The onslaught of technology for education in the classroom the last few years has been impressive. Many see it as the answer to all things educational, while others fear it as the end of teaching as we know it. Today’s economy is riddled with funding shortages. School systems across the nation struggle to find ways [...]
For young people blogging represents a new way to not only write, but to create as well. With all the great information and media available on the web today, a blog is the perfect way for young people, to research, vet, and create a living project instead of just a 3 page book report or social studies report.
In today’s digital world, most young people have no fear of technology, the internet, browsers, or web sites. In fact, many times it is the adult that is challenged when learning new technology. In this regard, it is difficult for me to prescribe that a parent or teacher always learn the technology tool first and then teach it to the child.
Yesterday The Portland Project was covered in an article by Mashable entitled, The Case for Social Media in Schools. The conversation that is ensuing because of that article is really quite amazing.
Request your Twitter followers to tweet their locations. Students use atlases or world maps to find their location and measure and convert the distance mathematically. Students can then use Google Earth to find the actual distance.
In this lesson, students will research daily life, industries, and the political situation along the United States/Mexico border.
Oil spills have devastating consequences, both for the environment and for communities. In this lesson, students compare the Exxon Valdez spill with the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. They look at similarities and differences in the way it happened, how it was contained, and how long it took (or will take) to repair the damage.
A great Geography lesson using Google Earth and Twitter! Overview: Source Edublogs The main idea for this activity is to teach students geography using your Twitter network and Google Earth. Hopefully, your network is worldwide so the students can find a wider range of places. Objective: 1) To increase student’s knowledge of world geography [...]
One of the best things about social media is that it can spark the imagination or the passion of students. Assignments that require students to create media rich content can result in some amazing results. Here is a case in point. “Students were asked to become familiar with different types of advertising on the internet. [...]
We’ve received some great ideas on using social media in the classroom from some of the great folks that took our workshops in June. One of the homework assignments (for credit!) from the workshop required attendees to create two lesson ideas using social media in their area of expertise.