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

Saturday Morning Tweets - Idea!

I have been spending most of this holiday weekend Saturday morning navigating through many of the Twitter members and lists of users. I had been able to make contact with several fellow science teachers across the US and am now following many lists. In time I do hope to be able to share some new tools and successful strategies that I will be using in the classroom.

I think my first project will be to incorporate student use of Web 2.0 tools into the annual National Parks Project which is the climax of our Geology Unit. In this project I ask the students to research and explore a US National Park of their own choosing, within several parameters. From there they are to apply many of the geologic concepts of plate movement, faulting, mountain building, volcanoes, weathering and erosion and so forth, to the actual natural geologic formation of their chosen park. The real assessment is to determine if the students can apply what they learned in class to a real world situation. My overall theme for the year is "How does this relate to the world around you?", and this project takes the knowledge of geologic processes and allows them to explain using a National Park as their subject. They have the most fun building 3-D models of their park or a specific feature of their park, such as Old Faithful, Half Dome, Grand Canyon, Delicate Arch and so forth. I use the USGS web site Tour of Park Geology as a starting point for the project.

I now have to give some thought as to how to use more Web 2.0 tools for them to use, such as presentation media, a blog site, Animoto videos, etc, as a way for them to share their info. I hope to find a way to attach the assignment sheet to this post so that I can share and hopefully get some feedback as well!