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Contents contributed and discussions participated by Fabian Aguilar

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100 Apps for Tech-Savvy Teachers - 89 views

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Wolfram|Alpha Blog : Step-by-Step Math - 16 views

  • en up working on a math problem because you couldn’t figure out the next step? Wolfram|Alpha can guide you step by step through the process of solving many mathematical problems, from solving a simple quadratic equation to taking the integral of a complex function.
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The Google Wave Will Change Education Forever | ISTE Connects - Educational Technology - 36 views

  • If you haven’t heard about Google Wave, prepare to be blown away. I made the mistake of starting this movie at 10:30 last night thinking I’d probably just watch a few minutes and drift off to sleep.
  • Google Wave is 100% open-source, so rest assured that developers are ravenously developing extensions, plug-ins, modules, and anything else necessary to make it work on all the platforms we use today.
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The End in Mind » An Open (Institutional) Learning Network - 2 views

  • There are components of an open learning network that can and should live in the cloud: Personal publishing tools (blogs, personal websites, wikis) Social networking apps Open content Student generated content
  • Some tools might straddle the boundary between the institution and the cloud, e.g. portfolios, collaboration tools and websites with course & learning activity content.
  • Other tools and data belong squarely within the university network: Student Information Systems Secure assessment tools (e.g., online quiz & test applications) Institutional gradebook (for secure communication about scores, grades & feedback) Licensed and or proprietary institutional content
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  • To facilitate the relationships between students and teachers, students and students, and students and content, universities need to provide students the ability to input additional information about themselves into the institutional repository, such as: URLs & RSS feeds for anything and everything the student wants to share with the learning community Social networking usernames (probably on an opt-in basis) Portfolio URLs (particularly to simplify program assessment activities) Assignment & artifact links (provided and used most frequently via the gradebook interface)
  • Integrating these technologies assumes: Web services compatibility to exchange data between systems and easily redisplay content as is or mashed-up via alternate interfaces RSS everywhere to aggregate content in a variety of places
  • While there’s still a lot of work to do, this feels like we’re getting closer to something real and doable. Thoughts?
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Top News - California lists state-approved digital textbooks - 0 views

  • California education leaders on Aug. 11 released a list of resources they have determined meet state-approved standards for high school math and science classes.
  • The "Free Digital Textbook Initiative Report," facilitated by the California Learning Resource Network (CLRN), outlines how open high school math and science textbooks submitted under the first phase of the initiative measure up against the state's academic standards. The state received 16 digital textbooks to review, with 10 meeting at least 90 percent of the standards and four fully meeting the standards. The reviewed resources are available for schools to use this fall.
  • Researchers used content standards adopted by the California Department of Education in 1997 for high school math courses and in 1998 for science courses. Submitted texts were reviewed to determine whether the materials fully or partially meet or do not meet state board-adopted content standards.
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Internet Evolution - Rob Salkowitz - Schoolkid Laptops: How Portugal's Doing It Right - 0 views

  • In June, Portugal completed the major phase of the largest deployment of laptops for education in the world to date, equipping nearly a million secondary school students throughout the entire country with high-performance computers and mobile Internet connectivity.
  • The government authorized the use of the 3G auction proceeds to subsidize the distribution of nearly a million laptops before the end of the decade. This pleased the telecom providers, because it amounted to a direct investment in market development: All those students and their families would become mobile broadband customers.
  • it instantly leapfrogged the country’s education system to the forefront of the global effort to integrate the Internet into the classroom, and it promised a quantum leap forward for the country’s next generation of citizens, workers, and leaders.
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  • With the subsidies, the end-cost to students’ families is only €50 to €150 for laptops that would otherwise sell for more than four times that amount. Qualified low-income families receive theirs for free. The Escola computers come with a one-year mobile broadband contract for €17 a month (discounted from the normal €23), and other plans are negotiable depending on the providers.
  • “It is most important to have scale,” says Grilo. “It can’t be just a pilot project confined to a small community. It must be everyone at once. That way, you have maximum cultural impact. Everyone feels part of the mainstream, not an anomaly or a test subject.”
  • Perhaps the most important lesson for countries seeking to emulate Portugal’s success is to design a policy that aligns the interests of all the major stakeholders: telecom providers, local OEMs, multinational partners, government ministries, local communities, schools, and the public.
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American Cultures 2.0 - 0 views

  • If we want students to become citizens who understand their role as a citizen then we need to teach them to understand and respect the power of questions.
  • Without the freedom and courage to ask that paradigm shifting question then progress and innovation would cease to exist and we would become slaves to our past and out-dated solutions.
  • The power of just one word can totally change the meaning of something as intrinsic as national identity.
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  • The more students have an opportunity to read, speak and write the more they are going to understand the power of words.
  • The moment students craft words meant not just for the teacher and a few other peers, but for the wider world, is the moment students learn that a misplaced, mispronounced, or misspelled word has consequences far beyond a grade. These authentic learning opportunities are crucial to prepare students for the new realities of a more global and transparent world.
  • Students (and teachers) need to understand that everything they do communicates, whether they know what they are communicating or not.
  • Once students really figure out who they are and what they stand for then they can more comfortably be themselves. However, an important social skill that many students have difficulty grasping is knowing appropriate social norms in various settings.
  • Anyone can be a teacher... if you are alert and willing to learn from others. We need to teach students to be alert and willing to learn from sources other than textbooks. We need to teach students how to create and cultivate learning from a personal learning network, in order to extend the traditional capabilities of school from the limited hours of the school day to the unlimited hours beyond the school day. The informal classroom of life offers lessons far more valuable than the classroom if only we are open to learning from each other each and every day.
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Educational Leadership:Literacy 2.0:Orchestrating the Media Collage - 0 views

  • Public narrative embraces a number of specialty literacies, including math literacy, research literacy, and even citizenship literacy, to name a few. Understanding the evolving nature of literacy is important because it enables us to understand the emerging nature of illiteracy as well. After all, regardless of the literacy under consideration, the illiterate get left out.
  • Modern literacy has always meant being able to both read and write narrative in the media forms of the day, whatever they may be. Just being able to read is not sufficient.
  • The act of creating original media forces students to lift the hood, so to speak, and see media's intricate workings that conspire to do one thing above all others: make the final media product appear smooth, effortless, and natural. "Writing media" compels reflection about reading media, which is crucial in an era in which professional media makers view young people largely in terms of market share.
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  • As part of their own intellectual retooling in the era of the media collage, teachers can begin by experimenting with a wide range of new media to determine how they best serve their own and their students' educational interests. A simple video can demonstrate a science process; a blog can generate an organic, integrated discussion about a piece of literature; new media in the form of games, documentaries, and digital stories can inform the study of complex social issues; and so on. Thus, a corollary to this guideline is simply, "Experiment fearlessly." Although experts may claim to understand the pedagogical implications of media, the reality is that media are evolving so quickly that teachers should trust their instincts as they explore what works. We are all learning together.
  • Both essay writing and blog writing are important, and for that reason, they should support rather than conflict with each other. Essays, such as the one you are reading right now, are suited for detailed argument development, whereas blog writing helps with prioritization, brevity, and clarity. The underlying shift here is one of audience: Only a small portion of readers read essays, whereas a large portion of the public reads Web material. Thus, the pressure is on for students to think and write clearly and precisely if they are to be effective contributors to the collective narrative of the Web.
  • The demands of digital literacy make clear that both research reports and stories represent important approaches to thinking and communicating; students need to be able to understand and use both forms. One of the more exciting pedagogical frontiers that awaits us is learning how to combine the two, blending the critical thinking of the former with the engagement of the latter. The report–story continuum is rich with opportunity to blend research and storytelling in interesting, effective ways within the domain of new media.
  • The new media collage depends on a combination of individual and collective thinking and creative endeavor. It requires all of us to express ourselves clearly as individuals, while merging our expression into the domain of public narrative. This can include everything from expecting students to craft a collaborative media collage project in language arts classes to requiring them to contribute to international wikis and collective research projects about global warming with colleagues they have never seen. What is key here is that these are now "normal" kinds of expression that carry over into the world of work and creative personal expression beyond school.
  • Students need to be media literate to understand how media technique influences perception and thinking. They also need to understand larger social issues that are inextricably linked to digital citizenship, such as security, environmental degradation, digital equity, and living in a multicultural, networked world. We want our students to use technology not only effectively and creatively, but also wisely, to be concerned with not just how to use digital tools, but also when to use them and why.
  • Fluency is the ability to practice literacy at the advanced levels required for sophisticated communication within social and workplace environments. Digital fluency facilitates the language of leadership and innovation that enables us to translate our ideas into compelling professional practice. The fluent will lead, the literate will follow, and the rest will get left behind.
  • Digital fluency is much more of a perspective than a technical skill set. Teachers who are truly digitally fluent will blend creativity and innovation into lesson plans, assignments, and projects and understand the role that digital tools can play in creating academic expectations that are authentically connected, both locally and globally, to their students' lives.
  • Focus on expression first and technology second—and everything will fall into place.
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