Group items tagged

As teachers, our plates are perpetually and impossibly full. The idea of adding one more component - such as incorporating technology into instruction - can seem daunting to say the least. In my own attempts to incorporate technology into my practice, Google has been the most valuable tool I have found thus far. Not only does it increase my ability to organize my instructional tools, but it also allows me to incorporate more technology when I feel ready to do so.

"Digital citizenship is a key component of the technology and media literacy. We should not only teach our students how to be good citizens in the real physical world but how they can be good netizens of the online world as well.Today's learning requires alot of use of technology and most imprtant of all, our students are using technology on a daily basis- text messaging, blogging, Facebooking, Twittering, watching videos, gaming and networking. They live in two different but interconnected worlds. What they do online can have a severe repercussions on their real life if not properly instructed on digital safety issues and this is where digital citizenship fits in."

"This rubric may be used for assessing use of Twitter for instructional assignments. "

Thanks for the rubric Sara, this is a great idea!

"Despite the attention that the videos get, the greatest benefit to any flipped classroom is not the videos. It's the in-class time that every teacher must evaluate and redesign. Because our direct instruction was moved outside of the classroom, our students were able to conduct higher-quality and more engaging activities. As we have seen teachers adopt the flipped model, they use the extra time in myriad ways depending on their subject matter, location, and style of teaching. We asked some of our colleagues to share how they have changed their class time. Following are some examples."

""It's really what's going on in the students' minds rather than who is instructing them," said lead researcher Carl Wieman of the University of British Columbia, who shared a Nobel physics prize in 2001. "This is clearly more effective learning. Everybody should be doing this. ... You're practicing bad teaching if you are not doing this." The study compared just two sections of physics classes for just one week, but Wieman said the technique would work for other sciences as well, and even for history." Study: It's not teacher, but method that matters. http://t.co/Te2kaUlp via @Diigo #edtech #edchat #cpchat

"When my students wanted to do a project using social media to bring awareness to human trafficking and the problems. They had a wordpress blog, a Twitter account (we set up twitter feed to send the posts there) and a Facebook page. We tracked engagement levels and things that created likes. What stimulated engagement. Now, this was part of my social media module for 3 weeks but it wasn't just your average "post on facebook." "

So you have decided to flip your classroom this year and invert your instruction method hoping to get more student engagement and boost their productivity levels. Well good thing  you are going to give Flipped Classroom a try but before that you need to make it clear to your students what this new method is all about and why not even explain it to their parents as well.

"In cooperative learning, students work together, think together and plan together using a variety of group structures designed along an instructional path. This dynamic learning model breaks with the dusty forms of frontal teaching that often create classrooms of "lonesome togetherness" -- students who may sit together but live worlds apart. Cooperative learning creates what Daniel Goleman calls "cognitive empathy," a mind-to-mind sense of how another person's thinking works. The better we understand others, the better we know them -- pointing toward (among other virtues) greater trust, appreciation and generosity. "

Good example of how to use Ipad for class workflow

Hey Mark Thanks for the article. It is very informative. Mike

An honest assessment from a teacher integrating iPads into her classroom. A MUST read for ALL teachers.

"There are not an abundance of apps for the iPad that really encourage a worthwhile level of collaboration between students or between students and teachers. There are several that would allow students to share an iPad and work on something together on one iPad, but what if you want students to be working on their own iPads at school, at home, or at a time of their choosing? The following 5 apps are designed for just that, and help take advantage of the iPad as a collaborative tool. "