Group items tagged

"Edmodo for Parents is an app designed just for parents. The app, available for iOS and Android, allows parents to quickly check for announcements from teachers. Perhaps more importantly the app offers a student activity feed. The student activity feed shows parents which assignments their children have completed. It also shows lists of upcoming and overdue assignments, quizzes, and events."

"Last night we held two parent information evenings for parents whose students in years 6 and 7 for 2012 will be involved in our 1:1 iPad Trial. I have placed our 1:1 iPad Booklet for 2012 below, as a PDF version for download, as well as the Prezi presentation that parents were ran through."

"Here are 10 ideas I have gathered this summer to kick parent communication up to the next level so that never again will they have to ask, "What'd you do at school today?" and hear the annoying, "nothing." Instead, parents will have already experienced the wonderful things that have been happening in their child's world and dinner table discussions will turn into celebrations and extensions of the learning happening at school."

"When a teacher, school, or district tells parents and community members, "We're going to do Project Based Learning!" the response may vary. You're lucky if some say, "Great news! Students need to be taught differently these days!" but a more typical response might be: What's Project Based Learning?  That's not how I was taught. Why do we need PBL, if (a) our school is already doing well, or (b) what we really need is a better literacy/math program to raise test scores?  Isn't that just a trendy new thing that doesn't really work?  How is this going to affect my child (and me)?  Basically, they're asking for the what, why, and how. Here are some successful strategies we've seen to answer these questions."

"With an ever-expanding selection of apps on the market making educational claims, parents today have a tough time deciding which apps are worth their investment. Earlier this year, app search and discovery portal Appolicious launched a new resource called appoLearning to specifically address this problem. Today, that service has arrived on the iPad in the form of a standalone application."

"Do you ever Google yourself? If you don't, why not? If you do, what do you see? If something about you does not come up on the first page, something is wrong. Your learning community needs to know what you believe is important. Your voice and ideas need to be read and heard! If you are not blogging or putting out a digital newsletter on your school or district website, you are missing golden opportunity to communicate with staff, parents, students, and the stakeholders of your community. Most students and parents are using digital media to communicate with friends and family using websites like Facebook or Google +. If you or your school community are not using these digital mediums to communicate your story, you are missing out, and what is worse, people may be telling your story for you and you might not like their version! As a leader, you have to plug yourself into these networks, to build your school's brand, to keep your stakeholders informed, and to model good communication for your staff. "

More reasoned argument from a principal why it's important to be connected as an educator.

Mural.ly is a new tool (still in beta, launched last week) that is a cross between Prezi and mind maps. It's easy to use and share what you create (perfect for most students, teachers, and parents) but the real beauty of mural.ly is in its lack of structure.

"One of the best services Google+  provides to its users is called " communities ". Any Google Plus user can easily create and host his/her community on the cloud and in a matter of few clicks.For us in education  we can use this service to create a community for our class. In this virtual space, you will get to share with your students resources, links, and also get them to participate and contribute in it. You can also create class events with dates, location, and more details and share them with your students and their parents as well. Needless to say that you can use Google Hangout right from your community to hold video conferences with your students."

"As I lamented in my last post, many of the fabulous Web tools out there are restricted to users 13 and over. This limits what Elementary/Primary schools students can access online to create content to collaborate. To save others at school some time, then, I have compiled a list of popular/well known Web tools that can and can't be used by children under 13 - 1), so we are legally covered in what we are allowing our students to use and 2), so they know what is available. Please note that generally the sites that allow for under 13s still ask for parental permission ( even Edmodo if you haven't read the Terms of Use) so a solid school user agreement is needed to use these tools. Some of the sites are not US based so are not bound by COPPA and CIPA regulations. It still requires schools to carefully check out what can be viewed on these sites to ensure they are appropriate to access."

"I want the people who will help shape our society in the future to understand the technology that will help shape our society in the future. If this is going to happen, then we need to reverse the trend that is seeing digital illiteracy exponentially increase. We need to act together, as parents, as teachers, as policy makers. Let's build a generation of hackers. Who's with me?"

"By Alfie Kohn To create the schools our children deserve, it's probably not necessary to devise specific policies and practices for every occasion.  Rather, these will follow logically from a few core principles that we devise together.  Here's a sample list of such principles, intended to start a conversation among educators, parents, and (let's not forget) the students themselves:"

"Cyber-bullying, update-addiction, sexting - from the perspective of a parent raising a ''digital native'' child, social media seems fraught with dangers. But new research suggests the risks inherent in social media use by younger generations might be overblown. danah boyd, assistant research professor at Harvard and principal researcher for Microsoft Research - like k.d.lang, she prefers the lower case - has completed a large-scale study on how US teenagers use the internet in general, and social media in particular. Her book is called It's Complicated, and is the result of in-depth interviews with scores of teens over an eight-year period."

"I have found that there is a point at which teachers struggle to move on - they learn the mechanics of blogging, most often making their blogs a wonderful showcase of classroom activities.  They get a small audience, mainly from parents and their local school community.  Then the enthusiasm wains as the feedback circle ceases or remains small.  They see blogging as an extra activity to their daily routine not one embedded into their practice which has clear purpose and direction."

"Why does Posterous shine in an education setting? Here are a few reasons: It's simple - Stay in touch beyond the classroom. In just minutes, create a Site or Group to begin sharing assignments, student work, news, and even meaningful discussions. Easily publish class materials and multimedia - Make learning fun by posting homework, podcasts, slides, and photos. Just upload. Posterous makes it look good and takes out the hassle of dealing with any 3rd party webhosts. Keep content and conversations private - Share class updates and exchange ideas in a secure setting. Control who can view and who can post with easy to manage privacy controls. Contribute as a team - Don't do it alone! Invite others to publish and subscribe. Set access controls for Contributors and Administrators. Easily manage recipient lists. Access Posterous anywhere - With our mobile apps and approach to e-mail everyone from time-pressed parents, teachers, and students can catch up on posts and activity. In this How Do I tutorial we'll be going over some uses of Posterous that are already being used by educators and students."

"VIDEO games have become one of the most notable features of our culture, yet the industry receives relatively scant attention in mainstream media. This is not only curious, it is unfortunate; because many parents and carers and educators remain unnecessarily wary of this crucible of creativity. The reach of these games is expanding with the take-up of smartphones and tablet computers. A recent study by the head of media communications and technology at Bond University, Jeffrey Brand, found that about 95 per cent of Australian children under 15 play video games."

Social networking communities are here to stay. Facebook has over 500 million users, while Twitter has over 200 million. That's not even counting blogs or YouTube video blogs. There's no doubt that students are actively engaged in online communities, but what kind of effects are these sites having and how can parents counteract the bad and bolster the positive?

"Social media pervades all aspects of modern society, particularly with the rapid influx of mobile devices. If used in meaningful and appropriate ways, it can transform a student's learning experience, improve communication with parents and community members, as well as support professional growth. However, teachers and administrators also confront the realities of opening up students to a global audience, and address real concerns about security, screentime, inappropriate behavior, and acceptable use. While the first instinct in schools and districts is often to block services such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and even some blogging platforms, the positives of these tools often outweigh the negatives."

"Why do we keep telling children that the law cannot protect them against severe cyberbullying? Time and time again politicians and the press claim that there is nothing police or parents can do if a child is being bullied on the internet, and that government needs to step in."

"Here is a handy cheat sheet made particularly for those of you who think they are not tech-savvy enough to carry out internet control safety planning for their kids. Check it out and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy"

Here is a website I found produced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. Cybersmart is full of activities and resources to help kids of all ages as well as parents be safe when using the internet.