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CITE Journal Article

What I am learning from my school's infatuation with computers When I first learned that all of my students were getting laptops, I thought it was an educator's dream come true. One year later, I look at the situation differently. Like many progressive educators, I have regarded computers and other technology in schools as important tools to help students understand the world around them. I also hoped that providing all students with laptops would address the digital divide. But after an exhausting year, I have learned that before adopting the technology on a wide scale, it is essential for schools to first consider the potential promises and perils of using technology in the classroom. I believe that social justice educators must ask ourselves and our schools: What are the ethics and power structures involved in using a technology, and how do we create a learning environment to discuss and track the impact of technology on the cognitive, social and emotional development of both students and educators.

Storytelling is the original teaching tool. Long before there was formal schooling grandparents and parents there were stories. These stories provided children in the community with the knowledge base they needed to survive as an adult. With the introduction of the printing press and the the development of formal schools the role of storytelling in education was diminished. Yet, we still know how a powerful story can capture out attention, fire our imagination, and make clear a difficult idea or concept

Saugus Union School District in Santa Clarita, CA is launching a new program for its fourth-grade students that couples writing and science using ultra-mobile devices and collaborative learning software, among other technologies. According to information supplied to us by the district, the initiative is being funded through a $1.4 million EETT competitive grant the district recently won. The initiative, dubbed "Student Writing Achievement Through Technology Enhanced Collaboration" (SWATTEC), focuses on writing achievement within the science curriculum. EETT funding will provide access to Asus wireless ultra-mobile devices (UMDs) for all 1,700 fourth-grade students in the district, Web-based writing tools, and an online collaborative learning environment. It will also provide teachers with laptops, projectors, printers, interactive pads, mobile carts, and wireless hardware. Teachers are also receiving professional development for the initiative.

Educators are, in large part, bullish on the role technology can play in improving student outcomes. But too large a percentage of them aren't receiving adequate training in the areas that matter most: instructional software, technology integration, learning outcomes management, and designing individual lesson plans.

Susan Mutt from Digital Divide and Conquer has created a great rubric to assist students in understanding and analyzing the apps they find. The Student App Review Rubric has five criteria that students can use when assessing an app. Each of the criteria can be given a numerical number from 0 to 4 with 4 as the top grade. The 5 criteria are: 1. Looks and sound, 2. Engagement and motivation. 3. User friendly directions and instructions. 4. Performance and ease of use. 5. Differentiation in learning.

In the 1990's, a former student of Bloom, Lorin Anderson, revised Bloom's Taxonomy and published this- Bloom's Revised Taxonomy in 2001.Key to this is the use of verbs rather than nouns for each of the categories and a rearrangement of the sequence within the taxonomy. They are arranged below in increasing order, from low to high.

Spore, produced by Electronic Arts, promises much more than the day-to-day adventures of simulated people. It starts with single-cell microbes and follows them through their evolution into intelligent multicellular creatures that can build civilizations, colonize the galaxy and populate new planets. Unlike the typical shoot-them-till-they're-all-dead video game, Spore was strongly influenced by science, and in particular by evolutionary biology. Mr. Wright will appear in a documentary next Tuesday on the National Geographic Channel, sharing his new game with leading evolutionary biologists and talking with them about the evolution of complex life.

One teacher's students worked together in small groups to research, edit and improve the quality of "Wikipedia articles that were either overly brief or lacking in credible information, with the aim of increasing the quality of Wikipedia's coverage of East Asian religions." Once the improved articles were completed and graded, Chris added the articles back into Wikipedia

is a beautiful browser based flash puzzle game. The animation, illustration. sound and character development is amazing. A stand out in the genre of online games and puzzles. The basic level is also FREE, loads fast and invites exploration! It is so visually rich that it can easily be used to create a digital story or narrative well outside the computer screen. The art is engaging and contemporary in young children's animation right now

A post highlighting sources of (and linking to) free stock images. You mshould read the rules and regulations for the stock at hand, being they are free. You may have to dig through some of the sites to find the free stock photos.

As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to research by Patricia Greenfield, UCLA distinguished professor of psychology and director of the Children's Digital Media Center, Los Angeles. Learners have changed as a result of their exposure to technology, says Greenfield, who analyzed more than 50 studies on learning and technology, including research on multi-tasking and the use of computers, the Internet and video games. Her research was published this month in the journal Science.

As children we were naturally good at telling stories about events or topics that mattered and learning from others via their stories, but as we became older we were taught that serious people relied only on presenting information and "the facts." Accurate information, sound logic, and the facts are necessary, of course, but truly effective leaders in any field - including technical ones - know how to tell "the story" of their particular research endeavor, technological quest, or marketing plan, etc.

Change is the only constant in the music business, and that goes double for the digital music business. Nonetheless, we've assembled a list of the 10 hottest digital music websites

WhoShouldiFollow looks at who your Twitter friends follow to suggest new people. By adjusting the sliders on the results page, you can give greater preference in the ranking to less popular Twitter users, or those who are near you. The algorithm is an item-to-item collaborative filter, somewhat similar to how Amazon makes recommendations.

"ETAN provides a forum for educators and others to engage in the political process and project a unified voice in support of a common cause - improving teaching and learning through the systemic use of technology. ETAN's mission is to influence public policy-makers at the federal, state and local levels and to increase public investment in the competitiveness of America's classrooms and students."

The Florida Association of Computers in Education, in collaboration with The Florida Digital Educator program, has officially announced a statewide event called STUDENT VOICES. Students will be podcasting from their individual schools (or other locations) on the same day, at same time, and same theme: "Learning is Cool". We want to have as many students as possible across Florida raise their voices about the importance of 21st century skills. More information will be posted soon or contact your FACE Regional President for additional details and locations in your area. Theme: Learning is Cool When: Saturday, April 25, 2009 Time: 9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Where: Your School