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Step 1 – Show: You start a SlideTalk video by uploading the slides or images that makes your presentation. Any type of image is valid: powerpoint slides, pictures, screenshots, scanned images… Step 2 – Describe: You type a text description for each slide. This is the text that will be rendered to audio by text-to-speech. You can at any moment listen to the way the audio will sound in the final video, allowing you to fine tune the text to get your message through. You can also choose among a wide selection of high quality voices (by Acapela Group) including more than 70 voices in more than 20 languages. Step 3 – Share: When the video is produced, it is immediately published on YouTube, ready to be shared with your audience. Depending on your subscription level you will also be able to download or control the access to the video as it suits you.

i-Ready.com from Curriculum Associates, is a great K-8 adaptive assessment with engaging content.

Dreambox.com is a K-3 game-based adaptive math product.

ST Math from MIND Research Institute is a visual game-based approach used with great results in over 1,200 schools; ST Math is now available on iPad. They are launching their Seattle Math Initiative this Wednesday

Through a combination of blended learning, individualized instruction, and enthusiasm, online biology teacher Leslie Fetzer’s dedication to helping her special-needs students develop core learning skills contributed to her new title as the 2012 National Online Teacher of the Year for K-12 education.

Fetzer said that teaching online lets her instantly individualize instruction for her students, and she is able to personalize lessons to appeal to each student’s own areas of interest or preferences. Access to different online tools and technologies is an added benefit.

“It is about kids creating for themselves. It is no longer about teachers passing on knowledge and controlling classes. It is about facilitating a mindset and lifestyle that is the reality of the modern child entering education.”

“We have exhausted and moved on from taxonomies. The bottom-up folksonomy has been explored, and we are now entering the rhizonomy, the un-organization (of which MOOCs are an example), chaotic, non-rule-based learning that happens regardless of organization.”

With the rise of standards-based instruction, districts and schools have been seeking out the best tools to foster it. Standards-Based grade books have been created is response to this need. As with educational changes, there are exciting potentials and pitfalls. First of all, here is what works when using the standards-based grade book:

1)     Ensures targeted Assessment and Rubrics

2)     Continuity across Classes and Teacher

i-Ready’s two components, adaptive diagnostic and standards preparation, provide a visually appealing and fun approach to educational materials. Both programs allow teachers, parents and administrators to follow the progress of every student down to the skill level. The diagnostic program not only identifies the grade level a student is at, but pin points the skills needed to improve and adapts lessons accordingly.

“What we are seeing today is a certain amount of familiarity for the millennial generation around using technology. Whether it is a mobile phone, a tablet or computer, or also doing things with television, video recordings, gaming, there is a particular set of skills that they have developed,” says Akhtar Badshah, senior director of Global Community Affairs at Microsoft Corp. “However, we also know that just because you’ve had familiarity with the use of a device, it may not necessarily lead to proficiency in the use of technology where youth are effectively using technology to better their lives through a job, start something, or undertake further studies.”

1. It has been predicted that 44 percent of college textbooks will be digital by 2017. 2. Florida is making K-12 textbooks completely digital by 2015. 3. Even the federal government is taking a strong stance — it released the “Digital Textbook Playbook” to show districts why and how they should make the move toward e-textbooks. 4. The transition to digital content is undeniably taking place in classrooms and on campuses, and will only accelerate in coming years.

2012 Q2 Special Report: The Textbook Reformation & Digital Content

Converge 2012 Q2 Special Report Supplement: Funding and Professional Development

Research by the U.S. Department of Education shows that students in online learning environments perform modestly better, on average, than those learning the same material through traditional face-to-face instruction, and that blending online and face-to-face instruction increases that advantage.

Number of Graphics and Multimedia elements Levels of Interactivity Instructional Designer and Subject Matter Expert Time