My 21st Century Learning Summary

Happy New Year Everyone!

Well, it is still Christmas vacation week and this morning I think I finished my Learning Summary for the course The 3Cs of 21st Century Teaching and Learning. As I looked back over the last three months and review all the different tools, web 2.0 sites, contacts, resources and blogging sites, I am amazed at how far I think I have come since the first day of class. If you remember my very first post I was very overwhelmed with all the different tools and sites...it was a new language for me and I was entering a world that I did not really realize had existed. Since then I have become more comfortable with many tools, such as Twitter, Edublogs, Blogger, Animoto, Xtranormal, Facebook, Google Reader and others. I have really gotten the hang of embedding code and video, making and editing posts, searching for resources, tweeting, and applying these tools for use in the classroom. In my own room I have begun much more comfortable with SmartBoard and now use it daily. I’ve been able to capture images and diagrams and then post them to the class web site. All my project worksheets and classroom notes and documents are available online for my students, and we even have a classroom Facebook Fan Page. So much in so little time, relatively speaking, and I am pleased with my progress.

I'd like to make a special mention of a fellow science teacher who has helped me a lot these past few weeks, Sean Mussleman in Reading, MA. He has truly motivated me to get motivated to learn more of the tools, and he has become a special part of my own PLN. Thanks, Sean!

Below is a video that I produced using Animoto which summarizes the learning experiences. My goal for the remainder of this school year is to continue to expand the use of these tools in my room, and also to encourage my students to work with them. For my Personal Learning Network I hope to be able to contribute more than I receive, and to become more active online in the sharing of information and work products. Overall, I would have to say that I feel much more confident and comfortable in this new world. And as the video below is entitled, let me extend a Welcome to the Future!

Welcome to the Future

Video 1: Kim Corfino - Going Global, Culture Shock, Convergence & the Future of Education

Kim Corfino Video

I just viewed the 39 minute Kim Corfino video Going Global: Culture Shock, Convergence and the Future of Education which was an interesting approach to the challenges and potential of 21st century learning. What made this particularly interesting to me was that I had spent a limited time in my career both visiting an Asian country and working in an Indian firm where I was exposed to much of the Indian culture. The clash of cultures in the working environment and the sensory overload of the experiences in Mumbai combined to make the overall effect quite educational. What the video brought back for me was the almost widespread awareness that my work colleagues had of global issues, events and cultures that I as an American did not have. I always considered myself well educated and well versed in global discussions, but I became acutely aware that it was through the filters of my own US perspective. It was a bit unnerving to feel somewhat less ‘educated’ when speaking with my peers.



This is to say that the Kim Corfino video enabled me to cross that threshold and look at the many opportunities for integrating the world around us into my own teaching activities. I use the essential question “How does this relate to the world around you” when discussing our course content, but now realize that I can truly make it relate by establishing virtual contacts around the world who live in the various climate regions, reside in the terrains we study in earth science, and conduct the exploration of space.


Establishing Personal Learning Networks through many of the tools with educators around the US and the world may open the door to new possibilities in the classroom. Using technology in the classroom to enable my own students to reach out to students around the world, sharing experiences, perspectives and viewpoints would certainly be an enhancement to their learning. Today I see my students studying the cultures of the Middle East, the Far East and Africa in their social studies classes. How much more motivating and relevant might it be if they actually communicated and collaborated on cultural activities and projects?


For my own personal interests, I am moving into a period in my life where the prospect of teaching in an International School certainly sounds like an interesting adventure. I have always had a passion for international travel, and had never really considered the International Schools as a possibility. But that may be the topic for a future post!

Latest from the Classroom

This week I experienced some milestones with the use of the classroom web site. Each week I have been posting the content, animations, images and videos of topics we have been covering. Several students had shared with me that they have used the web page at home to either catch up on work due to absence, get the latest assignment and even develop videos on their own which we then posted to the web page while in class. I even had a student show me the printed pages of the site that he used as a study guide for last week's chapter test. Slowly the web page is becoming integrated into everyday (and night) classwork, and it's great! Students on their own have been using Wordle, Animoto, Xtranormal and Slideshare to develop their own assignments. I am so excited that the investment of time is starting to show reward in the classroom, for the students and me!


Tomorrow I kick off the National Park Project through the use of another blog page National Park Project which will be another first.  I am excited by students having the capability to have access to all the tools, the research, rubrics and web sites available to them both at school and at home. The plan is to enable students to open, edit and save their research Word documents without the printing of reams of paper, and thus also being Green!

Animoto - A Video Intro to a Geology Project

This is my latest creation using the Animto tool - an introduction to the unit-ending National Parks Project for our Geology Unit.  The objective is for the students to apply all that they have learned about plate tectonics, mountain building, earthquakes, volcanoes, weathering and erosion to a National Park that they have researched.  I plan to introduce this project in mid-December, and also to have a more Web 2.0 feel to the project itself  for student work. I'll use this video to jump-start the creative juices!

I am hoping that I can encourage many of my students to use the tools like Animoto, SlideShare and Prezi to mover away from the basic PowerPoint and Poster Board presentations.  I do realize that not all will do so, but perhaps a few will.  And it'll be a learning curve for me as well as I'm navigating through the tools.  My first task is to create a site where the project details will be available, and then provide the resources for students to develop their own sites.