Daily Spotlight on Education 10/19/2009

• danieltenner.com — What problems does Google Wave solve?

  Excellent article on what Google wave is intended to be: a step up from email to allow for document collaboration. OK, now I finally get it. Seeing people talk about it replacing twitter, etc. I was like "nah - not with THIS" but seeing this blog post made the light go on - a must read for those who want to truly understand what google wave is for and to not get so hyper about what it isn't.

  tags: education, google, googlewave, workflow_software, virtual_communication, worldonline

• A flat world - Flat Classroom Project

  I love these views from my student and her use of the term "horizontal" teaching - I think she has inadevertently hit on a very important concept for us teachers to understand.
  
  "Everyone has different views, different things they are good at, and different things they know. In a classroom, the teacher used to stand in front of the students, and lecture all day long. Now many of those teachers have started to teach "horizontally". This means that the teacher doesn't necessarily stand in front of her class and lecture, but works with the class, not only teaching them, but allowing them to teach her new things as well.
  
  This video gave me different opinions and opened my mind to a flattened world. I agree in many ways with Mr Friedman, because I personally do not learn well by having someone lecture me, it is very easy to get distracted, and by learning horizontally, I can interact with my teacher and classmates, and I feel like I learn so much more, because not only do I pay attention, but the fact that I am interacting, and experiencing what she is teaching helps out a lot."
  

  tags: education, learning, fcp, flatclassroomproject, edu_trends

• Miller's "The World is Flat" Reflective Blog Post - Flat Classroom Project

  Excellent overview of Thomas Friedman's lecture at MIT which gives essential information on the history of globalization as written by a tenth grader. This is excellent writing and a nice overview of what he says in the fifty minute video. (She also embedded the video.) Excellent work.
  
  Miller also writes for Terry Freedman out of the UK, in a column called "Ask Miller" and I think her writing skills have been honed and improved as she has written for Terry as a ninth grader. She is a product also of the flat world as she has worked to write in a Google Doc for a person across the Atlantic Ocean!

  tags: education, flatclassroom, worldonline

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.