Flat Classrooms

In the article:  A Web 2.0 Class:  Students Learn 21st Century Skills, Collaboration, and Digital Citizenship, there three different teachers at three different high schools in three different states conducting the exact same class.  Students go on-line and learn from one another in a virtual classroom setting.  The connect via Skype and their class blogs.  They have even had professionals from the field join them on Skype to teach them about various aspects of the digital world.

The learn about Web 2.0, personal network building and social media responsibility.  Students seem to have an understanding about how important this information will be for their futures.  Much like we do in INT 544, students blog about various topics with regard to technology - the follow one anothers' blogs and comment on the articles. They also create learning communities based on common interests.

Whether or not teachers choose to take on this big of a on-line project by fully conducting their class online with schools across the state, there are still opportunities to take note of through this article.  Using Skype and other online tools to introduce speakers and experts on various topics in your classroom can have a huge impact on learning.

I also felt the idea of teaching kids social responsibility and how to be smart digitally was very important.  The only thing that had me concerned that as a parent we don't allow our daughter to use some social media that other parents allow.  In one instance our daughter was encouraged by her teacher to open a "glogster" account.  We did not want our daughter to be interacting with strangers on-line through this forum and we were not given the option to disallow it.  If we were to have students online I think it would be imperative to have the parents permission and explain to the parents why we as educators felt that the experience was beneficial for the students.  I still can find no real redeeming quality in Glogster.

Marcinek, A. (10/11/2010). A Web 2.0 Class:  Students Learn 21st Century Skills, Collaboration, and Digital Citizenship. Edutopia. Retrieved from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/web-20-21st-century-skills-collaboration-digital-citizenship