January, 2019

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Closing the Digital Learning Gap

Digital Promise

Most Americans agree that education is a national priority. Yet, despite efforts over the last 20 years to improve the performance of our schools, the U.S. public education system falls in the middle of international quality rankings. But let’s be clear: the problem with education in America is not lack of excellence. It’s lack of equity. There are pockets of excellence across the country that outshine the best of the best around the world.

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5 Ways K–12 Teachers Can Take a New Approach to Computational Thinking

EdTech Magazine

5 Ways K–12 Teachers Can Take a New Approach to Computational Thinking. eli.zimmerman_9856. Wed, 01/23/2019 - 16:34. New educational guidelines from ISTE stress the importance of contextualizing science, technology, engineering and math skills through everyday classroom activities. . STEM courses are a central component to K–12 learning , but incorporating STEM into the classroom can be difficult.

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How to build an engineer: Start young

The Hechinger Report

Aliah Corona and Dakkota Ryf, both 8 in this photo, check the force it takes to move a bag of potatoes six inches using wheels during their third-grade STEAM enrichment class at Pioneer Elementary School in Quincy, Washington. Lillian Mongeau/The Hechinger Report. QUINCY, Wash. — A few years ago, a young female engineer named Isis Anchalee was featured on one of her company’s recruiting posters only to be subjected to a barrage of digital feedback questioning whether she was really an engineer.

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5 Ways to Design Your Teacher-led Station

Catlin Tucker

bit.ly/5TeacherLed. In my work as a blended learning coach, I observe a lot of teachers facilitating blended lessons. The Station Rotation Model is particularly popular because teachers do not need a device for every student to make it work. Instead, students rotate between offline and online stations. One concern I have about this model is the way teachers design and facilitate their teacher-led station.

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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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Kid-Centric Schools: When There's a Will There's a Way

A Principal's Reflections

When I wrote Uncommon Learning back in 2015, the premise was to set the stage as to how we could create schools that work for kids. A good deal of the strategies presented came from what we successfully implemented at New Milford High School where I was the former principal. To get a better gist of the main focus areas check out my TEDx talk. As I have since transitioned from school principal to Senior Fellow with the International Center for Leadership in Education ( ICLE ), my work now focuses

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Educational Games Company CEO Shares Career Advice for Women in Computer Science

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

The founder of Galvanize Labs shares her path through the word of computer science, where she was often one of few women in the room. The post Educational Games Company CEO Shares Career Advice for Women in Computer Science appeared first on Market Brief.

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More Trending

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Esports Programs Start to Pop Up in K–12 Schools

EdTech Magazine

Esports Programs Start to Pop Up in K–12 Schools. eli.zimmerman_9856. Fri, 01/11/2019 - 11:44. Athletes at Mission Viejo High School in California huddle after their matches, pushing each other to improve. “The kids will say, ‘We need to communicate better, let’s meet to talk about our ­strategy,’” says Tiffany Bui, the team’s faculty adviser. “They’ll talk about what went well, what didn’t go well.

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How to Celebrate World Read Aloud Day

Ask a Tech Teacher

On Feb. 1, 2019, World Read Aloud Day celebrates the pure joy of oral reading with kids of all ages. Created by LitWorld , past years have found over 1 million people in 100 countries joining together to enjoy the power and wonder of reading aloud in groups or individually, at school or home, and discovering what it means to listen to a story told through the voice of another.

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Do What Lights You Up This Year!

Catlin Tucker

The new year inspires reflection and resolutions. We take stock of the last twelve months noting the highs and the lows. We may have regrets about opportunities we did not pursue, projects we didn’t get to, students we could not reach, and activities we wish we had dedicated more time to in the last year. Often these feelings about the year inspire lofty new year resolutions.

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Perfect Can Paralyze You

The CoolCatTeacher

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter You feel like it has to be perfect. So, you don’t finish. Sometimes you don’t even start. You’re not going to write down a goal if you don’t think you have the time to do it perfectly right now. So, instead of just losing five pounds in the next two months, you decide you’ll diet later and so you gain.

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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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6 Lessons Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Dance Class

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

Dance class requires participants to be present, accept feedback, be supportive and give their all. There's a lot here that translates to the startup world. The post 6 Lessons Startup Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Dance Class appeared first on Market Brief.

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How Powerful Use of Technology Can Increase Student Engagement

Digital Promise

Rather than taking a traditional multiple choice test at the end of their unit on weather, sixth grade students at Gilbert Middle School in South Carolina created their own live weather reports—complete with green screens and fake snow. Down the hall, seventh graders used digital tools to design memes based on quotes from a novel in their English/language arts class.

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How K–12 Schools Have Adopted Artificial Intelligence

EdTech Magazine

How K–12 Schools Have Adopted Artificial Intelligence. eli.zimmerman_9856. Thu, 01/03/2019 - 12:05. Over the past several years, artificial intelligence transitioned from the movie screen to reality, and soon it will be everywhere. The ubiquity of AI across industries leads to two key points for K–12 schools. . First, K–12 schools should use current AI solutions to help with everything from classroom performance to network safety and monitoring.

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Authentic Learning Experiences

User Generated Education

Providing authentic learning experiences to all learners should be the highest prior for all administrators, curriculum developers, and teachers. Authentic learning is learning designed to connect what students are taught in school to real-world issues, problems, and applications; learning experiences should mirror the complexities and ambiguities of real life.

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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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The Hidden Stories of Those Around Us

Tom Murray

Each one of us has a story. How much of your story do those around you know? Earlier this week, I boarded the 7:15a train to Washington, D.C. from 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. As I do regularly, I found a seat, opened my laptop, turned up the volume in my headphones, and got connected so that I could do some work. Like I do many times each day, I took a moment and scanned my Twitter feed.

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If you want deeper learning…

Dangerously Irrelevant

… you must have deeper teaching. You can’t get to deeper learning with worksheets and end-of-chapter review questions. You can’t get to deeper learning with self-paced adaptive learning modules that emphasize facts and procedures. You can’t get to deeper learning with multiple-choice software and apps. You can’t get to deeper learning without actually changing day-to-day lessons and units.

Learning 278
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40 innovative ideas for using Google Forms in your classroom

Ditch That Textbook

We know that Google Forms give us the ability to easily create quizzes or surveys. We can even create self-grading exams or include video or image in our forms. But that is just scratching the surface. Google Forms can do SO much more! How can we use this G Suite app in different and creative ways? […].

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Powerful Learning is Authentic and Challenging

Digital Promise

In this series we explore Powerful Learning, a set of principles to guide educators designing learning experiences that engage the hearts and minds of learners and incorporate technology in ways that contribute to closing the Digital Learning Gap. In this second post, we explore how Powerful Learning is authentic and challenging, share research that grounds these two principles, and provide resources to support your own learning and teaching practices.

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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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4 Surprising Benefits of Gaming for K–12 Students

EdTech Magazine

4 Surprising Benefits of Gaming for K–12 Students. eli.zimmerman_9856. Mon, 01/14/2019 - 15:23. Historically, many adults have derided video games as a waste of time at best, and actively destructive at worst. But research shows there may be benefits to conquering virtual bad guys and dunking on on-screen friends. When Saddleback Valley Unified School District in California introduced esports to their program, administrators saw an increase in teamwork and engagement from participating students.

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Bridging the Gap in Rural Putnam County, Tennessee Through Personalized Learning

Education Elements

In Putnam County, Tenn., with 23 schools spread across 400 square miles, we share many of the challenges faced by our fellow rural school districts nationwide, including inconsistent attendance, long commutes, and a high "mobility rate" - the rate at which students are moving in and out of the district. Previously, Putnam County teachers had been using more traditional, often low-tech teaching methodologies.

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Stop Celebrating Low-Level Learning

Tom Murray

In the spring of 2002, I was teaching 4th grade in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. As a teacher in my second year, my classroom had a 1:1 student-to-device ratio. That’s right, in 2002, 17 years ago, we were 1:1. Palm Pilots. Yes, Palm Pilots. Remember those things? Image Credit: The Morning Call, 2002 “I’d love to see these units become standard equipment for all students in five to ten years.” – Thomas C.

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Unthoughtful consumption

Dangerously Irrelevant

We spent the last 200+ years (at least) pushing consumption models of learning on most of our students. We asked them to be passive recipients of whatever information came from the teacher or textbook. We gave them few opportunities to question the reliability or validity of the information that we spoon-fed them. We trusted that someone else did the filtering for us and them beforehand.

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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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Ditch those sub plans

Ditch That Textbook

Teachers never realize how much work they do, until they have to write sub plans! Isn’t that the truth? I used to spend hours writing sub plans, detailed, step-by-step plans. And then I would pray the substitute would follow them. Once our school began going digital, I started changing the way I planned for a […].

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The 6 Truths Of Effective Educators

The Web20Classroom

In all the work I have done with countless educators from across the world I believe we can break them down into two groups. Good Teachers and Great Teachers. What separates the two is effectiveness. Effective Educators are those that have a set of truths that they live by. It's what they wake up everyday thinking about and striving for. It doesn't mean they aren't human.

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How to Gamify Professional Development

EdTech Magazine

How to Gamify Professional Development. eli.zimmerman_9856. Wed, 01/02/2019 - 10:20. Earlier this year, a Gallup poll surveyed teachers who left the profession. Nearly a third (29 percent) left due to relocation or health issues. Looking at the 71 percent who were left, 16 percent of those teachers were terminated, and 60 percent said they left because of issues with career advancement or development. .

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Is Creativity a Skill?

Edsurge

Are you creative? How would you know, or convince your boss? According to a new LinkedIn analysis of member profiles, creativity tops the chart of soft skills that employers are looking for. A skill is loosely defined as the ability to do something well. The word traces back to Old Norse for “power of discernment.” In the early 13th century, the word was also used to describe one’s “sense of ability, cleverness.

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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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Part 4: Over 150 STEM Resources for PBL and Authentic Learning… Math

21st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Welcome to number four in a series of four posts bringing you over 150 amazing resources for STEM education. I hope you enjoyed my thoughts of STEM being a Verb a few posts back. You will also find posts filled with resources including Science , Technology , and Engineering in STEM. Check it out if you have not had a chance! This post is dedicated to Math.

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Virginia is for Learners Innovation Network

Dangerously Irrelevant

Yesterday I blogged an update on the 7-day Innovation Academy that we are conducting for 72 school leaders in North Dakota. Today I thought I’d share that we are about to launch a new initiative in Virginia. The first round of the Virginia Is for Learners Innovation Network will launch in March and run through December of this year. Applications are rolling in from Virginia school districts right now.

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3 ways to incorporate the 4 Cs into any class

Ditch That Textbook

Technology has changed every aspect of our lives. Friends are at our fingertips and you can binge watch countless shows and movies without even leaving your couch. We as a society are exposed to more content and diverse ideas than ever before. So how does this affect education? If students become proficient communicators, collaborators, creators, […].

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Teacher Google, Doctor Google

Pair-a-dimes for Your Thoughts

How many of you have googled instructions to repair or replace something in your home, garden, or vehicle? How many of you have googled an ailment to see what remedies are suggested? My guess is: All of you! Teacher Google (and Teacher YouTube) : This amazing girl mastered dubstep dancing by just using YouTube. Doctor Google : There are computers using artificial intelligence that can read and diagnose CT scans better and faster than humans can.

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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