Techno Constructivism

The Massachusetts Computer Using Educator’s Organization, held its annual Leadership Symposium at the College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA.  Charles Fadel, co-author of “21st Century Skills–Learning for Life in our Times”, author of various articles and Global Lead for Education at Cisco Systems, presented a keynote address that focused on the premise that “technology is an enabler not a panacea”.  He believes that technology is ”pre-eminent mechanism to profoundly improve the human condition”.  For me this translates into understanding that we as educators so often teach in isolation and lack the time to plan and develop lessons that will advance our students in the global world.  Web 2.0 tools offer educators with the forum to discuss and shape their teaching practice.  This conference was a great way for tech leaders to showcase the improvements that technology offers the education space. 

A few great offerings to explore on your own are:

http://www.ted.com/: TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year’s TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize

www.jingproject.com

Virtual Learning Enviornments using www.wikispaces.com and www.weebly.com maybe www.wiggio.com or other VLE spaces out there!

http://mathtrain.tv/ a free educational “kids teaching kids” project from Mr. Marcos & his students at Lincoln Middle School in Santa Monica, CA

http://www.epals.com/ connect to other classrooms globally…become pen pals using the internet!

www.startaconversation.wikispaces.com This space has been created by Joanne MacDonald and Susan Skeiber to continue conversations about teaching and learning in th ever evolving digital age!