Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age Review

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Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age ReviewReinventing Project based learning by Susie Boss and Jane Krauss is a well organized compendium of journalism and communication on the leading edge of current technology trends. They have used the most current Web 2.0 trends of communication and collaboration on the web. The book is a great snapshot in time of the current web development state. It appears that the authors believe authentic learning happens when you examine your ideas from all sides and from other points of view. New tools like Blogs, flikr, skype, wikis, and del.icio.us that support reflection and collaboration, give learners the opportunity to shape and revise their work, and expose the work to the analytical feedback of other people. The main direction of the book seems to be to collaboratively create knowledge with others. The content is divided up as follows.
SECTION I Anticipation
*Chapter 1 Mapping the Journey--Seeing the Big Picture
*Assess your readiness to begin teaching with technology-rich, authentic projects.
*Technology Focus: Social Bookmarking
*Chapter 2 Creating a Professional Learning Community
*Engage with colleagues, near or far, to build collaboration into project design and enrich your teaching practices.
*Technology Focus: Online Communities
SECTION II Packing Up
*Chapter 3 Imagining the Possibilities
*Establish the conceptual framework for your project. Why do "big ideas" matter in project design?
*Technology Focus: Why Use a Wiki?
*Technology Focus: Essential Learning with of Digital Tools, the Internet, and Web 2.0
Chapter 4 Strategies for Discovery
*How do you begin designing a project? A guided design process helps, whether you build a project from scratch or adapt an existing project plan to meet your needs.
*Technology Focus: Track Assets Online
*Chapter 5 Project Management Strategies for Teachers and Learners
*Teachers and learners alike benefit from improving their project management skills.
*Technology Focus: Project Management with Technology
SECTION III Navigating the Learning Experience
*Chapter 6 Project Launch--Implementation Strategies
*Get your project off to the right start by generating curiosity and preparing students for the active learning ahead.
*Technology Focus: Screencasting
*Chapter 7 A Guiding Hand--Keeping a Project Moving
*Consider the critical roles of classroom discussions, technology use, and troubleshooting strategies in keeping the project moving forward.
*Technology Focus: Podcasting
SECTION IV Expanding Your Circle
*Chapter 8 Building Connections and Branching Out
*Successful projects may take off in directions you did not anticipate.
*Imagine the possibilities for extensions and connections.
*Technology Focus: Online Collaboration
*Chapter 9 Making Assessment Meaningful
*Near the end of the project, you put your formal assessment plan to use.
*With 21st-century projects, teachers are incorporating new approaches to make assessment more meaningful.
*Technology Focus: Online Grade Books
*Chapter 10 Celebrating and Reflecting
*Culminating activities remind learners of where they have been and what they have gained along the way.
*Technology Focus: Photo Sharing
SECTION V Unpacking
*Chapter 11 Bringing It Home
*Build time for reflection and sharing into the project life cycle to make the most of your investment in meaningful curriculum design.
Have I found the book useful? Probably not, as it is not as much about project-based learning as I had hoped. It is more about communication and collaboration and current learning trends than it is about project-based learning. It is however, a wonderful book and a must read for anyone trying to get up to speed in our web dependent world. Read this book now, as it will be out of style after a few years.
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Teaching the iGeneration Five Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills With Web 2.0 Tools Review

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Teaching the iGeneration Five Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills With Web 2.0 Tools ReviewA blurb from the opening page of chapter two summarizes what I appreciated most about this book...
"While the students of earlier generations felt just as passionately about controversial issues as the students who currently sit in our classrooms...today's teens can use digital tools such as blogs, podcast programs, and video programs to easily join together with thinkers from across continents, gaining a level of influence and awareness equal to (or even greater than) the influence and awareness held by adults. The challenge is that today's students are not automatically prepared to be any more influential than peers from earlier generations. While they may have access to tools that allow them to be heard, being heard is only valuable when the messages shared are worth listening to" (p. 49)
...teaching today's learners involves much more than exposure to new websites and technology tools. Connecting these tools with content-specific pedagogy and scaffolding their use in a structured environment so that students see authentic reasons to collaborate and communicate persuasively. Ferriter and Garry do not pitch a "technocentric" teaching environment, but instead one using the tools appropriately and after building a case for the medium with the reader. The solutions presented in this book come with dozens of free checklists and templates. I highly recommend this book for beginning teachers and those who have been in the profession for years.Teaching the iGeneration Five Easy Ways to Introduce Essential Skills With Web 2.0 Tools OverviewYou know what the iGeneration in your classroom looks like. They're the students willing to experiment their way through anything, confident that trial and error can crack the code better than reading manuals or following directions. They're turning to the Internet first and the library second when assigned research projects. Their minds are working fast, but not always as deeply or as accurately as the adults in their lives would like. Yet teachers can capture the attention of the iGeneration and help them grow by integrating technology into classrooms in a way that focuses on the skills that have been important for decades.The purpose of Teaching the iGeneration is to help teachers find the natural overlap between the work that they already believe in and the kinds of digital tools that are defining tomorrow's learning. Each chapter introduces an enduring skill-information fluency, persuasion, communication, collaboration, and problem solving-as well as a digital solution that can be used to enhance, rather than replace, traditional skill-based instructional practices. These solutions include blogs, wikis, content aggregators, asynchronous discussion forums, web conferencing software, video editing applications, and social bookmarking and annotation tools. In addition, Ferriter and Garry end every chapter of Teaching the iGeneration with a collection of handouts and supporting materials tailored to each skill and tool type. Visit go.solution-tree.com/technology for interactive versions complete with live links to additional resources. Reintroducing rigorous and systematic study to the iGeneration-a generation that has grown up connected but has failed to understand the power of connections-requires nothing more than a teacher who is willing to show students how the tools that they've already embraced can make learning efficient, empowering, and intellectually satisfying.

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