Group items tagged

Too often the conversation surrounding the flipped classroom focuses on the videos- creating them, hosting them, and assessing student understanding of the content via simple questions or summary assignments. I wish the conversation focused more on what actually happens in a flipped classroom. If we move lecture or the transfer of knowledge online to create time and space in the physical classroom, how are we using that time to improve learning for students? What is our role as the teacher in the flipped classroom? How are we maximizing the potential of the group when students are together to design collaborative, creative, student-centered activities and assignments? This is the part I want to hear more about!

RM Byrne writes: Last month I published a free ebook titled Google Documents for Teachers. Just two weeks later Google released Google Drive and made Google Documents a part of Google Drive. Therefore, I had to update my ebook. I present to you now, Google Drive and Documents for Teachers. The document is hosted on Scribd. You can download it from there as a PDF.

Part of the benefit of jumping forward with a 1:1 iPad deployment like we have tried is that we get the opportunity to impart knowledge to other districts looking to do a similar initiative. While that might not seem like a benefit, it actually also means we can make some mistakes because there is not a long history of this type of deployment in the world. Many districts have had 1:1 Laptop projects, which we have benefited from and could easily be applied to this list I'm about to share. However, for the sake of our specific district, and the questions I get from other districts on a daily basis, I'm going to break down the ten things you should NOT do when implementing a 1:1 iPad program.

Children may perform better in school and feel more confident about themselves if they are told that failure is a normal part of learning, rather than being pressured to succeed at all costs, according to new research published by the American Psychological Association. 

Many of our staff have access to iPads and are keen to use these as part of their teaching. Some are exploring the use of Google Docs, some are exploring the Ultranet and some are exploring other options. The question of privacy and security of information was raised with regards to access to information that is stored within 'the cloud'. This lead to me completing a bit of an investigation of DEECD and Victorian Government policies on where we stand with regards to storing information online using Google Docs, Evernote and other web based applications.

We've discussed a few ways to record Skype calls in the past, but they tend to be pretty hit-or-miss. As long as the audio is the only part you're worried about, CallNote can record your calls and then save the audio file to your Evernote account immediately as soon as it's finished recording.

"The Ri Channel forms part of the Royal Institution's mission to "connect people to the world of science". Watch the very best science videos from the Ri and across the web." from the Royal Institution (UK)

"I have embarked on a completely new approach to teaching three Year 10 classes the dreaded and much maligned OCR Nationals ICT course .. Here is a step-by-step outline of the approach to teaching of this. In my opinion, with the right approach, ICT can and will be an essential part of your students' learning."

"How to set up a course. Part of the TeachertrainingVideos.com site."

From Google, this survey is designed to gain insights into how consumers use the Internet on their smartphones. It contains:  * Facts and figures about smartphone adoption and usage  * Internet usage in general, search, video, social networking, mobile advertising  and m-commerce behaviour via smartphones  * This country report is part of a global smartphone study conducted in multiple countries. Visit OurMobilePlanet.com for  access to additional tools and data  

Numbers (itunes link) spreadsheet app directly from Apple, is a worthy Microsoft Excel-like competitor for the iPad. It is a powerful tool for teachers who own an iPad, and can be used for assessment, especially during report card season. It is a $9.99 app that is part of Apple's iWork suite which also includes Pages and Keynote.

Catholic schools--all 210,000 of them around the world--will have the chance to implement Office 365 for their students as part of a new "social network for Catholic education." The deal was set up as part of an agreement between Microsoft and the Catholic International Education Office (OIEC), an organization that promotes Catholic education.

In response to all of the attention given to the flipped classroom, I proposed The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture and The Flipped Classroom: The Full Picture for Higher Education in which the viewing of videos (often discussed on the primary focus of the flipped classroom) becomes a part of a larger cycle of learning based on an experiential cycle of learning. Universal Design for Learning has also been in the news lately as a new report Universal Design for Learning (UDL): Initiatives on the Move was released by the National Center on UDL, May, 2012. This post describes the principles of Universal Design for Learning and how they naturally occur when a full cycle of learning, including ideas related to the flipped classroom, are used within the instructional process.

"Despite substantial investment in ICT in education and a significant body of relevant research and literature ICT has had a limited impact on education. We need to understand reasons why this might be in order to improve the situation. 'Computer frameworks' may be part of the solution. There are lots of existing frameworks, but these share several important limitations. The CPF (Computer Practice Framework) was designed to overcome these limitations and thus help to increase the effectiveness of future investments in ICT in education."

"After a spectacular launch and a long cruise through the black reaches of space, the Mars Science Laboratory-better known as the Curiosity rover-is set for the most dangerous part of its mission: the landing in Gale Crater. ... Use this page as a quick guide to the event."

"After a spectacular launch and a long cruise through the black reaches of space, the Mars Science Laboratory-better known as the Curiosity rover-is set for the most dangerous part of its mission: the landing in Gale Crater. Curiosity is the biggest rover ever sent to Mars, and carries the most advanced suite of instruments, in order to discover the story of the planet's habitability. Use this page as a quick guide to the event."

"The easiest way to utilize Twitter to its greatest potential is through monitoring hashtags - which means getting a full summery of data that explains how they are being used. This is such a big part of applying Twitter as a professional tool today that endless programs have been created to help you do it. Whether it is seeing the analytics of a hashtag, or just finding out which ones are used most often, these ten tools will help you do it."

"Picture to People (P2P) is a huge Computer Graphics project. One of its parts is a big collection of free online professional Computer Graphics effects"

"kwout" is a way you quote a part of a web page as an image with an image map.