further exploring some of the ideas she was introduced to, simply by browsing the session titles and description.

In the FLAT world, you can experience many of the value of visiting a remote location without ever leaving your living room. NOW, I’m not saying it is the same… BUT for those who cannot attend NECC (or for those who can attend, but can’t attend all the wonderful sessions that caught your eye), the NECC Site offers a wealth of resources and ideas for educators about how to use technology in the classroom. Last year I was not able to attend NECC in Philadelphia, but I still found great ideas and resources when I browsed the workshop handouts, and presenter website, after the conference. How many times have you picked up an extra handout for a colleague. Go ahead and try it

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2005/program/highlights.php#handouts

(Follow the directions to get a list of all the workshops that have handouts. Click on the workshops title and you will see the handouts listed for your perusing).

Finally, for those of you who got excited just checking out NECC, but can’t attend,
Web 2.0 tools (RSS, Blogging, Podcasting) give you some of the benefits offered by this incredible event from your living room. First let’s start by previewing all the lengthy list of educators who will be blogging and podcasting part of the event.

http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2006/glance/blogging_podcasting.php

The buzz around the NECC official and official bloggers is for all to use the tags NECC and NECC06 so that one can easily aggregate all related info using technologies such as Technocrati.. http://technorati.com/tag/necc

As a matter of fact, all these emerging technologies are breeding new technologies such as Hitchikr. In changing times, we need to raise our heads out of the water every once in a while, take a drink of kool-aid, network, learn, and energize. Yet, we can't always make it to the conferences we need to attend to mix with the people we need to see -- face-to-face. This is why Hitchhikr was invented, to provide you with a virtual space where, thanks to blogs, podcasts, and RSS, we can connect, share, respond, and grow knowledge out beyond the place and time of the event. Here are some tutorials on how to tap into the emerging technologies that make Hitchhikr possible: http://hitchhikr.com/