EdLab

Building Communities Through Social Networks

Summer’s up and we’re gearing up for the next school year! Over the summer, we had some great Twitter chats with educators about various topics, including: working with the pre-K audience, integrating math and the arts, and developing missions around the issue of sustainability. Discussions included a mix of museum educators, classroom teachers, community organizations-- within the US and beyond. Many of the discussions brought up the same questions: How do we tie standards to learning opportunities that afford the learner choice and freedom? How do we integrate digital media in meaningful ways that push students to be creative, take action, and broadcast their ideas?

As the EdLab community grows larger, we’d like to determine what kinds of support and interactions our community needs in order to maintain a dialogue about implementing mission-based learning and rooting curriculum in the real world. If you have 5 minutes, please take this quick survey on using social media within the EdLab community.

Andrea: Classroom 2.0 Final Update

Post written by Andrea, Classroom 2.0 participant.

 

Sabor! Project: Part 3

November, 2011

Wrapping Up

After doing their first draft presentations, students worked on editing these by looking at the feedback provided from peers on our online discussion platforms (Haiku and Edmodo). Then, they presented their final project using different new media platforms. Some used Prezi, some Haiku, some used Power Point, and others used Glogster.

The next step was to vote on the project they thought was most original, complete and well put together. The winner group chose one of the privileges they decided to include at the beginning of the project when they created the rubric.

 

Students presenting their solution to the Sabor! mission through Haiku, an educational social network.

Reflections

 This project has been a great experience for my students and myself. I believe they had as much fun as I did working on it. If fact, some mentioned it on our end of the quarter survey as their favorite activity so far! Not only did this project allow us to learn more about using technology in an instructional way, but also to expand our classroom walls and get into the community.

Some of the challenges faced during the implementation of this project were (amazing as it may sound to you) the lack of technological literacy in my teenage students and the fact that they haven’t been frequently exposed to this type of activities. It took me some time to help them relax, focus less on the final product and the grade, and enjoy creating and discovering.  Once they understood what I was expecting from them and the main goal of this project, they enjoyed it a lot.

In the future, I am planning to continue working with mission-based projects and technology, as I believe they provide my students with the much needed 21^st century skills.