I just had an amazing Google Talk conversation with an incredibly insightful educator (who happens to know a thing or two about technology issues). We were discussing successes within the school and we got to talking about student laptop use, and how this was still a work in progress.

The observations were that students tended to be distracted with the laptops and were succumbing to temptations, but they were no more distracted than they would have been without the laptops.

What we realized was that teachers - although improving rapidly with their use of technology for instruction - were still not well versed in the capabilities of technology in monitoring students’ online reading and writing.

In other words, whenever students open the laptops there should always be a mode of assessment for the teacher - the same as in any good lesson.

How will the teacher know how much the students have done (quantity), and the depth and accuracy of the students’ thinking (quality)?

This is where a well-planned writing lesson will involve the ongoing use of gmail, Google Docs, blogs or wikis as evidence of student input. This might be in the form of a short or extended prose response or the completion of a graphic organizer (and Bubbl.us is great for this). Alternatively, students might be using an online application such as mathscore.com, which will provide automatic feedback to both students and teacher. Either way, students should be held accountable for laptop usage, in the same way that their work with pen and paper should be monitored.

It’s important though, to have an easy method of collection of student work, even if you have a system of sampling so that you’re not necessarily looking at everyone’s work every day. Then you need to let ALL of the students know that you are watching and that you care about their work.

This all comes down to increased knowledge of the capabilities of the technology, improved lesson planning, and most importantly FOLLOW UP.

As for the reading or web browsing, some might wonder how this can be monitored. There are many ways. Responses to reading can be demanded in the same forum as the writing lessons just mentioned, or teachers can be a little more imaginative and progressive.

Diigo is an application that allows you to leave a trail of notes on web sites that you have visited. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s definitely worth exploring as teachers’ confidence grows. We haven’t even scratched the surface yet with tags, social bookmarking and RSS, but we’ll get there.

The bottom line is that we must know not only what our students are doing, but also be aware of the quality of their work. Ideally, we will have structures in place to give valuable feedback to students, as noone wants to work if what they produce isn’t appreciated or noticed.

This should not be perceived as a criticism of the teachers as they have done an amazing job embracing the use of technology and managing their own learning. The Google Talk conversation just helped to clarify my thinking about necessary next steps.

It’s so great working for a school that has teachers who think constantly about ways that we can improve.

I’m really looking forward to attending and presenting at the EduCon 2.0 conference.

Isn’t it great that we have people prepared to put in the massive amount of work to organize such events.

I’ll be talking about the power of networking within the context of CIS 339, and how this Bronx middle school is emerging as a result of online teamwork.

The reflective quality of blogs surely makes them ideal for reflections (and feedback and evaluation) at the end of a professional development session. In a weird sort of way, the blog provides the perfect thinking cap.

On the one hand, the blogger gets the opportunity of being reflective and introspective, or letting some creative thoughts run wild. On the other hand, the facilitator of the PD gains some sense of the level of impact that the PD might have had.

As teachers, we rarely do such writing - except maybe on a PD feedback form, which doesn’t have the same depth or direction as a blog.

This takes some effort, as most us aren’t used to spilling our thoughts via keyboard. The cumulative product at the end of a year though, should be something to behold. Gradually, our writing flow should loosen up, maybe lighten up, and in the end it will add up - to a great record of our growth as an educator.

Surely one of the best sites on the web is http://educationalsoftware.wikispaces.com/. It is not only informative, but also put together simply and attractively. It sets a benchmark for others to try to emulate!

With all of these new avatars coming out (including the Make your Own Simpsons character above), it makes one wonder just how far we’ll be able to go with creating alter egos online.
The soaring popularity of Second Life lends credit to the notion that students could one day be creating their own characters or own worlds to demonstrate understanding of ‘real life’ problems.
It’s only fun and games at the moment, but so were blogs and social networking spaces not so long ago.

If you’re looking for great educational blogs that are worth subscribing to, just check out the finalists for the 2007 Edublog Awards.

Subscribe to your favorites using an RSS feed, and you’ll keep up to date with some great work being done around the globe.

Imagine the fun that students could have ‘visualizing’ their character before planning a plot, or just practicing empathizing with a character’s situation and motivation.
Meez allows students to create an animation of their character, enabling selection of backgrounds, clothing, physical appearance and actions.

You can have a bit of fun, plus lead into some good discussions about learning styles and group skills.
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