Nurturing the 21st C. History Teacher

Tom Daccord has at least two presentations during the K12 online conference. I stumbled upon this first one titled above after unsuccessfully trying to view "Around the World with Skype," which did not have a continuous feed. I think the frustration that I am experiencing with many of these videos is that the presenters are sometimes dry. Tom had some interesting information but it was not any more exciting than sitting in a classroom viewing a powerpoint presentation.

He suggested that teachers should join an online community in order to get a feel for it in order to create an online environment for our students. He felt students would take a greater ownership if they have the ability to debate in an online social environment. I think students take ownership when they care about the assignment and/or the grade.

I enjoyed the Student News Action Divide, which is a Ning online newspaper written by international students. I also enjoyed his Day in the Life of a Hobo assignment, which was similar to an assignment that I had just completed with my students. My students created a day in the life of a Latin American teen but the concept of creating a fictional story based on research was the same. However, his students wrote online blogs and one, "There's no Aunt Sarah," was picked up and read by readers beyond his classroom.

I think the possibility for creating some innovative, engaging assignments and activities are there. However, teachers need more training and much more TIME to create them. In addition, I am intrigued by the idea of teacher working more on interdisciplinary projects, which I used to do back in the late 1990s. In the end, though, given NCLB, will teachers be given the appropriate resources, training, and planning time to effectively implement 21st Century Skills that pair technology with content?