Eight Roles of an Effective Online Teacher June 3rd, 2013 By: Bernard Bull EdD Teaching face-to-face and teaching online are both teaching, but they are qualitatively different. In comparison, driving a car and riding a motorcycle are both forms of transportation, but they have enough differences to warrant additional training and preparation when switching from one to the other. The same is true when faculty move from the traditional classroom to the online classroom. There are some things that the two have in common, but there are also plenty of differences. Tour Guide – A tour guide leads one or more people through a place or a series of places, usually revolving around some sort of common theme or subject. Dr. Sign up today and get articles like this one delivered right to your inbox.
20th Century Assessment In A 21st Century Learning Environment 20th Century Assessment In A 21st Century Learning Environment by Terry Heick Testing is a major challenge in education. Agreeing on what’s to be tested and how it’s to be administered is a matter of much debate. It’s also a big business. According to SmarterBalanced.org, the per-student cost for testing is currently around $31 per student. Recently there has been movement in this area, with a slew of organizations– among them the Smarter Balanced Consortium linked to above–developing new approaches to assessing student understanding. These efforts include adding adaptive computer-based testing to the existing assessments forms, which in many states include short-written responses. A Picture of 21st Century Learning If you can, imagine a 21st century learning environment. Learners buzz about a classroom working on a project to improve local water quality. They demonstrate a consistent pattern of reflection, deconstruction, and evolution of thought while bridging physical and digital audiences.
A Great Animation Explaining Digital CItizenship Digital citizenship is an essential component of digital literacy. Being a digital citizen goes beyond knowing how to use technology and social media to respecting, sharing, participating and using the net effectively. Digital citizenship is a code of behaviour,an etiquette that organizes and protect our digital identity. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning has a section devoted to materials and resources teachers need to teach digital citizenship.
4 Gorgeous Interactive Android eBooks For Kids If you have ever read books to toddlers you know there’s something really special about seeing them enjoy the story. The more they understand, the more they enjoy it and it becomes a bit of a feedback loop until they suddenly move on to new stories. You may also have noticed that there’s a certain age where books with lift-up flaps, textures, things that move and instructions for the reader often become favourites among toddlers. In fact, interactivity is often cited as a great learning tool. “I hear and I forget. Icky Mr Fox Icky Mr Fox is all about Mr Fox’s disastrous efforts at getting some dinner, as he tries to catch Mr Rabbit and Mr Mole eating afternoon tea. The app needs Adobe Air to run, but is the smallest app of the bunch at 7.5M. Even Monsters Get Sick Even Monsters Get Sick is a tale to teach little ones about looking after other people and to remind them that everyone gets sick sometimes. Meet Heckerty The Meet Heckerty book is designed to be an educational, but sweet story.
Try Infuse Learning for Gathering Feedback from Students Infuse Learning is a free student response system that works with any Internet-connected device including iPads and Android tablets. One of the aspects of Infuse Learning that you may find useful from a classroom management standpoint is the option to take attendance through the service. When you register for Infuse Learning you can create individual class codes to distribute to your students. When students sign into the class using the class code their names appear in your administrative panel. Infuse Learning allows you to distribute questions, prompts, and quizzes out to your students’ devices in private virtual classrooms. Infuse Learning offers a couple of helpful accessibility options including support for multiple languages. Tags: free apps, free ipad apps, ipads in education
spreadsheet | Search Results | Teacher Tech Shared Spreadsheet Tip Tweet I like sharing my spreadsheets as “anyone can edit” or allow specific people to edit the spreadsheet. The problem with sharing a spreadsheet is the potential for your cells to accidentally be deleted. Currently the new Google Spreadsheets do … Continue reading One Spreadsheet to Rule Them All Tweet If you have a task you want your entire class to do, here is a spreadsheet tip that can make the process easier. Spreadsheet Tip: Press Escape Tweet Frequently when I am using a spreadsheet I find I accidentally started to type in another cell, erasing what was in that cell. Spreadsheet Tips: What Are Tabs? Tweet If you have ever opened a spreadsheet you may or may not have noticed the tabs at the bottom. Google Spreadsheet: Copy To Tweet If you are like me, you love Google Forms. Google Spreadsheets: Transpose in 2 easy steps TweetToday Google announced some new features for Google Sheets on their blog. Google Spreadsheets: Absolute Cell Referencing
10 Ways to Use Instagram in the Classroom Move over, Facebook—if you teach middle or high schoolers, you know that Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels for teens and tweens today. And while it may not seem like it at first, there are many applications for Instagram in the classroom. Of course, it's important to protect students' privacy, especially when using a public channel like Instagram. If you're interested in trying any of the ideas below, we recommend creating a classroom account that you set to "private" and carefully vetting any potential followers. You might also try adapting our suggestions to an educational social media platform such as Edmodo. Finally, be sure to check your school's technology policies before you begin. Okay, disclaimer over! Showcase students' work.
Game-Based Learning: What it is, Why it Works, and Where it's Going Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. –William Butler Yeats Introduction Deconstruct the fun in any good game, and it becomes clear that what makes it enjoyable is the built-in learning process. To progress in a game is to learn; when we are actively engaged with a game, our minds are experiencing the pleasure of grappling with (and coming to understand) a new system. The implications of delivering game experiences for education and training are enormous. Because of good game design, more than 11 million subscribers spend an average of 23 hours per week immersed in World of Warcraft. What is Effective Game-based Learning, and Why Does it Work? When education or training feels dull, we are not being engaged and motivated. We don’t need more time in the classroom to learn how to think and perform in the face of real-world challenges. Good game-based learning applications can draw us into virtual environments that look and feel familiar and relevant. How We Learn
Internet Safety Cheat Sheet For Digital Media Use In Schools Digital media use is exploding in education. Unfortunately, internet safety is something many teachers–and worse, students-take for granted. While many teachers–and librarians–are concerned with breaking copyright laws, controlling digital media use is often an afterthought. Or worse, so heavily scrutinized that district filters kill any authentic access at all. But as our libraries gradually become virtual spaces, and our media becomes digital, controlling digital media use is going to become increasingly relevant. Which makes Jen Gordon’s–from the aptly-named internetsafetycheatsheet.com–inforgraphic below on netflix, YouTube, Instagram, Google, and Apple hardware so relevant for you. Unless your district has already taken this burden off your shoulders.