April, 2019

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Why Esports in Schools is a Good Thing

ViewSonic Education

Esports are here to stay. As a spectator sport and as an industry. In colleges and in high schools. And in no small way. Competitive gaming has become a billion dollar business and is projected to grow exponentially. The prevalence of esports in schools is likewise rapidly expanding. The High School Esports League (HSEL) – just one of several such leagues – claims over 1500 schools as members.

STEM 417
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5 Ways to Create Relevant Cultures of Learning

A Principal's Reflections

Education can seem like a balancing act between what we as adults feel is essential and what interests our learners. The struggle is real as the former is sometimes emphasized as a result of a school or district’s focus. Make no mistake about it – capturing the attention of students has become harder and harder because of the access that many of them have to knowledge, games, and each other through technology.

Learning 415
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How K–12 Schools Should Define and Act on Digital Learning

EdTech Magazine

How K–12 Schools Should Define and Act on Digital Learning. eli.zimmerman_9856. Thu, 04/11/2019 - 15:35. To be honest, I hate the term blended learning. Let me explain why: In today’s world of education, blended learning gets thrown around for any type of new education involving technology. . We could go around any room of educators, ask what they think blended learning means , and get hundreds of different answers.

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5 Ways to Teach Conflict Resolution Through Social-Emotional Learning

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

Skills for settling differences--and handling the feelings around conflict--in the classroom are essential to create healthy learning environments for students. The post 5 Ways to Teach Conflict Resolution Through Social-Emotional Learning appeared first on Market Brief.

Learning 388
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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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How Access to Technology Can Create Equity in Schools

Digital Promise

When used effectively, technology can greatly contribute to creating equity in schools. It removes barriers to learning materials, supports students where they are across varied learning contexts and needs, and gives educators more insight into the learning environments they’re creating. However, we can only realize these equity-centered benefits when we use technology in innovative and powerful ways.

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The ability to say no

Dangerously Irrelevant

Mike Crowley had a wonderful blog post the other day about the need for self-care and giving educators permission to say ‘no’ instead of jeopardizing their professional efficacy or mental health. Vicki Davis also wrote recently about the need for educators to say no, which then frees up space for them to say yes to other things that are important to them.

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Digital Leadership: Leading Change from Where You Are | #DigiLead

A Principal's Reflections

A great deal has changed over the past few years not just in society, but also in education. Many of these changes are a result of the exponential advances in technology and the role these tools play in shaping both our personal and professional lives. As a result, innovative practices emerged in many shapes and sizes. To answer the call of disruption, new thinking had to emerge.

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CoSN 2019: How Teachers Can Revolutionize the Future of Education

EdTech Magazine

CoSN 2019: How Teachers Can Revolutionize the Future of Education. juliet.vanwage…. Tue, 04/02/2019 - 11:04. When it comes to educational innovations to prepare students for the future, Yong Zhao, foundation distinguished professor at the University of Kansas School of Education , believes educators are stuck in a loop. “Today when we talk about education, we only talk about three things: the curriculum, the teacher and the assessments,” Zhao told attendees at the Consortium for School Networki

Education 402
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Choice Boards, Playlists, Pathways.Oh My!

Education Elements

For many districts and schools, choice boards, playlists, and pathways are used interchangeably to describe instructional designs that provide students with a menu of options to guide and own their learning. Yet we ask educators to use these design practices very differently. We often define other terms, like the different blended learning models, and the different levels of student compliance.

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Breaking Down the 8 Key Concepts of Computational Thinking

Digital Promise

Across the United States and around the world, educators are being called on to help their students prepare for futures in an increasingly computational world. Integrating computational thinking into activities, lessons, and curricula not only supports building new skills, but also enhances learning and engagement in every discipline. However, there are still many more educators who do not feel comfortable with computational thinking concepts than those who do.

Data 331
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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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2 questions about cheating, copying, and student ‘integrity’

Dangerously Irrelevant

We’re so quick to bemoan the lack of ethics in our students. They cheat. They copy. They take shortcuts on the work. We complain incessantly about their work ethic, their commitment to their classwork and homework, and their failure to find interest or meaning in the learning tasks we put before them. Lost in these laments is any recognition that a vast amount of what we ask our students to do in school is indeed actually meaningless.

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30 activities for any Depth of Knowledge level

Ditch That Textbook

Norman Webb’s Depth of Knowledge model can help teachers create learning opportunities that hit a variety of complexity levels. It is a framework for evaluating the level of complex thinking required to complete a task. The framework consists of four levels. DOK level 1: Recall. What is the knowledge? Who? What? When? Where? DOK level […].

Learning 274
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The Point of a Lesson

A Principal's Reflections

I am not a huge fan of collecting lesson plans and have not been for years. It is my opinion that you can learn a great deal more by collecting and looking at assessments. Regardless of where you stand on the whole lesson plan debate, the intent is what really matters. For all of us who have taught or have been in a leadership position that supports teachers, I think we all agree that the point of any lesson is to help students learn.

Outcomes 381
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Digital Literacy Programs Prepare Students for a Tech-Enabled Future

EdTech Magazine

Digital Literacy Programs Prepare Students for a Tech-Enabled Future. eli.zimmerman_9856. Sun, 04/14/2019 - 10:28. K–12 students have more access to the internet than ever, thanks to the multitude of personal devices at their fingertips. . Kids aged 8–18 years old are in front of screens for seven hours every day on average, CBS News reports. With 95 percent of teenagers in possession of mobile devices, students are constantly sharing and searching through social media platforms. .

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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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6 Things Every High School Senior Should Have Access To Before Graduation

EdNews Daily

In Gary Vaynerchuk’s recent video , My Reaction to the 2019 College Admissions Scandal , he states, “If a parent thinks a kid’s accomplishment is a reflection of them, now you have a disconnect. Now you’re not a parent and a child. You’re a person with a product.”. Times are changing in the economy and workforce at a rapid pace. Parents, guardians, and teachers need to pay attention and listen to our young people, while providing the right type of guidance to help our newest generation thr

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Celebrating the Future of Learning, One Region at a Time

Digital Promise

Educators, businesses, and researchers agree: today’s students require a new set of skills to thrive as productive citizens. They need to be digitally literate, creative, critical thinkers who can communicate in a variety of mediums and collaborate well with others, and they need to be able to work across subject disciplines to solve real-world problems.

Learning 327
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Tech Company Drops Conference Swag in Favor of 13,000 School Donations

Edsurge

Ten schools in the San Francisco Unified School District had their wishes granted this week—13,746 wishes, to be exact. That’s the number of items and school supplies recently donated by the San Francisco-based tech company Okta. The catch? Conference-goers to the company’s annual Bay Area event didn’t come away with any “swag” this year. That means no branded backpacks, stress balls, hoodies or fruits for the adults.

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35 creative Google Drawings activities for classes

Ditch That Textbook

If you are looking for a tool that can be integrated into any content area and at any grade level then you have hit paydirt. Google Drawings is like a big digital sheet of paper. You can add text, images, shapes, and lines. The simplicity of it makes Google Drawings easy to use for students of […].

Google 252
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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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Where We Belong

The Jose Vilson

When I first attended the annual National Council of Teachers of Mathematics conference, it took place in Salt Lake City, Utah. I’d never been to SLC, but the burgers were good, the company was cool, and Malcolm Gladwell was the opening keynote speaker. I was only a few years into teaching, but the carnival of math education aficionados drew me in.

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Alabama Leaders in Ed Tech Offer a Model for Professional Development

EdTech Magazine

Alabama Leaders in Ed Tech Offer a Model for Professional Development. eli.zimmerman_9856. Mon, 04/22/2019 - 10:58. Education is moving toward a student-centered, collaborative, creative learning environment , but without professional development in place — and the understanding of what the end results should look like — it’s difficult to ensure technology investments will succeed. .

E-rate 357
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How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different

TeachThought - Learn better.

How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different by Terry Heick This post was one of our earliest posts from Terry Heick in very early 2012. It has now been updated and republished. In an era dominated by constant information and the desire to be social, should the tone of thinking for students be different? After […]. The post How 21st Century Thinking Is Just Different appeared first on TeachThought.

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Edtech, Equity, and Innovation: A Critical Look in the Mirror

Digital Promise

We are often reluctant to label anything facilitated through technology as a failure. Instead, we tend to excuse inadequate or unsavory outcomes as necessary growing pains in the pursuit of “innovation.” Technology has become so pervasive in our lives that we have grown reticent to question its value when its use may not support evidence-based practices.

EdTech 316
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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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Why Schools Need to Help Students Find Purpose — and How to Do It

Edsurge

I started my first college advising session with Marcus with the same question I always asked: “If you could do anything after high school knowing that you would be successful, financially secure, and your friends and family would support you, what would you do?” His speed of response surprised me. By failing to take student’s aspirations seriously, we miss out on key information that may help us understand and serve our most disengaged students to help them cultivate purposeful lives “Become a

How To 167
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10 steps to create a student-driven classroom

Ditch That Textbook

One day back in 2005, my student Malin walked in looking for me. She just wanted to tell me that she used to hate English before I became her teacher. The reason for the change, she said, was that she got to decide a little more herself and that she could learn more because she […].

Classroom 249
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Let Us March On ‘Til Victory Is Won

The Jose Vilson

Even on concrete, my shoes manage to screech at me when I’m chasing down a crosstown bus at 6:45 in the morning. My robust frame belies my uncanny ability to accelerate as the neon green sign flashes from a block away. Upon entering the bus, I’m met with less eyerolls like someone who’s holding up the bus and more with incredulity that I made it.

Training 139
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4 Steps to Create an Effective K–12 Drone Curriculum

EdTech Magazine

4 Steps to Create an Effective K–12 Drone Curriculum. eli.zimmerman_9856. Wed, 04/17/2019 - 13:43. An increasing number of K–12 schools are bringing drones into the classroom as new use cases show how useful unmanned vehicles can be to teach science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics skills. . While students are excited at the idea of flying robots in class, teachers will need support systems to learn how to incorporate the new technology into their lesson plans.

Industry 347
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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.

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8 New EdTech Web Tools for Teachers and Educators

Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

We are back to you with another collection of new educational tools to try out in your instruction. The purpose is to help you make the best of technology in your teaching and enhance students.read more.

Tools 111
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Solving Challenges for Deeper Learning in Science

Digital Promise

In traditional science classrooms, students are often presented with facts and definitions to memorize, or they are asked to follow a predetermined set of instructions to complete a lab activity. However, this model of instruction does not align with our emerging understanding of how students learn science best. In 2012, the National Research Council released A Framework for K-12 Science Education , a consensus report that outlined how research in the learning sciences should inform the developm

OER 307
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Why Students Can’t Write — And Why Tech is Part of the Problem

Edsurge

Writing is more important than ever, but many of today’s students are lousy at it. John Warner has some ideas about why that is, and how to fix it. Warner has been teaching writing at colleges for more than 20 years. And he’s written two books on the topic, including his most recent, called “ Why They Can’t Write. ” Part of the problem, he says, is technology.

Software 167
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5 ways to help tech coaches maximize their role

Ditch That Textbook

Tech Coach, Technology Integration Specialist, ecoach… No matter the title, the role of this specialist focuses on helping educators successfully integrate technology into their curriculum in a meaningful way. Having been in this role for 5 years now, I often get asked, “how do you do it?”. As I am the sole person for my […].

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Transform Your Classroom with Apple

Speaker: Aaron Webb, Jamf

Apple empowers educators and students by design. Whether using Macs, iPads, or Apple TV, Apple devices encourage creativity and can simplify teaching with apps to make the classroom more flexible, collaborative and personalized for each student. To unleash the full potential of the technology and create the best learning environment, you need to understand the tools and resources available, and develop an education-focused, comprehensive plan, from equipment purchase to deployment, management an