Sat.Mar 03, 2012 - Fri.Mar 09, 2012

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Children Stressed to the Breaking Point Due to Standardized Testing

A Principal's Reflections

'Recently New York City made public teacher evaluations based on student standardized test scores. This proceeded the state of New York''s decision to change how educators are evaluated, in part by connecting the standardized test scores of students into final ratings. The following letter was shared with me by a friend whose daughter is in the New York City Public School System.

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Taking A Step Back And Thinking Critically About Technology

The Web20Classroom

'I am probably going to take a lot of heat for this post. But maybe that''s a good thing. Perhaps more conversation is needed. I remember where I was when I heard the iPad announced. I was sitting in my office when I was still working at a school. I had the live blog from Techcrunch on one screen and Twitter on the other. Tweets were flying by with all sorts of comments about the name (both good and bad) and what the device could do.

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Trying to Ban Facebook is Not the Answer.

EdTechSandyK

'Image Source It is our professional opinion that you get your child off Facebook. - From Pinecrest Preparatory Middle-High Administration Letter to Parents , February 22, 2012 When I first read and watched a news story about this Florida charter school''s letter to parents encouraging them to get their kids off of Facebook because of the problems social media activities were causing during the school day, it got me thinking.

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School Administrator Uses of Evernote & Must-Have Evernote Extensions

The 21st Century Principal

'Evernote is a must-have application for the school administrator. This week, I conducted a concurrent session on it and other web tools at the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s annual conference. From that conference, here’s 7 Ways Administrators Can Use Evernote : Evernote Desktop App Screenshot Note Taking: This is the most obvious use of Evernote since that is the application’s purpose.

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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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Lead, Coach, and Build Capacity

wwwatanabe

'Building capacity in the school district means improving and strengthening the learning in our students, employees, teachers, administrators, school board, and community. Coaching is a great way to build capacity, and leaders naturally build capacity. Finding leaders to assume leadership roles is an important part of the process. Please be aware that I don''t believe a title makes someone a leader, it''s just who they are.

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Animonths: Art Maker

SpeechTechie

'Though we in the states will have no idea what the context is about, since the app is based on Australian children''s television show Play School , the new app Art Maker (currently FREE, iPad only) provides a great tool to harness animation for speech and language development. The app allows you to choose from 6 settings (beach, farm, etc), use a plain colored paper background, or a photo from your camera roll "to bring Play School into your world.

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More Trending

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How Students Use Technology

The 21st Century Principal

'Here''s excellent graphic, reminder to all of us regarding how our students engage in technology use. There''s not a lot more to say. I think the illustration says it all. Via: OnlineEducation.net.

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A "Tail" of Two Ed Tech Agendas

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'At the Digital Media and Learning (DML) 2012 Conference in San Francisco this past week, during a panel discussion on investment in education innovation in which promises of large amounts of funding for schools were being dangled as carrots to an all-too-fawning audience, Rudy Blanco came to the microphone to ask representatives of the Gates and MacArthur Foundations why his poor school in Bronx doesn''t seem to be able to get any of the millions being discussed.

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Animonths: Go! Animate's Full Featured Video Maker

SpeechTechie

'In my last several posts, I discussed Domo Animate , a video maker geared to both younger and older students, and Go! Animate''s Quick Video Maker , used to generate simple animated dialogues. Another tool to point out is Go! Animate''s Full Featured Video Maker (flash-based, not iPad friendly). This tool does everything that Domo Animate''s video maker does, but also allows you to utilize text-to-voice (so, what you type, it speaks) and recorded voice.

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The Intersection of Project Share, BYOD, and PBL #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 Concurrent Session Region XIII and Rockdale ISD Dr. Howell Wright, Superintendent of Rockdale , made an appearance by pre-recorded video. In 2009 Rockdale focused on new learning goals and worked to get buy-in from leadership and parents. Used a visioning document by TASA. We need teachers who don''t give students answers, but give them questions.

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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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NCTIES 2012: My Concurrent Presentations

The 21st Century Principal

'My personal favorite time of year is here: the annual NCTIES (North Carolina Technology in Education Society) Conference. This year I will be conducting two concurrent sessions. The first one focuses on developing a Professional Learning Network from a school leader''s perspective. Emphasis is on sharing ideas on how to get the most out of Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, and Google+.

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Content is a tyrant.

Learning with 'e's

Never before has gaining access to information been so easy. The imminent arrival of widespread 4G broadband and LTE ( Long Term Evolution ) will usher in wider availability to information and push even more data to our mobile devices over the same amount of radio spectrum. At least that is the plan. Better coverage and faster download/upload speeds would ensure that just about everyone who is connected would have even greater access to online content and services anytime, anywhere.

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To the Ukraine, and Beyond!

Comfortably 2.0

'A couple of weeks ago, four of our fourth grade students at York Elementary were able to do something that wouldn''t have been possible without a little help from modern day technology. Well, I guess they could have sent a letter via snail mail, but I just can''t imagine that being as engaging as the Skype session that we had with Alexander Tsepko.

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Think "Out of the Box" Assistive Technology #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 panel discussion/concurrent session. Differentiation techniques for sped or GT students work with ALL kids; when you learn methods to use with students who have special learning needs, you learn how to best teach all children. Gaming has the expectation that you will not always be right the first time. It promotes continuous learning.

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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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Politics, Big Business, and Ed Tech

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'Tell us what you thought about or figured out, try to convince us of the value of your ideas, then let us decide. Do not ask us what we think, or watch what we care about, and then try to match your rhetoric to our authentic passion just to get us to buy or endorse you. The value comes first, otherwise you''re playing a game. Whether in politics or educational technology products.

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Who let the blogs out?

Learning with 'e's

Who, who, who who? Yes. Exactly. I have unleashed my blog. It was about time. For all these years I have been focusing mainly on content. It was substance over style. Focusing solely on content at the expense of context is a mistake. In my previous blog posts I discussed the age old debate about the tension between the two, but I have come to the conclusion that content and context are not a binary.

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Developing a Culture of Sharing #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 panel discussion/concurrent session. Philip Schmidt, P2PU We live in a time where because of digital technology we are able to share in ways we''ve never been able to share before. If you are in education and you are not interested in sharing, maybe you are not in the right space. Maybe this isn''t the career for you. Opening Question: What does the culture of sharing and learning really mean?

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Empowering Teachers: A Roadmap for Student Success #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 panel discussion/concurrent session. Evan Nisonson , President/CEO, Epsilen Epsilen is a learning platform created to promote collaboration. It is also a state-wide adopted tool in Texas, part of the Project Share initiative. Nisonson was formerly a higher ed professor. David Watkins, Instructional Tech Consultant, Region 14 Region 14 is trying to get the word out about Project Share.

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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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Education in a World of Social and Technological Change #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from concurrent session, SXSWedu 2012 S. Craig Watkins, Associate Professor of Radio, TV, and Film, The University of Texas at Austin theyoungandthedigitial.com @scraigwatkins After grad school, Watkins began immersing himself in the way young people use media. Trying to understand their perspectives and sensibilities they bring to digital media.

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On the Horizon: Harnessing Emerging Technologies in Education #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from opening session of SXSWedu 2012. Remember, these are notes taken on the fly. Please excuse typos! What''s neat about this opening session is the speaker is speaking to us, to the SITE conference, and the CoSN conference at the same time from Washington, D.C. via high def video conferencing! This was a really neat experience - having the keynote come from one location and then having each site broadcast a responding speaker and have an opportunity to ask questions.

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Creating 21st Century Classrooms in Middle School #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 Concurrent Session. NOTE from your blogger: This region and these schools and students are doing wonderful, authentic projects. Kudos to them! One of my favorite conference sessions in a long time!!!! Future is Now is a project out of Region 10 ESC in Richardson. Ideas going into the Future is Now project: Not device specific.

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Their Space: Educating Digitally Ethical Teens #sxswedu #theirspace

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 Concurrent Session Kalmus ( @TedKalmus ) & de Haan ( @TeachWithIntent ) ( TeachWithIntent.com ) Storify Archive of this Session (also embedded below): [link] Students like to track themselves online when shown how to do that. About three years ago presenters started to notice a shift to more social media use by middle schoolers.

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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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In It Together: Student Led Program Implementation #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from SXSWedu 2012 Concurrent Session Note from Sandy: This was a powerful presentation! I am now full of ideas!!!! Ranona Riggs & Thurman Nassoiy , Region 4 Joshua McDonald , Teacher, Channelview ISD Holly R , 9th Grade Student Amy Martinez, Teacher, Katy ISD Today''s presentation is on student led implementation of the Project Share platform.

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Context is king

Learning with 'e's

In yesterday's post I made the statement that the internet is better as a creative space than it is as a repository. Let me clarify this statement. Much of pre-social web based content was difficult to edit or change. Web 1.0 - sometime referred to as the 'sticky web'- was largely controlled by webmasters and corporations, and was essentially used as a broadcast channel to promote ideas and products.

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Are We There Yet? Integrating Tech & Learning #SXSWedu

EdTechSandyK

'Notes from panel discussion/concurrent session at SXSWedu 2012 Geoff Wurzel, TechNet Wurzel was one of the influencers on Senate Bill 6 and the creation of the Instructional Materials Allotment in Texas. Tom Greaves, The Greaves Group www.projectred.org Project Red - large scale research project funded by Pearson and Intel; Collected data from over 1000 schools around the country and looked at 136 variables.

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LeVar Burton - Keynote Speaker #SXSWedu 2012

EdTechSandyK

'We are at an interesting intersection of opportunity between education and technology. As we move forward into the new era of the intersection of technology and education, there are a couple of fundamental tenets he would like to see us to not leave behind. It is fundamental as we move forward with technology to not forget the importance of storytelling.

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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 Wednesday, March 7th - Panel Discussion of Seth Godin’s Stop Stealing Dreams

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

'Join us Wednesday, March 7th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com panel and community discussion on Seth Godin’s new education manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams. I will be hosting a panel that includes Patrick Ferenga, Lisa Nielsen, Lisa Cooley, Lisa Nalbone, and Nikhil Goyal, asking them and the audience to share their thoughts around the topics addressed in the book--including K - 12 and higher education reform, home schooling, and what parents, students, and school boards can do to