My vision of what the world will be like in the year 2020 is more environmentally aware and globally competitive for 21st Century jobs. Education needs to rapidly change to prepare our students for this ever-changing world. Students will be required to be innovative, creative, and life-long learners to compete. Changes in education will be drastic over time, however I do not believe the traditional brick and mortar schools will become extinct. Online education will increase dramatically to provide opportunities for credit recovery, supplemental instruction, remediation, enrichment, and virtual classes to increase schools’ course offerings.  Technology will be in the forefront of education and all students will have handheld technology devices at their fingertips to access information and to be global collaborators.

School districts will have Learning Management Systems and Content Management Systems, which will provide an environment to run paperless classes and allow virtual classes to run parallel with traditional brick and mortar classes. Web 2.0 technologies will develop into tools used specifically for education. Web 2.0 providers will develop closed educational networks, which are developed to increase global communication in Safe Internet environments, and these web 2.o technologies will seamlessly work together to allow students to create and produce multimedia rich projects.  I believe the technology glitches we experience now will subside and school districts will not have to run and maintain their own network servers. Technology services will be out-sourced for cheaper costs and major companies like Apple, Dell, and CDW-G will provide school districts with lease options to maintain and update technology at a reasonable budget.

Several major changes will occur in education regarding the traditional brick and mortar schools. One change is the reduction of courses offered in brick and mortar schools. Classes with low enrollment will be taught as online courses, which will increase the amount of elective courses offered by teachers. Global languages, such as Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and Japanese, will be offered in all schools through virtual classrooms using software like Wimba and Elluminate. Advanced courses in engineering, medical professions, and computer science will be available for our students to focus their educational careers. Students will be goal oriented and make career decisions before graduating high school.

Educators will change their philosophies and teaching strategies by transforming their profession to model a constructivist theory of teaching and learning and incorporate authentic instruction. What is Authentic Instruction? According to Dr. Fred Newmann, there are four standards of Authentic Instruction, which directly correlate with skills required for the 21st Century workplace. The standards are higher order thinking, depth of knowledge, substantive conversation, and connectedness to the world. The 21st Century workplace demands for critical thinking and problem-solving is addressed within the first and second standards of Authentic Instruction. The first standard, which is “Higher Order Thinking”, requires students to interpret data, evaluate accuracy and synthesize information. The second standard, which is “Depth of Knowledge”, requires students to make relationships among ideas and identify key concepts, differentiate between superficial and in-depth understanding and then apply the understanding. The 21st Century workplace also demands for teamwork and communication skills, which are strengthened with “Substantive Conversation”, which is the third standard of authentic instruction. Substantive conversation requires students to elaborate and clarify their ideas as well as communicate learning from one another. The fourth standard of authentic instruction, “Connectedness to the World”, requires students to question the meaning beyond school and increases student interest and engagement. I feel this standard is the driving force for authentic instruction.

By infusing authentic instruction and higher order technology into teaching, student achievement and engagement will increase. In order to best prepare our students for 21st Century expectations, educators must use authentic teaching. Authentic instruction is effective because it requires high-level cognitive performance and it results in products that are applicable and relevant to students’ lives. Authentic Instruction eliminates the traditional didactic approach to teaching, thereby increasing student engagement, which results in increased student achievement. Authentic instruction implements critical thinking, reasoning, teamwork, technology skills and real-world applications as critical components to preparing students for the 21st Century workplace. Today’s students are digital natives, who have the ability to multi-task. Students are enthused with opportunities to engage in a classroom environment that integrates technology, collaboration, and “thinking outside-the-box!” They actually have the opportunity to take ownership of their learning and have a voice in a student-driven classroom where the teacher facilitates the learning process. Students learn best by doing and authentic, performance-based tasks require students to be engaged and active participants in the learning process. Authentic instruction motivates students to invest in hard work, which directly results in increased student achievement. According to Dr. Newmann’s research findings, students learn using the Authentic Instruction model, because they are taught to organize and work with knowledge, to gain an in-depth complex understanding of information and use it for extended communication, and to connect social and personal meaning to others and society beyond complying with teachers’ demands.

There are many types of technology tools and applications that will lead to higher order thinking and depth of knowledge inside and outside the classroom.  Web applications educators will introduce and apply to students’ learning include the building of wikis, podcasting, creating RSS feeds to collect information, vodcasting, social bookmarking, and new communication applications such as Skype.  Educators and students need to analyze and research technology in order to see how each could be brought into the classroom to best serve students and their needs for higher order thinking and depth of knowledge. In the 21st Century workplace, performance is measured by the quality of work produced, communication skills, and the ability to work collaboratively. Today’s workplace demands for teamwork, communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking. In order to best prepare our students for those expectations, we educators must use authentic teaching. Authentic instruction and assessment are effective because it requires high-level cognitive performance and it results in products that are applicable and relevant to students’ lives. Students learn best by doing and authentic, performance-based tasks require students to be engaged and active participants in the learning process. Authentic instruction and assessment motivates students to invest in hard work, which directly results in increased student achievement. According to Newman’s research findings, students learn using the Authentic Instruction model, because they are taught to organize and work with knowledge, to gain an in-depth complex understanding of information and use it for extended communication, and to connect social and personal meaning to others and society beyond complying with teachers’ demands.

In summary, education is and will undergo major revisions and reform by the year 2020. The technology made available to all educators and students will empower students with information at their fingertips and endless opportunities to drive their own learning experiences. Education needs to drastically change to provide students with the opportunities to communicate globally and learn relevant skills that will have value in 2020. Authentic Instruction seems to be a great model to transform education into what it needs to be by the year 2020 and web technologies must be implemented to provide students with the platform to be effective global communicators and contributors.

Google Docs is a forum that allows you to create online collaborative documents. You can upload documents, spreadsheets, and/or presentations you already have saved on your computer or create brand new ones using the Google Docs format. Once a document is created, it is saved in the Google system, making it accessible from any computer with Internet access.

Who can use Google Docs?

Anyone can use Google Docs…the program is FREE to anyone with a FREE Google account. Once you create a document you can invite your students as collaborators and 200 viewers.

Why Google Docs?

Google Docs is great for a number of reasons. First, the documents you create are open to collaboration with the edits and revisions showing up in real time…there can be up to approximately 30 people logged in to a document making concurrent revisions that you can see on your computer screen.  Second, the document is saved online so anyone with Internet access that you invite can see the document. Also, since it’s saved online, you can begin a document at any computer with Internet access and continue working on it on another computer.  Finally, Google Docs allows you to save your work as Word or Excel documents once they’re finished. If you do not have Microsoft Office software on your home computer, you can write your assignments using Google Docs. If you have a website or wiki, you can publish your documents online. The possibilities are endless!

Uses In Science:
•Create a Data base for class experiments
•Science log such measuring the growth
•Collection and analysis of lab data
•Charting weather from home and comparing it with other students/locations…district or even worldwide
•Track heart rate or breathing rate data
•Compare and contrast the planets

Uses In Math:
•Balancing a budget or check book as a class or small group
•Organize information when working on a stock-market project
•Creating and testing mathematical formulas
•Create statistics for groups of students and allow them to manipulate and show different charts/graphs/and other statistics.

Uses In Language Arts:
•Vocabulary word lists
•Brainstorming Ideas
•Parts of speech writing – Each student enters words for a verb, noun, adjective etc. and they are scrambled for creating silly sentences

Other Educational Uses:
•Sign up sheets
•Schedules
•Inventories
•Grade books
•Judging an event
•Sports stats
•Progress Monitoring Scores – special education and regular education teachers can both test students and share their results and graph.

Educators can measure learning in a paperless class through participation, formative, and summative assessments. Grading students’ work in a “paperless” class would be accomplished by using scoring rubrics, which can be posted online (attached to the assessment). Scoring rubrics provide guidelines for students to know exactly what is expected from them and outlines what a student needs to earn an advanced score, which is favorable to our goal-oriented students. A paperless space, like a Learning Management System (LMS), would make it easier to build a learning network by organizing course materials, providing a place to store student portfolios, and providing integrated collaborative tools like wikis and discussion boards. In summary, I believe education is moving toward this mode of delivery. Once the technology is established, a paperless classroom is not only cost-effective and environmentally friendly, it builds an online collaborative environment, which is essential to 21st Century teaching and learning.

I plan to use technology to facilitate this “Open Shift” in the classroom by continuing to learn how to effectively use and implement Web 2.0 tools into curricula. I will continue to help my teachers modify traditional learning assignments by integrating wikis, blogs, RSS Feeds, podcasts, and a Learning Management System that assess students’ level of higher order thinking and depth of knowledge. These Web 2.0 technologies help students create, communicate globally, and learn more effectively.

Comparison of Cyber Charter Tuition vs. Public Schools’ Online Alternative
Cost is a huge issue when discussing the effect of cyber charter schools on public school districts. Cyber schools advertise their tuition is FREE, however they are charging school districts thousands of dollars per student without the obligation to report student progress back to the home district. The cost of adding a student to our virtual academy program at Brandywine Heights is less than $3,000 per student.  The actual cost of adding a student to a cyber charter school is much less since their fixed costs are spread over the thousands of their enrolled students.  Yet by law, the state formula requires school districts to pay $10,000 per regular education student and twice that for students with disabilities (IEPs).  Where is the difference going?  The answer is into the pockets of these for-profit cyber charter schools.  Mathematically, these schools make a 200% or more profit on each student.  In essence, the taxpayers of the state are being financially exploited with the aid of our legislature. Although I have no objection to cyber charter schools operating, I do object to the way they are funded.  The tuition paid by public schools to the cyber charters should be based on their actual operating costs with a reasonable profit. Also, if a school district offers an online program, they should not be required to pay tuition to the cyber charter; instead students should have to attend their district’s virtual academy. The worst fact about Pennsylvania’s Cyber Charter schools is that 10 out of the 11 failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) last year…where is the accountability?

My questions for you as educators:
1.    What do you feel about Cyber Charter Schools and online education?
2.    How has advertised cyber charter schools affected your school district? Does your school district provide an online program as an alternative?
3.    How will online education affect our current educational system provided in “brick and mortar” schools?

According to my group members’ wiki who supports connectivism, Group FOR Connectivism, “Connectivism requires individuals to create networks, with which they will share, seek, and alter new information. The same networks also allow individuals to be life long learners, who no longer just ‘consume’ information. Learners are now a part of the knowledge ‘creation’ process.” I agree with their insightful analysis. Learning the skill to network as a communication skill and to learn new knowledge is essential for students in this century.

Using Skype for Communication and Collaboration
My experiences with using Skype to connect with other technology integration coaches have been extremely beneficial and productive.  I have used Skype to videoconference with colleagues to collaborate ideas, organize, and develop professional development workshops for Berks County teachers. Skype has tremendous potential for classroom use. Teachers can invite guests from all over the world to speak to their students. Students who miss school due to illness could participate from home. Social studies and foreign language teachers can use Skype to connect with students in foreign countries. Science teachers could demonstrate a lab activity using Skype’s video capability. Students in all subjects can connect with professionals from the 21st Century workplace to research and learn about careers in each content area. Classrooms in difference school districts or different countries could collaborate on a project using Skype.

I used Skype with one of my English teachers to connect with a first grade class in Lancaster County for a project. High school seniors facilitated lessons on plagiarism. Each high school student assigned his/her “buddy” a quote from a children’s book, and the elementary students had to research where the quote came from and who said the quote; then they were taught how to note the source.

I plan to use Skype to coordinate future professional development workshops, to connect my teachers with teachers from around the world for student collaboration and teacher collaboration, and to bring local and global guest speakers into the classroom for conversations with students.

The saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words” is a great introduction to why educators should use Photo Sharing websites. The use of images in teaching and learning has benefits to help students with comprehension, making connections, and retaining and applying new information. The use of photo sharing sites provides students with access to a plethora of images they can use in their class activities. Pictures have tremendous power to tell a story and students should learn how to select a picture that conveys the message they want to send.  An image can convey thoughts, ideas, or events that words alone cannot always effectively impact the audience.  Images can trigger an array of emotions (just think about how the photo of the American flag raised over the rubble of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01 inspired us). Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligence includes spatial intelligence. One implication of Gardner’s theory is that learning/teaching should incorporate the intelligences of each person. In this example of using images, spatial activities should be used for individuals with strong spatial intelligence.

Ideas for Using Images in Education
•    Demonstrating vocabulary, emotions
•    Digital Storytelling (Microsoft Photo Story or Apple’s iMovie, GarageBand)
•    Discussing class activities (Online journals and portfolios – blogs, wikis)
•    Creating tutorials (Screen captures, Jing)
•    Using images in concept maps (Inspiration)
•    Student produced web projects (Podcasts, Blogs, Wikis)

Article on the use of images in education:
•    The Use of Images to Support Instruction and Presentation
“Images have a direct route to long-term memory.” http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/using/use.html

Wikis have impacted my school district tremendously in the last 2 years. I have had the opportunity to help my high school teachers implement teacher wikis and project-based wikis created by students. This week, I will be helping my middle school teachers create and become comfortable with wikis as a classroom resource. The next time I meet with them, we will work on implementing wikis as a classroom tool by which students create project-based wikis. Collaboration between teachers and between students is imperative in 21st Century teaching and learning. Wikis are powerful tools that allow users to communicate through discussion boards and collaborate on wiki pages that display a variety of input, such as videos, links to other resources, RSS Feeds, calendars, images, maps, files, spreadsheets, polls, slideshows, and bookmarks. Educators can use the “Page History” and “Discussion Area” to monitor student collaboration. The page history tracks all deletions and additions to each wiki page within a project, which acts as a great assessment tool. Wikis also provide a medium for educators to connect their students to students from around the world to increase global communication. Web 2.0 tools are necessary to use in education, so we can best prepare our students for the 21st Century workplace!