Tech. Tuesday- Jan. 10

A Case for Course Management Tools
As I skimmed over the November issue of the newsletter from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), I noted the results of a survey they had conducted regarding online class management tools. Specifically, the survey asked members which of the tools they used for their classes. Better than 50% of the respondents indicated that they used Moodle. The others used the following (in order of frequency of response):
*Blackboard
*the school website
*Google Apps
*Schoolology
*Blackbaud
*EDU20
*Edline
*netClassroom
*Whipple Hill (Podium)
*Sharepoint

Obviously, the responses show that schools have found a good number of ways to meet the same need. The common denominator, however, is the recognition that there was truly a need. Some concerned teachers, however, have expressed worry that providing too much to students via these online management tools will ultimately perpetuate some of the irresponsible trends that some of us have seen in students. Jill Brown, Director of Educational Technology at the Albuquerque Academy, has an interesting perspective on this. In the ISTE Newsletter, she was quoted as stating, "I sometimes hear the argument that it is important for students to become responsible for writing down their homework, so we are enabling them if we post it online. What matters then, is what you believe to be the main purpose of homework. If it is to have the students learn the content important to your discipline, then it is clear, providing students with every opportunity to be successful with the content is most important." She also goes on to suggest that, while the initial time spent learning, preparing and uploading to a course management system may be time consuming, the teacher actually saves time in the end when he/she, "can spend their time communicating with students about higher level learning topics rather than spending precious face-to-face time following up and reminding them about the rudimentary details of an assignment."

I am not sure how strong this arguement really is, but it is food for thought...



Shifting Gears
MindShift, one of my favorite blogs, featured an article recently that caught my attention. Apparently, a school district in Ohio has employed the concept of role reversal with regards to technology training. They have piloted a program called eKids. The eKids are a self-selected group of students with specific interests in technology. Their task is to chose the technology to specialize in, study it, and then to provide classroom support in that technology (as a student consultant) and/or teach the teachers how to use it. These students earn high school credit for participating by working on a project-based curriculum while they are mastering their chosen skill.

It is an interesting concept and one that could potentially be modified to fit our needs. Does anyone else see merit here? Here is the link to the article if you would like to know more:
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/12/rewards-of-role-reversal-teachers-...