November, 2011

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The Questions I Ask

A Principal's Reflections

'I have been fortunate over the past few days to have attended the Authorspeak Conference. This experience has allowed me to listen to and connect with some of the best minds in education (i.e. Robert Marzano, Rick DuFour, Carol Tomlinson, Doug Reeves, Will Richardson). Additionally, I have been able to network with other amazing educators from all over the world and actively share how we are transforming the culture at New Milford High School.

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It's All About The Hashtag

The Web20Classroom

'If you remember, in my 3 part series on Twitter , I wrote about how I completely changed the way I do professional development on Twitter. In a nutshell, I no longer start with signing up and tweeting the first day. I always show how to use Twitter without ever signing up. I believe it''s important to establish the value in using it rather than using it and attempting to find the value.

Twitter 236
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21st Principal’s Big List of Must-Have Administrator Tech Knowledge

The 21st Century Principal

'Just the other day, I was asked, “What 21st century tools would you say every administrator needs to know and understand how to use?” It’s an important question, and I think I have tried to answer that question continuously through this blog. While there are the technological tools that help with administrator’s duties, there are other tools administrators need to know and be able to use simply because of their potential impact on instruction.

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Google Moderator in the Classroom

The Electric Educator

'Mr. Aaron Hammers uses Google Moderator in his 10th Grade Bible class each week. Google Moderator is a simple crowd-sourcing tool that makes it possible to better understand the thoughts, idea, questions, or motivations of a group, crowd, or audience. One of the best things about Google Moderator is that it is simple. There aren''t many buttons to click and it doesn''t overwhelm you with features and options.

Google 87
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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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If You Could Only Follow 5 Education Twitter Accounts.

EdTechSandyK

'In February 2012, I will be presenting a workshop on Twitter for Professional Learning at the Texas Computer Education Association convention. As part of the workshop, I want to be able to recommend high quality Twitter accounts for the participants in the workshop to follow. Many of the attendees will be first time Twitter users, so I want to help them get a strong start on their PLN.

Twitter 81
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PD opportunity- Ann Arbor, MI

SpeechTechie

'Hi Folks, just wanted to let you know about this professional development workshop I am doing for SPEAK in Michigan. “Outside the Box” iPad for SLPs- Apps Through a Language Lens! Friday, February 10, 2012 8 am to 3 pm (registration starts at 7:30) at the Washtenaw ISD Ann Arbor, MI. **SPEAK is limited to 100 participants and need a minimum of 40 commitments by December 2, 2011 to make this course a go.

iPad 76

More Trending

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Cool Classroom Projects With Skype

The Web20Classroom

'A while back I wrote about Skype and how to get started using it. If you are new or thinking about starting definitely check out that post. Then yesterday I saw this: " Calling classes in North Carolina, USA or nearby states to join a book club [link] #wsfcs " So when I saw that tweet I immediately passed it along to all my NC folks. Then I got to thinking.

Classroom 133
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5 Ways to Engage Others Using Twitter

The 21st Century Principal

'There is a bit of art in composing engaging and thoughtful tweets. The ultimate question as a tweet composer is, "How can I say what I want to say in only 140 characters? And, how can I convey tone and mood through as few words as possible?" The real fun of tweeting is trying to communicate the most you can with as little as possible, but you only know you have communicated it successfully when someone responds to your latest tweet.

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A convenient untruth

Learning with 'e's

What do you think is the teacher's worst enemy? Some would say lack of time. Others would say unsupportive leadership, or the dreaded government inspection. Rigid curriculum, lack of resources and bad student behaviour may also be high on the list for many educators. For me, the worst enemy is bad theory. Bad theory, when accepted without challenge, can lead to bad practice.

Dropout 78
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Collaborative Writing to Develop the 21st Century Learner

wwwatanabe

'Collaborative writing is strong for bringing ideas together, capitalizing on individual strengths, and building in feedback. When I walked into Mrs. Bliss'' 5th grade class to work on the Student Blogging Challenge #3 , "Me on the Internet," they decided to write their post collaboratively. How can students successfully write a collaborative post (or written work)?

Groups 68
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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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Draw A Stickman

SpeechTechie

'Draw a Stickman is an extraordinarily fun little interactive movie that caused some buzz on the Interwebs recently. The activity opens by asking you to, naturally, draw a Stickman. I don''t want to give too much away, but you will be asked to make a number of other simple drawings that save your Stickman from some predicaments that arise! Language Lens Draw a Stickman unfolds as a short narrative with a clear, if sometimes unexpected, connection between events.

iPad 76
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Profound Impact

A Principal's Reflections

'As educators we routinely wonder whether or not the advice that we impart on our students actually has had a positive impact. Sometimes were are given direct feedback, but other times were are left to wonder. During the past couple of weeks we have organized two assemblies where I have educated the entire student body on cyberbullying, as well as digital responsibility and footprints.

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You Know You Always Wanted To Know The History Of Searching The Interwebs, Didn't You?

The Web20Classroom

'I dunno about you but I might do about a billion searches a day. From everything to how to unbrick a phone to a recipe for a holiday party to how to spell words, search is a natural part of how I browse the web. Sometimes its easier to just search for a site, even when I already know the address. (I think that might be on the verge of lazy, but hey, I own it) Kids do a lot of searching too.

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NC to Test Every Subject K-12 and Tie Teacher & Principal Evaluations to Test Scores

The 21st Century Principal

'In a meeting this past Monday I attended, representatives from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction provided educators with a presentation describing how our state is adding a sixth standard to our teacher evaluation and an eighth standard to our principal evaluation directly tying those evaluations to test scores. What I discovered at that meeting was that the standards proposed are worded innocuously and can hardly be questioned.

Meeting 78
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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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Tools of the trade

Learning with 'e's

I was quite impressed by Joyce Seitzinger's Professional Learning Environment (PLN) model that she presented at Deakin University in Melbourne this week. The first slide on the left shows a quadrant model in which she has used a work/office metaphor to define four discrete functions of a PLN. The first, the Staffroom is quite public, calling on high levels of communication and high profile, and involves the use of microblogging tools such as Twitter.

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2011 Edublog Award Nominations

EdTechSandyK

'After watching the Edublog Awards process for a few years, and even voting in the final round before, I''ve decided it''s time for me to get involved at the grass-roots level by making some of my own nominations in 2011! As many have lamented in other posts around the edubloggersphere, it is often difficult to pick the people/resources that are "the best," but if I look at it from the perspective of "Who has influenced/helped/inspired me most recently?

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My Edublog Awards Nominations for 2011

SpeechTechie

'It''s that time already. The Edublog Awards were started about 7 years ago to counteract the trend of blocking social media in school districts and celebrate the educational power of these resources. Obviously social media has been transformative for me and my practice and I wanted to participate for that reason again this year. Additionally, winning the 2010 Best New Blog award in this incentive brought SpeechTechie a lot of recognition and new readership, so THANKS again to those who supporte

iLearn 74
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Tracy's Nominations for the 2011 Edublogs Awards

wwwatanabe

'I love awards because it''s a chance to recognize and share those who rock my world. Thank you Edublogs for providing this opportunity to acknowledge amazing educators around the globe, and for raising the awareness of the awesome impact social media and web 2.0 can have on our learning and our learners. Here are my nominations for 2011-2012: Best individual blog: Integrating Technology in the Primary Classroom Integrating Tech in the Primary Classroom Hands down, the most influential individua

Twitter 66
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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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New Posted Resources 11/30/2011

The Web20Classroom

'Pencasting to Support Critical Thinking | Livescribe Education tags: livescribe criticalthinking favorite Google SketchUp-Tutorials tags: sketchup google favorite tutorials Quality Rubrics tags: rubrics favorite “Twitter? I Don’t Get It!” A 3-Step Guide For Newbies tags: twitter favorite Ultimate List Of Twitter Tools tags: twitter favorite Critical Thinking Foundation tags: criticalthinking critical_thinking favorite Nine Tenets of Passion-Based Learning tags: favorite passion passionbasedlear

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7 Suggested Apps for the New Kindle Fire Owner

The 21st Century Principal

'After working with several apps on the Kindle Fire during the past few days, I have struggled with the fact that some of my favorite Web tools like Diigo do not yet have an app in the Amazon App Store. Still, I have found the following apps useful so far. Evernote: Evernote, as I have posted many times before, is my favorite note taking app. I wasted absolutely no time downloading and installing this app for the Kindle Fire.

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The Kindle Fire - So Close. A Review with Education in Mind

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'I have had really high hopes for the Kindle Fire , as an Android tablet lover, especially as it might work as an education device. Amazon is big enough and well-positioned enough to bring to market an inexpensive tablet that combines 1) a virtually unlimited library of public domain and traditional books with 2) access to the Web, and 3) an open development app platform.

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10 Tools for Increasing Engagement in Online Courses

Nik Peachey

Over the last few years I've done a lot of work developing writing and redeveloping online courses and course materials. In the initial rush to get learning online many organisations got themselves a Moodle platform and then attached a whole load of PDFs and.docs, added some forums and the odd video clip and called it an online course. It's no surprise then that drop out rates for online learning courses have been so high.

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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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Viewing or Annotating ASHA Handouts on your iDevice

SpeechTechie

'Personally, I welcome the demise of the traditional "Handout." All that wasted paper! When attending ASHA, you can still (pretty) easily view presenter handouts, take notes on sessions, and even annotate (write over) the handout files on your iDevice! Here are the steps: 1. Get acquainted with the Personal Scheduler. I am noticing this process does not work well on mobile devices, so you''ll need to use a computer to transfer handouts to your iDevice. 2.

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20th Century flops?

Learning with 'e's

I have just recorded an interview for my local TV station Westcountry Television. The interview was requested because there has been public outcry about one school in Cornwall called Mounts Bay Academy (very close to where I live here in Devon) that has recently purchased an iPad for each of its 900 students. Here is the story as reported by BBC News.

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My 2011 Edublog Award Nominations

The Web20Classroom

'It''s that time of year again, when bloggers from around the globe submit the best of the best in the education world from the previous year for the Edublog Awards. This is always a tough spot for me. I think everyone is great at what they do. And we should honor everyone who works tirelessly in schools and in education everyday to make learning better for kids.

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21st Century School Leaders Are Bloggers Too!

The 21st Century Principal

'I have been blogging for almost 4 years now. My first blog was an experiment on Blogger in 2008 that I''m not even sure anyone ever read. I posted to it infrequently, and to be honest, I can''t even remember the name of that blog. I''ve long since taken it down. My second blog was a staff blog I created while principal of a middle school. I used that blog instead of a weekly newsletter, or even an email update like this one.

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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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Live Interview Thursday: Panel on Search Literacy with Google's Tasha Bergson-Michelson

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'Join me Thursday, December 1st, for another live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar as Tasha Bergson-Michelson brings Debbie Abilock and Jole Seroff together for a panel and audience conversation on "search literacy" in education: what is search literacy, what sources should students be using, how do we help them evaluate what they find, what are the biggest misconceptions about search, and what is the school''s role in teaching search literacy and skills?

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ScreenChamp Finalist!

The Electric Educator

'I love Google Apps and use them with my students all the time. One day, on a whim, I decided to do a screen capture of the growth of a collaborative story that my 9th grade students wrote using Google Docs. Several months later TechSmith , the makers of Camtasia, Jing and SnagIt, launched the " ScreenChamp " competition in an effort to choose the best screen capture video on the web.

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ASHA 2011 Wrap-up

SpeechTechie

'Whew! What a trip the ASHA convention was, as always. It was really a whirlwind this year as it seemed I had a ton of people I wanted to see and talk with. In between doing last preps for our own session and chatting with folks all over the place, I went to some great sessions. I am not sure I can even consolidate all the info into an additional post, but I will try!

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Just Blog It! Blogging Tips & Ideas

The Daring Librarian

'Why Blog? You don''t start blogging for awards. You blog because you are passionate about your profession, and have ideas & content to share with potential readers. If you blog it, they will come. Eventually. It may just take a while! Don''t give up! I blogged for YEARS out the aethernets and for a handful of readers! (I''m lookin at YOU dear Svetlana in Vladivostock!

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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.