5 Ways To Support Teachers Skeptical Of Technology For some, the technology rich classroom is easy to justify. Once you have made the transition and seen the benefits, it is easy to weigh them against the potential risks and worries about the problems resulting from having a room full of devices. For these “dive right in” types, the process makes a lot of sense. Give it a try and see what happens! These are the teachers who typically make up 1:1 and BYOD pilot programs and test groups. They are also the teachers who more often than not are going to lead professional development and share what they have learned. However, the teachers to whom they will be presenting may not be so easily convinced that this change will be entirely positive. As more schools move to a 1:1 or BYOD format, it becomes increasingly important to support teachers – all teachers – effectively make that transition and to support them in that process. 1. For many teachers the greatest fear that looming changes hold is the loss of effectiveness. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Lectures Aren't Just Boring, They're Ineffective, Too, Study Finds Are your lectures droning on? Change it up every 10 minutes with more active teaching techniques and more students will succeed, researchers say. A new study finds that undergraduate students in classes with traditional stand-and-deliver lectures are 1.5 times more likely to fail than students in classes that use more stimulating, so-called active learning methods. “Universities were founded in Western Europe in 1050 and lecturing has been the predominant form of teaching ever since,” says biologist Scott Freeman of the University of Washington, Seattle. But many scholars have challenged the “sage on a stage” approach to teaching science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) courses, arguing that engaging students with questions or group activities is more effective. To weigh the evidence, Freeman and a group of colleagues analyzed 225 studies of undergraduate STEM teaching methods. Freeman says he’s started using such techniques even in large classes.
50 Must-Have Educational Apps It’s time for holiday road trips and you know what that means: driving, flying, cranky kids, and… teaching opportunities! What’s that, you say? Well, there is so much downtime during the holidays where kids and adults spend hours just passing the time… why not try out some new apps on your phone? Many of these apps were found by The Teaching Palette, be sure to check out their fantastic site for more helpful resources! From learning the ABCs to doodling, there’s plenty of terrific apps out there that will pass the time but also educate. *Most of the links below are to the iTunes store which will open another window and/or iTunes. Great Apps For Kids (And Adults) Alphabet Animals Perfect for your talented toddler, this game is packed with colorful animations, animal sounds, and tons of tips for learning their letters. WordSearch Kids Kids search and highlight vocabulary words by tapping the first and last letters. Mad Libs Just as goofy and fun as your remember. SmackTalk Annoying?
Vintage data visualization: 35 examples from before the Digital Era This is a guest post by Tiago Veloso, the founder of Visual Loop, a collaborative digital environment for everything related to information design and data visualization. He lives in Brazil, and you can connect with him online on Twitter and LinkedIn. If you follow us regularly on Visual Loop, you’ve probably noticed we like to featured not only modern interactive visualizations and infographics, but also examples from the past, from the time when there were no computer softwares to help analyzing and designing and no Internet to access and share data. Graphics, charts, diagrams and visual data representations have been published on books, newspapers and magazines since they exist, not to mention old maps and scientific illustrations, and despite the lack of tools such as the ones we have at our disposal nowadays, they are as inspiring and important as the best contemporary visualizations. A Map of Physics (1939) (A 1939 Map of Physics) (Via Strange Maps) (image:John Snow,1854 ) (image:P.
5 BYOD Education Issues To Consider 5 BYOD Education Issues To Consider Posted by Derrick Rowe on Fri, Jun 21, 2013 @ 01:39 PM Another school year finally comes to its end. Some main areas to focus on when looking to prepare your school wireless network for BYOD implementation are: Network CapabilitiesSecurityManagementPolicyRole Based Access Control Network Capabilities The growth of BYOD in education means more mobile devices. Security BYOD security is important in any industry, and education is no exception. Management While your wireless network grows to a more complex system to support the growth of BYOD, it is best to have a centralized management system. Also as mentioned above, MDM (mobile device management) is essential to maintaining tight security. Role Based Access Control Role based access control is also another aid in security. Policy Having a thorough, well thought out BYOD policy is extremely important. Understanding these factors when accepting BYOD in your school is extremely important.
How to Optimize Your Brain: Why Refining Emotional Recall is the Secret to Better Memory by Maria Popova “You are what you remember — your very identity depends on all of the events, people and places you can recall.” We’ve seen the many ways in which our memory can be our merciless traitor: it is not a recording device but a practitioner of creative plagiarism, a terrible timekeeper, and the bent backbone in the anatomy of lying. How, then, can this essential human faculty become our ally? In The Art of Doing: How Superachievers Do What They Do and How They Do It So Well (public library) — a compendium of pragmatic advice on such modern fixations and timeless aspirations as how to create a great company culture (courtesy of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh) to how to be funny (courtesy of Alec Baldwin) to how to fight for justice (courtesy of Constance Rice) — neurologist, neuropsychiatrist, and prolific brain-book author Richard Restak offers some vital tips on how to optimize your brain, central to which is honing the capacity and performance of your memory: Donating = Loving
Top 8 Web Tools for Teacher's Professional Development I have been recently posting about teacher's professional development using web technologies and each time I do I would get emails asking for the tools I use personally. I compiled a list of the top 8 platforms I use almost daily for expanding my knowledge and staying updated about the topics that interest me the most. Being a graduate researcher in the field of educational technology and from my own experience of several years blogging in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, I highly recommend the tools below and I personally view them as the most important platforms for growing professionally.
How to Develop Student Creativity undefined Copyright © 1996 by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from ASCD. Introduction: Theory of Creativity "Alice is brilliant, but she doesn't have a drop of creative talent." How many times have we, as teachers, administrators, researchers, or parents, heard remarks like these? Buying Low and Selling High The investment theory of creativity (Sternberg and Lubart 1995) asserts that creative thinkers are like good investors: They buy low and sell high. Creative ideas are both novel and valuable. Evidence abounds that creative ideas are rejected (Sternberg and Lubart 1995). From the investment view, then, the creative person buys low by presenting a unique idea and attempts to convince other people of its value. 1. 2.
Tech Writing Handbook - Dozuki That rule applies doubly if you’re writing for the internet. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox are all called web browsers instead of web readers for a reason. People don’t read web pages. They scan, hunting and pecking for words and phrases that they find pertinent. Even paper manuals aren’t “well read,” in the classic sense. Check out this example of an actual warranty statement from an actual kitchen appliance: Example 1: We suggest you complete and return the enclosed product registration card promptly to facilitate verification of the date of original purchase. It’s only three sentences, but it’s dense, impersonal, and wordy. Example 2: Please return your completed product registration card so we can verify your purchase date. Isn’t that better? How to make paragraphs more concise Lead with the most important information: Front-load useful details. Get rid of unimportant information: Readers want just the facts, so eliminate any off-topic information. How to make sentences more concise