A Principal's Reflections
APRIL 24, 2014
'Social media provides educators with a wealth of tools that can be used to engage students and enhance learning. Unfortunately many schools are either too focused on sustaining their testing factories, implementing an array of top-down mandates, or are influenced by the perception and stigma that accompanies social media tools. Since this is an educational technology post I will only focus on the latter.
The Web20Classroom
APRIL 23, 2014
'Today (April 23, 2014) is the 9th Anniversary of the first video ever being uploaded to YouTube. You can still see that first video here. Many districts are realizing the potential that YouTube learning can have in the classroom. There are lots of great videos and channels out there on 1000''s of topics. I have put together a list of some of my favorite tools to use with YouTube.
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Educational Technology Guy
APRIL 22, 2014
'Earth Day, April 22nd, is a great time to talk to your students about the environment. Earth Day was started in 1962 as a way to bring attention to environmental issues. As polution increases, and the environment is continually affected by humans, it is a great time to get our students thinking about environmental issues. Here are some resources you can use with your students: Earth Day Networks site - [link] Google Earth Day Resources #mybeautifulearth https://plus.google.com/u/0/explore/mybea
My Paperless Classroom
APRIL 23, 2014
'When I opened my email on Tuesday night I was sorting through the "promotions" section of gmail and I came across a Klout perk. For those of you who don''t know Klout, I would describe it as a mostly silly social media metric generator. There may be ways to make it a useful platform, but mostly I find that paying attention to these sorts of numbers is a distraction from creating content that is actually useful to others.
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MSEDTechie
APRIL 24, 2014
'Time is NOT on our side. Sometimes we want our students to complete quick mobile projects that take very little time, but produce awesome projects. Our 4th grade students recently visited Jefferson City, our Missouri capitol, to learn more about Missouri history. Each group on the field trip had an iPad to capture video and or images to document their experience.
Saving Socrates
APRIL 24, 2014
'The past week I have been spending a lot of time revamping Magen David''s Skills assessment rubrics to align them to the Common Core. Because Magen David is a regents school, we need to align our curriculum to the common core and this is a fundamental part of the process. In an effort to fully align our skills based curricula to something teachers can actually follow on a daily basis (ie the curricular template I have for all courses in the school created with department heads and teachers), I
EdTech Update brings together the best content for education technology professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
The Innovative Educator
APRIL 20, 2014
'“The only difference between smartphones and laptops is that cell phones are smaller, cheaper, and more coveted by students” ( Richtel & Stone , 2009). Students, parents, teachers, principals, and elected officials know it is time to lift restrictions and embrace these tools for learning. Below is their wisdom and the research to support it. Students In general, 95% of teens use the internet and 74% are “mobile internet users” (Pew, 2013).
My Paperless Classroom
APRIL 25, 2014
'You can Google Like a Boss This is a screen cast to show my fifth grade students how I use Google to find the information I am looking for. I demonstrate how to use keywords, grade level, and reading level to refine the search. There are other tricks out there, but these seem most relevant to what my students need today.
MSEDTechie
APRIL 24, 2014
'Have you started using Symbaloo yet? Symbaloo is a free visual bookmarking site that gives you access to anything you bookmark with a tile from any computer. It takes bookmarking to a whole new level. Check out this awesome thinglink that links you to fantastic symbaloo tutorials.
The 21st Century Principal
APRIL 23, 2014
'"I would devote myself to learning how to build not just a successful company but a sustainable creative culture." Ed Catmull There is no doubt that Pixar is one of the most creative companies in the world today. They have accomplished an "insanely great feat" by creating the first all computer animated feature film, Toy Story , at a time when naysayers were telling them it couldn''t be done.
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.
The Innovative Educator
APRIL 23, 2014
'Do you have students who love inventing, experimenting, and computing? Then check out my article on Answers.com which features quality, free or inexpensive places you can turn to help your students discover, explore, and develop his or her inner inventor. Visit " Help your child get inventive with these resources " to find out about more about resources like Super Awesome Sylvia, Tynker, and Makey Makey.
My Paperless Classroom
APRIL 23, 2014
'Sphero 2.0 Unboxing I am exploring tools we might use for STEM integration. It looks like this programmable robot ball might be a great tool for math and science instruction, but I will only know once I get it out of the box.
The Daring Librarian
APRIL 20, 2014
'Irony of ironies! I recently worked a few nights madly and happily Photoshopping & designing a new Twitter look for our school''s Twitter page! (it''s still not perfect! & best viewed on a big desktop screen) when I heard that they''re soon changing the look and design features of Twitter altogether! What the what!? Doh! (It''s HERE! See Update below!
The 21st Century Principal
APRIL 25, 2014
'The Obama Administration announced its latest plan today that would tie federal funding of teacher preparation programs to test scores. Duncan and the Obama Administration are seeking to place the federal government in the middle of teacher preparation. I suspect this measure will only make it more difficult to convince young people to become teachers and educators, and it will likely have some perverse affects on teacher preparation in this country just as the use of testing for high stakes de
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.
The Innovative Educator
APRIL 19, 2014
'Here’s the roundup of what''s been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there''s something that looks of interest to you. If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment. Entry Pageviews How obsolete is your school?
Learning with 'e's
APRIL 25, 2014
'Who are you? How do you let other people know who you are? Are you the same person online as you are in real life? Can you separate your professional identity from your personal identity? These important questions have been raised several times in the last few weeks at events I have attended. The concept of identity (personal and professional) is a complex one.
The Mobile Native
APRIL 25, 2014
'New National Research Indicates Teacher Professional Development Program to Integrate Mobile Technology May Have Positive Impact on Students’ Standardized Math Test Scores Verizon, the Program’s Creator, and its partner, International Society for Technology in Education, to Launch Verizon Mobile Learning Academy to Train More Teachers Nationwide NEW CARROLLTON, Md. – New national research indicates that training teachers to integrate mobile technology into instruction may have a positive effect
The 21st Century Principal
APRIL 23, 2014
'Last summer, our North Carolina Legislature handed all our state school administrators a hand grenade with the pin pulled. Under a law that they passed, school districts were tasked with finding a way to identify the "top 25%" of all teachers. The law did not specify how this identification was to be done, but it mandated that districts offer bonuses to whoever was identified as the top 25% of teachers in the schools.
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Technology Tidbits
APRIL 21, 2014
'EDpuzzle is a fantastic free tool for educators or students to take a video and "make it their own". The way this they do this is by uploading a video (i.e. YouTube, Vimeo, TeachersTube, etc) and then edit it by: cropping, adding their own, narration, and even embed a quiz. This is ideal for educators looking to Flip a Lesson/Classroom and differentiate instructions.
Learning with 'e's
APRIL 20, 2014
'One of the first books I ever read about digital media was Nicholas Negroponte''s Being Digital. I have a first edition, published in 1995, and I was honoured to have dinner with Nic last year, where he duly signed my copy. Negroponte has been influential with many projects such as MIT Media Lab, Wired Magazine and the One Laptop Per Child initiative bearing his name.
The Reflective Practitioner
APRIL 22, 2014
'I found the image on the left on Twitter tonight from @techgirljenny. I love that it 100% promotes the idea of getting professional development through social media, specifically Twitter. There is something absolutely thrilling about connecting with educators from around the world and sharing ideas and blog posts about everything from planning to formative assessment to the latest ed tech tool.
Kyle Pace
APRIL 21, 2014
I had the honor of guest moderating #arkedchat (Arkansas educators) last Thursday evening. If you haven’t joined in on a Thursday evening at 8pm CST you really should. It’s a great example of one of the many state-sprcific chats we have happening on Twitter. One of my takeaways from the chat, and something I’ve had said to me on more than one occasion lately (in variation), led me to respond with this: Remember: forward movement is better than no movement at all.
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.
Technology Tidbits
APRIL 22, 2014
'EverySlide is a fantastic new presentation tool that I just found out about from Free Technology 4 Teachers. This is a great place for educators to create or upload a presentation (i.e. Keynote, PPT) then share it w/ others via a unique access code. Being browser based this works on any mobile device and best of all an educator can assess an audience/students level of learning by embedding a poll that they can take.
Learning with 'e's
APRIL 19, 2014
'It''s a phrase that keeps echoing in my head: ''It takes a village''. It''s not a new phrase, but I was reminded of it again recently by Aaron Davis , a secondary school teacher in Melbourne, who has a prolific education Twitter account. I feel ''it takes a village'' requires some unpacking. In 1962, in his book The Gutenberg Galaxy , media theorist Marshall McLuhan popularised the term ''Global Village'' as a description of global contraction through proliferation of electronic technology.
The Reflective Practitioner
APRIL 20, 2014
'“If you use one thing from my session, then I’ve done my job.” Been to this PD? If you’ve delivered professional development in front of a group of teachers, I can just about guarantee you have uttered that sentiment in one form or another. And most likely you’ve preceded it or proceeded it with 100 things they could implement, hoping you’re energetic or engaging enough that they pay attention and find the one good idea out of the 100 that matches them and th
Slate and Tablets
APRIL 19, 2014
'While it’s a little self centered to think we’re all this talented at what we do, in the traffic of everyday teaching it’s important to take a step back to appreciate the art of what one does. There is a certain peace and serenity in creating art, and when I stumbled across this video, even without understanding the context, I couldn’t help but marvel.
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.
Technology Tidbits
APRIL 24, 2014
'30hands is one of my favorite free iOS apps for easily creating a digital story. This is a great app because it can be used by any curriculum for any subject and is very easy to use w/ a drag-n-drop interface. All a user has to do is upload a photo, add text, and then record their narration to create a story. Also, 30hands has an excellent video tutorial which shows educators how to integrate into the classroom.
Hansen's Link to Tech
APRIL 25, 2014
'Learn how to create custom maps using Google Maps Engine for personal, classroom, or professional usage. This video demonstrates how to generate and share it with your class to create one or many custom classroom virtual tour/map projects.
Educator Innovator
APRIL 24, 2014
Every year a group of public high school students from all over Pittsburgh gathers at Winchester Thurston School for an afterschool course that teaches them how to program mobile apps. Some students might learn how to design a game. Others might learn how to create a painting program. And some might learn how to build a simple app to track their favorite sports team’s scores. “The students have come up with some pretty wild ideas,” program head David Nassar said in a recent article.
The Web20Classroom
APRIL 21, 2014
'This past weekend I had the pleasure of attending another Edcamp. This one makes 7 for me. #EdcampElon was another event in a long like of teacher-driven professional development that can have a lasting impact on the learning of all who attend. Don''t know what an Edcamp is or looks like? My experience with Edcamp has been that of a participant and an organizer (EdcampNC!).
This whitepaper explores integrating the PowerTeaching pedagogical approach within a HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible) educational model, focusing on employing cooperative learning strategies and efficient classroom management techniques.
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