November, 2014

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Sustaining Outdated Practices Will Not Transform Schools

A Principal's Reflections

'When one looks at education in general there is very little change from over 150 years ago. Back then the education system was designed to serve an industrialized world that was in desperate need of skilled factory workers. What resulted was the quick development of a system to educate as many students as possible in a fashion that was cheap and easy.

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Three PowerPoint Alternatives You Need in Your Classroom

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

'There are an estimated 300 million PowerPoint users in the world delivering an estimated 30 million PowerPoint presentations each day. Here are some other options that might work better in the classroom. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.

Classroom 363
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Closing the Global Education Gap

Digital Promise

'High-quality educational content is for everyone. Professional tools to create music, video and art are for everyone. Access to expertise is for everyone. And, everyone needs the opportunity to collaborate and communicate as part of the educational experience. No longer are the best learning opportunities exclusive to certain people -- technology makes these opportunities more widely accessible.

Education 302
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Encouraging Authenticity In Learning

The Web20Classroom

'In the last several years, a major shift in instruction began to happen. Instead of students having access to handheld technology (tablet, laptop, etc) only part of the school day, more and more students began to have access when they need it. Either 1:1 or BYOD or some combination of both is giving students the opportunity to discover learning or create new information in a variety of ways.

BYOD 279
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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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Seven takeaways from ConnectED to the Future

Tom Murray

'On Wednesday, November 19, 110 of the nation’s top superintendents, U.S. Department of Education officials and representatives from a myriad of organizations, convened at the White House for theSuperintendents’ Summit, declared “ConnectED to the Future,” by President Obama. The event was an an extension of theConnectED Initiativelaunched earlier this year.

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New, Free, Collabrified Apps for iPads: WeWrite+ & WeSketch+

The Journal

In this blog we introduce two new, free, collabrified apps for iPads: WeWrite+ (a collabrified text editor) and WeSketch+ (a collabrified drawing and animating app). The collabrification of educational apps continues! That’s good news: making collaborative learning apps ubiquitous means that a learner never has to learn alone again!

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More Trending

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Demand, district adoption, and silver bullets

K12 Open Ed

'A few us have been pondering the question “ How can we best advance the adoption of OER in K-12? ” both online in this document and f2f at the Open Ed 14 conference. As I’ve thought about this, a few conclusions I’ve come to are: The demand problem is more significant than the supply problem. There is currently a good amount of high quality, standards-aligned OER in K-12 with lots more coming online.

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Improving Ed-Tech Purchasing

Digital Promise

'For the promise of learning technology to truly become reality for students and teachers, classrooms have to be equipped with the tools that fit their needs. There are a lot of factors to finding the right match. One of the most important, we’ve found, is also one of the most overlooked – procurement. If it’s not your day job, it probably sounds pretty boring.

Survey 299
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Learning Beyond The Classroom Walls

The Web20Classroom

'When I decided to pursue a Master’s Degree in Instructional Technology, I started out like many students do. I sat down at my laptop, went to Google and started searching. Eventually I landed on a program at an in-state university that was one of the first of its kind. Everything was virtual. Not once in the 18 months I was in the program would I set foot on campus.

Classroom 277
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Why #Internet4Schools Matters

Tom Murray

'Personalized learning. One-to-one implementation. Bring your own device initiatives. All of these, when combined with high-quality instructional practice, can systemically change a classroom learning environment. However, these instructional practices and tools are essentially useless without an infrastructure that can properly support them. Although the topic of E-Rate has come to the forefront in recent months, in the not-too-distant future the program will turn 20 years old.

E-rate 270
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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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Ivory Tower University Researchers: Making Valuable Contributions to Classroom Practice

The Journal

In this second installment of our “Learnings from Singapore” blog post mini-series, we focus on the critically important role that “Ivory Tower” university researchers can play in improving classroom practice.

Classroom 150
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Stop Ignoring Google+

A Principal's Reflections

'In case you didn''t know there are thousands of educators and an array of learning communities over at Google+. The bottom line is that many people are missing out on some great content, resources, and conversation. From my point of view educators become quickly attached to one specific social media tool as their go to source for his/her Personal Learning Network (PLN).

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Ten Engaging Digital Education Sites For Any Social Studies Classroom

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

'I took some time to look over my past posts and decided I needed to provide Social Studies Teachers with some great resources for their classroom. Rather than get into any one specific Social Studies area, I thought best to find some resources that might work in just about any Social Studies Classroom. First, to ensure you do not miss a valuable post or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centur

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Words Matter: Let’s Talk About Learning, Not Technology

Digital Promise

'I still remember the first time I held a voluntary workshop on Google Docs for a staff of 100 teachers. I called it “10 Ways to Use Google Docs in Your Classroom.” Five people showed up. A week later, I was eating lunch in the staff lounge and heard a colleague say, “They always have an excuse for not turning their work in. They forgot to bring it home, they lost their flash drive, their printer wasn’t working, yada yada.” I immediately piped up: “You know, h

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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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Overcoming The Barriers To Creativity And Innovation

The Web20Classroom

'It''s been a few weeks since I returned from Doha, Qatar and the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE). If you aren''t familiar, this conference centers around scalable, actionable ideas for the future of education worldwide. It is, by far, my favorite conference I get to attend each year because of the level of conversations that are had there.

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The Mindset of the Maker Educator: K12 Online Conference Presentation+Slides

User Generated Education

'Here is my presentation, The Mindset of the Maker Educator, that I recorded for the K12 Online Conference: Slidedeck for The Mindset of the Maker Educator: Here is a direct link to my K12 Online Conference Presentation: [link].

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Transforming Our Learning Metaphors #yvrignite

Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts

'I made a sound recording of the presentation that I did at the Discovery Education YVR Ignite Session yesterday, and then I added the recording to my timed slides. This was an inspiring event, thank you to Dean Shareski for organizing it and providing me with the honour of presenting. I’ll have more to blog about this event later. Until then, here is my presentation. — Photo Credits (in order that they appear): Title Photo: Kim Cope.

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Real World Ready

A Principal's Reflections

'This past September I was honored to have been asked to speak at TEDxBurnsvilleED. The theme for all of the TEDx talks was Real World Ready. When looking at the structure and function of the majority of schools across the globe it was quite evident to me that students are being prepared for a world that no longer exists. Compounding that issue is the fact that school traditionally works better for the adults than the kids who are there to get an education.

Tools 294
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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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Free Digital Formative Assessment Tools… Important Thoughts Before Implementing

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

'As you might know there are some amazing formative assessment tools on the web. In this post I wish to share some of those with you, along with some things you should think about before using. First, to ensure you do not miss a valuable post or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.

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Connected Superintendents Help Drive Innovation

Digital Promise

'Superintendents set the tone, vision, and direction of their school districts. They determine district priorities, choose where to invest oft-limited funding, and develop policies that reflect the perspectives of schools, administrators, teachers, and, ultimately, students. In short, superintendents prepare their school districts for the future. Today, that means supporting students with high-quality learning technologies that provide new opportunities otherwise not possible with textbooks alon

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When Amazing is Failure

My Paperless Classroom

'Working as a technology integration specialist in a small school is the best job I have ever had, and I love it. All good jobs are challenges at points, and I worry that I am getting half of my job wrong. The most visible work I do, teaching kids technology, is going really well. We are programming in grades K-8, students make videos and post them to the class blogs, the 3rd grade even made bird puppets and 7th grade is going to be making puppets soon.

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Calming, Part 2

SpeechTechie

'Many of our students have difficulty regulating themselves around problem situations--or situations that are not even really a problem. These students benefit from strategies such as building causal language, using visual tools such as The Incredible Five Point Scale (my favorite being the Problem Scale from Disaster to Glitch ), The Zones of Regulation , and self-talk.

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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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New Teachers Won’t Save Us

The Thinking Stick

'This is going to come as a shock I know…but pre-service education programs are not preparing teachers for a technology rich classroom teaching experience. Or to put that another way the classrooms of today. According to a Project Tomorrow Report. …principals concluded that they want to hire new teachers with creative ideas about how technology can be leveraged to create authentic and differentiated learning experiences.

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#Internet4schools: Make Your Voice Heard

A Principal's Reflections

'Back in 2009 when we began to transform teaching and learning at New Milford High School we were extremely fortunate at the time to have wireless Internet access throughout the school. This was an extremely big deal five years ago and ultimately gave us an edge in terms of the many successful initiatives we rolled out including Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and digital learning across the curriculum.

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You Can Still Search Thinkfinity’s Digital Content Resources …. Learn How

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

'I want to share a number of databases of incredible resources for any digital classroom. I know you will find this must read article, one that you will also want to share. First, to ensure you do not miss a valuable post or other resources covering PBL, Digital Curriculum, Web 2.0, STEM, 21st century learning, and technology integration, please sign up for 21centuryedtech by email or RSS.

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How to Lead: Meet Our Five DILA Administrator Winners

Digital Promise

'This blog post was originally published by EdSurge. Guest co-author Mary Jo Madda is an Associate Editor at EdSurge. Being an administrator is a tough job, but administrators make all the difference when it comes to leading schools and districts towards innovation and change. The administrator winners of our 2014 Digital Innovation in Learning Awards are inspiring examples of change managers, showing what it means to both lead and learn at the same time.

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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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So You Want to Do the Hour of Code

My Paperless Classroom

'What is the Hour of Code? From [link] "The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. Anyone, anywhere can organize an Hour of Code event. One-hour tutorials are available in over 30 languages. No experience needed. Ages 4 to 104." Who Should participate? The simple answer is everyone. Code.org''s mission is to make coding and computer science visible and accessible to everyone and the hour of code is a glimpse into the wold of programming.

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Flipped-Learning Toolkit: Flipping the Non-Flippable Classes

Edutopia

Video & Transcript Video Transcript: The Flipped Class: Is Flipping for Everyone? Aaron: So is this for you? Will a flipped classroom work in your subject area and grade level? We think the answer is yes, and here's why. So how do you flip a science class? Take your direct instruction, put that on a video. All that time you get back, labs, labs, labs.

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Facing Insecurities: You Are More Than Enough

RafranzDavis.com

'As a high school student, I remember being so insecure. In my mind, I wasn’t smart, pretty, athletic or thin enough. It didn’t help at all that I was often teased by my peers or at times second guessed by certain teachers. I was the poster child for insecurity and for a certain period, I not only questioned my worth but also my continued place in the world.

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The Place to Be

A Principal's Reflections

'Throughout my life I have either attended, or worked in, a public school, as had my parents. In terms of my own education, I always felt that I was provided with the knowledge and skills to succeed in life. By no means was my pubic schooling perfect and when I look back there were many instances that presented opportunities for improvement. The bottom line, however, was that I had passionate and caring educators who pushed me to be the best student that I could be regardless of the deficiencies

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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.