How Should Social Media Be Taught in Schools? Before we ask how, I think we should address why social media should be taught in schools. Students may appear to be comfortable using social media, but don’t assume that they know how to use it appropriately in a classroom setting. Educators Baiyun Chen and Thomas Bryer from the University of Central Florida conducted research on instructional strategies for social media last year, and they pointed out that, “one of the common themes in previous research is that students use social media for personal reasons, but rarely for educational or learning purposes.” With this in mind, teaching students how to appropriately use social media becomes not just a good idea; it becomes a school’s responsibility. The Gift of Social Learning Social media can provide two things that are critical for student engagement in a literate environment: audience and purpose. Audience refers to those who will see what students create and share. Purpose is the reason students are doing the work.
The Long-Term Effects Of Skipping Your Homework Not every student loves reading, there’s no argument on that. We’ve talked about a lot of resources for learning to read and making reading fun and easy for students, but we haven’t really talked about where that reading fits in to the larger picture of a students’ education. Though the information in the infographic below isn’t very new (the reference notes 1987), the numbers still hold true. I think this lesson is important for adults, too. (Thanks to the Perry Lecompton School District in Perry, KS, for the infographic!) The Truth Behind 'Out Of Office' Replies The Funny Thing About Cheating [COMIC] 7.38K Views 0 Likes Have you ever caught a student cheating? Were you impressed at the lengths he or she went to in order to actually cheat? I've known some who would have aced a test had they spent as much time focusing on the test rather than on cheating. Welcome Back To School [Comic] 4.02K Views 0 Likes We are living in a world of connectivity. Why School Websites Suck. 1.98K Views 0 Likes Ever been to a school website trying to find the mailing address of it... only to find yourself assaulted with racially diverse pictures, a virtual tour, and a lot of marketing language?
6 Ways Students Can Collaborate With iPads The following post is written by Greg Kulowiec of EdTechTeacher . Join EdTechTeacher at the iPad Summit in Atlanta on April 10-12. The app store is loaded with options that allow students to create content on their iPads. From comic strip creators to mind maps, video editing and publishing, screencasting & digital books, the options for individual student creation are expanding. However, collaboration between students is often a critical component of any classroom activity or project and increasingly there are options available that allow for collaborative efforts across iPads. Below are six ways to support collaboration between student iPads that cover the spectrum of creation options that range from text to digital storytelling to video creation. Explain Everything ($2.99) A flexible and powerful screen casting option, students and teachers can collaborate on screencasts by exporting Explain Everything project files from an iPad. Google Drive (Free) BookCreator ($4.99) Subtext (free) Diigo
5 Interesting Ways Schools Use iPads There are iPads flooding into just about every classroom and school these days. Or so it seems. Judging by the amount of interest from educators, students, and administrators, it’s easy to see that the iPad is a becoming a topic of discussion (at the very least) for many of us. So what are some of the more interesting ways schools use iPads and how are schools currently implementing them? Below are just a handful of examples but there are boatloads more. To Encourage History Discussions Bringing the past to life is a great reason to integrate technology into any classroom or lesson. To Bring Teachers To Rural Areas There’s a rural area of Sweden (Vindeln) that has seen iPads become a critical tool in filling teacher vacancies or simply bringing instruction to many areas not normally reachable by standard education systems. To Streamline Med School You may start seeing your doctor carrying around an iPad. To Enhance Learning For Students With Disabilities To Create Interactive Textbooks
Vine: The Good, the Bad and the Inappropriate I've got to confess two things: 1. I spend a lot of time on Twitter (to be fair, I'm paid to), and 2. I do like a nice, new, easy-to-use toy. So I'm pretty happy about Vine, the new (free) video-sharing app for iPhone / iPod touch which enables users to share clips up to six seconds in length within Twitter, Facebook and the app community. It launched with a Twitter CEO Dick Costolo posting a video of someone preparing a steak tartare, but here's the Vine blog telling you more about it. What's the appeal of Vine? Brevity. Any down sides? I agree with the BBC that the looping nature (the video plays over and over) could be irritating: don't set it to play and leave your desk. Dancing dinosaurs vine.co/v/b5HOiA3YB9p— Christina Bonnington (@redgirlsays) January 24, 2013 How might brands use it? It's hard to think of a retail brand which wouldn't be able to engage and delight with Vine. Last but not least .. How will we measure success? How's the privacy? It's not.
The Top 10 Books In The World Why TED Talks Have Become So Popular 5.67K Views 0 Likes TED talks are useful and free ways to bring high-level thinking and through-provoking ideas into the classroom and your home. 5 Things To Know About SXSWedu 5.65K Views 0 Likes The real story for anyone reading this is SXSWedu, the education-oriented version of the conference that's turning into a force of nature. How Social Media Is Used Around The World 8.05K Views 0 Likes In a fascinating infographic, we get a look at how social media is used around the world by a variety of countries.
20 Ways To Make Professional Development More Effective “One goal of a staff meeting is to get teachers excited about teaching the next day.” Todd Whitaker As we near the Common Core implementation and more focus is placed on critical thinking and content literacy comprehension, administrators often ask how to best utilize their staff meeting time to promote best instructional practices. See Also: How Common Core Standards Mesh With Education Technology In years past, staff meetings have notoriously been used to collectively discuss the school fundraiser or to subject colleagues to “death by bullet point” presentations. Experience has taught us that spending precious staff meeting time reading what could have been sent out in a memo is a detrimental and wasteful practice that must end. How To Increase Collaboration, Focus on Best Practices, and Get Teachers Excited About Teaching Establish the idea that there is no room for negativity at a staff meeting-too much is at stake for negativity to hijack the group. Let’s Demand Curiosity.
5 Amazing Ways To Collaborate With Another Class “Ms. Clark, when are we going to do that again?” Nothing makes me happier as an educator than hearing those words – and lately, I have been hearing them a lot! It is not the question, as much as the look on the faces of my students, that I enjoy the most. As we began our journey, some of our classes had 1:1 iPads, but others did not. If collaboration is something that interests you – and it should - here are five easy and highly engaging ways you can begin (or even improve) your journey. 1. If you have not heard of a Mystery Skype yet – stop what you are doing and read this amazing blog post by a really innovative educator Craig Badura ( @mrbadura ) from Nebraska. In this scenario, kids get to apply and use geographical knowledge, critical thinking, and the skill of deduction. Tip: The world is your oyster with this type of project. 2. I think most educators see the value in having students within their own class collaborate on a Google Doc – but it is time to think bigger! 3. 4. 5.
Let’s Laugh! 10+ Resources & Activities for Inspiring Laughter in Your Class “Laughter is more than just a pleasurable activity…When people laugh together, they tend to talk and touch more and to make eye contact more frequently.”~Gretchen Rubin April Fool’s day is around the corner and it’s a great time to get your students laughing while learning. Laughter is healthy and gets us to relieve the stress of language learning. Many of these lessons deal with studying the language in jokes. Joke Mingle You can have students bring in jokes for any topic, grammar, or vocabulary you teach. Students memorize at least one of the jokes.Put students in pairs facing each other.Give them 30 seconds to a minute to tell their jokes.Blow the whistle. My Favorite Joke Have students present their favorite jokes to the class then discuss where they first heard the joke, who told them the joke, and why they think the joke is so funny. Corniest Joke Contest One of the ways to get your students laughing is to have them tell corny jokes. Jokes Across Cultures Research a Joke Jigsaw Jokes