Group items tagged

"The sooner educators, especially tech directors and administrators, accept that these things are a permanent part of the educational landscape, the sooner attention will be paid to using them positively and productively."

Both schools have been supporters of the "Drop Everything and Read" concept. Observations over time have been that it has become a relatively passive activity - a good one - but still in need of something. So, they're going to experiment with a concept that they're calling "Drop Everything and Blog". The logic is one of scaffolding the concept. You can't really blog unless you have something to blog about. So, the initial attempt will be to have students and teachers blog about favourite books that they've read. Once blogged, classmates will be encouraged to read the original post and comment on it.

Bring your "drop everything and read" literacy sessions up a notch -- how about "stop everything and blog". My personal suggestion with this -- use Google Documents and allow the option of simultaneous collaboration.

Will Richardson talks about the impact of smartphones on education. This links nicely to the NPR report (based on the Pew study) that the digital divide is being turned on its head.

Got to love Will Richardson. Not earth-shattering, but a great synthesis of several things that have been rattling around in my head lately, too.

NY teacher tenure to be tied to student test performance/scores

This teacher (http://twitter.com/shannoninottawa) blogged about her experience of getting the students to evaluate her. She used Google Forms to collect the data. Simple. Effective. Inspirational.

This is a fantastic self reflection piece by Dana Boyd about the dangers and the responsibility of the live backchannel.

Emergent by design is an evolving post about the best media resources for educators. Includes links to articles, videos, blogs and wikis to follow, and much more.

Emergent by design is an evolving post about the best media resources for educators. Includes links to articles, videos, blogs and wikis to follow, and much more.

"I am on a flight returning home after a successful Presentation at the New York State Association of Computers and Technologies in Education Annual Conference, NYSCATE. I was pleased with the outcome, but I did make a few observations about how presenting at these conferences is beginning to change and may never be the same. Presentations for any educational conference are the backbone of the conference. They are usually the main reason why educators attend conferences, wild parties notwithstanding. It is a great accomplishment for an educator to have a proposal for a conference presentation accepted and placed on the Program. Being judged and accepted by one's colleagues is both an accomplishment and a thrill and for some, the process could also be terrifying. Presenting is considered by many to be one of those thresholds in an educator's career. I have done several presentations at various conferences over the years and I have been moved by the positive experience with each event. Because it requires putting one's self out there for all to see, most presenters do a great job of preparing and presenting to the best of their ability."

Another great post by Peter Pappas

Introduction to Diigo and group for sharing resources with our edublog challenge PLN

This simple, yet powerful project allows students to share a little bit about themselves at the beginning of the year. At the same time it allows students to jump into some simple audio recording and editing using GarageBand.

Recommendations for adding good looking covers to ePub books