With the dawning of the digital age, more and more teachers, parents, and students are looking on the web for information on elementary and secondary schools. With such a wide variety of resources on hand, the amount of data to process can be overwhelming. However, we have looked at hundreds of these websites and selected the top 40 web resources K-12 education statistics for your convenience.
"Before you begin a telecollaborative project," she said, "Look at the plan critically and decide whether it's worth it in terms of learning outcomes. Ask yourself these questions:
Does this use of the Internet allow students to do something that can't be done in another way?
Does this use of the Internet allow students to do something in a better way?
"If the answer to either of those questions is yes," said Harris, "then your project is probably worth doing."
"As teachers, we need to do what is our art and our craft -- which is teaching, not technology."
Judi Harris has been this champion for years...she long ago convinced me that you shouldn't use tech just for the sake of using tech. Her statements gives the compelling questions we should all ask ourselves before embarking on the use of precious time. What's your return on investment????
An activity structure, according to Harris, is simply a description of what students do in an activity, without reference to content or grade level. For example, kindergarten students mixing paints, elementary students forming compound words, and high-school students creating chemical compounds are all using an activity structure that involves combining existing elements to form new elements. The content and grade level are strikingly different, but the basic activity, the structure of the activity, is the same.
Existing activity structures, said Harris, are usually supported best by existing instructional tools. If Internet tools are going to be used to enable students to do something they haven't been able to do, or do as well, before, new activity structures, structures that are best supported by new instructional tools, must be identified and implemented.
Develop a project plan that's specific and logistically manageable.
Be sure students have regular access to computers. Once a week in a computer lab is not enough time. For students to get the most out of a telecomputing project, they must be able to participate at least two or three times a week.
Congratulations to Helen Hinders, Aplington-Parkersburg Middle
School; Krista State, CAL Elementary of Latimer; and Larry Thompson,
Four Oaks in Mason City who are this year’s AEA
267 Outstanding Paraeducator Award winners.
There were three research questions that were used to guide the organization of
this study. The first question sought to determine the level of digital literacy
present in schools based upon their state accountability rating. Statistically
significant differences between digital literacy levels of students according to
their state accountability rating were investigated in the second question. The
third question examined the statistically significant changes in elementary
students' levels of digital literacy over a period of time
Kerpoof's multimedia software is used by kids worldwide to create original
artwork, animated movies, stories, greeting cards and more. The site is meant
to be fun, but we're serious about its educational value. Elementary and middle
school teachers can use Kerpoof in many ways to enhance classroom activities
while meeting a range of educational standards.
I LOVE VoiceThread. I think it is super easy to use and provides students the opportunity to express themselves digitally.
It works great for elementary students all the way up to high school students (even adults).
You can create a single educator account for FREE or get a classroom subscription. Depending on how often you will use it I recommend splurging and buying the class subscription because you can create individual student accounts.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review:
Today's guest blogger is longtime Storybird user Lyn Hilt, a former K-6 principal and current elementary instructional technology coach in Pennsylvania. Here, she shares a creative approach to using Storybird as a school administrator, welcoming the community with her hopes for the new year.
Checklist to use before embarking on a blogging project with students