What country has the best education in the World?

View this youtube video and make your own conclusion.

A new Valuable Bookmarking Tool: Scoop.it

I joined Scoop.it: with the Topic "Liberating Students' Learning With Web 2.0."

and joined other educators' Scoop.It resources on the topics of the 21st century learning and teaching. I recommend teachers to keep current with new technologies via this site!

Opening Classroom Doors to the World

I found the blog and a wiki site of the Epic Romeo and Juliet Project. It illustrates how a teacher, Nicholas Provenzano prepares his students for the global world and develops their 21st century skills. He a high school English teacher trying new and innovative ways to connect his students to the world and literature around them. He is always looking for fun projects to collaborate on with different teachers. In this project, he connected two classrooms from two U.S. states via blogging and a wiki site to collaborate on the design and the performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet play and share the process of staging it via his wiki site, his students' blogs, photos, and videos. Read what a student wrote about the end of the project in the final post Romeo and Juliet Essay. Visit the Nerdy Teacher blog yourself and read more stories about innovative teaching in the 21 century classroom.

21st Century Literacy. Alan Tofler

I love this quote of the famous futurist, Allan Tofler, who said:

TWW: Life Beyond the Lecture Blog and a New Professional Connection

As always during the school breaks I sign up for different webinars to learn new things about teaching with technology. This winter break I signed up for a seminar about Voicethread, a wonderful program that allows you creating interactive learning teaching events and staying connected with the learners. I have been using Voicethread for a long time for my online and F2F classes and for my global projects at IT4ALL, International Writing Exchange or Moodle for Teachers. I enjoy using it because it combines the innovative pedagogy and the tools of the 21st century learners through audio, video, and written responses.

I signed up for a webinar Integrating VoiceThread into Your Campus-Wide Teaching ToolKit on January 12th at 3:00PM EST. My computer crashed right at the moment I was about to join the webinar. I missed it. When I got back in, I immediately contacted the website in regards of the recordings. That's how I met Michelle Pacansky-Brock. We were e-mailing each other back and forth. Michelle recommended to visit the VT website and view the previous webinars and also share the link to her Blog, Teaching Without Walls: Life Beyond the Lecture (Resources, tips, best practices and more for innovations in college teaching and learning.). I viewed a couple of webinars and was amazed at how similar our views are about pedagogy and the use of technology in teaching. Michelle was s a full-time art history professor at Sierra College (she taught a Art Appreciation course!) from 2002 to 2009 and now she is a doctorate student specializing in teaching instructors how to build community online with social media; and she is a learning consultant for VoiceThread.

Here is one of my VT lessons. I created it for my Methods class on Collaborative Learning.

I also used VoiceThread for running a global CT Netcity Project with Israel, China and Russia in 2009. I am excited to learn more about the tips and tricks of using VT in teaching and may be inspire my colleagues at MSMC to add it to our Teaching ToolKits college-wide.

A New Moodle Book: Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion

I am in the process of reading and reviewing a new book about Moodle titled "Moodle 2.0 Course Conversion: Beginner's Guide. A Complete Guide to Successful Learning using Moodle 2.0." It is written by Ian Wild, and will be published by PacktPub.

I am interested what the author has to say to what hhad been already written by William Rice in his book "Moodle 1.9 Teaching Techniques." it sounds intriguing, and promising. The author promises to enlighten the educators how to convert their courses to the new upgraded Learning Management platform. To be continued!

Authentic Learning: Transformation Level (5-8) | Arizona K12 Center

Authentic Learning: Transformation Level (5-8) | Arizona K12 Center

A wonderful example of using technology in teaching Social Studies lesson about Race.

Impressive and powerful!