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"You may have noticed the conversation about ed tech vs tech ed and the confusion about what each is or if there is even a difference. This is understandable. The International Society for "Technology Education" calls themselves the largest teacher-based organization in the field of "educational technology." Wait? They're the society for "tech ed" but they are an "ed tech" organization with "ed tech" standards. Confusing! The Innovative Educator is here to help you understand, as well as determine where you fit in this whole picture.  To follow is your handy dandy guide."

"On a cold winter night four or five months ago I started to organize the screencast videos that I've made over the years. I called the list Practical Ed Tech Tips. Since I started that list I've made an effort to add one or two new screencasts to it every week. Yesterday, I added the 100th video to the Practical Ed Tech Tips playlist."

"The start of the school year brings with it more than a few 'gotta-do's for a classroom teacher. For that matter, if you're also the designated ed tech "go-to person," there are a LOT of tasks for you (and the IT team) to consider. With a technology program, ensuring that the various aspects of technology are ready for you, your colleagues and your students could be a huge task. It's hard to envision all the aspects of tech that you might need to worry about, and if you or the team miss something, it only creates more heartburn and wasted time later. To help your student-centered tech program get off to a fulfilling start, we have put together this checklist. Most of the items on the list will be important for you to consider. Some of these items will not apply depending on your role, your devices, and the latitude your administration and district allows, of course. In any case, reviewing this list will remind you (and your administration, tech support, teachers and others) of the needs of a highly engaging, fully functioning student-centered classroom."

"A few months ago I started to create how-to videos on a more regular basis. I've been adding those videos to a YouTube playlist that I call Practical Ed Tech Tips. This morning I added the 75th video to that playlist. The video covers a wide range of topics including storyboarding, audio recording tools, blogging tools and tips, and a whole lot more. The playlist is embedded below."

A Tool to Evaluate Studies of Ed Tech Products https://t.co/uFE6LIMZ4F #elt #edtech #ict #efl #edreform #futureEd https://t.co/ksFbtMpFTZ

A Tool to Evaluate Studies of Ed Tech Products https://t.co/uFE6LIMZ4F #elt #edtech #ict #efl #edreform #futureEd https://t.co/ksFbtMpFTZ

"The maker movement and maker education, in my perspective, are such great initiatives - really in line with what student-centric education should be in this era of formal and informal learning. Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought [at least in terms of having an "official" educational label - JG] that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. (9 Maker Projects for Beginner Maker Ed Teachers) Social media has helped me gain a more global perspective and become aware of some of the problems associated with the maker movement. The two I discuss in this post are: Maker movement initiatives are often driven by more affluent white males. The maker movement is too often being associated with the tech stuff - Arduinos, Littlebits, Makey-Makeys - stuff that less affluent schools and community programs can afford."

"Maker education (often referred to as "Maker Ed") is a new school of educational thought that focuses on delivering constructivist, project-based learning curriculum and instructional units to students. Maker education spaces can be as large as full high school workshops with high-tech tools, or as small and low-tech as one corner of an elementary classroom. A makerspace isn't just about the tools and equipment, but the sort of learning experience the space provides to students who are making projects. Maker Ed places a premium on the balance between exploration and execution. Small projects lend themselves to indefinite tinkering and fiddling, while larger projects need complex, coordinated planning. Often, small projects can organically grow into larger and larger projects. This deliberate process strengthens and enriches a learner's executive functioning skills. Additionally, communication and collaboration are two of Maker Ed's fundamental values. Making allows learners to practice their social communication skills in a variety of groupings, whether affinity-based, role-specific or teacher-assigned. It's important for all different groups to be present in student learning spaces so that all students can practice their social skills in multiple settings. Lastly, Making presents unique opportunities to generate flow learning and allow the teacher to leverage high-interest projects and activities and turn them into learning objectives within a curriculum. Maker education provides space for real-life collaboration, integration across multiple disciplines, and iteration-the opportunity to fail, rework a project and find success. The benefits of a cooperative learning environment are well documented in a makerspace. If you are wondering how to connect these projects back to the Common Core Standards, check out PBL Through a Maker's Lens and Woodshop Cowboy."

"When I don't have an image of my own to use and cannot find a public domain image to use in a presentation I turn to searching for Creative Commons-licensed images on Flickr. Alan Levine developed a browser bookmarklet that helps me quickly formatting Creative Commons licensed images found on Flickr. To use the Flickr CC Attribution Helper drag the bookmarklet to your browser's bookmarks bar. (If you're using Chrome, you may have to go into the settings and select "always show bookmarks bar" before dragging the bookmarklet into your browser). Then whenever you're viewing an image on Flickr you can click the bookmarklet to get a pop-up window (make sure your browser allows pop-ups) containing the properly formatting attribution information. "

" Directions, tips, and tricks for using popular ed tech apps and sites. "

"Late last winter I started to organize the screencast videos that I've made over the years. I called the list Practical Ed Tech Tips. Since I started that list I've made an effort to add one or two new screencasts to it every week. The playlist now contains 135 videos. In the playlist you will find videos about tools for flipping your classroom, videos on managing workflow, social media tips, search strategies, and media production. The playlist also contains videos about tools like Remind, Duolingo, ClassDojo, Classtools, and many other popular web services for teachers and students"

"Whether you're into New Year's Resolutions or not, you've probably spent at least some time engaged in end-of-year reflection, planning, and goal setting. Considering we're coming off a year of massive growth in the ed tech industry - and as a result, much exploration, experimentation, and sharing around teaching with tech, why not make a commitment in 2013 to improve your use of technology in the classroom? "

"Starting the year off with ideas on the best ways to use technology to support learning, Larry Ferlazzo collected an invaluable list of criteria last year from educators, to which he added more resources in his recent blog post for EdWeek.Other posts in the series include Using Ed Tech to Create Deep and Meaningful Experiences and Effective Ways of Using Tech in the Classroom. Here is MindShift's contribution to the collection of ideas."

Why allow ed-tech access? 'We owe it to our students' For improving the learning climate with the help of technology, NMHS is our 'eSchool of the Month' for November/December

"Tim Childers is a middle school teacher in Tennessee that took a course with me and Angela Maiers last year. Since then Tim has been steadily creating ed tech tutorial videos. The videos are available on Tim's YouTube channel Coffee Time Edu. Tim has an easy-going style about his videos that I think a lot of people will like. Take a look at his video about Feedly embedded below."