Today is the Day

It's always trouble that makes you strong
Today is the day, today is the day
Today is the Day – Yo La Tengo

There are several reasons why this refrain from Yo La Tengo’s Today is the Day is appropriate for online learning and why it keeps running through the background music in my mind. One, if a student in distance education wants to stay caught up, there’s really no time to wait: there’s an assignment to do, and today is the day. Another reason is that today is the day could be a slogan for educators contemplating/integrating educational technology in their classrooms. Depending on the comfort level of the teacher, it could either mean today is the day to just try it or today is the day to do it differently or better. Finally, today is the day means exactly that: today is the day: technology integration is happening, not in the future, not even tomorrow, but right now – today is the day.

The Flat World is Better Off

I recently reread Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat and found it reads differently now than it did before the global, debt fueled financial troubles began to surface. The implications of Thomas Friedman’s flat world on education in general and student preparedness in particular are real; however, in light of recent economic upheaval which can be blamed, in part, on forces that use globalization in pursuit of profit despite resultant cost to country or society, Friedman’s sometimes breathless promotion of a flat world can ring hollow to some readers today. Like the world of Friedman’s book, education is also “changing due to the advances in technology” and our society is undergoing change in response to these forces. Educational technology in the hands of teachers and students can change the traditional classroom from one that is hierarchical with clear lines of command-and-control to a much more open, unstructured, and non-hierarchical configuration. What are the ramifications of a flat classroom? Will the tools that we use in distance education lead to future outsourcing of teachers or open sourcing of education? A bill in the Florida legislature will allow for outsourcing of teachers. The bill's sponsor, state senator Anitere Flores (R-Miami), calls it "broadening the choices available to school children and their parents. Teachers call it "outsourcing."

In Mr. Friedman’s Flat World, the untouchables, those workers whose job or work cannot be outsourced, are special, specialized, anchored, or really adaptable. Educators can help students achieve untouchable status by imparting the knowledge and practicing the skills that will prove to be valuable; job requirements are becoming more complex. On the library shelf below The World is Flat, I found Better Off. It also demonstrates the need for critical reasoning, communication and collaboration skills; I found it to be a nice counter to Friedman's vision: " a plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country."

Google Sites

What is Google Sites?

Google Sites allows users to easily create free, custom, fully functional websites.

Google Sites began as JotSpot. Google purchased JotSpot in 2006, and Google Sites, using the JotSpot technology, was launched in 2008.

Features

Google Sites lets students work together to create webpages and edit content; this feature is especially attractive to educators in the 21st century classroom.

Information can be organized and stored in a central place (on the web) so that viewers and editors can access the site from any device and anywhere there’s an internet connection.

Access to view the website or pages can be restricted, and only collaborators who have been invited can make edits. Edits are recorded; this means editors can be identified and edits can be rolled back.

Google Sites works really well with the other Google Apps, and teachers and students can easily add documents, images, presentations, spreadsheets, calendars, forms, embedded media, and videos to the webpages they create.

25 GB of storage for Google Apps users (100 MB of storage for free account)

WYSIWYG editing; there are many templates to choose from.

How Google Sites can be used in the Language Arts classroom

Classroom webpage (communication, announcements, assignments, calendar, student work, links, etc.)

Project based learning

Platform for student products (see student created sites link below)

Classroom discussion and sharing of ideas

Responses to literature

Online newspaper, digital literary “magazine”

Collaborative writing projects and presentations

Group projects

Student portfolios

A platform for international collaboration

Provides a larger audience for students

Incorporate technology and give students anytime access to the classroom

Give students experience working in a collaborative, online environment

Battle of the Books team, clubs

Examples

Student created sites

More Google Sites for education

Classroom Site

Student Book Reviews

Internet Safety

More information

Google Sites for Educators Webinar

Intro to Google Sites

This Information in a Google Site