Group items tagged

"Social media has become an essential part of most people's everyday lives, from checking Facebook and Twitter to posting blogs, Pinterest listings, and uploading YouTube videos. However, and with smartphones making it easier than ever to spend time on social media networks, in what ways can these networks be leveraged to engage and build a foundation for future student learning? While the potential of distraction is there, the right social media teaching strategies can lead to creative learning, and a productive approach to making social media part of ongoing professional development."

"The following collection of writings review various mobile applications (mobile apps) that could have potential for purposeful teaching and learning. These specific mobile apps were selected for use by teachers and students in relation to the Grade 12 Global Issues: Citizenship and Sustainability (40S). The curriculum for this course was recently designed by Manitoba Education. Implementation is voluntary for the the 2012-2013 school year and set for full mandatory implementation in 2013-2014."

"guide that will walk you through the different steps you need to follow to tap into the educational potential of Twitter"

"Bloom's Taxonomy is a useful tool for assessment design, but using it only for that function is like using a race car to go to the grocery-a huge waste of potential. In an upcoming post we're going to look at better use of Bloom's taxonomy in the classroom, but during research for that post it became interesting how many variations there are of the original work. While a handful of the charts below only show aesthetic changes compared to others, most are concept maps of sorts-with graphic design that signifies extended function (power verbs), detail (clear explanations), or features of some sort (Bloom's Taxonomy tasks by level)."

"Last year I volunteered in my child's Kindergarten class daily for an hour with our family's three iPads. I learned a lot about selecting educational content (primarily early math & literacy apps) and how to set up an environment most conducive for learning. I was most impressed by the potential for mobile devices to improve the experience in class for both teachers and students. So this year I volunteered to bring our iPads into my child's First grade class once a week for 'buddy reading'. As I do more outreach and training for local teachers in my community, I am surprised at the large number of classrooms getting devices without any guidelines about how to integrate them into their existing institutional structures or curriculum. From these experiences, I have come up with the following five tips for starting a new program in any classroom …"

"I received an email from an agricultural education colleague in another district inquiring about potential iPad testing apps to to use which also handle scoring. I figured rather than just send her an email, I'd share the three apps I use for assessment purposes with pros and cons of each. All I mention are FREE."

"Social media has the potential to strike fear in the hearts of many educators. It's a frequent topic in articles and education Twitter chats. Everyone has lines in the sand about social media. Some educators aren't comfortable being public in spaces where students can see them. Others have strict rules about how they interact online professionally. Often, teachers have school and personal accounts, effectively separating personal and private lives."

"The process of combining more primitive pieces of information to create something more meaningful is a crucial aspect both of learning and of consciousness and is one of the defining features of human experience. Once we have reached adulthood, we have decades of intensive learning behind us, where the discovery of thousands of useful combinations of features, as well as combinations of combinations and so on, has collectively generated an amazingly rich, hierarchical model of the world. Inside us is also written a multitude of mini strategies about how to direct our attention in order to maximize further learning. We can allow our attention to roam anywhere around us and glean interesting new clues about any facet of our local environment, to compare and potentially add to our extensive internal model."

"Quite few families are planning to give a tablet to the kids for a holiday gift. After getting the device, it is time to find the good apps to put on the iPAD or iPod Touch. I am going to start listing "Best Educational Apps for Kids" by age and subjects. As a starter, today's list is Math Apps for Kindergarten and Early Elementary Kids. I am sure there are a lot more apps out there, if you have an app you'd like to add to the list, please add the app's name at the comment area. I will periodically update the lists based on readers' inputs. It will be very helpful if you can attach a link to the App Store. Since some apps have the same titles, a direct link to the app store can help minimize potential confusions. B"

"Since I wrote the controversial post, "5 Reasons Why BYOD is a Bad Idea" over the summer, and received such strong push back the concerns I noted, I've been looking forward to learning about sharing ways in which schools have addressed some of these potential issues. This week, guest writer Caroline Ross introduces us to several schools that have tackled these challenges."

"Your iPhone is a smartphone, and if it isn't making you smarter as well then you just aren't using the devices included features to it's full potential. Here are three super simple tips that let your iPhone make you smarter, these will be perfect for educators, learners, students, or really, just about anyone - unless you're a human dictionary and encyclopedia, that is. There's no need to download any new apps or do anything that's not included in stock iOS."

"There is no end to the uses of the iPad in education. I've discussed that ad nauseum on this blog. As a learning tool, it has the potential to make a great positive change to learning. The only problem is Apple designed it for individual use. Schools are designed for ( or budgeted for) shared use. Conventional wisdom is for iPad use to occur in a 1:1 or BYOD Environment. In the best case scenario, I wholeheartedly agree. Unfortunately, financial realities will often dictate that sharing is the only viable option if we want our students to enjoy the benefits of the iPad. It can be done effectively - I've shared my thoughts early in the year about the pros and cons of shared iPads - but doesn't happen without some time consuming workarounds. What follows is my take on the pains (and remedies) of sharing iPads in a rather large Primary (elementary) school."

"To establish how we can maximize the impact of the iPad as a learning tool, we first have to establish what kind of impact we'd hope to have. In this case, we'll settle on understanding (as troublesome a term as that might be): Students being able to think critically about chosen standards or curriculum, and apply understanding in diverse, academic and non-academic environments. With that as the goal, here are some ideas."

"The iPad app "Explain Everything" is an extremely versatile and flexible tool and has so many applications in the classroom. It is a screencasting app which allows narrated recordings of the iPad screen to be exported and shared as videos. The potential for this is huge. This example describes how the app has been used in an Early Years Foundation Setting to allow children to retell and act out traditional stories."

"After publishing 30 iPad Apps Every Teacher Should Have I curated another list of iPad apps but this time for students. This list is subjective and is based on my own experience as a teacher and as an educational technology researcher and blogger. I included only the apps I think students REALLY need to have some familiarity with in order to better leverage the educational potential of iPad. Just as I said before no matter how many apps I include here there will always be some missing."

"There is a world of enormous educational potential with video games. Highly acclaimed simulation and tutorial games such as SimCity and Math Blaster have been continuously employed in elementary schools across the country, but the most common software used in education today is the web, word processors and spreadsheets."

"Hello, I am Sam Patterson and this is Beyond The Hour of Code, a podcast dedicated to helping teachers use programming and creative self-expression in the learning experiences they design for their students. This episode is about . . . Chapter seven of my book exploring the instructional models most useful for robot-based learning in the primary grades. This is the last in a mini-series of "how to teach with robots" posts. Robot as Constant Robots used in a lesson should be used to their full potential. What does a robot do? Exactly what you tell it to do. Pedagogically, to capitalize on this, think about the robot serving the role of "constant" in an experiment. Ask a robot to roll forward at fifty percent power for two seconds and that is exactly what it will do. How far will it go? That depends on so many things outside of the robot and its programming. This space, just outside of the robot and its programming, is where teachers build the learning experience."

"LEGO games are widely used among young learners to help them develop key learning skills. More and more primary teachers are using them in their classrooms to help with skill development. From teaching numeracy to introducing kids to the basics of literacy, LEGO games have proved to be an essential learning component in the educational ecosystem. In today's post, we have curated for you this collection of interesting resources to help you tap into the educational potential of LEGO  in your instruction. These resources include mobiles apps and tools, printables, tips and ideas on how to use lego with students and several other materials."

"In case you hadn't noticed, I'm quite a fan of the iPad (the Lollipop Nexus 9's not too bad either). Not because of its design or because its by Apple or any of that, but because of its keen heritage in the learning arena. Any one who knows me will tell you that I am not one for using tech for tech's sake, despite my evangelist moniker. Use of technology in a cross curricular sense should be measured and done with consideration for the best potential learning outcomes. With all that said, I've been doing this for quite some time now and I thought it time that I shared some of the Apps that have stuck by me or have struck me for their ease of use and impact upon learning in the classroom. Rather than blog about each one however or write in depth about each one either, I've done this in the form of a small poster, with the apps icons on."