31 January 2008
Web 2.0 Educator
For my Web 2.0-using educator I chose "The Tempered Radical", also known as Bill Ferriter. Ferriter won the "Best Teacher Blog" for the 2007 Edublog Awards. He teaches 6th grade in North Carolina and was named teacher of the year for 2005-06. His speciality is using "tech tools" in his classroom. Ferriter is a huge advocate for technology in the classroom. All of his blogs are about using technology in the classroom and how wonderful it is. He hates how standardized testing is ruining education in general. His students used to do terribly on standardized tests but exceled in the classroom. While hating the idea, he used "drill and killers" to teach his kids and his kids' test scores vastly improved. He likes using higher order thinking activities and seems to be the epitome of what this class is trying to show.
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2 comments:
Hey Sportnick,
Jazzed to see that my ideas have resonated with you in some way. I really do wrestle with the role that standardized testing and technology should play in my classroom---and I'm not sure it's a conversation that has a clear beginning or ending.
In fact, I just picked up a new book today called Boys Adrift that talks about how the loss of outdoor play experiences has harmed boys----they have great knowledge from hours spent behind a computer screen but they rarely "know" anything too well.
Interesting challenge, huh?
Combine that with the reality that today's children simply must understand how to use digital tools in order to succeed tomorrow and you end up in a real philosophical pickle.
So what role do you think that technology should play in a classroom...and do you think today's teacher is prepared to create a meaningful technology driven classroom?
Bill Ferriter
Good posting. Congrats on getting a comment from Bill Ferriter himself. How cool is that? And how does he have time to do all that he does AND keep a blog AND find your blog and comment on it??!! 6/6
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