21st Century Learning & Technology


Happy New Year! I wish you all the best in 2013!

Wow! We had a great start of the year at school today. After the Christmas holidays we came back to a full PD day. At this time we were honored to have Pam Allyn, author of many books and director of LitWorld and LitLife.

My takeaway from today's sessions is:
  • How can the 21st century tools help bring out the best of each and every child?
  • Nowadays, everyone can get what they need from anybody. The challenge we face now is how to ask the right questions.
  • 21st century school can help empower the shyest and most fearful child.
  • Characteristics of 21st century learners: Connected, Collaborative, Critical Thinkers, Creative, Independent, Empathetic
  • A paradigm shift is focusing on technology-based genres of text. For example, write a long essay and a short essay in Twitter form.
  • The 21st century tools contribute to building empathy in the children. For example, in the community created in Facebook, in which people share and agree upon posts.
  • "To be a master of content you have to be a strong reader." ­—Pam Allyn
Pam stressed that these are transformational times and that technology plays an important role, however it's not about teaching the tool, which will most likely be replaced by another one quite soon, but rather it's about empowering the students to thrive as learners in the 21st century.

Finally, I'll share a list of websites and apps that promote reading. They are all really good. Enjoy!

We Give Books
News O Matic app
Icky Pen
Book Adventure
Storia app
Pebble Go
Storyline Online
Wonderopolis

Cheers!

Comments

  1. Marybell RodriguezJanuary 7, 2013 at 8:47 PM

    Diana, great PD day!!! Thank you for sharing those great reading sites.

    Marybell

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Discovering Add-ons & Scripts

Image
Hi! It's back-to-school time. I hope your school year is off to a good start. As for me, it's been a very busy season. I can tell you that, amongst many other events, two major situations take place each year at my school: Open House and New Google Apps accounts. What's so special about these two? They both require a great deal of prepping and tech assistance. For instance, during Open House, the Tech Integration Team takes advantage that all the parents are present to have them register for tech orientation sessions. A couple of years ago, we'd lay out long sheets of lined paper, one for each different session, with a limited amount of lines. In the next years, we decided to take it a step further and created a Google Form. We had laptops available during each of the Open House nights and asked parents to register electronically to a tech session. While parents were submitting forms, I'd be in the background, checking numbers against the capacity we had fo
Read more

Voice Feedback in Google Docs

Image
Hi! I was recently asked by a teacher how she could provide voice feedback in Google Docs. Sometimes, it's better to record your feedback, rather than writing a long note, and I'm pretty sure students would appreciate listening to their teacher's voice too! Here are some options I found. They all work for Google Docs. Some will mention if they work on Google Slides or Google Classroom too. Mote This is a Chrome extension. The basic plan has some limitations , but it's ok. Mote creates a link to the voice note in a comment box. For a better experience, the kids would also need to install that extension, that way they wouldn't be taken out of the Google doc to listen to the message and could play directly in the comments box. Works the same also in Google Slides and in Google Classroom. Read&Write This is another Chrome extension, which also has other cool features you might like. Again, to better experience this feedback option, it is recommended that the student
Read more

Hello World!

Hello World! This is how I started my first tweet some years ago and this is how I start my first public blog. I am trying to reach anyone out there that shares the same interests I have. The purpose of this blog is to share my experience as a technology trainer at an elementary school. I will be posting what has worked for me, any resources I recommend, and in general, the day to day experiences I go through in my daily life. Check back frequently and feel free to comment and share your experiences too. Let the learning begin!
Read more