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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

The iPad (or iPod touch or iPhone) with its apps opens many new opportunities for learning. At the same time, it offers a slightly different wrapper for older learning opportunities. Both can be worthwhile, but it would be a shame if teachers missed the former for the latter. And, if past experience and research is any indication, educators are much more likely to co-opt the new technology to accomplish the status quo. This activity is designed to help teachers think through both opportunities and to categorize those apps that lend themselves to either or both. Teachers will start by exploring a variety of apps, some that lend themselves to learning content such as math facts or spelling words and others that can be used in open ended content creation such as storytelling or photography. Then, teachers will examine a set of lessons that use these apps. Finally, teachers will use a "taxonomy" such as Bloom's Taxonomy, SAMR, LoTi, ETaP, Prensky, etc. and attempt to classify/categorize where the apps fall. Most likely teachers will need to contextualize the app to a particular use/activity. Ideally, teachers will realize that in most cases it is not the app itself, but the use that detrmines where it falls and that the apps belong in multiple places.

"This is a list that comprises some of the best math apps and extensions in Chrome store. We have literally gone through hundreds of apps to finally decide on the apps that would make the cut.These extensions are meant to help kids develop math skills through a wide variety of exercises, activities, games, interactive simulations and many more. Some of these apps are integrated with Google Drive and are also available for  iPad, Android, and Chromebooks."

EXCELLENT SITE!

Lists of apps for k-6, teachers and parents

This article explores various iPad apps that could "transform" the classroom.  

"What are the best apps for teachers? We asked TED-Ed Innovative Educators and the TED-Ed community. Below, 25 awesome apps recommended for teachers, by teachers."

A new way of presenting text that makes it considerably easier to read and comprehend text quickly.

It's not an app. It's a proposed API. It has lots of potential I agree. But nothing downloadable yet unfortunately. It's meant for developers right now to incorporate into their apps. To my knowledge, no app has launched with it. Not on iOS anyways.

Sadly, as an educator, I am not big on reading books as I just can't find the time. I find myself reading more informational texts from sources such as NGM and The Week Magazine (Flipboard on my iPad is my friend for this reason). HOWEVER, I would really like to see how this works for reading a book. I might actually start reading more biographies and such.

This is a useful choosing board Apple app to help with communication. Make your boards using the preloaded images or take photos to make your own. Record a word or phrase which is played as each button is pushed. Download the app at https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/soundingboard/id390532167. http://ictmagic.wikispaces.com/Special+Educational+Needs

SAMR Explained with Definitions and Application Examples

Dive Brief: Implementing new technologies can yield challenges for students, faculty and other campus users that are not accustomed to these tools, especially if instruction on their use is "nebulous and frustrating," writes Eric Stoller, a student affairs and technology blogger for Inside Higher Ed. Stoller suggests institutions provide quality customer service around digital services, and pressure "old-guard" technology companies to provide systems that meet or exceed users' expectations or aligning themselves with "solutions/providers with less built-in corporate rigidity." He also advises that institutions' marketing teams and communications offices make sure that digital services like campus mobile apps make sense for their students' preferred user experiences, so that the technologies enhance the overall student experience and boost branding and recruitment efforts.

Google Apps Education Edition is a broad IT solution that schools can use to bring communication and collaboration tools to the entire academic community for free. Google manages all the technology details, so you can focus your time, energy and budgets on teaching your kids. Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing tools. Google Apps Education Edition lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime, from anyplace.

The Louisiana Assistive Technology site has links to dozens of apps sorted by a variety of criteria.

Simple but good rubric to evaluate the usefulness of an app for teaching.

"Both of these apps can be used by students without creating any kind of new online accounts. Neither one is entirely perfect, but they're both quite good." - Opinion is an iPad app & recordings can be saved to Soundcloud & Evernote. StoryCorps is available for iPhone and Android devices, and is good for interviews.

Comprehensive site about iPads in education. Links apps to educational purposes, includes link to other useful sites on iPads in schools.

Google Apps and Chromebooks Training

Like many of their peers across the country, this Saturday all of the Juniors at my school will be taking the SAT. Although it's kind of late to start prepping for the test, better to do some review this week than not do any at all. The following ten websites and mobile apps are designed to help students review the type of content they're likely to encounter on the SAT.

I actually think this is way over-hyped. A textbook is a great source of information, the web is a great source of information. Unless you can comprehend what is being said the method of delivery of the information is not very important. As was mentioned above - being able to do something with the information has always been the important point. There are times when I am sure that we could do better with a piece of chalk at the blackboard - I learn a lot from making demos in Mathematica and using PHET active java apps for chemistry and physics - the students enjoy them, but how much do they learn? There is plenty of evidence that until you sit down and work out the problems in a course you haven't learned much. I suspect much of this is driven by the prospect of sales of electronics - there is nothing you can do on a tablet that you shouldn't be able to do on a laptop. Especially with Win 8 coming and laptops with touch screens....

An informative list of sites to successfully search for Android education apps for tablets and phones.

apps arranged as they support concepts such as 21st Century Skills, Bloom's taxonomy, Gardner's multiple intelligences, digital learning and more...