Ten Myths About Technology. Some of the best moments are low-tech Sometimes my view on technology seems paradoxical and messy. Sometimes it feels like cognitive dissonance. I hang with Luddites and Technophiles. I join #chats and write blogs and yet I frequently criticize technology. So, this list might seem conflicting. The following are ten myths I have found myself believing over the years: Myth #1: Technology Dehumanizes This is an oversimplification of Luddites. Myth #2: Technology is Neutral Technology is never neutral. Myth #3: Technology Makes Us Relevant On some level, this is true. Myth #4: We Can Use It Wisely We need to think about the pros and cons of the tools.
Myth #5: Technology Saves Time Technology cannot save time. Myth #6: Technology Is Just a Tool Seeing technology as merely a tool is a dangerous mindset. Myth #7: Technology Happens in a Vacuum People rarely say this. Myth #8: Technology Equals Innovation Technology can lead to new developments. The bottom line: Technology has its place. Computing. / Did you ever wonder how to do some of those special characters like ♥ and ♫ ? Well, here you are! All in one printable list. Wikijunior. YOU HAD ONE JOB! Chrishildrew: Why teachers are turning to...
Slice of Raspberry Pi: Teachers Guide to the Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi is a tiny little computer that costs about £30. It can do most things that a computer can do, but its size and the fact that it is very cheap makes it ideal for electronics projects. It was originally designed to be for the education market, but pretty quickly a lot of hobbyists have seen its potential and used it for everything from a small-scale web servers to brewery controllers.
This guide is intended for teachers to help get the most from the device and find all the relevant resources. There will be plenty more educational resources available as people release them. Getting Your Pi The Three official supplier are: You can buy your Pi from a number of outlets and some come with necessary accessories. If you buy a plain Pi you will need: 1. an HDMI cable and TV or DVI cable to suitable monitor 2. Teaching your first lesson with the Pi Here are the 10 lesson ideas that you might wish to use with a vanilla Raspberry Pi Programming with Pi Enter: RPi for a 40% discount. About Me Foundation Stage TopicBox. Twitter, howto - Patrick Larkin on Diigo. Teaching / 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes to Live By. Over 20 Free Digital Classroom Tools… Customize… Plus No Log In.
This is a site that you are bound to find useful in your classroom. The tools are incredible and may even include items you have used on paper in the past… but can now bring digitally into the 21st century! Before this informative journey encompassing some engaging resources please take a moment and sign up by email or RSS. I enjoy sharing and I am also motivated by knowing that I am making a difference for you.
Your subscription, retweet, and comments means a lot to me. I thank you in advance. Remember you can also follow me on twitter (mjgormans) and discover even more at my 21centuryedtech Wiki! What amazed me most about Classtools.net was not the valuable tools provided, but the ability for teachers to easily customize these tools and use them in any subject area. Classtools.net is the work of educator, Russel Tarr, Head of History at the International School of Toulouse, France. The Listing Of Over 20 Digital Tools For Your Classroom. Free Screen Sharing and Online Meeting Software | Screenleap.
The Literacy Shed - The Literacy Shed Home. Lingro – add to any website for interactive dictionary and word games. Lingro – - if you want to use a website with pupils but think that pupils would be helped by having an on-hand interactive dictionary then consider using Lingro. Just copy the website address of the website you wish to suggest to your pupils (e.g. www.bbc.co.uk) and paste into the textbox on the Lingro site.
Now when you share with your pupils the resulting website address (the BBC website now becomes it automatically includes the Lingro toolbar along the top and bottom. So now when your pupils go the website it now becomes more interactive with vocabulary support. A pupil just needs to click on any word they may not fully understand and it highlights that word and a small window appears with definitions of the word, as well as a speaker icon which, when clicked, will provide a real voice recording speaking the word. That’s quite a useful tool even if that’s all Lingro did. But there is much more. The Learning Spy - SOLO taxonomy. Solo Taxonomy and MentorMob. A Match Made in Heaven? The concept was first developed in 1982 (Biggs and Collis) and has since been defined as: ‘Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome, a means of classifying learning outcomes in terms of their complexity, enabling us to assess students’ work in terms of its quality not of how many bits of this and of that they got right.’
John Biggs (2007) The use of this linear structure allows teachers to focus a class and add layers to learning. James Atherton describes SOLO taxonomy as: ‘levels of increasing complexity in a student’s understanding of a subject, through five stages, and it is claimed to be applicable to any subject area. Not all students get through all five stages, of course, and indeed not all teaching (and even less “training” is designed to take them all the way)’ (James Atherton 2005).
Personally I have heard SOLO taxonomy described as ‘levels of learning’ and ‘degrees of difficulty’. (SOLO Tasksheet – Tait Coles 2012) So where does Mentormob.com figure in all of this? Like this: Www.innovationunit.org/sites/default/files/Spaced_Learning-downloadable_1.pdf. Asking a better question? Online Resources to Support Higher Order Questions for Higher Order Learning – Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy. We are all asked questions. Factual recall of information is something we all do. List, name, describe, identify……. But with a more interesting question can be demonstrated a deeper understanding of the facts, a greater engagement with the task, a demonstration that the learning can be applied in a different context, and the opportunity can be provided for creativity to flourish. Asking the right question, or setting a more imaginative task, at the right time can help learners of all ages engage with their learning. But what does it look like in practice in a classroom?
What resources are available to help a teacher apply higher order thinking skills in their classroom? Introduction to Bloom’s Taxonomy – for teachers David Anderson and Lee Pace (Thought Weavers) have created an introduction to Bloom’s Taxonomy in the classroom. The video below demonstrates the use of the above resource: Introduction to Bloom’s Taxonomy – for parents Introduction to Bloom’s Taxonomy – for pupils. Great Teaching Ideas - weblinks - Home. Flip This: Bloom’s Taxonomy Should Start with Creating. Teaching Strategies Chris Davis, Powerful Learning Practice LLC By Shelley Wright I think the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is wrong. I know this statement sounds heretical in the realms of education, but I think this is something we should rethink, especially since it is so widely taught to pre-service teachers. Conceived in 1956 by a group of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom, the taxonomy classifies skills from least to most complex.
Many teachers in many classrooms spend the majority of their time in the basement of the taxonomy, never really addressing or developing the higher order thinking skills that kids need to develop. Rather than starting with knowledge, we start with creating, and eventually discern the knowledge that we need from it. The pyramid creates the impression that there is a scarcity of creativity — only those who can traverse the bottom levels and reach the summit can be creative.
Here’s what I propose: we flip Bloom’s taxonomy. Creating at the Forefront Related. The Third Teacher. Lessonstudy. Twelve Ideas for Teaching with QR Codes. Updated 01/2014 As mobile learning becomes more and more prevalent, we must find effective ways to leverage mobile tools in the classroom. As always, the tool must fit the need. Mobile learning can create both the tool and the need. With safe and specific structures, mobile learning tools can harness the excitement of technology with the purpose of effective instruction. Using QR codes for instruction is one example of this. A Quick Tutorial QR stands for Quick Response. 1. Have students use QR to create resumes that link to other content such as their professional website or portfolio. 2. You can create QR for linking students to examples of quality work, whether it's PowerPoint or slideshare for a class presentation, or people speaking a foreign language specific to your current lesson. 3.
Integrate QR with a PBL or Service Learning project where students can create the codes that will link to the content they create. 4. Save a few trees! 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 7 Writing Links Worth Reading. BLOODHOUND / Intel Atom animation. I've Been Waiting for This! AirPlay Mirroring to a Mac (no Apple TV required) Update: Reflection has been renamed Reflector. It is available for Macintosh and for Windows PCs. I am so excited for a new Mac app called Reflection! It shows my iPad's screen live on my computer screen wirelessly!
In the past I've used different ways to show iPad's screen on a projector to an audience. I've used a document camera, a Point2View webcam, Apple's VGA adapter with an old-fashioned VGA switch, and an expensive Ephiphan VGA2USB signal grabber. All of these past methods require iPad to be stationary. In an effort to keep iPad truly mobile, some educators are using Apple TV to mirror iPad's screen to a projector. Wireless mirroring to Apple TV is made possible by AirPlay, a feature of iPad 2 and iPhone 4S. As someone who travels, it's not ideal for me to carry around an Apple TV and VGA adapter and hope that I can set it up on the network at the school or conference. Finally a Mac app has been released that does what I've been wanting. Student devices can be mirrored as well. Revolver Maps - Free 3D Visitor Maps. Event Time Announcer. Web 2 Tools by Task.
Avators: Build your Wild Self - create a self portrait and learn about the animal parts incorporated into your avatar. Mikons - where people communicate through visual symbols, logos, icons, or avatars to tell a story Voki.com is a web application that produces animated characters to which you can add your voice (or anybody else’s).
Blogging / Bookmarking Tools: 43Things - share your list of 43 life goals/priorities Corkboard - create an online corkboard to collect images, text, video or even music Delicious is a social book-marking site which allows you to access your book-marks from any computer. Diigo allows you to access and share your bookmarks from anywhere. Digg - social bookmarking Ecto - blog management tool which allows for features driven offline blog prep Edmodo is a micro-blogging service (like Twitter) for teachers and students. Edutopia - Empowering and connecting teachers, administrators, and parents with innovative solutions and resources to better education.
Comic and Animation: Open source e-portfolio and social networking software. Three Primary Colors: OK Go and Sesame Street Explain Basic Color Theory in Stop-Motion. Creating a plan with students to use cell phones for learning. Want to integrate cell phones into learning? You can involve your students with this planning lesson where students will focus on cell phones as learning tools.
With an overview of the educational uses of cell phones (the Gr8 8, below), students will determine how they will choose to use their cell phones for educational purposes. Contracts for tools will be developed by students and the result will be a plan for educational uses of cell phones. Lesson Title: Plans for Phones or Plnz 4 fonzTools Used: Poll EverywhereLesson Description:Start with a class discussion about tools, and their purpose, for learning.Multiple choice poll: Ask students to text into a poll everywhere free text poll examples of tools and their uses: pencil-communicating/taking notes, calculator-do math, dictionary-learn meanings of words, notes, books, websites, teacher instruction.Free text poll: Ask students to share the tools available on their phone.
Welcome to TeacherCast.net: A Place for Teachers to help other Teachers. Blog design prompts.docx. Teaching and Learning Research Programme. iPad EdResources. Sankore - free open source IWB software. Open-Sankore is free interactive whiteboard software that is compatible with all types of IWB. It’s based on what was previously called Uniboard software. It’s been in beta for a while, and from what I can see this is a recent release, although it still needs some work. The basic tools that you would expect are here.
You can write with a pen (4 colours only) and a pencil. There’s a rubber tool, lines and text. The sidebar gives access to shapes – but you can’t group shapes with text. The sidebar also gives access to different apps such as timers, protractors and rulers. You can choose from 4 different backgrounds – one plain, one dark and then a dark and light grid. In terms of dealing with files – Open Sankore will let you export as it’s own ubz file type. I’m really hoping that eventually we’ll get a decent open-source alternative to the big two for users of other boards, interactive projectors,and for teachers who want to write platform-independent resources. What do you think?
E-Safety. The Fallacy of Digital Natives. I have a problem with both the term digital native and how it has been manufactured into one of society’s greatest myths. I also believe there is an improved way in which we should be articulating the use of technology in the learning continuum. Learning and technology has nothing to do with generational divides. But first, let’s dig into the background and the fallacy. There are two main culprits to the propagation of both the term and the associated myth; Marc Prensky and Don Tapscott. In 2001, Prensky published a paper in the periodical On The Horizon entitled, “Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants“.
Through the first half of the article, Prensky paints the picture of Millennials (Digital Natives) being hard-wired differently from birth automatically leading to a digitally enhanced learning style. The non-Millennials, (Digital Immigrants) are therefore luddites incapable of learning and/or teaching and/or living like said Digital Native.
Hogwash. Balderdash. Their conclusion? He opines: Why Social Media Can and Is Changing Education. Cc licensed flickr photo shared by shareski Social media is something that has become so prevalent in our culture that I have seen everything from large companies to churches having their own facebook accounts. When I first was presented with the idea that using Twitter, Facebook, or blogging as something in education I was weary of its application. As I have immersed myself in the process, and have seen my own staff and school use this themselves along with students, I have seen some tremendous changes in their practice. I really believe that using technology just to do the same things that we have always done, but on the computer, is not a good enough reason.
There has to be more. Thinking about this today, I have really seen some of the impacts that social media is having on education. Okay, in reality, nothing is really free. One of our programs is an off-site building that is out in the country. Passion is a term that has been used a great deal in education. {*style:<b> 5. Codecademy: Learn to Code Online, Naturally. If you use computers long enough, chances are you’ll eventually want to learn at least a little bit of programming. You can only hear so many stories about exciting new apps and whole businesses built from several thousands lines of code before you start thinking that you could do it, too.
Problem is, it’s often daunting to get started programming. Most programming books almost seem too difficult, or else they start out so slow and basic that you’re bored before you even get started. We clearly need a new way for the next generation of coders to learn how to program. And You Said it Couldn’t be Done… Codecademy is a neat new startup that’s focused on making it simple for anyone to learn how to code in any popular language right from their browser.
Anyone who’s been to college, or just taken a special class online or at a learning center, knows how hard it can be to register and figure out when everything’s going to happen. Getting started with an app was never simpler Digging Into Coding. QR Hacker: Customize a colourful, unique QR code. UNESCO Launchs ICT Competency Framework for Teachers. Tweeting for teachers: how can social media support teacher professional development? | Pearson Centre for Policy and Learning. Easy Private Video Sharing & Hosting - Share Videos Privately! Communication Through The Ages. Evaluating Web-based material for your academic work by Karl Drinkwater on Prezi. Digeratii: Mario just found the most... Schools issued with 743-point behaviour checklist. Triptico | Inspiration for Imaginative Teachers. Impact -Mr. Mitchell's Blog – asksir.co.uk.