Group items tagged

"What if every teacher tweeted? Is there some kind of sequence of events we might expect? A teacher signs up for twitter after agonizing over the details (username, avatar, bio, etc.), follows a few dozen people, then sits slack-jawed and confused as that non-stop digital stream begins. We have to assume that somehow this trickles down to the learning experiences of the students-their writing, their skills, and the wandering of their thoughts-yes? No reason to tweet just to be all avant-garde about it all. It depends on how it's used-twitter, that is. Like any tool, twitter is designed for a task. The results of that task depends on the knowledge and skill of its user. There is nothing other-wordly about twitter, if we're being honest. It has its talents (a few of which we looked at in why twitter works in education), but it is, in shorty, some thing some one made. And as teachers, we can use it, or leave it alone."

"It's time to set up week two's coding challenge. You are going to need a little help getting started on this one! We need to set up some colour selection tools in our drawing app. But adding colour selection can be challenging and there are many ways to accomplish this task. In this video, I go through one way of getting this task started in Hopscotch. The video will broach two new ideas: VARIABLES - or in Hopscotch parlance VALUES and colour number codes...."

"6.30am Wake up. Check notifications on iPad while eating breakfast. Received an email late last night from a student asking for clarification on a homework task. Answer e-mail. Cross fingers that the student gets the task done before the first session, which is when it is due."

"Today while I was lounging in Victoria Park, I took my iPad and started thumbing around through the apps I have. I was really surprised to find out that I have many apps installed but only some are being used on a regular basis. So it dawned on me to compile a list of some "must have" apps that teachers should have access to. All of these apps are great for organizational tasks such as : task management, bookmarking, note-taking...and media storage. "

"Fake news, unreliable websites, viral posts-you would think students who have grown up with the internet would easily navigate it all, but according to a study done by Stanford researchers, that couldn't be further from the truth. Researchers describe the results of the study done on middle school, high school and college students across the country as "bleak." Students were asked to judge advertisements, social media, video and photographic evidence, news reports and websites. Though researchers thought they were giving students simple tasks, they say that "in every case and at every level, we were taken aback by students' lack of preparation." As if that weren't bad enough, researchers go on to say, "At present, we worry that democracy is threatened by the ease at which disinformation about civic issues is allowed to spread and flourish." So what can educators do about the spread of fake news and our students' inability to recognize when they have been fooled? Lesson plans that explicitly address the new media literacy and task students to be responsible consumers and disseminators of news are a good place to start. Here are eight things that students need to know about fake news and the new media literacy:"

"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."

"Seven Ways to Go from On-Task to Engaged"

"The other day, I noticed one of my daughters playing a puzzle type game on my iPad. It was obviously challenging and often frustrating but she kept at it regardless. The game was direct problem solving and my girl was deeply engaged. It was then I had an idea. If any learner who found themselves disengaged from a school task had permission to select from a list of problem-solving, "brain igniting" games, it might mean they return to the task more energised to tackle it or suggest other solutions."

"The Google Apps for Education suite includes a number of robust tools that can streamline administrative tasks. In addition to making your job as an administrator easier, using them allows you to model effective technology adoption with your staff. One of my favorite tools to tackle this type of tasks is Google Forms, one of tools within Google Drive. Here are five ways that Administrators can use Google Forms in their schools."

"For the longest time, I was the project manager for 30 different projects. I would chart their progress and nag them about getting tasks done. Or I would set specific deadlines for the entire class. Over time, though, I realized that my students could learn how to manage their projects on their own. This is also why I believe in guiding students through a project management process. It's not perfect. Kids will still struggle to meet deadlines. Procrastination will still occur. But project management is a skill that improves over time. As students learn how to break apart tasks and chart their progress, they begin to think differently about their work. In the end, it becomes one of those life-long, transferable skills."

"Coding is the ability to write step by step instructions (programs) for a computer to understand to complete a task. The Hour of Code website has tons of ready to go online activities that get students to write code that results in a number of cool outcomes, such as making a monster dance, creating avatars, remixing music or making a game. When students complete these easy tutorials they learn these important skills- logic, problem solving, fitting puzzle pieces together, selection, instructional writing, editing, revision, and creation. Below are some great websites to find engaging coding projects that take an hour or less. Most require no registration! Just provide students with a quick introduction to the task on the projector and the link for them to get started. I would highly recommend doing the activity first. In the next post I will introduce you to unplugged activities, which get students to focus on specific coding skills you will notice in these activities, which include working with puzzles, providing good instructions, problem solving and algorithms."

"Something that bothers me so much is when I read articles that talk about how libraries are becoming makerspaces.  Our makerspace is one component of the participatory culture that runs through our space.  Anyone who knows my story knows that my point of entry into the Maker Movement was through literacy, so for me, literacy and making have always gone hand in hand.   When I began as the Library Media Specialist at New Milford High School, I walked into a library that was similar to many school libraries in older schools.  It was very traditional looking, with tall stacks and lots and lots of books that students simply did not check out, nor have an interest in.  The collection was out of date and had not been weeded in decades.  One of the tasks for me was to weed the books.  During that weeding process, I decided that traditional nonfiction that made it through the weeding process would be sent to classrooms to build up their classroom research libraries.  I decided to keep any memoirs or narrative nonfiction that we had in our collection, since those were the kinds of books I discovered so many of our students did enjoy reading and would check out.  Amongst the vast fiction collection, we did find a few gems, but mostly we either discarded books that were no longer relevant to our students, gave them to classrooms who wanted them, or to individual students who showed an interest.  In the end, I was able to preserve just a few shelves of books.  As a result, I was tasked with rebuilding our collection."

"The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) has shuffled the list of top skills businesses want from professionals in 2024, according to a new job site study and education industry data. Far from replacing workers, genAI appears poised to transform the way technologists and others work, allowing them to focus more on creative tasks such as product development, and less on mundane tasks that can be automated."

"Fidgeting is a common symptom of neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD, processing disorders, learning disabilities and Asperger's. It occurs when your child carries out tasks that are not interesting enough to sustain his or her focus. The additional sensory-motor input gained through fidgeting stimulates your child's brain, allowing him or her to focus on the task at hand."

"I am aware that the computer science aspects of the new computing curriculum creates extra work for some teachers as they need to learn many unfamiliar concepts. I know this can be challenging and time consuming, but I think we are very fortunate because there is a vast range of free programming environments /apps available for teachers to use for teaching computer science elements to children. What we need to remember is that the program itself doesn't just make children develop computational thinking, the context we use, the pedagogical approach we employ shapes the learning experience of our students. On the next page I have shared a simple activity which can be used as a main task or as an assessment task at the end of a coding session. The aim is to support children to design solutions for a specific purpose by selecting and using correct blocks in a sequence. These activities can encourage them to think in logical steps which is the main foundation of problem solving skills and at the same time provide opportunities for peer or whole class discussions."

Scanning your system is a necessary task. But, there are other tasks which are necessary while scanning your PC. This Techvedic tutorial outlines the privacy policy related with scan, what to do if Windows running on your PC can't complete the scan as well as additional information to keep up PC health.

"Design thinking is a powerful tool to really get your students thinking about and tackling a problem or topic at a much deeper level. It is a structured task that focuses on giving considerable time to thinking about and empathising with the people within the situation (Target audience or client), designing and prototyping a possible solution that is immediately challenged in order to improve it. It is used much in business and the design industry but can be used as a general classroom task within any subject area. It also gets students to work quickly without much introduction."

"Design thinking is a powerful tool to really get your students thinking about and tackling a problem or topic at a much deeper level. It is a structured task that focuses on giving considerable time to thinking about and empathising with the people within the situation (Target audience or client), designing and prototyping a possible solution that is immediately challenged in order to improve it. It is used much in business and the design industry but can be used as a general classroom task within any subject area. It also gets students to work quickly without much introduction."

"Dual Browsing is about ease of use. It is not essential or even necessary - it is just convenient. It is convenient for comparing the quality or price of two items. It is great for researching on one side and taking notes on the other. This is an excellent tool for student research tasks full stop. Dual Browsing is one way of multitasking on your iPad that works easily and well. Take a look at this collection of dual browser to find one that is right for you. "

"There ought to be a law limiting people to one use of the term "life-changing" to describe a life event. Had a life-changing cup of coffee this morning? Well, hope it was good because that's the one use you get! If this legislation came to pass, then I would use my allotment on my decision to write about data science. This writing has led directly to 2 data science jobs, altered my career plans, moved me across the country, and ultimately made me more satisfied than when I was a miserable mechanical engineering university student. In 2018, I made a commitment to write on data science and published at least one article per week for a total of 98 posts. It was a year of change for me: a college graduation, 4 jobs, 5 different cities, but the one constant was data science writing. As a culture, we are obsessed by streaks and convinced those who complete them must have gained profound knowledge. Unlike other infatuations, this one may make sense: to do something consistently for an extended period of time, whether that is coding, writing, or staying married, requires impressive commitment. Doing a new thing is easy because our brains crave novelty, but doing the same task over and over once the newness has worn off requires a different level of devotion. Now, to continue the grand tradition of streak completers writing about the wisdom they gained, I'll describe the lessons learned in "The Year of Data Science Writing.""