My Frog Does Not Waste Precious Time

I just saw a wonderful way to use Wordle (the online program that turns your words into word clouds) with students. Emily Leathead taught her class how to use Wordle and now it has become a regular part of their spelling activity each week (along with Spellingcity). After initially showing the kids how to Wordle, her students can all independently create their own unique Wordles with the current week’s spelling words. The students do it during rotations using a clipboard with the spelling words. By the end of the week the kids don’t even look at the list – they’ve memorized the words and how to spell them as they create more Wordles. This is engaged learning! I visited her class and sat with a student who was creating a Wordle. He was able to tell me how to do some pretty advanced customizing of the completed wordle. The natives are speaking.

Please take time to look at the Web 2.0 tools listed on this blog or from a more complete listing see Cool Tools for Schools. Share how you would use Wordle or any of the other Web 2.0 tools. This is exciting to me and I know your students will respond and learn. I’ll close with a poem by Jack Prelutsky that Emily share with me.

"My frog does not waste precious time
just sitting on a log.
He's learned to use the Internet,
and now he has a blog.
It's filled with tips on how to hop,
and how to catch a fly,
on things that frogs can do to keep
their skins from getting dry.
My frog has hints on where to find
the finest lily pads,
and writes in great detail about
the latest froggy fads,
He tells of different ways to croak,
and how to act in bogs...
it's boring for most people,
but it fascinates most frogs."

- Jack Prelutsky

The Way Digital Learners Think - What's Your Next Step?

Dr. Beth Holmes gave an inspiring presentation on how children growing up in the 21st century think differently than children growing up in previous generations. They are growing in a digital world that creates brain patterns that can process visual and auditory information 30 times more effectively than we can. Below is a list of 8 characteristics of digital learners.

1.Digital Learners prefer receiving information quickly from multiple multimedia sources. Many educators prefer slow and controlled release of information from limited sources.

2.Digital Learners prefer parallel processing and multi-tasking. Many educators prefer singular processing and single or limited tasking.

3.Digital Learners prefer processing pictures, sounds color, and video before text. Many educators prefer to provide text before pictures, sounds, color and video.

4.Digital Learners prefer random access to hyper-linked multimedia information. Many teachers prefer to provide info linearly, logically and sequentially.

5.Digital Learners prefer to network simultaneously with many others. Many educators prefer students to work independently before they network and Interact.

6.Digital Learners prefer to learn “just-in-time.” Many educators prefer to teach “just-in-case.”

7.Digital Learners prefer instant gratification and Immediate rewards. Many educators prefer deferred gratification and delayed rewards.

8.Digital Learners prefer learning that’s relevant, active, instantly useful and fun. Many educators prefer or feel compelled to teach to the curriculum guide and tests.

We’ve learned to teach to a variety of learning modalities in the past – here’s our chance to address the needs of the digital learners we see every day. What are your thoughts about what you learned from Dr. Holmes presentation? Can you think of one way you could make a small change to address some of what was presented and share it?