A Principal's Reflections

JULY 20, 2011

'Life-long learning is an essential characteristic found amongst effective educators and something that should be modeled for our students. With so many changes occurring in the field of educational technology, curriculum, pedagogy, and law, it is imperative that educators receive opportunities for growth in their school. Additionally, they should be provided with the knowledge and foundation to develop a Personal Learning Network.

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The Web20Classroom

JULY 16, 2011

'Flickr CC-Puffsdaddy So if you are seeing this post you might be wondering where I am. Or maybe not. But the story is still interesting none the less. Each year I go on vacation. And starting 2 years ago when I go on vacation, I go on vacation. I don''t take any technology with me. Nothing that will connect me with the outside world for 7 days. No computer.

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Facebook Twitter Google Technology 100

The 21st Century Principal

JULY 18, 2011

'I have been exploring the capabilities of Google+ for just a few days, and I can already say there are f eatures that might make it so much more functional for administrators and educators. Select Sharing: The Google Circles idea is genius. Users can set up groups called circles and place whomever they wish in each of the circles. The potential for this feature is obvious: for example, an administrator could place teachers within an individual circle, guidance department within a circle, and so

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SpeechTechie

JULY 19, 2011

'I was really honored to be asked to be part of the EdCeptional podcast offered through the EdReach Network of education-related audio broadcasts. EdCeptional is a weekly show that features a panel of great educators (including fellow SLP Deb Truskey) discussing news and technology through the lens of special education. On the show we discuss some interesting articles, issues and resources (you can see these on the show notes link) and I talk about my background, work in the Newton Public School

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Resources Technology Education 75

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Personalized Learning

EdTechSandyK

JULY 19, 2011

'If you''re reading this post, I''m going to assume you are an active reader of blogs or Twitter or both. Are you also leveraging Facebook for your professional learning? Many of the educators and educational organizations you follow through Twitter or on blogs are also maintaining pages on Facebook. If you log in to Facebook and "Like" their page, you can get their updates in your news feed, right along with all of the life updates your friends are posting.

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Facebook Professional Learning Social Media Learning 66

wwwatanabe

JULY 21, 2011

'I had some great comments from my last post about student portfolios, Diigo, and blogs. This post is a continuation of that conversation. Traditional Portfolios When I think back to my beginning years in the classroom, I remember my student portfolios were in manilla file folders. Later, they became gorgeous construction paper books. On both accounts, they were linear, and you would view it from left to right, one page after another.

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Google Examples Data Groups 63

Learning with 'e's

JULY 18, 2011

A guest blogpost by Andrea Kuszewski in Scientific American earlier this month really made me think. Entitled 'The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience', her article deftly and firmly demolishes the premises and practices of current school practices, and hypothesises what would happen if children were given creative freedom to learn. Kuszewski's first hypothesis in particular, is a must for all teachers to consider: Teaching and encouraging kids to learn by rote memorization and imitation

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SpeechTechie

JULY 20, 2011

'Fake iPhone Text is a website you can use to enter in a short dialogue and produce a fake screenshot as if the conversation was texted on an iPhone. Way cool, especially considering the popularity of Apple Products among kids. Here I created a dialogue between the Pigeon (of Mo Willem''s wonderful Don''t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus) and a kid: And here''s the result: When the conversation is generated, you can save the URL (web address) for future use What a simple and motivating way to work o

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iPhone 49

Connecting 2 the World

JULY 20, 2011

So I now have been using twitter for almost 4 weeks now. And there are some nuts and bolts that I would have liked to have known before I started. This post is meant for those that don't use twitter (or use it regularly). Anyone who is more experienced than I am, please feel free to add on insight or tips in the comments area. Retweet, mentions, and favorites It took a while for me to figure out these options.

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The Learning Revolution Has Begun

JULY 19, 2011

'This is the last week to submit, or vote on, proposals for the "Collaborate for Good" contest at [link]. Let us know how you would use a free Blackboard Collaborate room to make a difference for your school, your organization, your community, or the world! (Blackboard Collaborate is the newly combined platform that used to be Elluminate and Wimba, and which is launching this month.

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Blackboard STEM Software Meeting 48

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.

Training

Learning with 'e's

JULY 19, 2011

Seth Godin's blog is always good value, but his post today is quite profound. He writes about his avid reading of the entire collection of one library's science fiction stock during his high school days and concludes that "Expertise is a posture as much as it is a volume of knowledge". Expertise does not come easily. It takes hard work and a lot of tenacity to become expert at anything, whether it is sport, music, art or and other realm of knowledge or skill.

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Accessibility Libraries Meeting Course 56

The Daring Librarian

JULY 18, 2011

'"It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are far more than our abilities" - Dumbledore pg. 333 Chamber of Secrets It''s silly that I''m blinking back hot tears writing this. But I''m sorta sentimental about the Harry Potter Series. Back in 1999 I joined the Unofficial Harry Potter Fan Club started by interweb fan fiction pioneer "Jenna" (never found out her last name) and created a special bulletin board display with pages I printed (in colour!

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Libraries Elementary Learning 43

The 21st Century Principal

JULY 20, 2011

'Evernote is one of the most versatile note taking tools available on the web today. With it''s syncing desktop app, iPad apps, and smartphone apps, it is the most useful application in a school administrator''s arsenal. Two ways I have found Evernote most useful in my everyday job as an administrator are: Using It to Create Weekly To-Do Lists Using It to Create a Daily Administrator''s Log Using Evernote to Create Weekly To-Do Lists I have tried a number of applications to track my daily tasks

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iPad Education Smartphone Android 74

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

JULY 17, 2011

'Below are this week''s public, free, and interactive Webinars through LearnCentral.org , the social learning network for education that I work on for Blackboard Collaborate (formerly Elluminate). The time of the events below will show up automatically in your own time zone when you are registered in LearnCentral and when you have chosen your time zone in your profile, or you can check the new event time converter on the event page.

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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.

Technology

Learning with 'e's

JULY 20, 2011

When there is live TV coverage of an event do you want the entire broadcast or just the highlights? The answer of course will depend on a number of factors, including how interested you are in the event, and how much time you have available to you. It's exactly the same with content on the web. Earlier this month I wrote about the ' tsunami of content ' on the web that threatens to swamp us all.

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The Daring Librarian

JULY 21, 2011

'I admit to having a total geeky girl crush on Meme Molly of Rocketboom. What is Rocketboom? It''s a "three minute daily videoblog or Vlog based in New York City. We cover and create a wide range of information and commentary from top news stories to quirky internet culture. Instead of costing millions of dollars to produce, Rocketboom is created with a consumer-level video camera, a laptop, two lights and a map with no additional overhead or costs.

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Google Social Media Laptops Facebook 35

Learning with 'e's

JULY 16, 2011

Earlier today I tweeted this - "I'm relying on you PLN. Without you I am just a single mind.". and of course, I meant it. My PLN is my community of interest and the mirror of my practice. Nobody learns in a vacuum, not even Robinson Crusoe. I cannot begin to describe the amount of new things I have discovered, and continue to discover every day, on Twitter and on other online social environments.

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Social Media Personal Learning Network Facebook Twitter 59