How to Describe Web 2.0 to Administrators

http://www.mtl-peters.net/blog/?p=181

"Web 2.0 is sometimes called the “Read Write Web”. I call it the “Read, Write, Speak, Listen Web”. It is an Internet that is no longer about passive viewing and linking . This new Interactive Internet is transforming the manner in which people all over the world are interacting, communicating and collaborating. In the last two to three years, we have witnessed an explosion of new information and knowledge available to anyone with an Internet connection. As educators, we cannot ignore the fact that our students are consumers, distributors, remixers, and creators of content from and to the Internet. They need models and guidance from trusted adults as they interact with others and with information. Reasons why educators should include web 2.0 tools and environments (i.e. blogs, wikis, forums, learning management systems, voicethread, podcasts) as part of classroom practices include: relevance to real world practices, access to authentic audiences, opportunities to learn and practice appropriate online conduct, global citizenship skills, information literacy skills of evaluation and authentication, skills in anchoring and filtering information, and opportunities to collaborate, as well as experience learning gains."

Big Think - We Are What You Think

Big Think - We Are What You Think

The Internet + Big Bandwidth = We all have a voice that can be heard, but what do we SAY? We have soundbites, snips, superficial blurbs of information floating around, but does any of it get to the heart of the matter anymore?

We can do more; we can think bigger than the current media journalists and existing YouTube mud pie. We can ask (and respond to) the big questions that are out there. Here's a site offering a chance to join a global community to share, challenge, to listen, and to learn from these interactions. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that this could lead the "intellectual YouTube" movement towards mass collaborative multimedia projects across the world.



What will you say? What do you think?

Also read Big Think: YouTube for Smartie Pants?

Virginia Tech Teaching Dossier Workshop - Dec. 3, 3:00 - 5:00pm (Randolph 212)

Dear Virginia Tech Faculty Members,

The Academy of Teaching Excellence is sponsoring a Teaching Dossier Workshop to aid faculty members in the preparation of teaching dossiers for the various teaching awards (Wine Award, Alumni Award, Certificate of Teaching Excellence).

The Workshop will be held on Monday December 3 at 3:00-5:00 pm in Randolph 212. Bud Brown (Math) is organizing the workshop at which award-winning faculty presenters will discuss the following features of the dossier:

The Nomination Letter
Letters of Recommendation
Distinctive Contributions/Achievements
Additional Documentation
Student Evaluations
Teaching Philosophy

Anyone interested in preparing a teaching dossier is invited to attend.

Patricia Amateis
Chemistry
Chair, Academy of Teaching Excellence

Thank you Ernst von Glaserfeld

I rather enjoy this quote from Ernst von Glaserfeld's (1984), An Introduction to Radical Constructivism, "In nature, a lack of fitness is invariably fatal; philosophers, however, rarely die of their inadequate ideas" (p. 22).

Hmmmm ... that may be somewhat of a shame, but I thought it was worth a chuckle!