Group items tagged

"Handheld computers are everywhere. From mobile phones to handheld games, it's a very familiar sight to see people of all ages gazing into screens that they can hold. Schools are discovering that handhelds like iPod touch and iPad make great learning tools. In fact, handhelds can play a big part in project based learning. Not only do projects motivate students because they use exciting handheld technology, but they also lend themselves to student voice and choice. Watch or read below to be inspired to bring project based learning into your classroom, learn strategies for creating effective driving questions, and see how an iOS handheld can play a role in the the planning, research/investigation, and presentation of projects."

Kathy Shrock has create this clickable graphic listing Google tools under the Bloom's Taxonomy headings.

Copyto is a new unique way to bookmark sites by allowing teachers and students to simply select parts of sites they want to have backed up. Like a mix between Diigo or Delicious and Evernote, this site is a great way to clip out pieces of websites, articles, research papers, and more, in order to save it for use later on or to share it out with collegeaues or students. There is also a browser plug-in and a mobile site to access all the links and content on the go. This has a slick interface and easy to use tool.

"So you and your students use the Internet everyday, but are you fluent in its language? Perhaps you've found yourself listening to a "techy" conversation where the terms IP, DNS, or PHP were being used and you wanted to know what those terms mean. What is an IP address? What is a DNS record? And just who is in charge of the Internet? Get answers to those questions and many more in Make Use Of's free ebook How the Internet Works."

Stripgenerator is one of the most intuitive cartoon strip generators currently available. Its simple drag and drop interface ensures that both teachers and students immediately grasp the basic skills necessary to begin to effortlessly produce professional looking cartoon strips.

"So I'd like to get more specific about what I think is wrong about the Khan Academy approach by writing about things I see as wrong with the way we teach math in the US. No matter if we agree or not about Khan Academy, I'm fairly certain we can agree math learning is not going as well as we'd like (to say the least.) Too many people are convinced by the system that they "hate math", and even students who do well (meaning, can get decent test scores) are often just regurgitating stuff for the test, knowing they can safely forget it shortly afterward."

"Born to Learn is the first animation in a fascinating series aimed to provide easy-access to the exciting new discoveries constantly being made about how humans learn! Narrated by Damian Lewis"

"Alan November is recognized internationally as a leader in education technology. He began his career as an oceanography teacher and dorm counselor at an island reform school for boys in Boston Harbor. He has been a director of an alternative high school, computer coordinator, technology consultant, and university lecturer. As practitioner, designer, and author, Alan has guided schools, government organizations and industry leaders as they plan to improve quality with technology." This is his address to TEDxNYed.

"Being able to solve everyday complex problems through communication and cooporation with others are the skills that students need to learn and practice to prepare for the future. Communicating effectively and efficiently with diverse audiences and solving everyday problems are important in a society that is moving at a rapid pace in a Global Market. The ability to solve everyday complex problems is an important and necessary skill for students today. Problem based learning (PBL) provides a learning environment students require to resolve everyday problems while applying previous and learning new knowledge. Cooperative learning, as a part of PBL, allows students the opportunity to communicate ideas and knowledege. As a teacher it is also important to communicate effectively with students to guide the learning process as well as model how to question and reason through a problem. The web-enhanced 3 part seminar series is designed to review and apply the basics of PBL to allow you to create a PBL unit to use within your own classroom."

"We intend for this site to be a central location for information on how to move your data in and out of Google products. Welcome. Click on any product link on the left hand side for more information on how to liberate your data from (or to!) that product. The Data Liberation Front The Data Liberation Front is an engineering team at Google whose singular goal is to make it easier for users to move their data in and out of Google products. We do this because we believe that you should be able to export any data that you create in (or import into) a product. We help and consult other engineering teams within Google on how to "liberate" their products."

"Welcome to the Assessment for Learning website. This site has been developed by Curriculum Corporation on behalf of the education departments of the States, Territories and Commonwealth of Australia." "There are 32 assessment tasks, covering the learning areas of English, Science, Studies of Society and Environment and Health and Physical Education, Languages Other Than English, Technology, The Arts and Mathematics - or their State and Territory equivalents.

"This Facebook Group is for educators who are interested in using social media for education. Here we can share our opinions, ideas, experiences and resources. "

"It is a common view that "if only someone could break this down and explain it clearly enough, more students would understand." Khan Academy is a great example of this approach with its clear, concise videos on science. However it is debatable whether they really work. Research has shown that these types of videos may be positively received by students. They feel like they are learning and become more confident in their answers, but tests reveal they haven't learned anything."

"A while back I wrote about my thoughts on the ipad craze. At that time I didn't own one. I do now and have had it for about 4 months. I like it. I'm not WILD about it, but I like it. I enjoy going out and finding apps that I think might help me be more productive on it, and I like finding challenging games, and I like the interface a lot. Would I buy a cart full of them for school. Absolutely NOT."

"Uploaded by floyda007 on May 15, 2008 Learning to Change Changing to Learn Advancing K-12 Technology Leadership, Consortium for School Networking(COSN) Video" Interesting to see how much has changed since this was created 3 years ago

"Did you know that your tweets have an expiration date on them? While they never really disappear from your own Twitter stream, they become unsearchable in only a matter of days. At first, Twitter held onto your tweets for around a month, but as the service grew more popular, this "date limit" has dramatically shortened. According to Twitter's search documentation, the current date limit on the search index is "around 1.5 weeks but is dynamic and subject to shrink as the number of tweets per day continues to grow."

Classrooms have come a long way. There's been an exponential growth in educational technology advancement over the past few years. From overhead projectors to iPads, it's important to understand not only what's coming next but also where it all started. We've certainly come a long way but some things seem hauntingly similar to many years ago. For example, Thomas Edison said in 1925 that "books will soon be obsolete in schools. Scholars will soon be instructed through the eye." I'm pretty sure this is exactly what people are saying these days about the iPad.

Games based learning is supposed to be the next big thing. So when I revamped a unit of work for Year 10 based on designing scientific investigations, I decided to "gamify" the unit of work. I was inspired by a YouTube video by Seth Priebatsch on gamification, where elements of gaming can be added to education. After also seeing presentations by Dean Groom and Ben Jones I have  come up with my first "gamified" set of learning experiences.

I don't like lugging stacks of cardboard and paper for recycling, but it has to be done. While I know it's good to recycle, it still feels like a chore to do it. Similarly many of my students don't like completing and submitting their work, even though they know it's good for them. Doing work and handing it in can often feel like a chore and many students do it to avoid punishment. So how can I make my students want to hand in work? Perhaps by making it fun?