February, 2012

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Exploring the Educational Value of Pinterest

A Principal's Reflections

'After hearing about all the hoopla surrounding Pinterest , I decided to check it out a few days ago. Up until this point I really didn’t have a clue as to what it was all about except that it was a social media tool that functioned like an electronic bulletin board. After requesting an invite, I was all set to go a day later and began to create my first pin board.

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How Things Changed With @Evernote

The Web20Classroom

'I''ll admit it. I have to be one of the most unorganized people on the planet. I have notebooks in just about every bag I carry. Multiple calendars and I still miss appointments. Slips of papers as reminders with some string of illegible thoughts on them, that, when I find them, I don''t have a clue what I was thinking when I wrote them. I have more than 10 different types of projects going on at anyone time.

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5 Areas of Consideration for Developing a BYOD Policy for Your School or District

The 21st Century Principal

'While there is some debate about whether a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Policy perpetuates inequities and the technology gap, school districts in times of tightening budgets and limited resources are looking for cost-effective ways to increase student access to technology. While BYOD should not be a substitution for adequately funding access to technology for all students, it is a means by which we do not have to ask students to unplug when their walk through our school building doors.

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Supporting Teachers and Students in the Curation of Their Digital Footprint

EdTechSandyK

'Today I am presenting a breakout session on digital footprints at the 2012 TCEA Campus Leadership Academy. Below are the slides I''ll use during my discussion with the participants. In addition to the links embedded throughout the presentation, I invite you to visit my Diigo links on digital footprint. The list is constantly growing! If you have any questions or comments after viewing the presentation (or attending it live!

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Quickly Create Personalized Learning Experiences that Work

How can we actively engage learners 24/7, on their level and according to their interests, while respecting their learning styles? It’s not impossible. In this guide: Explore how to transform traditional, one-way videos into two-way interactive learning experiences Understand different types of artificial intelligence (AI), including - Generative vs.

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Instructional Practices with Huge Impact

wwwatanabe

'So, you''ve done some formative assessment , and the results show you that the route you had planned to take with your instruction actually needs to adapt to where the students are at. Lesson planning and formative assessment remind me of planning a day trip. When I prepare for a trip, I like to have a plan or a route for where I''ll go, where I''ll park once I''m there, and what I''ll do.

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Animonths! Shaun the Sheep: Netflix and Home Sheep Home Apps

SpeechTechie

'This post continues Animonths, a two-month focus on animation resources on SpeechTechie. Shaun the Sheep is a terrific series from Aardman Animation, the UK studio that brought us Wallace and Gromit , among other gems. Their productions are great resources for targeting language because they are mostly wordless, providing an opportunity for kids to talk out the story.

iPad 71

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What Do You Mean Evernote Could Get Better?

The Web20Classroom

'Last time I wrote about the way I organize myself completely changed for the better with Evernote. Really, I can''t talk enough about this program and the endless possibilities there are for it. (Just look at the comments from that post.) In that post I gave a few resources for learning about Evernote and even fewer with how to use it in the classroom.

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3 Favorite Evernote Extensions and Apps

The 21st Century Principal

'I have posted on Evernote several times. It is undoubtedly the most versatile application I use. It is the perfect note taking, resource collecting tool available to users. And, I would add that it is one of the few apps that is entirely worth the premium price. (I say that not as a paid advertiser, but as a highly pleased user.) Here are my favorite Evernote extensions and apps.

Tools 78
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Have You Been Ignoring or Are You Oblivious to Google's March 1st Privacy Policy Change?

EdTechSandyK

'Our district technology director mentioned Google''s impending privacy policy change to me weeks ago, but I was not paying too much attention until this last week. A pretty significant privacy policy change takes effect March 1st (tomorrow). Reactions around the ''Net range from neutral/positive to highly alarmed. Ultimately, if you have personal accounts with Google (Gmail, YouTube, Google Apps/Docs, Picassa, Blogger, etc.), you should educate yourself about this.

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The #Chromebook Classroom

The Electric Educator

'This week I spent a couple of days at the Googleplex in Mountain View, CA learning more about Google''s plans for the Chrombook. Joining me were 25 educators and resellers from around the country. It was a good crowd of familiar Google Certified Teachers and Apps Certified Trainers. The Google Apps for Ed team ( Dana Nguyen , Jaime Casap , and Cristin Frodella ) were our hosts and were awesome as always!

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Can Brain Science Actually Help Make Your Training & Teaching Stick?

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

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Managing the 21st century differentiated classroom

wwwatanabe

'One size does not fit all. Classrooms must be differentiated. Created on iPad using Doodle Buddy What does a 21st century, differentiated classroom look like? A 21st century , differentiated classroom should look and sound different from the classroom of my childhood. It also looks different from one classroom to the next, because there are numerous ways to differentiate.

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Misguided Efforts in Educational Reform

A Principal's Reflections

'A few weeks back I passed along an Education Week article to administrators in my District that highlighted the many technology challenges that states anticipate with common tests. Below is a response to the article from Danielle Shanley, my Director of Curriculum and Instruction, as well as her sound synopsis of the misguided educational reform movement.

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Everyone Needs A Classroom Champion

The Web20Classroom

'Recently I became part of one of the most awesome projects anywhere around. Imagine you are 9 years old. You and your classmates are watching and learning about the Olympics, talking about the importance of fitness, graphing the stats of athletes in the various competitions, and discussing goals you have for now and the future. Then picture when an Olympic athlete that you have been watching appears in your classroom from Bejing or Alberta or South Africa via telepresence to check in on you and

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10 Signs You Are a 21st Century E-reader Reader

The 21st Century Principal

'The news is clear: the conversion to widespread use of e-readers and e-books continues apace. Textbook publishers and publishers of all types better have plans to offer e-book versions of their products or they will find their audiences limited. Today, I personally discovered a phenomenon about this e-book transition while using a physical book. I actually caught myself trying to change the page in a book using the finger-slide method I use with my e-reader devices.

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Reimagining Chickering & Gamson's Principles Post-Pandemic: Technology's Central Role in Modern Edu

This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.

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Technology Alone is not a Silver Bullet for School Improvement.

EdTechSandyK

'On Monday, February 13th, the New York Times published a story which profiled Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina. They have implemented a 1:1 laptop program for students which due to its success in improving student achievement has become a model that is being looked at by schools across the nation. The article was intriguing to me in at least two aspects.

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Learning pathways

Learning with 'e's

I recently heard a story about the building of a new university campus. Unusually, the architect hadn't designed any pedestrian paths into his plan. When asked why there were no pathways between the buildings, he replied cryptically that he was waiting to see what happened. Soon, over a period of time, as students and staff walked between the buildings, they made their own tracks through the grass.

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SpeechTechie Hits the Terrible Twos!

SpeechTechie

'Two years ago today, I published my first post here! I can''t have imagined what starting this blog would bring to my life- so many great connections with wonderful professionals. Thank you all for continuing to read my tech ramblings! I thought I would re-post my first effort, revolving around Google Earth, because I realize I still really believe in this tool.

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Twitter: A Resource For All

A Principal's Reflections

'Everyone that knows me is well aware of my professional affinity for Twitter. As I have previously mentioned many times on this blog, it was Twitter back in March of 2009 that served as a catalyst for my transformation into the leader that I am today. Prior to delving into this 140 character world I utilized traditional mediums for communication and professional development, had no idea what Web 2.0 was, and adamantly believed social media had absolutely no place in education.

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Behind the Bell: The Underlying Impact of Tardiness in K-12 Schools

Managing a K-12 campus with constant pressure to meet performance metrics is challenging. And tardiness can significantly limit a school from reaching these goals. Learn more about why chronic lateness matters, and key strategies to address the following impacts: Data errors caused by manual processes Low attendance and graduation rates that affect a school’s reputation Classroom disruption, which leads to poor academic performance High staff attrition and “The Teacher Exodus” Unmet LCAP goals t

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Safer Internet Day 2012

The Web20Classroom

'Teaching students how to use online resources effectively and appropriately should be an everyday occurrence. All members of the education community (students, teachers, administrators, parents, community) are responsible. So understanding what that responsibility means is a first step. Tomorrow is Safer Internet Day 2012. Organized in Europe, it has become a world-wide event to raise awareness and promote education for effective use of Internet resources.

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Stardock Fences: Free or Inexpensive Way to Organize Your Computer’s Desktop

The 21st Century Principal

'On occasion, I’ll walk into another school administrator’s office and while we sit and talk, I look at their computer monitor, and it looks like this: Disorganized Desktop Perhaps that is just a bit exaggerated, but it does have the same effect. There are any number of ways for Windows 7 users to organize desktops. Stardock offers a solution to Windows users in its product called Fences.

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New Kinds of Tools for New Kinds of Learners: Assess This!

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from TCEA 2012 Workshop Presented by Hall Davidson , Discovery Education Session PowerPoint posted at [link] Why do we do standardized testing the way we do it? Because it''s easy and cheap. In the last 18 months to two years, a lot has changed. McArthur Foundation says students need to be able to thrive in a Web 2.0 world. They also need to be able to thrive in a mobile world.

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Five tools for global educators

Learning with 'e's

Recently I have been considering the changing role of teachers who are adopting technology to extend the walls of the classroom. These are a new breed of teachers who do not necessarily accept that the classroom is contained within four walls. In effect, through the use of social media and telecommunication technologies, these teachers are becoming global educators.

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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

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Live Tuesday February 28th with David Weinberger on How the Internet Is Transforming Knowledge and Expertise

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'Join me Tuesday, February 28th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with David Weinberger about his new book, Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren''t the Facts, Experts Are Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. We used to know how to know. We got our answers from books or experts.

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A Commitment to Digital Learning

A Principal's Reflections

'New Milford High School proudly joined 37 states, 15,000 teachers, and over 2 million students on February 1 for the inaugural Digital Learning Day. This day, however, was not really much different than any other day at NMHS as we have made a commitment to integrate digital learning into school culture for some time now. As Principal I am proud to state that many of the pedagogical techniques, learning activities, and tools described in the rest of this post are consistently in use on a daily b

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My Favorite @Livebinders

The Web20Classroom

'''Round these parts lately, Livebinders have been all the rage. Well, actually they have been with me for a while now. I use the for everything. From organizing thoughts to presenting information in workshops. Oh wait. Do you not know what Livebinders are? Well you should read this post I did a while back about them. It''s filled with lots of great information.

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Animonths on SpeechTechie: PBS Kids Channel

SpeechTechie

'For awhile now, I have wanted to do a series of posts on resources that utilize animation for speech and language therapy, so I decided that February and March will be Animonths on this blog! I have so many things I wanted to write about in this category and February is a) short and b) a month in which we have a week-long vacation in which I probably will not post, so I figured it could stretch across March as well.

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The Roses and Thorns of an LMS Strategy: How to Flourish with the Right LMS

Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions

The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.

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Twitter for Professional Learning

EdTechSandyK

'On Wednesday, February 8th, I am presenting a workshop on Twitter for Professional Learning at the 2012 TCEA Convention. Embedded below is a LiveBinder containing all of the resources for my presentation. It''s my first ever LiveBinder, and first ever BYOD session. Looking forward to the challenge! Twitter for Professional Learning Please add comments, questions, and ideas below, whether you view the binder online only or attend the workshop in person.

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iPad Chromebook Showdown

The Electric Educator

'This past week I presented an iPad vs. Chrombook comparison to a group of librarians and technology specialist in Wayne County, Michigan. Thanks to those who provided their thoughts on the device debate. If you have an opinion of your own, please feel free to express it by leaving a comment! Thanks for subscribing to my blog. I always appreciate feedback on my posts.

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Live (Early) Friday February 24th with Dennis Littky on Big Picture Schools Schools

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'Join me Friday, February 24th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Dennis Littky to talk about "The Big Picture:" his book , Big Picture Schools, and Big Picture Learning. The Big Picture Learning design is "a dynamic approach to learning, doing, and thinking that has been changing the lives of students, educators, and entire communities since 1995.

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An Inside Look

A Principal's Reflections

'One of New Milford High Schools crowning achievements is our Holocaust Study Tour. Students that participate in this experience visit Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland. The creator and facilitator of the program is Colleen Tambusico. Below is text from a recent email she sent me about components of this years trip. There are numerous references to Holocaust survivors that either participate in this trip or routinely Skype into our Holocaust & Genocide course at NMHS.

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Building the Foundation for a Modern K-12 Classroom

K-12 looks different these days. But one thing remains the same: you need a reliable learning platform that serves as the foundation for teaching and learning––for all students, in a variety of learning experiences. Discover how the Instructure Learning Platform supports today's K-12 classroom through: A central, consistent, connected hub of the digital learning environment.