Group items tagged

Software to manage research

he job of teaching * Join in the discussion reddit this Comments (1) Wendy Berliner Guardian Professional, Monday 3 October 2011 18.30 BST Article history Teacher Daniel Hartley from Chulmleigh Community College, Devon. Photograph: Apex Back in the summer we decided here at GTN HQ that, with our membership rocketing, it was the right time to mark our first six months in operation with a survey to find out what members thought about teaching today. There were questions across a wide spectrum of topics and, at the end, we left a free text box for teachers to add any comments they wanted to share. It was the dying days of the summer holiday - August 25 - when it went out just after lunch. We knew the survey would take ten or 15 minutes to complete so we weren't quite expecting what happened next, but within those first few hours after its release, we realised you had started something big. By 10.30pm that night we'd had several hundred questionnaires back, which in itself was impressive with many teachers perhaps still away on holiday or back but busy preparing for the new term. The most impressive thing of all was the content of those text boxes. There was just so much of it. Some people wrote several hundred words at a time, speaking clearly from the heart and arguing cogently against the things they felt were going wrong in education. A love of teaching and vocational pleasure felt working with children and young people emerged but it was emerging from a fog caused by far less pleasant aspects of the job - disrespect from society and governments, bullying by senior management, other teachers, parents and students, despair at the parenting skills of some homes and despair with government targets and league tables that were funnelling education into an ever thinner tube feeding stuff that improved Sats and exam results rather than nourishing a lifelong love of learning. One former solicitor questioning the sense of the switch into teaching said: " M

"Microsoft Research today launched Code Hunt, a browser-based game for anyone interested in learning how to code by playing. The premise is straightforward: the player must write code to advance in the game."

This is a fabulous introduction to using Diigo in schools. "Welcome to Student Learning with Diigo. This site was completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of of ISLT 9440, Learning with the Internet, a graduate class, during the Fall 2010 from the University of Missouri. Educators, worldwide, have enjoyed the use of this social bookmarking site. Diigo is a great web-based tool for teachers to utilize, to motivate, and to engage students of all ages in the learning process. We invite you to explore the various features of Diigo. Become educated and informed on the powerful use of Diigo for student learning. Learn how this research tool can enhance classroom instruction and promote higher levels of student collaboration. As you navigate through our site you will see examples of valuable lessons and resources, all displayed for your use. Set up your account now. This research tool is every educator's dream."

"After several years of the research, global mobile industry body has come out with what it says are definitive data on mobile device penetration: global mobile subscriber numbers of 3.2 billion and total active connections of 5.9 billion by the end of 2012."

The new website of ESET (April 2013).  This site contains a variety of expert opinions, white papers and research.  Regular short podcasts are most informative.

"E-readers and tablets are becoming more popular as such technologies improve, but research suggests that reading on paper still boasts unique advantages" Scientific American article

There's more to this than meets the eye! Had paper been the only medium though which I could read this article, I would never have had access to it.

"... is a resource kit for educational technology teaching and research"

"Welcome to this multipurpose website that is a key part of a research project that looks at the impact that the National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) is having on school communities. The problem is that no-one has ever really asked what benefit high-stakes testing has for school communities."

"What works in education? The Best Evidence Encyclopedia (BEE) presents reliable, unbiased reviews of research-proven educational programs" (John Hopkins University)

A research study exploring teachers' views on game-based learning.

Cheap Android tablets, namely from Amazon, could boost Android tablet sales numbers past the current dominating force known as the iPad, according to research firm IDC.

InstaGrok is an innovative search and notetaking portal that can be adjusted according to ability. It finds age-appropriate educational content on any topic presented with interactive multimedia interfaces. It also generates quiz questions based on student's research activity and skill level and supports creation of research journals and concept maps for learning assessment

A search engine designed specifically to guide learners to find and make sense of high quality, relevant information appropriate to their needs.

Another PEW report, this time into gamification "Tech stakeholders and analysts generally believe the use of game mechanics, feedback loops, and rewards will become more embedded in daily life by 2020, but they are split about how widely the trend will extend. Some say the move to implement more game elements in networked communications will be mostly positive, aiding education, health, business, and training. Some warn it can take the form of invisible, insidious behavioral manipulation. "The development of 'Serious Games' applied productively to a wide scope of human activities will accelerate simply because playing is more fun than working," observed Mike Liebhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow at The Institute for the Future."

The official blog of the TIPS iPad research project here in Western Australia, examining the implementation and educational applications of iPads in K-12 schooling. I am working with the researcher, Dr Jenny Lane (@EduJen) on the blog & project work. Well worth exploring.

"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."

 From the University of Wisconsin comes this set of rubrics for the following topics Cooperative Learning  Research Process/Report  PowerPoint/Podcast  Oral Presentation  Web Page and ePortfolio  Math, Art, Science  Video and Multimedia Project    Creating Rubrics  Writing  Rubrics for Primary Grades  Game and Simulations  Web 2.O

"A collection of rubrics for assessing portfolios, cooperative learning, research process/ report, PowerPoint, podcast, oral presentation, web page, blog, wiki, and other web 2.0 projects."