Comments on: The Perfect Elective http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-perfect-elective Educator Consultant Author Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:10:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: The Thinking Stick » The official release of Teentek.com http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/#comment-990 The Thinking Stick » The official release of Teentek.com Fri, 22 Sep 2006 05:55:26 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=189#comment-990 [...] Some of you might remember that last year I wrote about an elective class that I was asked to teach. Here is what I was thinking then. [...] [...] Some of you might remember that last year I wrote about an elective class that I was asked to teach. Here is what I was thinking then. [...]

]]> By: The Thinking Stick » Two great classroom moments http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/#comment-989 The Thinking Stick » Two great classroom moments Thu, 24 Aug 2006 08:38:46 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=189#comment-989 [...] My second great moment was when I met the 18 students who are in my media 2.0 elective. 18 6-8 graders who all signed up for the class on their own. I took role and asked them where they were from and what technology do they like. Cell phones, games, IMing, etc. I was impressed at the wide range of answers. One kid even said he loves to program. We talked about my idea for the class, that really I don’t know if this is going to work, but that if they wanted to help me, we were going to create something special. We talked about a name for our web site (their first homework assignment) and talked about the potential this idea has. Of course one of my boys asked, “Can we make money at this?” to which I answered, “Sure, why not, we can place some Google ads on the site and see what happens.” This got the kids all excited and so we set our first goal: To make enough money that we can have our own funded pizza party. [...] [...] My second great moment was when I met the 18 students who are in my media 2.0 elective. 18 6-8 graders who all signed up for the class on their own. I took role and asked them where they were from and what technology do they like. Cell phones, games, IMing, etc. I was impressed at the wide range of answers. One kid even said he loves to program. We talked about my idea for the class, that really I don’t know if this is going to work, but that if they wanted to help me, we were going to create something special. We talked about a name for our web site (their first homework assignment) and talked about the potential this idea has. Of course one of my boys asked, “Can we make money at this?” to which I answered, “Sure, why not, we can place some Google ads on the site and see what happens.” This got the kids all excited and so we set our first goal: To make enough money that we can have our own funded pizza party. [...]

]]> By: Josh Reynolds http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/#comment-988 Josh Reynolds Sun, 21 May 2006 21:30:35 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=189#comment-988 Jeff, I came across your blog in a search for education and technology. I love the thought of the Media 2.0 elective for middle school aged students. This class would be driven by the students imaginations, iniative and creativity. The instructor would be there to encourage discussion and to move the class through exploring unfamiliar technologies but for the most part the students would be doing the teaching. Your ideas for having the students record audio and video podcasts would allow the students to personally commit to the learning objectives of the class. This would be interesting to see if a school would allow this type of curriculum to start and grow. Jeff,
I came across your blog in a search for education and technology. I love the thought of the Media 2.0 elective for middle school aged students. This class would be driven by the students imaginations, iniative and creativity. The instructor would be there to encourage discussion and to move the class through exploring unfamiliar technologies but for the most part the students would be doing the teaching. Your ideas for having the students record audio and video podcasts would allow the students to personally commit to the learning objectives of the class. This would be interesting to see if a school would allow this type of curriculum to start and grow.

]]> By: Clarence Fisher http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/#comment-987 Clarence Fisher Thu, 18 May 2006 00:09:20 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=189#comment-987 Can I take the course from Northern Canada? I think it would be interesting for me, I could learn a lot. Content for teens by teens. Valuable stuff. Can I take the course from Northern Canada?

I think it would be interesting for me, I could learn a lot.

Content for teens by teens. Valuable stuff.

]]> By: Reece Lennon http://www.thethinkingstick.com/the-perfect-elective/#comment-986 Reece Lennon Wed, 17 May 2006 07:08:07 +0000 http://www.thethinkingstick.com/?p=189#comment-986 Hey Jeff, I've just been asked to summit electives for next year as well but for the most part, there wasn't much flexibility other than updating a few software chocies and hardware needs for courses already being offered. The one class I was able to introduce was an online newspaper; you may recall I had some success with this type of class in the past. The reason I've decided offer this course again is mainly because it gives the students a purpose for learning the IT skills they would otherwise be asked to learn in stand alone classes. I also see it as a perfect opportunity to introduce some Web 2.0 tools like an RSS feed that hopefully much of the student body will sign up for. The beta version of I.E. 7 makes linking to rss feeds very easy but like most things, the kids will only start using somethiing once a need presents itself. Video was incorporated into the older version but I'm hoping that we'll also have some podcasts and a blog which will act as our "letter to the editor" section. No doubt the students will be the driving force behind any additional upgrades but creating the paper from the ground up should be enough to get them started. Hey Jeff,
I’ve just been asked to summit electives for next year as well but for the most part, there wasn’t much flexibility other than updating a few software chocies and hardware needs for courses already being offered. The one class I was able to introduce was an online newspaper; you may recall I had some success with this type of class in the past. The reason I’ve decided offer this course again is mainly because it gives the students a purpose for learning the IT skills they would otherwise be asked to learn in stand alone classes. I also see it as a perfect opportunity to introduce some Web 2.0 tools like an RSS feed that hopefully much of the student body will sign up for. The beta version of I.E. 7 makes linking to rss feeds very easy but like most things, the kids will only start using somethiing once a need presents itself. Video was incorporated into the older version but I’m hoping that we’ll also have some podcasts and a blog which will act as our “letter to the editor” section. No doubt the students will be the driving force behind any additional upgrades but creating the paper from the ground up should be enough to get them started.

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