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"AUTHOR: ISSIE LAPOWSKY. ISSIE LAPOWSKY DATE OF PUBLICATION: 05.04.15. 05.04.15 TIME OF PUBLICATION: 7:00 AM. 7:00 AM INSIDE THE SCHOOL SILICON VALLEY THINKS WILL SAVE EDUCATION Click to Open Overlay Gallery Students in the youngest class at the Fort Mason AltSchool help their teacher, Jennifer Aguilar, compile a list of what they know and what they want to know about butterflies. CHRISTIE HEMM KLOK/WIRED SO YOU'RE A parent, thinking about sending your 7-year-old to this rogue startup of a school you heard about from your friend's neighbor's sister. It's prospective parent information day, and you make the trek to San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. You walk up to the second floor of the school, file into a glass-walled conference room overlooking a classroom, and take a seat alongside dozens of other parents who, like you, feel that public schools-with their endless bubble-filled tests, 38-kid classrooms, and antiquated approach to learning-just aren't cutting it. At the same time, you're thinking: this school is kind of weird. On one side of the glass is a cheery little scene, with two teachers leading two different middle school lessons on opposite ends of the room. But on the other side is something altogether unusual: an airy and open office with vaulted ceilings, sunlight streaming onto low-slung couches, and rows of hoodie-wearing employees typing away on their computers while munching on free snacks from the kitchen. And while you can't quite be sure, you think that might be a robot on wheels roaming about. Then there's the guy who's standing at the front of the conference room, the school's founder. Dressed in the San Francisco standard issue t-shirt and jeans, he's unlike any school administrator you've ever met. But the more he talks about how this school uses technology to enhance and individualize education, the more you start to like what he has to say. And so, if you are truly fed up with the school stat

Create a box demonstrating what you know about any subject. Incorporate text, images, video or audio. Great for describing an artist, author, character, location...

This is a great social studies site for students to collect "artifacts" about an historical person or event.  Site has some bugs, but the finished product is very unique!

Create mini histories in a box.

"Enter a noun into this website and get a range of words to help you describe it. Superb for creative or descriptive writing projects."

Presentation by Vermont superintendent Dan French (@danfrench on Twitter) for the Palmetto Open Source Conference (posscon.org). Dan describes an alternative vision for ed organizational change utilizing "lateral innovation networks" based on the concepts described by David Hargreaves (http://www.demos.co.uk/people/davidhargreaves) in "Education Epidemic."

Author describes study that showed that middle, hs, and university students were highly distractible by technology and were anxious if they could not check their devices. He described a strategy called "tech breaks" where students are allowed to check devices and social media for a minute and then to focus on school work for 15 minutes as a way of improving their metacognitive skills. 

I wonder if using technology in the classroom - integrally - would mitigate some of the anxiety and/or increase attention. I wonder if there are other teaching/learning strategies we might employ that would increase engagement such that students would be distracted from their distraction...

"These iPad mini ads, released late last year, were placed on the back covers of several national magazines-including Time, Wired and The New Yorker."

"Asking young girls to "do science" leads them to show greater persistence in science activities than does asking them to "be scientists," finds a new psychology study by researchers at New York University and Princeton University. "Describing science as actions, by saying 'let's do science,' leads to more science engagement than does describing science in terms of identities, by asking them to 'be scientists'" explains Marjorie Rhodes, an associate professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and the senior author of the study, which appears in the journal Psychological Science. "These effects particularly hold for children who are the target of stereotypes suggesting that they might not be the kind of person who succeeds in science-in this case, girls," she adds."

The last sentence describes why parent involvement is so critical!!!!

MacArthur Foundation Study - Friendship chapter

5 e's of visual literacy. a lesson plan on using photos in social studies, science, and comm arts classes

A new startup social networking site focusing on teaching and learning.

Sophia hosts free online learning content in multimedia "packets" tied to MN K-12 standards. A blend of Facebook, Wikipedia, Atomic Learning, and Hippocampus.

Some people describe Sophia as a mash up of Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook - focused solely on teaching and learning. It's where you can teach what you know and learn what you don't. Whether you're a high school student, college student, teacher, professor, tutor or parent, Sophia makes knowledge easier to share, easier to find, and easier to organize. And it's free.

"Examine your students' background knowledge on a new topic of study by asking them to write about it. Pass out index cards and instruct students to fill only one side with their related thoughts and experiences. Provide a minute to write followed by a minute to discuss their ideas with a nearby partner. Collect the cards and set them aside until the end of the unit. Then, ask students to revisit their original notes and, on the backs of their cards, describe how their thinking has expanded or changed on this issue. The initial card writing gives you an insight into background knowledge, while the final card writing offers students insight into their thinking and learning."

"ROLAND Gesthuizen describes himself as a social media evangelist. His passion for social media and Twitter in particular extends beyond the global power of tapping into and sharing ideas. For his students it has brought the outside world to his classroom in a way that could never be imagined."

The typical textbook description of the legislative process, though technically valid in some respects, is woefully inadequate in describing the fascinating, vibrant, often "messy" reality of how a bill becomes law. This module allows you to compare the typical textbook process with the more realistic "dynamic" process, and you will see how our untidy process has produced solid results.

Have students to create visual works of art online. Silk is an interactive site where students can drag their mouse around on the page to create beautiful weaving & whirling designs. Drawing lines on the screen will add color to the moving art, & by speeding up or slowing down their movements the effect will change. Students can choose between 6 different colors, & 3 different modes of symmetry. Students can share their creation with a simple link. Have students describe their unique artwork as a description & creative writing exercise. Also available as an app for the iPad.

The NMC is pleased to announce the interim results of the 2013 Horizon.K12 Project, as presented at the 2013 CoSN Conference in San Diego. The Horizon Project Advisory Board voted for the top 12 emerging technologies as well as the top ten trends and challenges that they believe will have a significant impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in global K-12 education over the next five years. These initial results will be compiled into an interim report, known as the "Short List," and described in further detail. The "Time-to-Adoption Horizon" indicates how long the Advisory Board feels it will be until a significant number of schools are providing or using each of these technologies or approaches broadly. Near-Term Horizon: One Year or Less * BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) * Cloud Computing * Mobile Learning * Online Learning Mid-Term Horizon: Two to Three Years * Adaptive Learning and Personal Learning Networks * Electronic Publishing * Learning Analytics * Open Content Long-Term Horizon: Four to Five Years * 3D Printing * Augmented Reality * Virtual and Remote Laboratories * Wearable Technology

"The website features thousands of videos of people describing and engaged in doing their jobs. The idea for the website was created in response to teens saying they do not know what people really do in their jobs, and therefore find it difficult to decide on a career direction.

Described as an academic search engine that points to trusted resources as sites have been selected by educators.