Group items tagged

"Here are this week's most popular posts: 1. A Technology Integration Matrix with Video Examples 2. Guest Post - Sources of Funding and Free Stuff for Teachers 3. Zondle - Games to Support Learning 4. Computer Viruses and Threats Explained by Common Craft 5. Free eBook for Learning the Basics of xHTML 6. The Science of Hitting a Baseball or a Softball 7. Boom Writer - Collaborative Publishing for Kids"

This summer we've done a bunch of iPad training with students who will be tech leaders in their schools. We had students from 6th-10th grade in about 20 different schools (all with different setups!) It's been interesting to with so many different schools - because we've learned so much from them how many technical and philosophical choices there are when implementing iPads. Two things that are going to matter greatly are: 1) decisions about setting up the iPads and 2) what you expect the students to do with them.

Teresa Penedo posted this item in the #change11 Facebook group. The one-hour video tells us "most of what we think we know about technology in general is false." According to Andrew Feenberg, "Our error stems from the everyday conception of things as separate from each other and from us. In reality they belong to an interconnected network the nodes of which cannot exist independently qua technologies." This leads to ten 'paradoxes of technology': "1. The paradox of the parts and the whole: The apparent origin of complex wholes lies in their parts but in reality the parts find their origin in the whole to which they belong. 2. The paradox of the obvious: What is most obvious is most hidden. 3. The paradox of the origin: behind everything rational there lies a forgotten history. 4. The paradox of the frame: Efficiency does not explain success, success explains efficiency. 5. The paradox of action: In acting we become the object of action. 6. The paradox of the means: The means are the end. 7. The paradox of complexity: Simplification complicates. 8. The paradox of value and fact: Values are the facts of the future. 9. The democratic paradox: The public is constituted by the technologies that bind it together but in turn it transforms the technologies that constitute it. 10. The paradox of conquest: The victor belongs to the spoils." from Stephen Downes OL Daily

Including Four Components of Multiliteracy Pedagogy 1 Situated Practice 2 Overt Instruction: 3 Critical Framing 4 Transformed Practice

Cubeecraft (pronounced "kyoob-ee") papercraft toys are FREE to download. Each toy features interlocking tabs for construction - eliminating the need for tape, glue or other messy adhesives. To download click on the model you would like then save the template image. Each toy is designed to be printed on a standard piece of 8 1/2 X 11 A4 letter paper

Never leave the house without two things: 1. a Swiss Army knife, and 2. your camera. Why the knife? Because it's a multitasking tool that you can use a kajillion different ways. Why a camera? For exactly the same reason.

Iron Teacher is a contest based on fun but with serious intent; bringing together cutting edge educators with sharp ideas to infuse new life into traditional lesson design. We aim to revolutionize the way teachers look at teaching and learning through the use of innovative methods and unconventional ideas. Basic Premise: Like Iron Chef, participants are presented with key "ingredients" and required to come up with a final product that is judged on Originality, Adaptability, Student Appeal, and Ability to Meet Outcome. The Iron Teacher goal is two-fold: 1. To help teachers discover new strategies, ideas, or tools that will get their students to care, communicate and create something of value around the curriculum. 2. To help articulate the lesson design and creative brainstorming process used by master educators.

Here are the most popular items in the month of November: 1. Why Teachers Use Twitter 2. 9 Resources for Website Evaluation Lessons 3. 6 Ways for Students to Publish Their Writing Online 4. 12 Ways for Students to Publish Slideshows Online 5. Intro to Wikis Video Created By Kids 6. Ten Trends to Affect Teaching In the Future (and now) 7. Daylight Saving Time Explained

The best "PG" guide to the internet. Cool Like Pie is the brainchild of two internet-loving teachers. We collect all the coolest stuff to make you laugh and make you think. Appropriate for ages 9-99. Our mission is to provide a fun website for anyone 9 or older without corporate sponsorship. We keep it clean by following these 4 rules: #1-No Hatred #2-No Violence #3-No funny business (wink wink) #4- no foul language

"Having a digital classroom means a few different things: 1. You have less stacks of paper 2. It is (generally) easier to keep track of student work 3. "The dog ate my homework" isn't a viable excuse anymore 4. Note taking needs to take a new form 5. You need another method of sharing work that doesn't involve handing papers from one person to another Clearly, number 5 on this list is the one that will cause you the most thought these days, unless your dog is into eating computers - and then you have a bigger problem on your hands. Lots of things need to be shared. Students need to hand in their work, teachers need to offer feedback on said work, students need to share their collaborative work, and teachers need to share classroom information and tools of all variety. Luckily, there are tons of different tools out there that can enable you to share nearly any type of file (from .doc/.docx and .ppt to .mov, .mp3/4 , .zip and more!). There's a lot of info out there on different cloud storage services - which are a great way to share files - but many of these are business focused and not as classroom friendly. We've put together a short list of some of our favorite methods of file sharing so that you, your colleagues, and your students can spend more time on the good stuff and less time trying to figure out how to get the information to one another."

"Teachers in my "Mapping Media to the Common Core: Part 2″ course this semester (offered through Montana CSPD and the University of Montana) have learned how to create enhanced eBooks on their iPads using the fantastic app, "Book Creator" by Red Jumper. In this post, I'll describe how you can share an eBook created with Book Creator via a free DropBox account and the DropBox app, along with a free KidBlog website and the KidBlog app for iPad. The KidBlog and DropBox apps are free. Book Creator has a free app which allows users to create 1 eBook, the commercial version is $5 and allows unlimited numbers of eBooks to be created. Apple Volume Purchase Plan (VPP) discounts are available for Book Creator."

"This page lists different sites where you find and download free background music for your videos, presentations, websites or other multimedia projects. There are quite a few composers and musicians willing to let you use their music for free, especially for non-commercial purposes. It is important to distinguish between (1) music that you actually use for free and (2) music that is royalty-free (which means you can use the music but you have to pay a one-off licensing fee) and (3) music that you can download for free but that requires an annual licensing fee if you want to use it in your video (e.g., the deceptively named Freeplay Music offers this type). This page focuses on the first type and includes five sections."

"Last year at this time, I was trying not to think about kindergarteners. I was still teaching ninth grade English and had just accepted a job teaching technology to K-5. I was excited about the challenge, and I knew that I'd bitten off more than I could chew. Developing the tech curriculum challenged me to teach programming or at least computational thinking at each elementary grade level. Our school is mid-pivot in technology -- we're in our second year of a middle school 1:2 iPad program, our first year of having a cart of iPads available for elementary, and our last year of two PC labs for the students to use (next year we'll have only one lab). Knowing this, I wanted to design a program that mostly used tablet-based tools."

"July 16, 2014 While searching for some resources on a paper and writing on  the 21st century learning skills I came across this skills checklist created by the university of Toledo. This checklist is meant to help students build powerful resumes outlining all the skills they master. I spent some time going through the components of this sheet and found it really sharing with you here.  You can use this sheet with your students as an explanatory guide of some of the important skills ( I said some because some other important skills particularly those related to digital citizenship and digital literacy are missing) they need to work. Below is a round-up of the 9 most important skills which I selected from the entire list. You can acccess this list from this link. 1- Research skills Know how to find and collect relevant background information Be able to analyze data, summarize findings and write a report 2- Critical Thinking skills Be able to review different points of view or ideas and make objective judgments Investigate all the possible solutions to a problem, weighing the pros and cons 3- Organizational skills Be able to organize information, people or thins in a systematic way Be able to establish priorities and meet deadlines 4- Problem-solving skills Be able to clarify the nature of a problem Be able to evaluate alternatives, propose viable solutions and determine the outcome of the various options 5- Creative thinking skills Be able to generate new ideas, invent new things, create new images or designs Find new solutions to problems Be able to use wit and humour effectively 6- Analytical/ logical thinking skills Be able to draw specific conclusions from a set of general observations of from a set of specific facts Be able to synthesize information and ideas 7- Public speaking skills Be able to make formal presentations Present ideas, positions and problems in an interesting way 8- Oral communication skills Be able to present information and ideas clearly a

"Looking for some extra screen size out of your MacBook or Mac computer? If you have all three of the following, you may find some use in Duet Display. 1. An iOS mobile device (iPad or iPhone) 2. An OSX laptop or computer (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac) 3. The need (or perceived need if you have the habit of buying things because they're interesting rather than because you're going to actually use them) for a second screen We just paid $14.99 for use here, and so far are intrigued with its lag-free speed."

"A day in the life of a teacher may rarely be the same two days in a row, but there are some common themes and occurrences. Take a look at the following two scenarios, and note which one seems more familiar to you. Scenario 1: Each school day, students have a lunch break built into their schedule. At the prescribed time, students put away their work and head outside, cafeteria, or other spot to hang out, play, eat, or relax. The teacher breathes a sigh of relief in the quiet classroom, and uses those moments to decompress, eat, and relax too. Scenario 2:  At the prescribed lunch time break, students head out of the classroom and the teacher rushes to complete all the things they haven't had time for yet: grading papers, last minute planning, offering extra help to students, meeting with administrators regarding student issues, replying to emails, checking all the personal emails, texts, and phone calls that they got earlier in the day, and if they're lucky and have time, eat something quickly before the next class period starts. WHY TEACHERS NEED RECESS Most teachers identify more closely with the second scenario."

"This is part 2 of a 3-part series on Mobile Teaching. Part 1 was Making The Shift To Mobile-First Teaching.  Mobile teaching is about planning and executing learning through mobile devices. You might want to be notified when a student accesses a quiz or reading you uploaded, or leaves a comment on another student's blog, or shares a self-assessment. Or when a certain number of student's answer a question correctly or incorrectly. Or when a student reaches a goal. This is one approach to mobile teaching. There's also the star of mobile technology, social media. With access to real-time social streams like twitter, or even a closed Google+ Community page, teachers can ask other teachers for resources, facilitate school-to-school collaboration, monitor student-led and hashtag-based discussions, and more."

What if every student (and educator) was a good online researcher?  I know, you don't have the time to teach information fluency skills.  What if you could get a significant advance is skills with just a 2 -3  hour time commitment?  Here's a great Prezi 'fly by" of the new Information Investigator 3.1 online self paced class.  Watch the presentation carefully to find the link to a free code to take the class for evaluation purposes. 

"Your wallet and your phone are probably the two items you carry around with you the most. What if you can combine the two together and carry just one item? Now you can with the new Q Card Case for the iPhone 5 by CM4. The Q Card Case is a 2-in-1 device that functions both as a protective casing for your iPhone5 as well as a wallet. It has space to comfortably fit 3 credit card sized cards plus cash. The case is made from a special patent pending soft-touch rubber and premium fabric. It also has a cut out slots for quick access to the cards as well for accessing all the buttons on your iPhone. It even has a big cut out at the bottom of the case to allow for in-case charging as well as fully compatible with Apple's Lightning port to 30-pin port adapter. The Q Card Case is available in 4 colors - Black Onyx, Mahogany Brown, Pacific Green and Red Rouge." By-The Xpert Crew @ http://techvedic.com https://www.facebook.com/techvedicinc https://twitter.com/techvedicinc http://pinterest.com/techvedic1 http://techvedicinc.tumblr.com/ https://plus.google.com/u/0/110467075169904075419/