The Joan Ganz Cooney Center released new research from the Games and Learning Publishing Council initiative. They conducted a series of video case studies and a national survey, Teacher Attitudes about Digital Games in the Classroom, undertaken in collaboration with and support from BrainPOP®. Each video case study shows an individual teacher who integrates digital games into his or her curriculum in exciting and innovative ways. This video features Ginger Stevens, a 6th grade special-education teacher at Quest2Learn in New York City. This video case study shows how she utilizes the intentionally game-like environment of her school to maximize learning for students with special needs.
Talks about kids interacting with each other AND digital images projected onto the floor and connected to the computer. Essentially a floor-based white board
"The Internet is the first place most people turn to find information and learn virtually anything, but there's no sense of organization--you have to stumble through, often running into dead ends along the way," said Chinosorn. "At MentorMob, our community members sort through all the content, choose the best snippets and lace them together into a step-by-step course. With MentorMob, you spend more time learning and less time searching."
We love this document that Mark Anderson has produced for a training day at his school in North Somerset, UK. It succinctly provides the name of Web2.0 tools and gives you examples of how to use them. From our experience teachers did need quick, easy and fast ways to connect to new technology ideas. We think Mark achieves this very well!
Often we search for meaningful ways to integrate digital technology in project based learning activities given to our students. We also would like our students to develop a thorough understanding of the concepts underlying the work - after all this is the purpose of the project.
Giving students the opportunity to complete and present their project through a digital lens has one great advantage - student engagement. This in turn causes students to develop a more in depth understanding of concepts.
Are you searching for a way to share documents, presentations, slideshows, or a series of photos or images with your students?
Then Voice Thread is the free Web 2.0 tool for you and your students (teachers can register for a free education account).
The Flip camera is great for all types of projects in science and math - at any grade level. Flip cameras are small handheld video cameras that can record 30 or 60 minutes worth of video. They connect to a computer with a USB plug that "flips" out from the side of the camera.
The benefits of these cameras include another means for assessing students understanding of concepts beyond worksheets and tests. Besides a teacher's record, the videos provide a digital record for parents and administrators to show a student's successes or areas which need improvement.
A widget that aggregates a bunch of different twitter conversations that teachers are having on twitter. It's a great way to display what your PLN is saying right from your blog.
The top five search tools for finding Flickr images are designed to help teachers and students locate just the right image for use in any subject area and project. Without these tools finding the right image on this image hosting site is often an impossible, or at least a tedious, task. The value of this site is its ability to provide digital pictures which are often impossible for a teacher to obtain any other way.
Like everything else on the internet, trying to find something is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. This where the top five search tools become valuable resources for teachers and students trying to find images comes into play. These search engines are specifically designed to search the more than three billion pictures on the Flickr hosting site.
The use of web based technology is growing by leaps and bounds every day. These online tools are the new set of keys for opening your students' minds. The vast resources on the Internet are making the use traditional methods of teaching and learning obsolete in countless ways.
Day one of introducing Google Docs to a class is always an exciting one, I have been fortunate to be able to see three cohorts experience the fun ways to use it. Today we made a start with our Year 5s and had a great afternoon.