You are now in an experimental school under the umbrella of Google Apps, Education Edition. Everyone who has access here has been approved to do so in this "safe" environment in which many Google tools can be used. In this construction zone, we are asking persons from all over North America to contribute various ideas for creating a virtual learning commons so that each one of us can draw down from this site the ideas we would like to use on our own school's virtual learning commons. This site is being sponsored by the graduate students at San Jose State University and other partnering schools and districts across the continent. Goal: To replace the school library web site that is a one-way stream of information with a giant conversation and collaboration involving, students, classroom teachers, teacher librarians and other specialists in the school. And, we would like to concentrate on the use of free or inexpensive tools available ubiquitously 24/7/365 from anywhere in the world.
Elements of the Virtual Learning Commons to Develop.
Here, collaborative and perhaps competitive teams will be developing
ideas on the various features that could be in the virtual learning
commons. Click on the various features to find the ideas that the teams
are creating.B b 1nm
- Other Web 2.0 Tools. A place to explore various types of Web 2.0 tools not a part of the Google Apps family.
- Assignments: Turning assignments from classroom teacher dictates into conversations
that include the teacher, students, specialists in the school, parents.
- Knowledge Building Centers: Creating Knowledge Building Centers (idea from Deb Wallace) that are
major collaborative pathfinders for learning units that are repeated in
the school over and over. These knowledge centers might have links
created by everyone, tools, data sets, sample units and their effects
over time, projects across the class/school/world, places to
collaborate with experts; links to special collections at various
libraries/museums/govt. agencies; student created
tutorials/projects/interviews/data sets.
- Global Awareness Centers:
- Financial Literacy Centers:
- Health and Wellness/Obesity Collaborative Centers:
- Any other school wide effort to integrate themes into regular curricular efforts.
- Reading Community: Building a reading community through virtual book/movie/other media
discussion clubs including writing and utilizing social networking such
as Facebook and Twitter, wikis, blogs, nings.
- Student Productions: Encouraging the production of learner-created content whether for
assignments or for fun and storing that content in a virtual school
yearbook and museum. The center of fun and creativity.
- School Improvement: The center for school improvement or experimental learning center where
trials, experiments, action research, professional learning communities
are centered.
- The Big Think: A center for metacognitive reflection by both individuals and groups
- VLC Construction Tips: The use of various types of tools to create a learning commons nested
in the cloud. For example: signing up for Google APS as a school;
Netvibes, Pageflakes, etc. Also, think about design as a method of capturing attention and collaboration; for
example, perhaps there are multiple "main" pages as direct entry points
for learners, classroom teachers, teacher librarians, etc. rather than
trying to direct traffic all through one central page.
- Collaborative Culture: Invitations to collaborate at every appropriate place
- Documenting Impact: Demonstration of what clients can expect from teacher librarians,
teacher technologists and other specialists (idea from Deb Wallace,
Harvard business School)
- ICt, Info. Lit, and 21st Cent. Skills: The integration of ICT and information literacy and 21st Century
Learning Skills into learning activities designed to boost achievement.
- Geek Squad: The creation of a Geek Squad for the spread of technical assistance throughout the school.
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