Recently, I shared the vision for our eportfolio project which is more than simply a way of students to share work. It is meant to create a network where students are able to collaborate and learn from one another. Here is an interesting quote that sums up the importance of students connecting:
Why limit your student population to a few hundred when you can leverage the knowledge of hundreds of millions? In the school of social learning, students from all over the world collaborate every day. The No. 1 asset any student has in school is their peers, and it’s our job as instructional designers and administrators to facilitate that interaction. By continuing to crowd source, filter, and raise the best questions, answers, explanations, and hints to the top, we reap the benefits not just as educators but as a society.
http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1498
Although our school is K-12, we believe in starting the students early to ensure that we help guide them on their journey and prepare them for their future. This is really important as we see more students coming into our school like this:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrjIlVz7bew[/youtube]
As educators, we should be doing the “driver training” with the students, before we just hand over the keys.
Thoughts?