"Camilla Gagliolo got the first inkling there could be some real use for iPads in the classroom when she tried them out initially with students who had learning disabilities. Today, the instructional technology coordinator with Arlington (VA) Public Schools said she thinks the iPad is emerging as a tool that can greatly enhance educational technology after what she believes has been a lull in the field's progress."
"Sticky notes are a good way to keep yourself organized and boost the pace of your workflow. I used to have paper sticky notes everywhere in my study room and I still have some dangling here but I shifted to digital sticky notes because I can access them anywhere I go. However, with the widespread of iPad, there emerged a need for apps to do the job the paper and web based stiky notes used to do and hence the development of some wonderful iPad sticky notes apps.
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"Periodically, I find it interesting to see what's new over at TED Talks. While not every video they have really floats my boat, there is generally a wealth of inspiration and interesting stories shared there. We've shared a number of these inspiring talks in the past - some relate specifically to teaching, others cover more general life lessons or inspiration. So it is finally May, and even the coldest of climates are emerging out of winter into spring by now, we're sharing a few more great videos to put some spring in your step. Check them out and enjoy!"
"Happy New Year! I'm beginning a bunch of curriculum design work in districts this year, and I thought I'd share a few things that are emerging from the process. As I explained before the holidays, the teachers that I know are eager to get their hands on simple but powerful units for primary writers. They have little time to unpack lengthy documents, and while many appreciate the sort of tight guidance that fully articulated plans provide, others prefer to craft their own while aligning to agreed upon targets.
This first unit engages K-2 writers in research and information writing. You'll find the overview, calendar, and very first lesson in the document below. I'll be adding another each day until the entire unit is complete."
"As educators across the country continue to examine the best ways of teaching and learning, a new lexicon is beginning to emerge that describes one particular approach - deeper learning. The phrase implies a rich learning experience for students that allows them to really dig into a subject and understand it in a way that requires more than just memorizing facts.
The elements that make up this approach are not necessarily new - great teachers have been employing these tactics for years. But now there's a movement to codify the different pieces that define the deeper learning approach, and to spread the knowledge from teacher to teacher, school to school in the form of a Deeper Learning MOOC (massive open online course), organized by a group of schools, non-profits, and sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation.
So what defines deeper learning? This group has identified six competencies: mastering content, critical thinking, effective written and oral communication, collaboration, learning how to learn, and developing academic mindsets."
"Marlon Frausto is in pursuit of the new American dream. Just a few weeks ago he left his job, in Hispanic marketing for the legal industry, and moved to San Francisco.
Every day he wakes at 5:30 a.m., commutes 45 minutes by train, and studies until 9 or 10 at night. He's spending down his savings and says he's getting help from "my loving family."
At age 26, Frausto has gone back to school. Sort of. He's enrolled in a brand-new kind of trade school: the immersive web-development program, also known as a "coder boot camp." These programs promise, for several thousand dollars, to take people like Frausto and, in a manner of weeks, turn them into job-ready web developers."
"With the prevalence of smartphone technology, educators can build application fluency in their own productivity and learning so that when the time comes, they will have the skill and expertise to help students and colleagues transition into mobile learning. edWeb's Emerging Tech community dedicated this session to apps that will save educators' time that can be redirected toward better use."
"App smashing, the process of using more than one apps in conjunction with one another to create a final product, is a concept that allows students to create engaging educational projects and illustrate their creativity in multifaceted ways. One of the most gratifying and effective ways to use app smashing in the classroom is to create digital storytelling projects. The concept of digital storytelling is emerging as a form of personal and collective expression of knowledge, ideas, and perceptions. Its numerous and positive effects on students' communication skills are well documented. Digital storytelling is the perfect vehicle for the delivery of visual and audio stimuli that greatly enhance a storyline or a simple narrative."
"As schools and districts attempt to continue improving student learning opportunities, there's a frightening trend emerging that might not have the intended consequences.
In an effort to provide students more time with math and reading and other core area subjects, schools are cutting back on physical education courses, and recess opportunities are shrinking for students at the elementary levels.
The dangerous trend of giving physical education the backseat to other 'more important' areas of learning might not yield the intended results.
Here are five reasons why we need more physical activity in our schools and not less..."
"As tomorrow's global citizens enter higher education with words like "make," "hack," and "prototype" embedded in their vocabulary, they are fueling a powerful movement toward "learning by creating."
Faced with the shifting ambitions of students and changes in institutional funding streams, colleges and universities are embracing "learning by creating," allowing them to leverage the traditional spirit of an educational community with students' growing entrepreneurial focus. In response, these institutions are adopting powerful new models to erode the boundaries of historically siloed disciplinary thinking and empower new levels of discovery.
A number of colleges and universities around the world are leading the way as they introduce learning facilities billed as "innovation + incubator + maker centers." These centers focus on multi-disciplinary inquiry that can foster partnerships with industry and fully leverage available grants and funding for research. Advancing these new models can help universities recruit fresh talent, establish new partnerships for success and promote an environment where emerging leaders can explore the complex social challenges of our time."
"Emerging technologies is, can be, should be a driving force of this evolution towards Education 3.0. Information access, communication methods, the ability for creative express is qualitatively different than any other time in history due to technological advances."
"The Maker Movement, where inventors, tinkerers, and entrepreneurs test and realize new ideas, is gaining momentum. In the process, long-standing traditions are melding with fast-emerging technologies, resulting in myriad new innovations."
"When you are lucky enough to travel and visit with librarians all over the world, you realize the power and the talents of our community.
One thing is clear to me: as librarians, we haven't yet leveraged our true power as global connectors. Lately I've been thinking about our yet-to-be-realized opportunities and how we might realize them.
You see, I see convergence.
Never before have we had truly effective tools for synchronous conferencing and media-rich asynchronous group discussion. Never before have we been able to leverage our emerging online communities of practice. Never before has participation been so possible. Never before has our world been so flat. Never before has it be more obvious that the prefix geo might amplify themes in any curriculum.
One of the titles in Heidi Hayes Jacobs' recent Contemporary Perspectives on Literacy series is Global Literacy. This video introduction describes how the author/editor sees the intersection of three critical literacies: digital literacy, media literacy and global literacy"
"The Lock screen exists in between states, when your iPhone or iPad is no longer asleep, but is also not yet open and fully functional. It can protect your device from unauthorized access and actions by a simple slide-to-unlock gesture, by a 4 number pin-code, by a strong alpha-numeric password, or Apple's Touch ID fingerprint identity scanner. Yet the Lock screen can be functional as well. If you want to, you can access Notification Center and Control Center, the Camera, and Siri. On the iPhone, you can even make emergency calls. Yes, the Lock screen can be secure or it can be convenient, it's entirely up to you!"
"I'm a firm believer in the notion that opinionated kids are the most important resources for argument writing, so when it comes to coaching this form in classrooms, early conversations are often about inciting passion and letting kids talk about what matters…..to them.
Experience has taught me that most don't care to write about school uniforms, cell phone use, or cyber bullying, and when they are asked to write about these things, what emerges is typically uninspired. They have a lot to say about a lot of other things though, and they're eager to research and learn more about issues that really mean something to them. Ready to support these kinds of writers in your classroom?"
"The NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI). This 12th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report aims to provide these leaders with more in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership and practice. View the work that produced the report at www.horizon.wiki.nmc.org."
"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."