Two weeks ago at TCEA in Austin I had a great conversation with Rachael Tucker, who experienced this past fall the power of having her elementary class connected to a U.S. college student studying abroad for the semester in Guatemala. (The student happened to be her daughter.) Rachel pointed out that we need a “matching portal” which can connect K-12 classroom teachers and students with college students studying abroad for these types of sustained conversations about that country’s culture, history, people, geography, food, etc. As a former international exchange student myself (to New Zealand for a summer in 1987) I can personally attest to the value and power of international exchanges– and the desire you feel as someone who has had a positive international exchange experience to share it with others.
Vicki Davis’ post yesterday on TechLearning, “The Future Wave of School Volunteerism: Be the Textbook,” extends this idea of bringing in the experiences and perspectives of others outside the traditional walls of the classroom to corporate America. (And the corporate world in general.) Vicki shares a story of how her class, studying nanotechnology and not finding a lot about the topic in her school library or textbooks, invited a nanotechnology expert to dialog with her students via Skype. What a great instructional example of using disruptive technologies to engage students and enhance the learning environment! Go Vicki!
More teachers can and should follow Vicki’s lead. I agree we need to have portals for “matching” content sources like these (students studying abroad or corporate folks armed with webcams and skype) to facilitate these types of connections.
(Blogged from the Apple Store in OKC!)
Remember to follow Wesley Fryer on Twitter (@wfryer), Facebook and Google+. Also "like" Wesley's Facebook pages for "Speed of Creativity Learning" and his eBook, "Playing with Media." Don't miss Wesley's latest technology integration project, "Mapping Media to the Common Core / Curriculum."
On this day..
- Remembering the Importance of Creativity in a High Stakes Testing School Culture - 2013
- Options & Tips for Migrating a Posterous site to WordPress, Tumblr, or Posthaven - 2013
- Teacher Blog Controversy in Pennsylvania Points to Need for Social Media Guidelines - 2011
- Photo Geotagging Poses Privacy Risks, But Is NOT a Reason for Panic - 2011
- Will Race to the Top Hurt Kids and Make Charter School Entrepreneurs Rich? - 2010
- Tips to be a better blogger - 2010
- Attribution links in VoiceThreads - 2010
- Marco Torres Keynote: ITSC 2009 Portland - 2009
- Feedback via Gabcast, VoiceThread and Qik from ITSC 2009 - 2009
- Oklahoma Students: Modeling Digital Education and 1 to 1 Learning - 2008
















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