Third-grade students at the Upper Pittsgrove School mastered fractions in Mrs. Markert class Friday afternoon not by memorization or flash cards, but with Apple iPads. School districts throughout Salem County have now entered the age of technology using the touch sensitive innovative device as a learning tool for students. Superintendents say they are attracted to the devices for two reasons: It's user friendly and inexpensive compared to other technology like laptops.

Kidd, who also moderates a district-wide blog, said he was amazed with how user friendly the technology is, even for severely challenged students. He said he remembered the first time he let one of the autistic students in the school use the iPad. "One of the students showed interest and when I gave it to her she sat for over 20 minutes engaged in the device," said Kidd. "Her teacher said she has never sat for that long in the classroom."

Conveniently, I was able to watch faculty from the Memorial University of Newfoundland present a study on Students' Perceptions of Effective Teaching in Higher Education at Wisconsin's 26th Annual Distance Teaching and Learning Conference. Researchers had asked their students this question: What characteristics are essential for effective teaching from the student perspective? Analyzing and combining reasonably synonymous characteristics, researchers isolated the top nine for online and for face-to-face students.

Essential characteristics for effective teaching from a student perspective!

These short videos highlight all of the "What not to do's" in a slide presentation. Funny way to educate folks about good design.

Two weeks ago I described the Diigo bookmarklet that lets you annotate websites directly within the iPad's browser. Android users will be happy to know that Diigo also has an Android app called Power Note