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The Community of Scientists project seeks to pair up NH classrooms for inquiry-based science co-investigations, using technology for video and voice communication.  Teachers at Winchester School (K-8) in Winchester, NH, are working out initial technology questions by creating a Community of Scientists with Elementary Education Methods II students at Keene State College. The pilot project is to co-investigate hydroponics as a sustainable option for growing food rapidly in smaller areas. It entails setting up a simple classroom hydroponics station where students will explore how to best grow plants hydroponically.  KSC students will conduct and monitor their hydroponics experiments while students in Winchester School conduct similar experiment in their own hydroponic station in their classroom.  Students will then video chat with their co-investigators and share their findings.

Thanks for diigoing this.

Introverts. Who are they and how do we ensure they thrive in active learning classrooms? If you have ever come to the midterm point of the semester and graded a stellar paper of a student whose name you don't recognize and who has never raised her hand in class, you may have just identified an introvert in your classroom. In every classroom there are a significant proportion of students who would identify themselves as introverts, if they understood what that term meant. Originally conceived by Carl Jung, the concepts of introversion and extroversion have been helpful ways of understanding basic differences in human temperament (Jung, 1970). Often confused with shyness, introversion is an aspect of personality which affects how we engage in social activity and our preferences for learning. Unlike extroverts, who typically are energized by social interaction, introverts can find connecting with large groups of unfamiliar people exhausting. They may have excellent social skills and enjoy meaningful friendships, but are quite happy in their own company.

There exist boundless opportunities for educators who harness the potential of social media and social networking in the classroom, from issuing homework reminders to following experts in a field of study and from collaborating within your classroom to connecting with students across the globe.  Bring the power of social media and networking into your classroom with these leaders in social media and networking and education:

Think-Pair-Share is a strategy designed to provide students with "food for thought" on a given topics enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. It is a learning strategy developed by Lyman and associates to encourage student classroom participation. What is Think, Pair, Share? Think-Pair-Share is a strategy designed to provide students with "food for thought" on a given topics enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. It is a learning strategy developed by Lyman and associates to encourage student classroom participation. Rather than using a basic recitation method in which a teacher poses a question and one student offers a response, Think-Pair-Share encourages a high degree of pupil response and can help keep students on task. What is its purpose? * Providing "think time" increases quality of student responses. * Students become actively involved in thinking about the concepts presented in the lesson. * Research tells us that we need time to mentally "chew over" new ideas in order to store them in memory. When teachers present too much information all at once, much of that information is lost. If we give students time to "think-pair-share" throughout the lesson, more of the critical information is retained. * When students talk over new ideas, they are forced to make sense of those new ideas in terms of their prior knowledge. Their misunderstandings about the topic are often revealed (and resolved) during this discussion stage. * Students are more willing to participate since they don't feel the peer pressure involved in responding in front of the whole class. * Think-Pair-Share is easy to use on the spur of the moment. * Easy to use in large classes. How can I do it? * With students seated in teams of 4, have them number them from 1 to 4. * Announce a discussion topic or problem to solve. (Example: Which room in our school is larg

I found this post about using blogs in the classroom to be a helpful curation of teacher tips for student blogging. Mike G

developed at the University of Washington, lets an instructor transmit his or her slides over a network (typically wirelessly) to every student's computer. Designed for a Tablet PC, the instructor can annotate slides, and the annotations appear on the student's screen in real time. Students can add their own notes, too. While Classroom Presenter's core functionality is useful, the real magic happens when students are given a problem to complete on their computer and electronically submit their work to the instructor through the interactive system. The instructor can then view students' submissions and share them with the class if desired.

Classroom Presenter is a Tablet PC-based interaction system that supports the sharing of digital ink on slides between instructors and students. When used as a presentation tool, Classroom Presenter allows the integration of digital ink and electronical slides, making it possible to combine the advantages of whiteboard style and slide based presentation.

I am adoring the virtual instrument apps that I have on the iPad for my elementary music classroom. Some of the apps that I am experimenting with or using in my classroom can be found here. In the recording above, my 3rd grade class is singing and performing "Chatter with the Angels" utilizing orff instruments, recorders, voices, and an iPad using a autoharp app plugged into the stereo amp. This was recorded using the GarageBand app on my iphone. The microphone is the phone's internal microphone.

The following are archived videos from the ELMS Pilot Evaluation Webinar Series. In those webinars, ELMS pilot faculty members talk about their experiences with each of the five ELMS pilot systems: Blackboard 9.1, Desire2Learn, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai. The ELMS pilot evaluation faculty members give an overview of each system, highlight unique features, and talk about what works and what doesn't. Most of the webinars are available to watch either in Wimba Live Classroom or on YouTube. The following are archived videos from the ELMS Pilot Evaluation Webinar Series. In those webinars, ELMS pilot faculty members talk about their experiences with each of the five ELMS pilot systems: Blackboard 9.1, Desire2Learn, Canvas, Moodle, and Sakai. The ELMS pilot evaluation faculty members give an overview of each system, highlight unique features, and talk about what works and what doesn't. Most of the webinars are available to watch either in Wimba Live Classroom or on YouTube. Introduction

"The important point here is that investment in new or adapted physical classroom space should be driven by decisions to change pedagogy/teaching methods. This will mean bringing together academics, IT support staff, instructional designers and staff from facilities, as well as architects and furniture suppliers. Second, I strongly believe in the statement that we shape our environments, and our environments shape us. Providing instructors with a flexible, well-designed learning environment is likely to encourage major changes in their teaching; stuffing them into rectangular boxes with rows of desks will do the opposite."

Good tips for desiging a classroom blogging project. Geared at k12 but applicable to HE. Writing, commenting, reading

"The Best Sources For Advice On Using Flip Video Cameras" Thirty-Nine Interesting Ways* to use your Pocket Video Camera in the Classroom is a great online presentation from Tom Barrett. 7 Things You Should Know About Flip Camcorders is a good overview on using them in education. Classroom 2.0 has a good discussion on its Forum about using Flips. I believe you can access it without being a member but, if not, it's free and easy to join.

Gives resources for How to use flipcams for newbie and how to use with students in teaching.

We welcome you to our wiki and blog for supporting iPod & iPad devices in education. Although our focus is K-12, many of the techniques should work for you at any level and with any number of devices. On the wiki side of this site are the deployment and management articles, and on the blog side, you will find the classroom activities (written primarily by teachers) where iPods are supporting achievement improvement for our students. We are posting as many help and how-to articles here as we can and as quickly as we can so you can continue to be successful using iPod devices in your classroom. Please let us know if there are more or different things that you would like to have included here.

There is something in the air, and it is nothing less than the digital artifacts of over one billion people and computers networked together collectively producing over 2,000 gigabytes of new information per second. While most of our classrooms were built under the assumption that information is scarce and hard to find, nearly the entire body of human knowledge now flows through and around these rooms in one form or another, ready to be accessed by laptops, cellphones, and iPods. Classrooms built to re-enforce the top-down authoritative knowledge of the teacher are now enveloped by a cloud of ubiquitous digital information where knowledge is made, not found, and authority is continuously negotiated through discussion and participation.

to support hands-on inquiry by students in computer classrooms. as a basis for homework assignments. for dynamic presentations during class lectures. for inquiry during class presentations. to create imagery and maps for PowerPoint, Word, and other presentation tools. as a data discovery, organization, and distribution tool for research projects. to enrich discussion of an issue that arises spontaneously during an informal classroom discussion.

UNH student production: too much, too little and Just Right use of tech in classroom. Plea at the end to use SOME tech.

Bringing experts into your classroom via video conferencing can be an excellent enhancement to your students' learning experiences. Video conferencing can also be used to connect classrooms in a 21st century version of penpal exchanges.

 It is possible to use social media in such a way as to enhance the learning environment, and to provide an education. Here are 13 case studies that show that social media does have a place in the classroom::

Social media may have started out as a fun way to connect with friends, but it has evolved to become a powerful tool for education and business. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter and tools such as Skype are connecting students to learning opportunities in new and exciting ways. Whether you teach an elementary class, a traditional college class, or at an online university, you will find inspirational ways to incorporate social media in your classroom with this list.

Welcome to Classroom20.com, the social network for those interested in Web 2.0 and Social Media in education. We encourage you to sign up to participate in

researcher at the National Education Policy Center, said research has so far failed to prove that online instruction is superior to face-to-face education. Jeff Hunt, who runs Indian Prairie's online program, said such critiques are a caution to those who want to expand Internet-based learning. "We have to do this well because we can't do it over," he said. "(Poor results) will verify to critics that there's no quality there." Tribune reporter Lawerence Synett contributed. jkeilman@tribune.com Get the Chicago Tribune delivered to your home for only $1 a week > Copyright © 2011, Chicago Tribune Share61(2) RECOMMENDED FOR YOU 2 charged with prostitution at Evanston spa (Chicago Tribune) Ind. couple pleads guilty to duct-taping children (Chicago Tribune) Hospitals drowning in noise (Chicago Tribune) Chicago's at top as gas prices jump again (Chicago Tribune) Chicago discussed as terrorist target, document says (Chicago Tribune) FROM AROUND THE WEB What?! Prince in foreclosure?! (BankRate.com) Every Parent's Nightmare: Your Grad Is Moving Home (CNBC) Little-known credit card perks (BankRate.com) Riskiest Places to Use Your Credit Card (CNBC) Mary Robbins Dies Just 12 Days After Husband (The New York Times) [what's this]   Comments (2)Add / View comments | Discussion FAQ ckotarch at 10:55 PM April 25, 2011 Online learning offers the people who can learn faster than their peers the opportunity to work ahead and learn more and do more in the same amount of time.   The fact that students are graduating early is testament to the fact that there are some superior advantages to it when used that way.  Credit recovery too gives kids the opportunity to catch up to meet their goals of graduation where without it, they would not.  What more evidence does one need?   The benefits are self evident. Arrive2.net at 9:57 PM April 25, 2011 "Gene Glass, senior researcher at the National Education Policy Center, said research has so far failed to prove that online instr