A Lesson at the Zoo: Enhancing Field Trips with iPads Recently I hosted 20 teachers in my school district at the zoo for an afternoon. The idea was to explore how we might use iPads during a field trip. It was certainly an exciting form of professional development. Instead of sitting at a desk and listening to someone like me talk about what you could do, we just went out and did it! Teachers had a lot of fun, and many ideas were shared. Below are some of the activities that we (I co-hosted the afternoon with a colleague, Diane) gave to the teachers, as well as some ideas that came to mind throughout the afternoon. Some of the best experiences we give our students happen during field trips; the zoo, a museum, nature walk, etc. For many schools, a day or two at the zoo is The big field trip of the year. While an iPad and iPhone are great tools for taking video, some tips can make the outcome more enjoyable. Instead of just showing the animals and exhibits at your location, try having the students interview each other. Remind students to:
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Apps for Professional Development Twitter App (free) Twitter is one of the most active and beneficial social networks on the web. All educators would be wise to join the conversation. If you haven’t used Twitter yet, I would recommend that you read these excellent blog posts: Google Voice (free) Text and call for free! Skype (free) A beautiful app that allows you to make and receive VOIP calls on your iOS device. HeyTell (free) A fun “walkie-talkie” app for quick voice communication. Consumption Apps FlipBoard (free) A beautiful app that turns your RSS reader (such as Google Reader) into a magazine. Zite (free) Similar to FlipBoard, however instead of just providing a beautiful interface to view content you select, Zite tries to introduce you to new content sources based off of sources you currently read. QR Code Readers Quick-Response codes are the strange black and white boxes that have begun appearing everywhere. Diigo (free) Research Apps: Genius Scan (free)
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6 Classroom Management Tips Every Teacher Can Use By Dave Foley Found In: classroom management, discipline, routines & procedures Effective teachers are passionate about educating their students. They want to spend their time teaching, not dealing with classroom disruptions. Here are some classroom management tips to help teachers settle problems, or prevent them from occurring, so that they can spend more of the classroom hour on teaching and learning. 1. Get everyone’s attention before beginning class. 2. If students aren’t paying attention or busy doing other things, get them focused by using nonverbal signals of disapproval. If non-verbal cues are disregarded, the next step will be imposing discipline measures within the classroom such as having them stay a few minutes after class or changing their seat. 3. At the beginning of the school year, let students sit where they want for a few days. 4. If the student has not made a real effort, then that student will be given a short homework assignment, due the next day. 5. 6.
La era Tablet: ¿Qué significa para el sistema educativo? Negar que las tablets se han impuesto como gadget predilecto en el mercado de la computación personal es cerrar los ojos ante una gran evidencia. Donde antes era netbook para arriba, y smartphone para abajo, ahora es iPad esto, y Galaxy tab lo otro. La tablet se ha convertido en muy poco tiempo en sustituto de muchos artilugios y objetos de la vida diaria, como el periódico, el cajero automático para revisar nuestro saldo, el PC, o incluso el teléfono móvil. Pero ¿Qué valor tienen estos dispositivos para el sistema educativo? Países como Estados Unidos llevan muchos años llenando las aulas de equipos informáticos. En España la iniciativa, en lugar del gobierno central, la han tenido las instituciones regionales, por lo que el proceso de informatización de las escuelas está siendo lento, fragmentado, y por el momento, escaso. ¿Por qué las tablets? Es bueno para tí, ¿es bueno para el mundo? En la misma linea, hay que destacar la labor medioambiental que se realizaría de esta forma.
Possibillion Launches Paginative: Create Mobile Apps Out of Books! - Yourstory Founded by Ayyappa Nagubandi, Possibillion is an ‘ideas’ company that works in the space of mobile applications. Before moving on to Possibillion, Ayyappa was a part of a start-up company NowPos. He brings in 14 years of work experience and has been intricately connected with conceptualising and evolving technology development. “As the world shrinks and everybody moves towards the shrinking mobile phone, it is only appropriate that development in this sector is perceived as the most happening space in technology. Possibillion’s core competence are in development of mobile apps and web 2.0 applications where social media is tightly tied into the service offerings. Paginative Paginative is a simple way to create mobile apps of books. “We realised that virtually everything that is to happen is happening on the mobile phone. Process and pricing It’s an easy process where all one needs to do is copy and paste. Services and possibilities ahead
LA HISTORIA DE LA FILOSOFÍA EN VIDEOS Online Education UPDATE: we're doing a live, updated MOOC of this course at stanford-online July-2014 (not this Coursera version). See here: CS101 teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. Computers can appear very complicated, but in reality, computers work within just a few, simple patterns. In CS101, students play and experiment with short bits of "computer code" to bring to life to the power and limitations of computers. Here is another video Nick created for this class.