Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

This morning I attended a conference on education at Heritage High School in Littleton, Colorado. I went in my pajamas, and I didn't shower for the event either. In fact, I never left my bedroom. I guess I am still getter over this web conferencing thing. It was a great experience because I got to collaborate with educators and others from all over the country (CO, PA, VA, SC, etc.) and the world, with one person talking to us from Australia. I attended two sessions: Classroom 2.0, learning about, well, learning 2.0, and how we can use it effectively in the classroom, and How to Teach a Remix Generation, which dealt with how we can foster responsible learning in a time when anybody can take and edit information.

Classroom 2.0
What types of interactive, internet-based applications/tools are you using to positively impact student achievement?
I use an online quiz generator through the Indiana Department of Education website called High Achiever to better prepare my students for the End of Course Assessment. It works some, although it has its bugs. I also have my students use Geometer's Sketchpad to investigate geometric properties of topics learned in class. However I do not think this is enough for my students. How are they creating new things and sharing them to others in a way that fosters collaboration? I feel like I need to catch up myself on this 2.0 thing, as my knowledge of what is available. I want to create an environment where students can apply and share what they know in a way that is real and helpful, not just simulated, like webquests (as much as I like them, they are kinda artificial and too linear). I want to explore blogging and web-publishing as a way of sharing new information.



How to Teach a Remix Generation

What am I doing to promote healthy and responsible web practices while at the same time not restricting information sharing and remixing?
This session was interesting because there is so much information out their, but so much of it is reposted, remixed, and transformed into new information without the original poster knowing. Information nowadays is so transient and current that it is essential that people take it and update it. Wikipedia for example is a great and dangerous resource because it is so current yet anybody can update/change/delete/improve/vandalize the content. Copyright laws have not been able to keep up with the speed of change, and as a result, there has been an ever growing "grey area" as far as what is plagiarism, and what is taking and improving.


As far as what I am doing to promote this, not much at the moment. I think that giving students a chance to create their own original content will allow them to take ownership and responsibility for their creations. Seeing this, they can see how important it is to be responsible when taking others' creations. At the same time, they should take others' creations, use it, reflect on it, and make it better. This is what learning 2.0 is to me.


I have much more to reflect on. I am ver excited about the dialogue I had today with the people.