Web literacy: Where the Common Core meets common sense We believe it’s essential for every teacher to develop lessons that challenge students to learn how to verify sources; here’s one example By Alan November and Brian Mull Read more by Contributor May 25th, 2012 “To ensure that students learn the grammar and strategies of the web, we believe it’s essential for every teacher to develop lessons that challenge students to learn how to verify sources,” the authors write. (Editor’s note: This is Part Two of a series of articles on developing web literacy among students. Are you as worried as we are that the overall impact of technology on our children’s ability to solve complex research problems is negative? Research shows that students primarily use one search engine and then only look at the first page of results. A very depressing view of the state of American students’ approach to internet research comes from a recent op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal. Attend Alan November’s ed-tech conference and get $100 off the cost of registration!
Sweet Search Teachers’ Ultimate Guide to Using Videos With one billion monthly users (and growing), YouTube’s popularity is a pretty clear indication that video is a powerful medium. And kids’ unrelenting fascination with videos is motivating many educators to find ways to leverage them for all kinds of purposes. But the best ways of using videos are not always obvious. Teachers want to know: Among all the millions of videos out there, how do you find the great ones? How do you evaluate the quality of a video? Who are the great content creators, and what are the best curation sites? In collaboration with educator Catlin Tucker, MindShift presents Teachers’ Guide to Videos [PDF], to answer these questions and more. Related
Five technology skills every student should learn Readers say technology literacy is about much more than learning how to use certain applications By Meris Stansbury, Associate EditorRead more by Meris Stansbury September 4th, 2012 “It’s important to remember that technology is there to bend to your will, not the other way around,” said one reader. What are the most critical technology skills for students to learn? From having the courage to experiment with different technologies to possessing online literacy, readers said being a tech-savvy student in the 21st century is about much more than learning how to use a certain software program or device—it’s about being able to adapt to what’s constantly changing. What do you think of this list? (Comments edited for brevity.) 1. “Students need to be able to read a news article and determine if there is bias and if it’s truthful. See also:Why more schools aren’t teaching web literacy—and how they can startWeb literacy: Where the Common Core meets common senseAre kids all that techno-smart?
Questioning Authority: Evaluating Wikipedia Articles Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation, with an assistant, James Owen.Go to related article » Overview | If Wikipedia is a collaborative project open to all, why are fewer than 15 percent of the site’s contributors women? How authoritative and complete do Wikipedia articles tend to be? In this lesson, students evaluate Wikipedia articles and consider the factors that contribute to the articles’ reliability. Materials | Copies of the Fill-In: Wikpedia and Gender (optional), student journals, computers with Internet access Warm-up | Give students 10 minutes to complete the Fill-In: Wikpedia and Gender, which introduces them to the article they will be reading in class. Next, give students two minutes to write down as many topics they have looked up on Wikipedia as they can remember. Now discuss students’ experiences with Wikipedia, now in its 10th year as an online reader-generated public encyclopedia. Technology 2. Language Arts 1.
50 really useful iPad 2 tips and tricks An absolute gem of an article by John Brandon and Graham Barlow from MacLife on 30th March over at TechRadar. This is going to become my iPad manual from here on in. Customised iPads for all iPad 2 tips and original iPad tips - get 'em here! With great new features like two video cameras, a faster processor and a thinner design, the iPad 2 is the world's best tablet device. iPad 2 review It's also fully capable of running the latest version of Apple's iOS operating system and great apps like iMovie and GarageBand. 1. iOS now supports folders. 2. Double-clicking the Home button shows you all the apps that are running on your iPad in a bar along the bottom of the screen. 3. The internet got mightily upset when Orientation Lock was replaced with Mute on the iPad during the last iOS update. 4. If you're carrying around sensitive data, you can now enable a feature that'll erase all the data on the device if someone inputs the incorrect passcode 10 times. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Why more schools aren’t teaching web literacy—and how they can start Fourteen years after we first published ‘Teaching Zack to Think,’ here’s a new three-part framework for making sure students are internet savvy By Alan November and Brian MullRead more by Contributor May 8th, 2012 If you follow the dictate that we teach what we test, it’s understandable why schools haven’t spent more time preparing students to be web literate since NCLB was passed. In 1998, a 15-year-old high school student used the personal website of a professor at Northwestern University, Arthur Butz, as justification for writing a history paper called “The Historic Myth of Concentration Camps.” That student, who we will call Zack, had been encouraged to use the internet for research, but he had not been taught to decode the meaning of the characters in a web address. Without web literacy, Zack believed Butz’s explanation. It turns out that validating content is not rocket science. Attend Alan November’s ed-tech conference and get $100 off the cost of registration!
Plagiarism Tutorial: Test Your Knowledge Plagiarism is a serious academic offense! The University of Southern Mississippi's undergraduate and graduate bulletins both include statements about plagiarism: "When cheating is discovered, the faculty member may give the student an F on the work involved or in the course. If further disciplinary action is deemed appropriate, the undergraduate student should be reported to the Dean of Students. A graduate student should be reported to the Dean of the Graduate School." "In addition to being a violation of academic honesty, cheating violates the code of student conduct and may be grounds for probation, suspension, expulsion, or all three." When a student avoids plagiarizing someone else's work, she or he doesn't just avoid doing something wrong.
About - Digital Library The Digital Library is a database of articles about successful VoiceThread projects. Our hope is to create a resource that offers guidance and inspiration for people undertaking new projects. Please contribute a VoiceThread to help the Digital Library grow. All About Polar Bears - Kindergarten ESL by Monica Schnee Monica Schnee taught a nonfiction social studies/science unit about polar bears. Higher Ed Grammar Practice - Infinitive or Gerund? Students practice grammar by forming sentences from a word cloud. Language learners use VoiceThread to practice speaking - Bophany Huot, City College of San Francisco This is a great example of how an ESL student can practice her computer skills and her language skills to talk about everyday activities. Education Using VoiceThread in an online course from Professor Russ Meade VoiceThread "humanizes" the on-line classroom experience. Higher Ed from Della Curtis English/Lang Arts Lubo's Dream - First Grade English by Katie Stover The C.U.B. Comparing J.S.
Google Drive Versus Evernote: Which Is Better For iOS Users? Google released version 1.1 of Google Drive for iOS Monday. Now iPhone and iPad users can edit Google Docs natively on their devices for the first time. With 5GB of free storage, integration with other Google services, and powerful text and image recognition when searching for files, Google Drive is now a formidable challenger to Evernote on iOS. How do they stack up? Best User Interface: Google Drive Evernote’s design resources are stretched pretty thin. The iPad version is the clearest example. If Evernote just cloned the two-column view of the desktop version, it would be closer to iPad conventions. On the iPhone, Evernote is just cramped. Google Drive for iOS is faster, cleaner, and better organized. Best Editing Features: Google Drive As a rich text editor, Evernote is almost okay. It’s much better for photo capture. Google Drive has OCR, too, and it also brings Google’s search power to bear in a way Evernote can’t. Best Storage Features: Evernote Best Business Model: Evernote
My Resources on E-Portfolios ePortfolios for Learning I have created this blog to discuss my ideas on electronic portfolios to support lifelong learning. I hope to share some of my concerns about the current direction of electronic portfolios in Higher Education and K-12 schools. Pages My Resources on E-Portfolios Resources on Electronic Portfolio Development Here is my latest list of links to resources I have created on Electronic Portfolio Development: Email ThisBlogThis! Home Subscribe to: Posts (Atom) About Me Helen Barrett Dr. View my complete profile Subscribe to... Posts All Comments There was an error in this gadget Labels Links Blog Archive ► 2013(1) ► June(1)
15 Things Teachers & Students Can Do With Edmodo Last week the Wall Street Journal had an article announcing that Edmodo had received a $15 million venture capital investment from the founder of LinkedIn and a former VP of Facebook. That article gave me the idea for this post of fifteen things teachers and students can do with Edmodo. For those not familiar with Edmodo, in a nutshell it is a microblogging system designed specifically for teachers and students. Using Edmodo teachers can create a microblogging network for their classes. Edmodo allows teachers to create a group specifically for their students and exclude those not invited to the group. Here are fifteen things teachers and students can do with Edmodo. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Do you use Edmodo?
Clearinghouse E-Newsletter SignUp Show all resources sorted by most popular most recent most popular first containing Join to rate and submit resources ← Previous Page 1 of 58 Next → (1 ratings) interactive programs for making and analyzing art. Posted by cweihe, last updated on July 21, 2012 Categories: Art (3 ratings) Heidi's presentation slides showing the importance of bringing curriculum21 into every classroom. Posted by Heidi, last updated on February 12, 2011 Categories: Professional Development Presentation by Dr. Posted by Heidi, last updated on May 22, 2012 Categories: English/Language Arts Professional Development We’re asking the children of the world to introduce us to the people of the world. Posted by Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, last updated on July 16, 2012 Categories: Global Global Education (2 ratings)
So You Want to Do Mystery Skype? Mystery Skype is one of those ideas I wish I had thought because it just so fun but instead I was lucky enough to hear about it from Caren MacConnell. The concept is simple: classrooms Skype call each other and try to guess where the other classroom is located either in the United States or in the world. There are many great resources out there but for my own sanity I am creating one list for future reference:Before the call:Sign up – there are many places to sign up and some are even grade level based. I signed up a couple of places but also tweeted it out; the response was immediate as a lot of people are doing this. If you would like to sign up: Decide on a date and time – don’t forget to consider in timezones.Prepare the kidsWe wanted to know facts about our own state so that we would be ready for any question. We therefore researched the following questions: climate, region, neighboring states, time zone, capital, famous landmarks, geographical location. Like this: Like Loading...