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"Have you ever wondered why your students don't like writing essays? The most obvious reason is natural talent: some people have an intuitive tendency to express themselves well, while others struggle with words. However, the approach you make as a teacher also makes a visible difference in the work of your students."

Here are a set of tips on how you can make best use of podcast for sharing and receiving information as a teacher.

Outstanding teaching philosophy that gets at the heart of how and why technology should be used in learning.

LiveBinders is a web 2.0 tool which provides the ability to save and organize materials for your science or math class. The great thing about this free tool is that you can update the resources instantly to ensure your lessons include the latest ideas, tips, and resources in science and math.

Benefits for creating a classroom environment for student blogging begin with establishing a foundation for their success. Why is this important? Integrating blogs transforms a classroom into a learning community where students become self-directed learners and thinkers. This in turn, causes students to use higher order thinking skills as they create and post entries in their blogs, along with commenting on other student's blogs.

Most people experience mental health problems in their life; and half of those who experience mental health problems first experience them before age 14. Does your child have the support he or she needs if they must face the ordeal?

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A little on why to develop a PLN and five suggestions for how to do so, including: 1)Join a profession social network 2) Pick a few (five) blogs to start reading 3) set up an iGoogle account and use Google Reader 4) Comment on Blogs you read 5) join Twitter and follow good people.

Technology needs to trickle up, she said, not down. We need to give the most powerful tools to the most vulnerable populations because they are the ones who need it. "Young learners, non-readers," she continued, "need high-speed access, they need animation and graphics and sound. And that's the truth." According to Lovely, and education technology consultant and speaker at the FETC 2009 conference in Orlando, FL in January, it was the recognition of those needs that led her to develop a "top 10 list" of go-to technology tools to help inspire young students and empower under-funded teachers. "The important thing to remember here," she said, "is that this isn't about simply providing you with 10 links. It's much more important to ask, 'What are you going to do with these things? How are you going to use these tools?' That's why we're here," she said. "So I can show you not only what's out there but also how other educators are using these resources to teach their students right now."

Today at our Saskatchewan Curriculum Renewal workshops we were introduced to many of the new concepts and philosophies of the new curriculum. The intent of the curriculum is to reduce outcomes, provide common language for all curricula, focus more on learning than on teaching and focus on depth of understanding instead of only breadth. There was a lot of talk of big picture thinking and encouraging teachers to reflect on why they teach what they teach. Early on someone mentioned the goals of education. With some recent discussions on the purpose of education, I thought it pertinent to look up the 9 goals of education for students in Saskatchewan.

I use Polleverywhere right now and have been with both students and adults. My school fell trap to the senteo clicker thing and bought a bunch. I won't be using them...

What is Wallwisher and why use it? Its a Web 2.0 application which allows students to express their thoughts or share information on a science concept.

In online public spaces, interactions are public-by-default, private-through-effort, the exact opposite of what we experience offline.  There is no equivalent to the cafe where you can have a private conversation in public with a close friend without thinking about who might overhear. Your online conversations are easily overheard.  And they're often persistent, searchable, and easily spreadable. Online, we have to put effort into limiting how far information flows. We have to consciously act to curb visibility.  This runs counter to every experience we've ever had in unmediated environments.  When people participate online, they don't choose what to publicize.  They choose what to limit others from seeing.  Offline, it takes effort to get something to be seen.  Online, it takes effort for things to NOT be seen.  This is why it appears that more is public.  Because there's a lot of content out there that people don't care enough about to lock down.  I hear this from teens all the time.  "Public by default, privacy when necessary."  Teens turn to private messages or texting or other forms of communication for intimate interactions, but they don't care enough about certain information to put the effort into locking it down.  But this isn't because they don't care about privacy.  This is because they don't think that what they're saying really matters all that much to anyone.  Just like you don't care that your small talk during the conference breaks are overheard by anyone.  Of course, teens aren't aware of how their interactions in aggregate can be used to make serious assumptions about who they are, who they know, and what they might like in terms of advertising.  Just like you don't calculate who to talk to in the halls based on how a surveillance algorithm might interpret your social network.    

"This 10 week online course provided an introduction to many Web 2.0 tools and ways in which they might be used in the classroom. This past September through December, I had the good fortune of taking this online course, an offering from the University of Wisconsin - Stout. Instructor Ann Bell has been teaching the course for several years, and has developed a well rounded set of modules that offer a thorough introduction to many web-based (and mostly free) technologies that can be used in engaging and practical ways in course work."

A thoughtful look at why we use discussions in online classes. It's a good thing to examine our assumptions and return to first principals.  Enormously useful. 

Instapaper can be downloaded on your desktop as well as your mobile devices. Save a site to read later! 

Artículo de Sue Waters acerca del uso de Facebook como herramienta para los educadores y la gestión de las opciones de privacidad al respecto.