Using a classroom webpage to communicate with parents CONSISTENT COMMUNICATION BETWEEN TEACHERS AND PARENTS can be a complicated goal to achieve. Busy teachers find it hard to take time out of their day to make phone calls or write notes to working parents who are difficult to contact. Yet administrators, teachers, and parents continue to strive for regular interaction as a way of involving parents in classroom life and improving student achievement. Using a classroom webpage to connect classrooms and communities Kathleen Eveleigh gathers her first-grade students on the floor in front of her to write a summary of the school day’s events. The positive response from families was immediate. Extended family members and friends also enjoy checking the class webpage to see what children are doing. I’m so glad you’re updating the webpage. Students use the class webpage to connect to the classroom from home. Content of Kathleen’s site Every teacher’s webpage at Scroggs has links to schoolwide information. Kathleen’s site also includes:
iPad Insight | iPad blog for app reviews, news, tips,how-tos 5 ways the iPad and education could go together | Stratepedia Blog You’ve no doubt heard by now that Apple’s newest gadget, the iPad, was announced on Wednesday. Based on what was shared during Steve Jobs’ keynote demonstration, the iPad looks to be lightweight, easy to use, and super-fast. (A shorter, more digestible video is available on the iPad site). By now, every gadget blog and ed tech pundit has at least said something about the iPad. Keep in mind that most of them–including me–have yet to actually get hands-on exposure to the device. 1. This is the most obvious possibility, so I’ll lead off with it to get it out of the way. iBooks, the iPad’s built-in e-reader, needs some work before it can be a viable replacement to textbooks (or, to a degree, existing devices like the Kindle). 2. From a technology administrator’s perspective, I figure there’s a lot to like about the iPad versus a netbook or notebook computer. 3. OK, let’s get into something fun. 4. Students could use the iPad to collect data as well, in the field or science lab. 5. What else?
Bloom’s Taxonomy and iPad Apps LearningToday shares with everyone two beautiful posters, that help us remember Bloom’s Taxonomy: the Blooming Butterfly and the Blooming Orange. How do we connect the Bloom’s Taxonomy with the iPad? Following inDave Mileham and Kelly Tenkeley’s footsteps of assigning iPad apps to the different levels of the Bloom’s Taxonomy, I created the following table with apps that I have tested out and am recommending. (Click to see a larger version of the image) In order to make the cut, the app had to fulfill the criteria (from Wikipedia and according to the Blooming Orange’s verbs) set out for each level. I want to encourage/challenge you, to take a look at the iPad apps on YOUR iPad and to categorize these apps with the different thinking levels and THEN take the next step to SHARE your list with other educators. Remember: Exhibit memory of previously-learned materials by recalling facts, terms, basic concepts and answers. describenamefindnamelisttell Suggested apps: Suggested Apps: Suggested Apps
iPads In Education – How’s It Going So Far? A growing number of schools have launched programs to provide iPads to students. What returns is this investment yielding? There’s no doubt the iPad is a hot topic in education technology today. Just about every week, my preconfigured Google Alerts deliver stories about schools that have decided to provide iPads to their students. With this trend on the rise, the question arises as to how well this investment is paying off at schools that have taken the plunge. Picture from article about iPad adoption at Naselle High School This week I decided to do a little web research to learn more about this topic. Naselle High School – teachers and students motivated and engagedThe first article I came across was this one, about the rollout of iPads at Naselle High School in Washington state in the US. They put some solid effort into into implementation planning. Higher Education – a more balanced perspective? The article contains a lengthy and informative section discussing “Pluses and Minuses”.
YouTube in the Classroom - Using YouTube Videos in the ESL Classroom Now that a growing majority of Internet users have broadband, YouTube and other video clip sites (Google Video, Vimeo, etc.) have become very popular - especially with young adults. These sites also provide English learners and classes with a new tool to improve listening skills. The real advantage to these sites - at least from a language learning point of view - is that they offer authentic examples of everyday English used by everyday people. Of course, this is the challenge. Aim: Improve listening skills Activity: Sharing YouTube videos Level: Intermediate to advanced Outline: At the end of one of your classes, decide on a particular topic that your class would enjoy.
Games, Pop-Ups, 3D, and More – The iPad is Changing Books Forever Hogworld lets you guide Gnart through a story that is a hybrid of book and video game. I grew up on a healthy regimen of Choose-Your-Own Adventure books, Nintendo, and role playing games, but even I am intimidated by the new brand of interactive storytelling that is flooding the iPad. More designers are exploring how the frenzy around Apple’s tablet computer is evolving e-books into something new. Sure, you can find traditional children’s picture books directly translated onto the iPad that simply let you flip through on a touchscreen, but there’s so much more the medium allows. First on our list of the kind of interactive stories is Hogworld by Snowcastle Studios in Norway. What if you’re not a child? Also from Tool of North America is something that I can’t really call a story, but is still close enough to the genre that I find it interesting. Okay, okay. A little tamer of a book is Alice by Atomic Antelope. In a similar vein to Alice is The Little Mermaid and Other Stories by H.C.
Effects of Technology on Classrooms and Students A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n Change inStudent andTeacherRoles When students are using technology as a tool or a support for communicating with others, they are in an active role rather than the passive role of recipient of information transmitted by a teacher, textbook, or broadcast. The student is actively making choices about how to generate, obtain, manipulate, or display information. Technology use allows many more students to be actively thinking about information, making choices, and executing skills than is typical in teacher-led lessons. Moreover, when technology is used as a tool to support students in performing authentic tasks, the students are in the position of defining their goals, making design decisions, and evaluating their progress. The teacher's role changes as well. Project-based work (such as the City Building Project and the Student-Run Manufacturing Company) and cooperative learning approaches prompt this change in roles, whether technology is used or not.
10 Free E-Book Sites for iPad Want to get the most out of your iPad - Are you using it as an e-reader? There are multiple sites that offer free downloads of both classic and contemporary publications and the reading experience on the iPad is actually quite good. The font size, the instant access to chapters and pages and the .......all make for a positive reading experience. Coupled with this is the fact that this is about the only way to get anybody under the age of 20 to read for any length of time at all. For younger readers and kids learning to the read the interactive experience will engender a love of interaction with the written word. This is especially true of the newer types of apps that are coming out. But what is available as Free e-books or downloads and where can you access them. 1. Project Gutenberg offers over 36,000 free ebooks to download to your PC, Kindle, Android, iOS or other portable device. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 23,469 Classics to go OK this one is not really FREE. 9.
iPads Make Better Readers, Writers Literacy Skills iPads Make Better Readers, Writers In a research paper titled “Unlocking Literacy with iPad,” Ohio English teacher James Harmon found that state-compiled statistics indicate that those students with iPad access in the year leading up to the Ohio Graduation Test had a 6-percent greater chance of passing the test’s reading portion than those without, and an 8-percent greater chance of passing the writing portion. By Margo Pierce09/06/11 Once upon a time teachers stood in front of a blackboard writing letters of the alphabet with chalk and drilling students to develop literacy skills. But now that children are growing up with laptops, streaming video, and even iPads, what’s a teacher to do? During the 2010-2011 school year Harmon conducted a “teacher-research” study to measure the effect Apple’s iPad had on the language test scores of his students taking the annual Ohio Graduation Test. This convinced Harmon of the appropriateness of the iPad as a teaching tool.
From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning Top 10 best tips and tricks for new iPhone and iPad users | TiPb New to iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad and wondering what tips and tricks you really need to know to get started? Have friends and family that are new to iPhone and would love to have a handy link to send them? Look no further. Carefully curated below are TiPb's top 10 tips and tricks for new users -- everything you need to know to get going now. Note: If you're really brand new, check out our New User Guide first, the fastest way to get up and running and enjoying your new device. How the Home button works: Navigation, Multitasking, Accessibility, Restart, Reboot, Recovery, and DFU Because the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad have only a few buttons, the Home button does a ton of different things. Typing tips and keyboard shortcuts for iPhone and iPad Wish you had a faster way to insert punctuation or get to caps or numbers on the iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad virtual keyboard? How to protect your iPhone or iPad with a Passcode Lock How to set up a Passcode Lock How to take a screenshot Your top tip?
Home - The Geometer's Sketchpad Resource Center 39 Sites For Using iPads in the Classroom Pages - Menu This Blog Linked From Here Sites to Follow Friday, October 7, 2011 39 Sites For Using iPads in the Classroom How Much Did Steve Jobs Change the World? 5 Great iPad Apps For Early Childhood Teachers10 iPad Apps Everyone Should Have- from PC Magazine10 Must Have iPad Apps for Students and Teachers10 Ways to Use iPads in Your Classroom40 iPad Apps Librarians Love40 Most Awesome iPad Apps for Science Students50+ iPad Apps By a Geography Teacher62 Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom100 Incredibly Useful and Free iPad AppsBest Academic Reference Apps for the iPad- some $$, some freeA Day in the Life of the iPad ClassroomThe Debate Over iPads in EducationDigital Storytelling with the iPad Posted by Julie Greller at 7:24 AM Labels: ipads, ipads in the classroom, using ipads in the classroom Newer PostOlder PostHome