Texting in the Classroom: Not Just a Distraction

The Pew Research Center released new data this week on Americans' text-messaging habits. According to Pew, 83 percent of American adults now own cell phones and almost three-quarters (73 percent) send and receive text messages. The research only looks at adults' usage of text-messaging, but it does find that younger adults are much more active texters than older age groups. The Pew study doesn't look at the texting habits of those under age 18, but a study released last year by Nielsen found that those cellphone users in the 13 to 17 age range were the most avid texters among any age group. Certainly that age group -- in fact, all those under 18 -- are increasingly likely to be cellphone owners. With the ubiquity of cellphones, many schools are facing questions about what to do when students bring cellphones to school. The popularity of text-messaging has long been given as one of the main reasons why cellphones are a distraction in the classroom.

Teacher Resources and Classroom Games :: Teach This 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. 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. “You can’t just make up words,” Harmon said, “but kids would make up words anyway and it ended up being a real word.

Seven Videos All Educators Should Watch - StumbleUpon Summer is a time when many of us are thinking about and planning professional development workshops for our schools and for other schools. I've always found that a short 3-5 minute video can be a good introduction to a PD sessions and or make for a nice thought-provoking break during a PD session. Here are seven videos that I think serve those purposes well. The "classic" of course is the various incarnations of Karl Fisch's and Scott McLeod's Did You Know? Version 4.0 is embedded below, but I still prefer this version. Educational Change Challenge is a video that I came across just last week on the first day of ISTE 2010. Here's another "classic" in the field. Social Media Revolution is a must-watch for all of those who think social media is nothing more than a time-sink. And when you're wondering what teachers make, Taylor Mali has some answers for you. Finally, on a lighter note for fans of The Office.

Teachers Love SMART Boards: SMART Board: Tips Here is a article called “Whiteboards for Dummies” written by Calvin Hennick for Scholastic – Administrator. This article discusses how to utilize your SMART Board more effectively by identifying some of the obstacles of using a SMART Board once you get it into your classroom. The stories about using it to hang... read more It’s finally here! In 2007, I created a WallWisher Wall called Why do Teachers Love SMART Boards and asked teachers to write a short comment on why they loved their SMART Board. Here's a short video tutorial on how to extend a Notebook theme farther down on the page. I'm excited to announce a new podcast called Get SMART with SMART Boards. Are you a SMART Board user? This is the solution to Challenge #12 called "Watch This." I hope you'll be as amazed as I was with the submissions for this week's challenge – Random Number. This is the solution for Challenge #9: Precise Object Spacing. The Smart Notebook Challenge #2 is now in the books.

iPad Apps for Education Add As the first real contender in the category of streamlined computing tablets, the iPad has captured its share of hype. The iPad’s potential remains undeniable, particularly in education. Education is discovery, education is interaction, and education is exploration. I believe that the ultimate goal of the iPad (and its future ilk) is to be so intuitive that the user will forget they are interacting with a piece of technology. The iPad (or any technology) will not replace live instruction, as some have suggested, anytime soon. Few barriers stand between my vision for the classroom of tomorrow and the iPad concept as it stands today. For a more concrete sense of what the iPad can do, I’ve made my picks for the best existing iPad apps for education, and provided examples of where I hope developers take their apps in the near future. Top 3 Education Apps of Today 1. 3D Cell Simulation and Stain Tool 2. It’s a tight race in the Astronomy field between these two apps. Star Walk Screenshot 3.

iPad in Education I had a reasonably extended play with the iPad and I am very impressed. I think it has real potential as an educational tool. It's worth getting a few of my niggles out of the way first before writing about my generally positive reaction to it:A few of the issues I have relate to the way the iPad has to be tied to an iTunes account. Have you tried them in a class yet? My first impressions are very good.