Living and Learning in Central Oregon

Yesterday I worked with some high school teachers who are creating on line classes for the Oregon Virtual School District. They are using moodle to build their classes. The temptation was to dive right in and teach moodle but instead I took some time to discuss the revised Bloom’s taxonomy and 21st Century skills and how their online classes should not just become online worksheets.

Then today I came upon H.S.I. – Historical Scene Investigations. What a unique method of capitalizing on a popular TV theme while having students use some of those revised Bloom’s skills. Thanks to Kevin Jarrett for twittering this site.

From eSchool News a collection of science videos from actual scientists.  At first glance the videos seemed to stream smoothly with little lag time.  The topics are beyond my science capacity but I did find this one on where water goes when it rains:

http://www.scivee.tv/node/4177

This question was recently asked to some middle school students in the area by our local newspaper.  They printed the responses of six of the students and ALL of them said they accessed some sort of internet/web resource to keep up on current events.  Google, YouTube, email, and MySpace were just some of the sources of information they used to keep up on the headlines. 

 Question – as teachers are we using these resources to keep current?  Are we using them to communicate and teach?

I saw this video awhile ago but my wife brought it to my attention again. It was shown at her district’s first day back event. If it caught my wife’s attention then I knew I should share it with others. She is normally unimpressed with technology. But the video is more than technology. It is new way of teaching, thinking, communicating. Some teachers are not going to be comfortable with the message. It means changing old ways and modifying standard operating practices. Change can be scary. What do you think?

Download Video: Posted at TeacherTube.com.

Check out this page that maps the world based on categories such as wealth, alcohol consumption, housing prices and more. What kind of class discussion could this spark?
How the world really shapes up | the Daily Mail

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