Group items tagged

I recently attended a session by Al Doyle at ED Camp NYC on game design. "We play, design, and we share," said Al. This is a powerful tool that pushes students critical thinking and promotes collaborative social learning experiences.

Atmosphir is a 3D game design tool that I learned about while attending Ed Camp NYC. You build with blocks, like stacking Legos, dragging blocks on the screen. This program allows the user to build an entire world (exploding platforms, keys, locks, treasures, spawning system) that you create from scratch.

Website design made easy.

This looks to be a robust assessment tool that allows teachers to track student progress. Some of the features include: a learning map that displays progres towards mastery of standards (CCLS aligned) and tools to support teachers in interpreting data. It also item analysis, grade-level stats and support tools that teachers can use to design interim assessments and more.

From MIT: "To use App Inventor, you do not need to be a professional developer. This is because instead of writing code, you visually design the way the app looks and use blocks to specify the app's behavior."

"What does the iPad have to teach educational technology about how a phenomenon becomes popular and adopted? Quite a bit. First, acceptance is high, with a half-million units sold in the first week of release. Six weeks later, Apple was selling twice as many iPads per week as Mac computers. Given some recent history, this should be surprising-the idea of a tablet device has been around for at least a decade or two, but most such devices have not experienced anything close to wide adoption. However, some specific factors have paved the way for the iPad's adoption. And these factors harbor advice that educational technology would do well to heed. Prime the technology pump. The iPhone, direct predecessor to the iPad, came onto the market amid a wave of technology that permitted small packages to deliver powerful computing. This hardware, including GPS location sensors, fast and efficient microprocessors, and the evolution of touch screen technology was a necessary condition for the emergence and success of both the iPhone and the iPad generation of devices. Define (and answer) the problem. The hugely popular mobile smartphones had an equally huge problem. People hated their interfaces. A decade of frustration with labyrinthian voicemail menus and inscrutable settings had created an army of frustrated mobile phone users with enough pent-up rage to fuel a revolution. By providing a device that was easy to use, the iPhone had identified a core problem and set a new bar for its solution, one that was quickly taken up by many others. Whet undiscovered appetites. The explosion of mobile devices also created for millions the idea of constant, away-from-home connectivity. The iPhone upped the ante significantly by providing a full browsing and even computing experience, giving consumers the expectation that they should be only inches away from powerful, networked computing at all times. Provide the practice. The iPhone defined a new set of touch-based interactions. Whi

Love the cartoon. Lots to consider here. Excellent questions to pose.

Thanks for sharing this--Peter Pappas always has such practical tips. And yes, the cartoon is perfect. :-)

Compass provides teachers with online multimedia content and standards-aligned curricula that are interactive and self-paced. Compass activities for students are designed to promote problem-solving and to encourage them to make real-world connections. Compass also includes embedded assessments.

Some great ideas for developing an IWB lesson.

Some great ideas for developing an IWB lesson.

This site is designed to support New York teachers, principals, administrators and Network Teams in rolling out the Common Core State Standards.

The Encyclopedia of Educational Technology (EET) is a collection of short multimedia articles on a variety of topics related to the fields of instructional design and education and training.

This article is an excellent summary of why we need to integrate technology into the curriculum.

GenYES is the only student-centered research-based solution for school-wide technology integration. Students work with teachers to design technology-infused lessons and provide tech support. The resulting collaboration provides the students with project-based learning and the teachers with on-site, sustainable technology integration support.

I supervised the implementation of the GenYES program for three middle schools when I was working in the Schenectady CIty School District. The students really liked supporting teachers and some teachers really bought into the program. I believe it is a valuable collaborative program but sustainability, especially if it is grant funded, can be problematic because of the yearly licensing fees. It's been three years since I worked with Dennis Hooper and the program and the fee schedule be have changed. I know they were doing more online lessons, training, etc. I can provide more information to anyone who is interested.

DOE designed tool kit to help teachers make the best use of teacher data reports.

This self assessment checklist, developed by Teaching Matters, designed to "outline a set of critical questions to guide school leaders assess themselves on a continuum of school innovation in a set of critical areas".

Very cool - Thanks for sharing

The community just launched today and there are already some good videos up. Richard Byrne blogged about it at "Free Technology for Teachers"--his own Google tutorials are designed especially for teachers, and are another great resource: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/p/google-tools-tutorials.html

Thanks for sharing this, Angela. This looks very cool.

Some Ed Tech heavy hitters will be presenting/attending this conference in Long Beach CA March 3-5. Would be great to check out if you have the opportunity.

TCETC 2011 will take place on Saturday, May 21st, and Sunday, May 22nd at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY. This conference will serve as a multi-disciplinary forum for graduate students to discuss and exchange information on the research, development and applications of emerging technologies in PK-12 classrooms, at home environments and afterschool programs, distance learning settings, higher education, and corporate learning environments.

Regarding what's missing from the Core Common Standards -- new texts, new media, viewing...  Where does "complexity" of new media text get taught? How will teachers learn to parse it?  Is new media analysis and production a discipline?  Yes in my opinion.  Is it interdisciplinary? Yes.  Media related to various content areas have their own criteria.  Video, photography, blogs, social networks and the systems that deliver them are, in a way, their own languages. They are increasingly dominating how our society functions, informs and represents itself.  HOW can this still be an afterthought for educators?  Fear?  Uncertainty on how to proceed?  Because it's not tested? The text landscape is more complex than the textbook.