Wk.+3+-+Application+Task

=Welcome to **Week 3 "The Changing Work Environment"...** (as cited by Laureate Education, 2010):=

**Introduction**
As society and technology continue to change, the ways in which people work will also progress. As an educator, one of the biggest challenges that you may face is to prepare your students for a work environment that does not yet exist—one that utilizes technologies that have not yet been invented. Traditionally, the classroom environment of the teacher has been slow to keep pace with the rapid changes taking place in the business world. So how can you, as a teacher, properly prepare your students to work in a world that is so different from the world of education as they know it? This week, you will explore the global, round-the-clock, highly collaborative professional environments of the 21st-century workplace and begin to understand the expectations that will be placed on the workforce of tomorrow—your students. You will consider the disconnect that exists between the expectations and resources available for students and the expectations and resources available in the workplace, as well as how to address this disconnect in your classroom. For your Application Assignment, you will also evaluate the usefulness of some of the educational websites available in a collaborative manner utilizing a wiki.

**Learning Objectives**
Candidates will:
 * Examine the ways in which technology is changing the workplace
 * Evaluate the extent to which classroom environments are disconnected from modern workplace environments and articulate how to address this disconnect in their own classroom
 * Work collaboratively to develop a group wiki on educator resources
 * Evaluate the processes, challenges, and benefits of collaborating through a wiki

(as cited from Week 3 Application, Laureate Education, 2010)
It is easy to be overwhelmed with the vast amount of information on the Internet. When looking for resources, a simple Google search can yield thousands, if not millions of results. As a busy teacher, how do you find the time to search through all of the websites, blogs, podcasts, and other resources available to you on the web? You probably don’t. But, you can build a professional community with other educators and share resources. In order to continue building a network for professional collaboration, you will utilize a wiki to share and evaluate the education blogs and web resources that you found in the Week 1 Application Assignment: The Doorway to Professional Learning Communities. Based on your experience using the wiki, you will reflect on how you might begin to use wikis in your classroom with your students. Last week, your learning community created a wiki, which you will use for this Application Assignment. You should already have pasted the link to your learning community’s wiki on this discussion board and ensured that all group members and the Instructor can access the wiki. Your finished wiki site should include the following: > For each resource, provide:
 * Step 1:** Collaborate with your learning community to devise an “at-a-glance” rating system such as a 1–5 rating, smiling and frowning faces, or awarding stars. You also need to determine the evaluation criteria.
 * Step 2:** By consensus, develop categories so that the resources can be organized inside the wiki. You may want to consider having separate pages for different categories or resources, or keep it to one page using headings for your categories.
 * Step 3:** As a collaborative group, add the resources to the wiki and rate them. Check your Walden e-mail frequently throughout the week to keep up with wiki contributions or issues.
 * **Front page**—Introduce contributors and describe your “at-a-glance” rating system for resources.
 * **Resources page(s)**—These pages should contain links to the online resources that you found during the first week. Each member of your learning community should share at least three resources. The entries should be placed in the appropriate categories.
 * The title of the resource and its hyperlink
 * A brief description of the site and its purpose (include the author/owner or publisher)
 * A brief description of the types of resources found on the site
 * A brief evaluation of its utility
 * A rating according to the “at-a-glance” rating system devised by your group
 * **Sidebar**—Provide quick links to each page in the wiki.
 * Step 4:** Visit the wiki sites of the other groups from the course. Note any similarities or differences and compare their sites with your own site. You will include these observations in your Wiki Assignment #2: Reflection.

**Wiki Assignment #2: Reflection**
In order to reflect on your experience working with wikis, consider the following questions: Write a 2- to 3-paragraph synthesis and submit it to the Dropbox by **Sunday.** Be sure to copy and past the URL for your group’s wiki in the document. Save your Application as a “.doc” or “.docx” file with the filename “APP3+last name+first initial”. For example, Sally Ride’s assignment filename would be “APP3RideS”. Choose the **Week 3: Application** basket, and then add your Application as an attachment.
 * 1) Describe your experience in collaborating with this tool. What went well? What might you change next time to improve the process? What similarities and differences did you observe in how other groups organized their wikis? What insights did you gain about wikis from reviewing the work of other groups?
 * 2) What did you learn from this experience that will inform how you teach your students to use this tool for the first time?
 * 3) What parameters, rules, or norms might you establish with your students in order to encourage collaboration and to help them avoid some of the pitfalls that they might encounter while using this tool?
 * //You have completed Week 3. Please proceed to Week 4.// ||

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