A New Teaching Process Evolves

One of  the expectations of a 21st century classroom is that teachers involve their students in real-world learning experiences that contribute to global understanding.  Why bother inventing activities for you class that mimic what might happen in  the real world, when they can be actively participating, contributing and creating in the real world?  Web 2.0 gives us the tools to do this.

My class is engaged  in it's first collaborative learning experience that is contributing meaningfully to knowledge.  My students are not jumping through hoops trying to figure out what I want.  Instead they now have a global audience, albeit a small one,  who is truly interested in what they discover and wishes to learn from them.   My students are actively participating in the development of this project, directing their own learning.   I have to say I didn't set out to do this.  I stumbled upon this in my desire to reinvent my job.  This project is evolving as I write.  We are winging it, figuring it out as we go.  Through this,  I realize that I am watching a whole new teaching process evolve.