3 ways to keep your online classroom engaged

My teaching philosophy is that the content is no longer the commodity. When I was in school, I had to go to school every day because my teachers had all the information and I had to get it from them somehow. Kids these days have access to all the information they could ever ask for at their fingertips, on the internet.  

I teach computer literacy at Digital Academy of Florida (DAOF) and I’ve found numerous ways to keep my students engaged in my short time there. I start by highlighting that it’s their class, not mine. They’re in the driver’s seat. 

So, if the content is no longer the commodity, then what is? It’s the entire class experience. Every single subject, every single class should be interactive in some way.  …Read More

Computer literacy: Education’s fourth ‘R’

Something unusual is happening at a website called code.org, the Deseret News reports. There, former President Bill Clinton, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and the rapper known as will.i.am stand together in perfect agreement about just one thing: more students should learn to code. As in learning to tell computers what to do through computer programming. Rubio likes the idea because computer programmers are in great demand and earn attractive salaries. Gates says “learning to write programs stretches your mind and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains.”

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