English. My Favourite Day - Christmas. The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2015 – So Far. As regular readers know, it’s time for me to begin posting my mid-year “The Best….” lists.
There are over 1,400 regularly updated lists now. You can see them all here. As usual, in order to make this list, a site had to be: * accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech savvy users. * free-of-charge. * appropriate for classroom use. * completely browser-based with no download required (however, I’ve begun to make exceptions for special mobile apps). Some sites I’m including this year are primarily geared towards teachers creating content for classroom use, but could also easily be used by students. It’s possible that a few of these sites began earlier than this year, but, if so, I’m including them in this list because they were “new to me” in 2015.
You might also want to see my recent ASCD Educational Leadership article, Apps, Apps Everywhere: Are Any Good, You Think? The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2014 The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2013. Why I’m Done With SAMR. Instead of writing my customary “hey, I’m returning to blogging post” (spoilers: I’m probably not), I want to throw something out there that’s been on my mind.
I am SICK TO DEATH of the SAMR Model. There…I said it. I feel better. At this point, some of you are thinking “#teamsnootypants”. But, I promise I can explain. However, it soon became clear that things were about to go horribly wrong. More recently, I’ve been seeing more and more schools and districts using SAMR as an evaluative metric, and as a way to make a value judgement about a teacher and their instruction. For many reasons, I think this trend is dangerous. I also think that talking about SAMR in this way perpetuates a disturbing trend in the Ed-Tech community. But probably the biggest thing is that SAMR does not address instructional context. So what does this all mean? 8 Examples of Transforming Lessons Through the SAMR Cycle.
The SAMR Model for integrating technology into teaching, developed by Dr.
Ruben Puentedura, has gained a good deal of exposure in recent years. “SAMR” is an acronym that stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition. The SAMR model provides a technique for moving through degrees of technology adoption to find more meaningful uses of technology in teaching and move away from simply using “tech for tech’s sake”. We recently discussed the SAMR model during an Academic Technology Work Group meeting at The College of Westchester. We examined the video, SAMR in 120 Seconds. Following are 8 examples of the SAMR process, each taking an example of a typical classroom exercise that does not use technology and walking it through each phase of SAMR. The goal of this exercise was to help me (and readers) better understand the SAMR model, and to really see how lessons and assessments can be transformed while considering the benefits of evolving them through these stages.
20 Free Tools for Teachers: Videos, Guides, and Printables! Anytime, anywhere, teachers like to have plenty of resources to pick from to help them create great classroom experiences to engage their students.
We’ve got some wonderful content-packed free tools for teachers to explore. They’re online and ready to be discovered! There are slideshows, printables, lesson plans, downloadable content and guides, videos, and much more. The sites listed below offer lots of stuff for all subjects and grades, so dive in and see what you can dig up. Who doesn’t love free tools, especially free tools for teachers? General Sites EdTech Teacher—a professional development resource that offers a wide range of high-quality content and resources for every kind of teacher. Internet4Classrooms—a long comprehensive list of tons of free content—everything from games and flashcards to assessment and planning tools. A Practical Way To Apply Gamification In The Classroom. How To Apply Gamification In The Classroom To Enhance Motivation As a teacher in a public school in Thailand (English Program), I have read a lot about gamification.
I haven’t noticed it before, but it is being used in our daily life in all sorts of ways. After a lot of reading, I tried to implement gamification in my classes. I would like to share with you this experience of applying gamification in the classroom; a very practical approach which costs nothing and the results are priceless. Students today are digital natives; not like their digital immigrant teachers. As a science teacher, I have noticed that students lose their attention very quickly or seem to have no motivation to learn the curriculum's topics: That’s even before the mental challenges required by the science subject.
What Is Gamification All About? Many studies have looked into the games industry to find out why games are so addictive to both children and adults. Grades Are Fun Conclusion What do you think? Quill.org — Interactive Writing and Grammar. Tools for Educators.com - Board Game Maker, printable board games, 100% customizable.