Chapter 2 Empowering Learning By Expanding Relationships

Wow! What a paradigm shift on page 34. "We need to end the relative isolation of the classroom and connect our educators and students to the world" that's a complete change in the way that teaching has happened since its creation. I believe today's technology creates a unique learning opportunity to help motivate students because students are given the opportunity to publish authentic, real work; in addition, it teaches them about culture differences and perspective. Video conferencing; such as skype allows parents to connect to the classroom and helps to build school/home relationships. Skype and epals also help students to learn about culture differences which is important for workers of tomorrow in a global economy.

As I was reading, I thought about our students of today and students of past generations. I thought how teens used to feel more worthy and important in the family dynamics. It was necessary for them to work to help provide for the family. This made their role more important and probably established more self worth. In today's world, do teens feel that self worth and responsibility of teens from the past? I'm not sure they do. It seems to take them longer to grow up now days. What if, they were solving real world problems that made an impact on their local communities; or worked hand-in-hand with a local organization or scientist to solve a problem. How would that impact their self worth and help them to feel that sense of responsibility. This is all possible with the use of technology, project based learning, and collaboration.

My thoughts of teachers publishing their work on the web were: I think they should publish authentic work on the web because it provides a model for students and a positive atmosphere for learning