Technology supporting meaningful learning

Technology is a great tool to ensure meaningful learning in the classroom! Meaningful learning is active, constructive, intentional, authentic and cooperative.
I was able to find a blog on wordpress that was made for an 8th grade social studies classroom. Each day the teacher posts a synopsis of what was covered in class, as well as required materials for the class at the beginning of the year. This blog caught my attention because the teacher is using examples of characters from the matrix to engage the students in a discussion about Aristotle and Plato. This technique makes the students more likely to want to learn and it is something that they can relate to more easily. After looking around the blog page I also found that the students are also connected to one another and their teacher through twitter. His idea of creating this blog and teaching the class the way he is is definitely an example of meaningful learning because the students are contributing and are able to be connected to the classroom and discussions on the internet. This site encompasses meaningful learning because the students and the teacher are working together as well as students are actively trying to learn and are using this website in order to find more information. This also shows that his class is building on prior knowledge to understand more about the past. http://ljhs.wordpress.com/author/ljhs/
I was able to find a great podcast that touched my heart. Mrs. Miceli's 6th grade social studies classroom was asked to help collect crayons and coloring books for orphans in Peru. This class took this opportunity to also look deeper and learn about Peru and the people that they were helping. Their podcast shows the students reflecting on how they felt after being able to help these poor children in Peru and learning a great deal about the people and the place. http://mabryonline.org/podcasts/archives/student_podcasts/social_studies/index.html This website also provides many other podcasts that connects students and teachers to what they are learning in a more personal way. The students are respobsible to go on and listen and learn from these podcasts. One podcast is from a teacher that is traveling to Japan and is making podcast while traveling for his students to learn from. This makes the learning authentic because it is meaningful and helpful for his students to get a closer look at what they are studying.
Most of the wikispaces I found were created by teachers for their classrooms. This promotes meaningful learning because students are encouraged to look at the site for information. They have to actively be looking to learn when entering these sites. I found Ms. Brown's wiki that is there to also help keep her students connected to what they are learning and to stay organized. I feel that this is an example of cooperative learning. The page also provides fun facts for what happened on that day in history. The site provides links to other sources and powerpoints which promotes intentional learning by the students. Due to everything offered on this page it is authentic in that it is helpful in getting knowledge to the students. This wiki is also constructive because of the extra resources provided it is building on the prior knowledge the students have gained in class and allowing them to have acess to further learn about the topics.
I had no idea how many teachers take advantage of these tools on the internet. It seems like it is helpful to them to keep things organized in one place, and it is a great way for students to stay caught up. Having the materials online through blogs, podcasts, or wikispaces is a great way to promote meaningful learning.