Group items tagged

"Classroom technologies such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and wireless internet access offer exciting opportunities to enhance and deepen the learning process. However, using technology in the classroom can also bring multiple distractions to students. Without your proactive supervision, students might access games, web pages, and social networking sites as you deliver instruction. As an educator, how can you confront this dilemma? Read on to learn the various ways on how you can minimize the digital distraction in your classroom. Digital tech rules and regulations"

"Thinking Blocks is a nice site for elementary and middle school mathematics teachers. Thinking Blocks provides interactive templates in which students use brightly colored blocks to model and solve problems. As students work through the problems they are provided with feedback as to whether or not they are using the correct sequence to solve each problem. There are templates and problems for addition, multiplication, fractions, and ratios. You can also develop your own problems using the modeling tool."

"About a year ago I first heard Greg Kulowiec of EdTechTeacher talk about App Smashing. App Smashing is the process of using multiple apps together to create a single product. The power of the iPad isn't about one or two innovative apps. It's about finding creative ways to get apps to work together (smashing them together to get something new). Drawing Pad does some cool stuff. So does Chrome. So does Explain Everything. So does iMovie. So does Book Creator. But all of them have their own limitations. Each of them lack some really creative features. But at the same time, each of them does some amazing things the others don't. The power of the iPad is in getting those apps to work together to do some truly creative stuff."

"As many people with dyslexia already know, the iPad has developed into an indispensable tool for various language-based activities. During the last five years, Apple has put a great deal of effort into steadily improving the accessibility features of its mobile operating system, iOS. Currently, users can take advantage of built-in dictation, word prediction, and multiple text-to-speech options. In addition, the newest version of the operating system, iOS 8, allows for the installation of third-party keyboards. These mark an increase in the amount of assistive technology (AT) that can be used universally with iPad apps involving reading and writing."

"Students can now show every line of their math work on iPad and other tablets, writing all their steps by hand on screen. Mathspace digitizes each handwritten line and grades it automatically, giving students immediate, formative feedback at every step of the way - like having a teacher at their side. This is a huge step forward from multiple choice or single-input response math questions that most students and teachers are used to seeing on digital platforms."

"Google Maps on the desktop has been updated with a new feature that lets you work out the distance between multiple places by plotting your route on the map."

Jet Airways is now capable of accurately calculating and keeping track of aircraft emissions. IBM has more than 50 years experience in aviation. The company uses its software, hardware and services expertise to help top airlines and airports across the globe deliver more highly differentiated customer experiences and improve their operational efficiency. A part of IBMs Integrated Emission Management System, it provides Jet Airways a process to analyse and calculate individual aircraft emissions, which is a complex process involving comparison of flight records and fuel usage data contained in multiple systems ranging from internal aircraft systems to regional navigation data and flight records.

"Sometimes, we may find ourselves in a situation where we want to make our presentation (at least the audio part) and slides available for viewing at a later date. Fortunately, Keynote allows you to do this, by recording your presentation with the appropriately named option in the "Play" menu. Unfortunately, Keynote will only take one recording. You can't piece multiple recordings together. If you're like me and you feel more comfortable in front of an audience than recording your talk, this can be a problem. If I want to be sure of a clean, error-free recording, then the only reasonable option for me is to record it section by section."

"Skills like vocabulary and foreign language speaking are right in the sweet spot of what unattended and automated-often considered the very worst kind-can do. But it needn't be that way. Handing a student a tablet as they practice basic skills with an app-especially one with adaptive design-is a perfectly legitimate use of edtech as far as we're concerned, and language learning is very much a part of that. So with that in mind are ten of the best language learning apps for 2015, updated to include those with social dynamics, like HelloTalk, recent entries like Rosetta Stone, and stalwart Duolingo. We've also made an effort to include multiple languages, including Mandarin, French, Spanish, and English."

"The technological landscape in schools is always evolving. As consumer trends like social networking, mobile applications and smart devices continue to make their way into the classroom, students are increasingly expecting an atmosphere of more interaction and less presentation. Beyond their expectations, the reality is that - as shown by multiple studies - students learn more through interaction and doing things for themselves, rather than passively absorbing content."

"In this factual talk, geneticist Wendy Chung shares what we know about autism spectrum disorder - for example, that autism has multiple, perhaps interlocking, causes. Looking beyond the worry and concern that can surround a diagnosis, Chung and her team look at what we've learned through studies, treatments and careful listening."

"Analogies are one of the best kept secrets in education. Often used as multiple choice question items or as warm-ups to begin a lesson, analogies are use teaching and learning strategies because of their flexibility, ease of use, and tendency to force cognitive load on students. I use them constantly in my classroom, primarily due to their grab-and-go format. Any place, any time-verbal, drawing, exit slip, discussion, one-on-one, whole class, group work, begin class, end class, abstract or concrete thinking, analogies are imminently useful. They're also everywhere-debates, commercials, sitcoms, poetry, hip-hop, video games. What's not to love?"

"Venn Diagram is an excellent free interactive tool  from the popular Read Write Think that students can use to create Venn diagrams that contain two or three overlapping circles. This tool is also available for both iOS and Android. The iPad app is particularly designed for use in the school setting providing students with a simple profile system where multiple users can create their own Venn diagrams on the same device. "

"Abstract Universal Design for Learning is a framework for the design of materials and instructional methods that are usable by a wide range of students. One aim of UDL is to provide full access to students with special needs, but it offers significant affordances for all students, allowing them to benefit from learning presented through multiple sensory avenues and a variety of conceptual frameworks. Early research about the influence of UDL is positive, showing that it improves engagement and performance among all students. The 7 Things You Should Know About... series from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) provides concise information on emerging learning technologies. Each brief focuses on a single technology and describes what it is, where it is going, and why it matters to teaching and learning. Use these briefs for a no-jargon, quick overview of a topic and share them with time-pressed colleagues."

"On tap this week: A-E-I-O-U, a visual literacy strategy that focuses on teaching student how to interpret information related to classroom content as well as how to express their learning in multiple ways."

Written almost 5 years ago and still relevant.

"For today's tweens and teens, technology is part of the fabric of everyday life. They're watching TV on lots of devices and using smartphones and tablets to maximum advantage -- texting, researching, sharing, connecting -- sometimes using multiple devices at once. Educators need to understand how technology fits in children's lives to know how it can be used to support learning. But we can't begin to make sense of what these technological changes mean for kids until we understand what's being used and for how long and how kids feel about technology and media. That's why we're pleased to release a new report, the Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Tweens, which paints a more complete picture of how tweens and teens are using media. Some findings may not be surprising: Kids like to multitask while doing homework. Other findings point to continued challenges around digital equity: Lower-income teens have less access to home computers and are less likely to use them for homework. Here are more findings:"

"A couple of months ago we featured a collection of some good iPad apps for music teachers. Today, upon the request of some of our readers here in EdTech and mLearning, we went ahead and curated for you this list of music apps specifically for Mac users. These are programs you can use in your Mac to do a wide variety of musical tasks including: create beats in different music styles; convert audio and video files to multiple audio formats; learn to play piano, guitar and  percussive drums; record, crop, effect and trim audio... and many more. For more options, check out the music section in Mac App Store. "

"In the past couple of weeks, I've been asked the same question multiple times after speaking, "Do you still believe Genius Hour and 20% Projects are the best way to engage students?" My initial response was to shout YES, without really thinking about my answer. But, as someone who ran the 20% Project with my students, wrote Genius Hour into our 9th grade English curriculum, has written a book on the subject, and speaks on its merit around the country…I thought it deserved some more thought. My answer, after much reflection, is still YES but with a small hesitation. A Genius Hour or 20% Time Project involves three of the main components that engage students (for clarification purposes, my definition of student engagement is "high attention" and "high commitment" throughout the learning process). The three components are: Student Choice Authentic Audience Intrinsic Reward When those three traits are present in the learning process students are most likely to have high attention and high commitment."