"Educators literally have a "world of knowledge and resources" at their fingertips, as one director of curriculum and instructional technology declared in response to THE Journal's national survey. "What better way to learn about the situation in Syria than tweeting #Syria and receiving a tweet from someone there?" But guiding your students in learning new concepts, gaining insights and building their skills requires you to be comfortable with the technologies that can make all of that happen.
Where do you start? We asked your colleagues that same question, and they responded in multitudes. Their recommendations covered the alphabetic gamut, from adaptivity and apps to wikis and a willingness to learn. We compiled and consolidated 121 different results to develop this year's list of five must-have multimedia skills for 2015."
"
"Even young kids have gotten very adept at Minecraft, so it can be quite intimidating for teachers," said Jason Schmidt, an instructional technologist for Bennington Public Schools who will teach the four-week MinecraftEdu MOOC, in a prepared statement. "If I can help get teachers over that hump, imagine how delighted students will be to have a learning environment tailored to their interests for a change."
The other, Minecraft for Educators, "is a course for teachers who are wishing to gamify their learning experiences and deliver a unique pedagogy that will engage, enthuse and keep learners coming back for more," according to information released by the company. Both MOOCs are available through the Canvas Network. Minecraft for Educators will start January 26, 2015 and run through March 9.
The company has also released a Minecraft app to allow students to submit assignments to the Canvas learning management system from within the game. Using the app, students can tag what they've made in the game for their teachers to visit, upload books they've written in game directly to the speed grader or use the game's circuitry tool to complete assignments that will be automatically graded. A video demonstration of the app is available at YouTube.
Other MOOCs for teachers in the suite include:
Digital Literacies 1;
Digital Literacies 2;
Five Habits of Highly Effective Teachers;
Teachers without Borders: Educating Girls; and
Tinker, Make and Learn.
Among the other MOOC offerings in the new suite is a course designed specifically for parents, Parenting in the Digital Age, which aims to help them address issues such as cyberbullying, digital citizenship, exposure to inappropriate content, media literacy and screentime. Taught by Andrew Swickheimer, director of technology at Noblesville Schools, the self-paced course opens September 22.
"Parental involvement in K-12 education has one of the biggest impacts on a child's commitment to learning," said Jared Stein, vice pres
"How can the use of apps on an iOS or Android tablet help teachers develop these critical thinking skills in students? Concentrating on apps that can target the cognitive thinking skills at the high end of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy (2000) is one way to work on this process.
Since many schools now have BYOD programs, finding apps that are available for both the iOS and Android operating systems makes it easier for teachers to develop formative and summative assessments that all students can complete. If educators are familiar with what the creative tool is capable of, they are more likely to develop engaging and meaningful assessments as well as provide technical support for their students. Educators should first re-familiarize themselves with the concepts inherent in the higher-order thinking skills of Bloom's Revised Taxonomy."
"Common Sense Media's service Graphite, which offers independent ratings and reviews of learning apps and websites, has compiled this list of the best arts apps for students. For complete reviews, and for each app's "Learning Rating," visit the Graphite website."
"Adobe has unveiled Slate, a new tool for iPad that allows students and teachers to produce multimedia presentations that are viewable on any platform.
Slate allows users to combine text and images into template-driven, multi-page interactive documents that offer transition effects, professionally designed typographical themes and photo layouts and cover treatments, all in an HTML5 package that is viewable through all modern browsers."
