Thing 16

I watched the videos and agree that there need to be some changes in the way things are done in education. I am trying to become a more flexible teacher in that I am little by little giving my students options for alternative assessment. Next week I am moving out of my textbook and teaching the concepts from the chapter on collecting, displaying and analyzing data in the computer lab. My students will be collecting data in the next few days and will be utilizing spreadsheets to create various charts and graphs. They will be doing some internet research and for the first time in my 10 years of teaching I will be having my students turning in a paperless assignment. I did basically the same project last year in that the students made their graphs on the computer but then they glued them to posterboard and made mediocre visual displays with colored pencils and markers. Because we don't have the resources for all of the kids to print in color all their work was in black and white. I am hoping that by moving the final project from posterboard to powerpoint the students will get more out of it in the long run. I think the full implementation of Web 2.o in my school is something that will take some time but I see it in the not so distant future.