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The challenges and opportunities confronting higher education pedagogy will not be adequately addressed by platforms designed to provide answers

9. Fail to provide training and additional resources needed for tech implementation. Training with an expert user is always a plus, even when using someone on staff as that expert. Even more important is providing time for the teacher to explore, experiment, and "play" with the technology. As far as resources, school leaders need to make sure teachers have all they need to implement new technologies: everything from powerbars to tables. Nothing can be more frustrating than having your greatest tech plans foiled by a lack of power outlets.

5. Fail to provide adequate hardware and/or software.  I've seen so many examples of this over the years. Teachers are encouraged to get students writing and engaging in online blogging, but they don't have access to computers. Another example is even more ludicrous; students being asked to create 21st century projects yet they aren't given anything but 20th century tools such a colored pencils and construction paper. It is the school leader's responsibility to ensure teachers have adequate hardware and software for implementing technology.             

But here's the irony. "Mary is more likely to convince John than professor Mazur in front of the class," Mazur says. "She's only recently learned it and still has some feeling for the conceptual difficulties that she has whereas professor Mazur learned [the idea] such a long time ago that he can no longer understand why somebody has difficulty grasping it." That's the irony of becoming an expert in your field, Mazur says. "It becomes not easier to teach, it becomes harder to teach because you're unaware of the conceptual difficulties of a beginning learner."

To make sure his students are prepared, Mazur has set up a web-based monitoring system where everyone has to submit answers to questions about the reading prior to coming to class. The last question asks students to tell Mazur what confused them. He uses their answers to prepare a set of multiple-choice questions he uses during class.

Mazur begins class by giving a brief explanation of a concept he wants students to understand. Then he asks one of the multiple-choice questions. Students get a minute to think about the question on their own and then answer it using a mobile device that sends their answers to Mazur's laptop. Next, he asks the students to turn to the person sitting next to them and talk about the question. The class typically erupts in a cacophony of voices, as it did that first time he told students to talk to each other because he couldn't figure out what else to do. Once the students have discussed the question for a few minutes, Mazur instructs them to answer the question again.

It’s early in the life of Google Drive, but Gmail has so many users that I think a lot of them will switch, or at least add Google Drive to their digital tools. Google Drive is a new player in file syncing, but the user base and integration of Google Docs gives Google’s new service an edge. Factor in the cheaper storage upgrade pricing and Google Drive is a better fit for users that need more than 5GB of storage. Dropbox still has an edge thanks to iPhone and iPad apps, but Google promises that Google Drive for the iPhone and iPad is just weeks away. With both services offering free storage, there’s no reason not to try both. Stream your music from Dropbox and store your documents and images in Google Drive. You get 10GB for free that way.

A brownish Christmas?You can hear the frustration in Cedar Gordon’s voice. The Two Harbors 9-year-old, according to her mother, Katya, “is furious about global warming.”

r, 7, ran through her list of things to revel in about snow: skiing, sledding, snow angels, snowmen. “I feel really mad at it.”The only bright light of normal winter activity in Two Harbors is the new ice skating rink in front of the band shell in the city park.Those are the harsh realities and small graces for the last week of 2011 as a drought continues in the Northland. The National Weather Service predicts more of the same, at least through the weekend, meaning no more snow.

At some point in that journey we will feel frustrated, but eventually we will have that “Aha” moment where we think, “Yes! I accomplished this!” We can feel proud of ourselves for employing our higher order thinking skills and other tools like technology to solve a problem that challenged us and others.

DR Expose 2 Plugins Processing HDR images to get just the right effect can be as much art as science. The new HDR Expose 2 from Unified Color Technologies (UCT) aims to help you find the right balance between the two, so you get just the finished image you want without headaches and frustration. 0 Continue Reading Using Scripted Patterns in Photoshop CS6 CS6 One of the problems with pattern fills in Photoshop is the complete lack of randomness you get in shape, color, and position. Just think about it: a real brick wall isn’t made from perfectly identical bricks; each brick varies in color, texture, and even size. That’s why Adobe added the ability to apply scripts to pattern fills in Photoshop CS6. 0 Continue Reading 2D to 3D in Photoshop CS6 Extended CS6 Stephen Burns shows viewers how to take an image of a 2D object and transform it into a 3D object using depth maps in the new Photoshop CS6 Extended. 1 Continue Reading Corel AfterShot Pro Product Reviews Corel’s first professional photo catalog and RAW editing software, AfterShot Pro, is based on a number of technologies—Bibble Pro, Noise Ninja, and Perfectly Clear—that are widely known and respected in the photography world. It’s available for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. 0 Continue Reading Photoshop CS6 Type Styles CS6 http://layersmagazine.com/photoshop-cs6-typ

Why do some innovations spread so swiftly and others so slowly

Consider the very different trajectories of surgical anesthesia and antiseptics, both of which were discovered in the nineteenth century.

The first public demonstration of anesthesia was in 1846.

But, how we view something of the past is largely due to our own past and present experiences.

1. Be the change. Leaders of professional development seem to forget that they’re actually teaching, and that part of teaching is modeling the activity you hope to see adopted. A session devoted to equipping teachers to implement more collaborative learning that is presented via “death by PowerPoint” is an oxymoron, a term originating from a Greek word appropriately meaning “pointedly foolish.” As one teacher recently expressed it, “Why does the worst teaching often happen in sessions on how to improve teaching?” Why, indeed? Modeling is a powerful teaching technique. In addition to communicating that the suggested new approach promotes learning, demonstration taps into some of the brain’s natural learning systems: This may be because demonstration actually encourages the brain to engage. Specialized neurons known as mirror neurons make practicing “in the head” possible…When a teacher repeatedly performs a sequence of steps, her students’ mirror neurons may enable their own preliminary practice of the same steps. In other words, as a teacher demonstrates a skill, students mentally rehearse it.1

Though we’ve been invited to lead professional development, we do not have all the answers. Professional development involves merging new research findings with current personnel—i.e., bringing ideas and people together. One way I’ve tried to do more of this recently is to ask teachers if any of them have tried something similar to a new approach I’ve explained. If any have, I invite them to share their experience. This invites elaboration, a critical cognitive process for constructing understanding. If the teacher’s experience was positive, we discuss why the approach was successful. If the teacher’s experience was frustrating, we often find together the reason for it and develop a plan for structuring it better the next time. This give-and-take values everyone, respects the experience present in the session, and allows the leader to be a colleague rather than an aloof expert.

2. Listen. I have a tendency to get preoccupied with my preparation and forget that I’ll actually have people in the professional development session. Not just people but colleagues!

Being a blogger isn’t just about publishing posts. It’s also about reading others posts, taking time to comment on their posts (in meaningful ways), engaging with your readers by commenting back when they leave comments — being a good blog citizen.

Because reading posts that talks about other bloggers or their posts but doesn’t include links to them is really frustrating for readers. Readers like to follow the links and check out the information in more detail but without the links they can’t!

nowadays increasingly readers are reading blog posts by links shared on twitter rather than RSS.   So it is now a good idea to tweet when you’ve written a new post. If you’re not currently using twitter – here’s how to get started.