A Principal's Reflections

AUGUST 11, 2011

'Cross-posted at Edutopia. School leaders across the country are meticulously planning for the upcoming year. This process has become more difficult as mounting challenges such as budget cuts and what seems like a relentless attack on the profession of education have taken their toll on staff moral. With this being said, quality leadership becomes even more essential in order to cultivate a school culture whose primary focus is on the learning and achievement of each and every student.

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Digital Citizenship Personal Learning Network Strategy Meeting 224

The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 12, 2011

'For the past 2 years I have done a "Back To School" survey of some kind. The first year it was advice you would give to someone starting out in their first year. Last year it was how do educators make those crucial connections with kids on the first days. This year I want to know your tips to a smooth start to the year. How do you make sure you survive have a great start?

Survey 100

Survey Education 100

SpeechTechie

AUGUST 10, 2011

'B-Movie TV is a fun site that features clips from old, silly American commercials and films that are overdubbed in another language. You can type in subtitles narrating or dialoging the scene, and can also choose to use text-to-speech or record over the clip. For more fun, you can switch to Bombay TV (see "switch channels") and do the same with Bollywood movies, which, not to be culturally insensitive, are notoriously over-the-top in terms of costumes, plotlines, and even frequent choreography.

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Elementary iPad Strategy 63

The Electric Educator

AUGUST 12, 2011

'As a die-hard Internet user I live and die by the bandwidth of the network that I am using. The capacity of the network determines what I am able to accomplish. The principle of capacity applies to other areas of life as well: You can only serve someone else if you aren''t overextended. You can only demonstrate love to someone else if you aren''t emotionally drained.

Twitter 60

Twitter Google 60

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Personalized Learning

The 21st Century Principal

AUGUST 10, 2011

'One of the most difficult decisions in tight budgets and deciding how to spend what little technology money we have.If your school or district is like mine, you just don''t have money to spend on iPad apps that won''t be used. I am not sure how useful these Smart Rules for Selecting iPad Apps are, but they have guided my decision making when looking for iPad apps.

iPad 59

iPad Guidelines Smartphone Tablets 59

Learning with 'e's

AUGUST 7, 2011

Picture the scene. You walk into the reception area of your local primary school and you see the wonderful displays of artwork created by the children. There are paintings and drawings, and there are mobiles and models made from cardboard, silver paper and other materials, all resplendent in their vibrant colours. It is a bright celebration of learning and it showcases the creative talents of the children.

Assessment 61

Assessment Mobility Learning Classroom 61

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

AUGUST 6, 2011

'Join me Tuesday, August 9th, for a live and interactive FutureofEducation.com webinar with Douglas Rushkoff returning to talk to us about his new book, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age. We''ll talk about the difference between directing technology and being directed by it, and the implications of this in education. Thinking twice about our use of digital media, what our practices are doing to us, and what we are doing to each other, is one of the most important prioritie

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Blackboard Guidelines Facebook Industry 51

wwwatanabe

AUGUST 11, 2011

'In what ways have "personal safety" and "citizenship" changed? How do we respond to those changes? Expectations of conduct When I was growing up, there were expectations my parents had of me for my personal safety and development: Ask permission before going somewhere. Don''t talk to strangers. -- (With the exception of my parents/entrusted adult being aware of the conversation.).

Internet Safety 45

Internet Safety Digital Citizenship Video Resources 45

Learning with 'e's

AUGUST 9, 2011

I seem to be spending a lot of time lately travelling around talking about 'the future'. Does this make me a futurologist or some kind of prophet? No - I'm just one more person who wants to know what might influence my professional life and my students' learning over the next year or two. We are all interested in the future, more or less. But trying to predict the future is not something I would recommend, because no-one really knows what tomorrow will bring.

Social Media 54

Social Media Mobility Company Facebook 54

The Mobile Native

AUGUST 10, 2011

'Defining Mobile Learning In education, the words "Mobile Learning" are starting to appear more often. Mobile learning is anytime, anywhere seamless learning. In other words, it is ubiquitous learning. A mobile learning device could be a laptop, net book, iPad, iPod Touch or even a smart phone. A Change in Thinking Many schools have labeled the use of mobile technology as a distraction in the classroom.

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Mobile Learning Classroom Mobility BYOD 40

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

The Learning Revolution Has Begun

AUGUST 6, 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.

Blackboard 46

Blackboard Edmodo Wiki MOOC 46

Comfortably 2.0

AUGUST 10, 2011

'I don''t know about you but I was never really a good test taker. I always thought I had better things to think about when it came to school like sports practice, what was for lunch or new ways to get out of having to study! If I only knew the things I know now back then.

Study 40

Study 40

Learning with 'e's

AUGUST 6, 2011

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the personalisation of education. The sticking point is that most education is publicly funded, the state has a major stake in how it's conducted, and therefore dictates what should be taught in schools. Because of lack of space, time and resources (you will always have this problem when the state intervenes) there is little latitude for personalised approaches and creativity is stifled.

E-rate 54

E-rate Personalized Learning Mobility Social Media 54

Comfortably 2.0

AUGUST 8, 2011

'Welcome Back!It''s hard to believe that we are already into the second week of August getting ready for another school year to start. I am sure that you asked yourself the same question that I have several times, "Where did the summer go?" I hope that you had a refreshing, invigorating and productive summer. I know that I am anticipating the 2011-2012 school year.

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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

AUGUST 11, 2011

Since the earliest days of television and the subsequent introduction of personal computers, the visual display unit (we now commonly refer to them as 'screens') has been an integral part of the user experience. Families who previously gathered around the hearth to share their day's experiences moved their orientation (and their living room furniture) to face 'the box'.

Laptops 56

Laptops iPhone iPad Mobility 56