"While educators are still divided over Apple's tablet (and tablets in general), ultimately the only way to assess a technology's impact is to try it, not only to enhance or replace existing classroom instructional techniques, but also to truly innovate and explore the new pedagogies it enables."
"As a veteran English teacher in the Euclid City Schools, and someone who sees great value in integrating technology, I wanted to contribute to the ongoing dialog regarding tablet computing, specifically, the iPad, and its impact on student literacy and students' self perception of their own literacy. You can find an article detailing my teacher research below as well a short video I produced for this project and to share at the "
"Whether you are a teacher, parent, relative, boss, or fellow community member, each of us has a chance to make a positive and impactful difference in a child's life.
But in order to do this, we must carefully consider this question:
What do you think matters most to our children?
For 20 years I have been posing this question to my students. At the beginning of every school year, I would ask my students to give me advice on how to be their best teacher. I asked them to think about the times they felt most successful and to consider what the adults in their lives did to make this success possible."
"It should be abundantly clear to anyone with experience around classrooms, teachers or students (which is to say almost all of us), that teaching is a highly emotional craft, loaded with possibility and expectation, importance and scale. It's troubling when the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future says that 46 percent of new teachers leave the profession within five years. And even worse, this turnover is also impacting the whole public education machine - learning, teacher education, teacher training, funding, public perception, and so on - in a dizzying cause-effect pattern stuck on repeat.
Fixing this issue is an illusion, as it's not a single issue but rather a product of countless factors. However, there are six ways we can address it here and now."
"The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving."
"Here is a great post from the folks at Always Prepared entitled: 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology'. The infographic highlights educators who are effectively using technology to enhance and impact teaching and learning."
"Educators facilitate others' learning experiences, but their own learning experiences are far from over. Through podcasts, educators can learn even more about their field and the forces impacting it - especially education technology.
Apple's iTunes store has an entire page devoted to edtech podcasts. Sorting out the best listens can be a daunting task, so to make things easier, we've compiled a list of our favorites you should check out today."
"For some reason, educational games are getting an increasingly bad rap.
Educators are questioning their merits on social media. Studies are popping up saying they don't help. Psychologists are cautioning parents about impact on attention span.
Part of this could be over-inflated expectations. If we expect a game to teach children anything other than what that games simulates, we're setting ourselves up for disappointment."
"Back to school is the perfect time of year to establish routines and remind students about making healthy choices. Children of all ages should have an understanding of the impact of their decisions related to the food they choose to eat. There are a variety of games and resources to promote discussions about healthy eating and to help students make smart choices. "
"The Lawrence School District of Kansas, sitting right in the University of Kansas' backyard, has embraced blended learning, but not just for "college and career readiness" Last year, Barbie Gossett volunteered to turn her Kindergarten classroom into a blended learning environment. Along with 7 other teachers from elementary to high school, these pioneers introduced blended learning to their students as well as to the entire district. In a district that serves about 11,000 K-12 students, 8 teachers is just a tiny sampling. But the results of these field tests have had a powerful impact on the direction and the decision the district as a whole is making for the future of their schools."
"Science is one of the areas where the impact of technology has been markedly observed. It triggered an unprecedented revolution and reshaped people's knowledge about the world. It has also enhanced the way science is being instructed inside schools and colleges. Experimentations are being facilitated by the use of technology and students are able to learn and get engaged in simulated experiments that mimic the real life problems.
This revolution is being carried on to the mobile platforms. There are now several science apps that students and teachers can use to perform a wide variety of science tasks. Below, for instance, is a set of apps that enable students to explore the human body in 3D. Check them out and share with us if you have any additions. Enjoy"
From elementary school to grad school, technology is changing the way schools teach and students learn. One of the more common technologies leading this change is the Apple iPad. Below are a few infographics that illustrate all the different ways mobile devices, such as the iPad. are impacting education for both students and teachers. Enjoy!
"Making inquiry meaningful can accomplish many important things within our teaching practice. As educators, I believe that the minute we sit down to plan and map out the learning experiences of our students, we are engaging in our own journey of inquiry as our minds are deeply engrossed in opening the doors of learning. Our own journey of inquiry can have such a profound impact on the learning journeys that we help promote within our students. "
"Curation is a term that is rapidly growing in popularity and is directly impacting the world of workplace learning and performance. In a world where the amount of information available to workers doubles every 18 to 24 months, it is impossible to keep up with the seemingly endless supply of it. "
"Getting students engaged is not an easy task particularly in an age that is full of all kinds of distractions. Some argue that some of the habits that students have developed as a result of their heavy use of emerging technologies and social media have negatively impacted their capacities to concentrate and focus for longer stretches of time. Multitasking in particular is blamed for this and I personally side with the camp that views multitasking as a distractor to productivity and not a positive attribute."
"The latest version of the web's favorite email client comes with a host of new features, ready to help you reach Inbox Zero. But with new updates rolling out every month or so, it's hard to keep track of the latest tools. Just when you think you know it all, one little change can completely impact your whole experience."