Blogging 2.0

This last summer, I had the pleasure of taking a class on the history and people of Appalachia. This class required a great deal of exploration of the area, all of which needed to be journaled about and shared with the class.

This afforded me the opportunity to employ some of the Web 2.0 skills I had acquired over the course of my master's program in the creation of a blog.

A blog is a wonderful tool for use within the classroom because of its very nature: it is interactive and modifiable to fit any format or need.

Here is the blog that I created for my summer class - I hope it serves as a good example of just one of the many possibilities available to you when creating a blog site!

Web Quest 2.0

WebQuests are a perfect way for teachers to replace direct instruction with student-led activities. As Mark Twain once said, “If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.” That's the idea behind WebQuests; if students jump into the driver's seat and navigate their own way through a set of activities, they will take away far more knowledge from the experience than if they had instead been asked to sit passively by while the teacher delivers a lecture and they take notes.

Video 2.0

Videos are a terrific way to provide direct instruction by proxy. Let's face it - students would much rather watch a video about a topic than listen to their teacher lecture on that same topic. 

Videos, by their very nature will address the varied learning styles of our students along with providing a layered, multi-dimensional view of any given concept or topic.

Pathfinder 2.0

Pathfinders provide a great way for teachers (in any subject area) to introduce students to a new topic, and to guide students through the process of researching that topic more deeply by providing reliable sources for them to explore.

Jeopardy 2.0

Non-linear PowerPoint presentations are a fairly easy way to create interactive stories, multiple choice quizzes, and games. In my own classroom, I have used this tool primarily to create Jeopardy games which make wonderful reviews and even informal assessments. 

PowerPoint 2.0

Using PowerPoint to Guide Classroom Discussion

PowerPoint has been used for many years to create colorful multimedia presentations for the classroom. As a student, my biggest complaint with my professors who used PowerPoint presentations regularly was the fact that so many of them simply transferred their lecture to slides and read them aloud as we took notes. This was not only boring, but an ineffective use of such a terrific tool.

Emerging Technologies 2.0

Worlds of Words: The Exploration of Literature and Language through Technology

Emerging Classroom Technologies

The traditional approach to teaching, including lecture-based instruction, is giving way to more active approaches to teaching as new technologies make increasingly individualized instruction possible. New research highlights the efficacy of a curriculum that is designed around activities that engage students on multiple levels and in varied ways. This is known as a knowledge-building approach to instruction that changes the role of the teacher to that of facilitator, and according to Dr. Lightfoot of the University of Northern Colorado, modifies “the structure [of] the class so that students are allowed to actively discover the knowledge and be direct participants in the learning process,” (213) thus placing them in the driver’s seat of their own instruction.