week+5+update

As educators, it is paramount that we get optimal effort out of our students. Unfortunately, today's students will not give you their optimal effort unless their is something in it for them. Today's learners are digital natives that expect to have information readily available to them, and they want to express themselves through various digital formats. For this reason, educators not only have to teach the importance of effort, they have to be able show a student how to track their effort in a digital format such as a spreadsheet or graph. When students can relate their effort, to their achievements, then they will move away from blaming uncontrollable factors for their setbacks, and start utilizing the tools they can control to promote their own success. Standardized testing is here, and will probably be here for a long time. We can use web 2.0 tools as assessments to make sure that our students are ready for these tests. Technology allows teachers to provide ongoing formative assessments throughout a unit or activity to make sure that the students is staying on track. In addition, web 2.0 allows for collaboration among teachers so that both formative and summative assessments can be authentic and powerful. E-portfolios allow the student an opportunity to take control of their learning by expressing themselves in their own unique way. It also allows the teacher an avenue to provide feedback and assessments. An emerging technology called "Elgg" places the students directly in the center of their learning. The software gives the student choices about they go about learning a particular unit. It is still relatively new, but I would definitely like to see it in action.