Ten Steps to Transforming Past Lessons for 21st Century Learners. A Smackdown and More. A couple of weeks ago, I received a surprising, but very pleasant, direct message on Twitter that went something like this, “Going to be in Surrey in a couple of weeks… want to get together?” Umm… Yeah! Absolutely! The message was from Dean Shareski! Dean presented at our district’s Engaging the Digital Learner Dinner Series in the fall and has also been involved in the #ETMooc currently being offered by Alec Couros and crew. Dean expressed interest in doing something in a classroom with kids and maybe doing something after school with educators around the district. Grade 3 teacher, Diana Williams, was very excited and took the idea and ran with it – literally. Dean Shareski and Austin Dolan (from Discovery Education) came and we all had a great time! After further assisting Diana with the technical aspects of putting the video together – taking out the green screen and adding Discovery Education photos in the background, Dean was then ready for his after-school event – a Smackdown!
Web tools from tony v. Alan November: How Teachers and Tech Can Let Students Take Control. For many educators, helping students direct their own learning is a priority. Educator and author Alan November, who has been talking about ways to get students to own their learning for years, draws on his experiences as a teacher, principal and education consultant to tell stories about some of the ideas he sees as integral to education. November joined Steve Hargadon in a discussion of his new book Who Owns the Learning: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age, stressing the importance of global collaboration and the role of technology in making it all possible. Here are a few highlights from their discussion. School often means rules and regulations that can seem unrelated to the broader goals of education. Students are told to sit down, be still, show up at specific times, and demonstrate knowledge in ways that have nothing to do with the real world.
The lesson from this, he said, is to “teach students how to solve any problem, a general problem solving approach. Related. ACPratas's LiveBinders Shelf. Author of binders: ACPratas Email this Shelf Post to Twitter or Facebook Embed this Shelf To email this shelf, click in the box below which will select the shelf url for copy and paste: Share this Shelf Embed a Public Shelf on Your Website: 3 x 3 binders on the shelf: 1 x 3 binders on the shelf, perfect for a blog sidebar: Embed your shelf with a list view of your binders: Note: This does not work for hosted Wordpress sites. - 10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have. How to make RSA Animate style videos with your class…
Here is a post on how to make RSA style videos with half the work and time, and with a lot less tech experience needed. And another post on RSA-lite style videos. If you like the idea in this post, then you might also enjoy my other post 24 Assessments that Don’t Suck. Nothing fancy in this post, just the nuts and bolts of how to make an RSA Animate style video with your class!
This is also one of those posts that is so long that there is simply not enough time in my life to go back and edit and revise it…so you get what you get and please don’t get upset. What is an RSA Animate style video? (The Birth of RSA Style Videos Here) Let’s start with the most popular one: And the one most popular with educators: If you want to start at the end and see a student’s final product before getting to the steps involved in making them, pause and watch an example of one of the final videos below before reading on: This is a unit that was built from the beginning to end with an RSA Animate style video. Our Skype Adventures: Creating Connected Learners in a Global Classroom. The familiar sound comes through our computer speakers, and instantly my 4th grade classroom comes alive. “Is it him?” “Can I talk first?” “Can we turn off the lights?” “Can I move so I can see?” It’s a Skype call from a student in my class who moved to Hawaii at the end of April. Skype became a new and exciting way to learn in my classroom this year.
I was hooked… We continued to share and learn using Skype as we participated in the Global Read Aloud. The students actually wrote their own comprehension questions to ask the other class, and then discussed their interpretations and feelings about the story. When the opportunity arose to Skype with a celebrity for Anti-Bullying Month, I got on board! Our further Skype adventures… In February, I saw a tweet from Twitter friend Paula Naugle in Louisiana. Another Twitter friend, Jan Wells, “called” the other day. Skype is a magic window… Skype enables students to connect, collaborate, and communicate with students across the globe. About the author. 100+ Registration Free Tools for Students. Summer Book Reads! via @Teachingwthsoul Lisa Dabbs.
Top 10 Technology Blogs for Education. Education, as with all aspects of culture, is greatly impacted by the forward progress of technology. Several technology blogs for education are maintained by well-known individuals in the field of secondary and postsecondary education. These technology blogs address technological developments as these innovations relate to education. Many of the top 10 technology blogs for education are maintained by those who specialize in integrating information technology with education.
Most bloggers on the list are renown in the educational field and all offer great ideas and insights for teachers and others interested in using technology to enhance traditional educational methods. 1. The Innovative Educator is a blog created and maintained by author Lisa Neilsen. 2. Free Technology 4 Teachers is a blog that introduces teachers to free web-based applications, such as YouTube. 3. Michael Zimmer, a specialist in the field of technology integration in secondary education, produces this blog. 4. 5. 20 Free and Fun Ways To Curate Web Content. Do you suffer from info overload? Is your RSS reader bursting at the seams? Have your bookmarks gone bonkers?
Like that alliteration? Me neither. Anyway, we are all slammed with information every time we go online. What’s the best way to organize it all into at least some reasonable manner? So they turn to curation tools. Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) First, let’s start off with my newfound favorite curation tool. Pinterest The uber-popular social network / social bookmarking / time sucking website is a great way for anyone who wants to organize their online travels. Diigo Diigo is very popular with the world of education. BagTheWeb Sorta like Pinterest, you can create ‘bags’ instead of ‘boards.’
PearlTrees PearlTrees is an increasingly popular tool that has a killer feature: even better organization structure of your curated content. Bundlr Bundlr is not as well known as the other contenders above but it’s worth knowing about. Storify Awesome site for younger classrooms. StumbleUpon Twitter. Intergration. Tech Tools & Sites For Teachers. 12 Tech Tools That Will Transform The Way You Teach! In a Simple K12 blog post titled “17 Signs Your Classroom is Behind the Times” they provide a list of things that characterize a classroom that has fallen behind. Number 16 lists a variety of technology tools that every educator should know about. As I read the list, I realized that although many teachers are interested in and excited about technology integration, they are too busy to explore all the new technology tools available online.
This blog post is dedicated to all of the overworked teachers who just don’t have the time to seek out this information. I have provided brief explanations, links to and pictures of the tools mentioned by Simple K12 (and a couple of my favorites). I hope this makes it more manageable for teachers to pick and choose which tools they want to use. 1. Collaborize Classroom- a free collaborative education platform with a highly developed discussion component. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
[Note: StoryJumper is another online digital storybook maker worth checking out!] New Player/Editor Features are Live! The new features listed below are now up on the LiveBinders site. But I forgot to mention one of the new features in my previous post. You can now add collaborators from inside the binder. Just click on the “Add” pull down in the upper right corner of the binder. 1.
More Readable Tabs The most significant change is that main tabs will now be of a variable width and will overflow to multiple rows. 2. 3. We are switching our rating system over to “useful” instead of using the star rating system. A big thanks to those of you in our community who suggested these enhancements. If you are teaching classes on LiveBinders, feel free to contact us at any time to find out what changes are in the works. Like this: Like Loading... Handout_quickguidetowebtools. Connecting School and Home: 360-Degree Communication. Too Big to Know The Internet knows no boundaries. That's why parents need to set limits for their kids. Easy to say, hard to do, and especially difficult if parents have to do this on their own. Schools need to create a 360-degree communication loop with parents about how to navigate the digital landscape. This year's group of fifth grade students (now entering the stream of 'tweendom and preparing to step into the potentially perilous middle school years of sixth-to-eighth grade) was born in 2001.
School-to-Parent Communication Schools have taken on a more significant, all-consuming role in helping parents find the right language to communicate with children, especially in the digital realm. Here are starting points for schools to communicate to parents: Start early, when your child is in third or fourth grade. Testing the System What happens when your child commits a transgression online? Keep calm.Maintain an even tone of voice.Honor the mistake. See more see less. Teacher’s Trial by Tech – Staff Engagement Success? There’s no doubt about it, the iPad is a desirable product. Now the new staff have one it is clear excitement and enthusiasm abound. Despite initial resistance and concern, staff have already asked for increased support and content. This is a short post to highlight anything we have learned over the past three months relating to staff engagement.
Recommended approach Allow staff to see iPad’s in use with students over a long period of timeMake it a voluntary trialTarget students for training and allow staff to catch up as they see fitOffer support as often as possible and again ensure it is voluntaryHave an email support dedicated to helping with use (encourages email on iPad)Email ‘how to’ links for desired functionality and appsBuild up a bank of resources to help with understanding pedagogy and implications – Evernote really helped hereRemember the device is not intuitive if there has been no exposure to touchscreen technology. Lesson’s Learned Like this: Like Loading... Tech and education. 50 Ways to Integrate Technology - Ways to Anchor Technology in Your Classroom Tomorrow.
Using Free Websites as Learning & Teaching Tools 1. Have students use Spelling City to learn their spelling words, vocabulary words, or site words through games, practice, and quizzes. Spelling City is a free resource for teachers. www.spellingcity.com 2. Use Brain POP to show short, animated videos as a lesson opener. Brain POP is available in its original version (appropriate for grades 3-8), Brain POP Jr. Www.brainpop.com 3. Www.dovewhisper.com 4. Www.flashcardexchange.com 5. People.uncw.edu/ertzbergerj/ppt_games.html 6. Www.clustrmap.com 7. Www.ustream.tv 8. Www.fanfiction.net 9. Www.ccmixter.org 10. Www.toolsforeducators.com 11. Www.animoto.com/education Share your ideas for integration on Animoto. 12. Www.makebeliefscomix.com 13. Www.wordle.net 14. Www.surveymonkey.com 15. Www.readwritethink.org/materials/timeline 16.
Www.kerpoof.com 17. Classtools.net 18. Www.buildyourwildself.com 19. Www.freerice.com 20. Www.fluxtime.com Using Free Websites for Management 21. Www.myavatareditor.com 22. Www.dropbox.com. The Complete Dropbox for Educators. Dropbox is a very useful tool to store online files, sync your computers and mobile devices and share files. With all those capabilities it makes it a natural tool for educators! Today, MakeUseOf published “Using the Magic Pocket: A Dropbox Guide” Using The Magic Pocket: A Dropbox Manual You can get a PDF version of The Magic Pocket here ! In addition to this wonderful guide, appstorm recently posted “ The Ultimate Dropbox Toolkit and Guide “ Do you need tips specifically for teachers?
More Tips for Teachers! A complete post on Dropbox wouldn’t be complete without a mobile component. Now, you need to know how to get the most out of it! Use AirDropper to Collect Files via e-mail! And finally, from my own site–How to Use DROPitTOme to replace Drop.io! I hope you’ve enjoyed “The Complete Dropbox for Educators.” Tagged as: Apple , Dropbox , iPad , IPhone , MakeUseOf , Mobile device , Smashing Apps. Revisiting Cell Phone Bans in Schools. ASCD 2012 | Conference Coverage Revisiting Cell Phone Bans in Schools Twenty-four percent of K-12 schools ban cell phones altogether, and 62 percent allow phones on school grounds but ban them in the classroom, according to the most recent national data available. But it's about time for those schools to rethink those bans, said Kevin M. Thomas, assistant professor of education at Bellarmine University in Louisville, KY, who spoke at the 67th ASCD Annual Conference & Exhibit in Philadelphia this weekend.
"We are at a crossroads," Thomas said to an overflow crowd at his Sunday afternoon session, "Using Cellphones in the Kindergarten Through Grade 12 Classroom. " "We have to decide if we are going to continue to ban cell phones, and we have to weigh the balance between pros and cons. " On the pro side, Thomas said, mobile phones can be used as a cheaper alternative to "clicker" devices, he said. Educational content developers are targeting mobile devices as well. About the Author. The Stanford Education Experiment Could Change Higher Learning Forever | Wired Science. Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig in the basement of Thrun's guesthouse, where they record class videos.Photo: Sam Comen Stanford doesn’t want me.
I can say that because it’s a documented fact: I was once denied admission in writing. I took my last math class back in high school. Which probably explains why this quiz on how to get a computer to calculate an ideal itinerary is making my brain hurt. I’m staring at a crude map of Romania on my MacBook. Twenty cities are connected in a network of straight black lines. Last fall, the university in the heart of Silicon Valley did something it had never done before: It opened up three classes, including CS221, to anyone with a web connection.
People around the world have gone crazy for this opportunity. Aside from computer-programming AI-heads, my classmates range from junior-high school students and humanities majors to middle-aged middle school science teachers and seventysomething retirees. Solid understanding? My Favorite Resources for Teachers and Students. Ed Tech Tools. P.E. Goes High-Tech. 10 Sites to use with Mobile Phones in Education. Three TED talks, a look at Education Technology around the world. | Schoology Blog. YouTube. Livebinder resources. - 10 Essential Educational Resources for Teachers - my list. Digital Organization for Educators. ICT in Education. Search Stories Makes Documenting Research Fun. ISTE Session Review - Extreme Web 2.0 Makeover by Steve Dembo. Five tools for global educators. GE Teach - Teaching With Google Earth. Driving Innovation in K-12 « Top Five Lessons for the Digital Age - Transforming Learning. Assessing Technology Enhanced Projects.
Khan Academy Videos Mapped to Common Core Standards. It Is Not About the Gadgets - Why Every Teacher Should Have to Integrate Tech Into Their Classroom. The 7 Golden Rules of Using Technology in Schools. Publish a Combined iCloud Calendar and Google Calendar. Paperless – How I Teach From The Cloud « Mister Norris. What is Sandboxing? The Dyslexic Professor. The Innovative Educator. Ten Sites Supporting Digital Classroom Collaboration In Project Based Learning. Technology. How to Choose the Right Words for Best Search Results. Digital Differentiation. Beyond the Transcript: Digital Portfolios Paint a Complete Picture.
30+ Cool Content Curation Tools for Personal & Professional Use. Lessons and Legacies from Stanford’s Free Online Classes. KinectEDucation. Technology to Promote Thinking. Technology enhanced education. 12 Education Tech Trends to Watch in 2012. 12 Ways to Be More Search Savvy. Three Trends That Define the Future of Teaching and Learning. Successful School Leaders Today Need to Harness Technology & Social Media. Battling skepticism.