Group items tagged

This site provides a rationale for integrating ThinkQuests into the classroom: students learn important communication skills, teamwork, and technology skills. In addition, there is a library of over 7,000 websites created by students who have participated in a ThinkQuest competition.

Not related to education, but viewing this will show you why educational technology is and will continue to be so important.

One of the most important benefits of conducting a program evaluation is using your findings to improve services, motivate staff, or even to change public policy. This tip sheet focuses on ways to use your results to improve services.

Save your ideas, things you like, things you hear, and things you see. Evernote works with nearly every computer, phone and mobile device out there. Search by keyword, tag or even printed and handwritten text inside images. Get Evernote. It's free.

I recently just started integrating Evernote with writing my lesson plans and lecture notes. In my classes I have a mixed bag of students. Some of my students have varying degrees of IEPs. For along time students who needed audiobook publisher support, to have the chapter notes read to them were bound by 1. The book we were using in class and if it had that type of support and 2. What the publisher thought was important to include in the audio, which often does not provide alternate examples for the concepts the student are trying to learn. With the record Evernote feature I have a simple and easy way to integrate audio and send my recorded lecture notes, examples and recorded exam questions to the students that need this type of alternative learning experience . I'm aware there are other resources where this was possible. Evernote just happens to be in my opinion the best one stop app to write a lecture ,integrate pictures,graphics and audio to effectively reach my entire class. So if you were on the fence about Evernote or have never heard about it before be sure to check it out from the link I provided

Mimi Ito discusses how children are using digital media and the learning that goes on as they hang around and geek out - informal learning. She explores the role education can play in this and the role of the adult and how to support their engagement. She discusses the difference between friendship driven activities online and interest driven activities and the opportunities for learning in those spaces (personal networks). It looks at ways that these could be linked to school-based activities.

I like the comments made near the start of the video that the digital media and communication in which children are engaging is no different from the personal networks that have been formed in generations past. It serves the same purpose in their development, socially and academically.

Some of my take aways from this video are: "social relations are important for learning." "The mediated environment isn't so different from when we were trying to get our daughter off the phone or our son to come in." "How can we be more active in connecting the informal learning with learning." Let "Sts reflect and not just consume." Ideas are along the same lines as others in this field. As an educator I want to have students participating in student centered learning, but come up against road blocks admin and district don't understand.

Discusses rethinking the way we teach and refers to PLN's as "Passionate Learning Networks". Provides several links to research about PLN's as well as videos and presentations on explanations of PLN's along with steps on how to create successful PLN's

Agreed, great resource and a humorous title to "boot".

This is a resource link to many more resources. In this blog entry by Shelly Terrell on Teacher Reboot Camp, she provides links to 23 resources on personal learning networks. This site provides a wealth of knowledge and resources for those wanting learn more about PLN.

I came across the acronym MOOC in the resources and the meaning did not immediately jump out to me. This article discusses the quick rise and perceived fall of MOOC's from 2012 to present. It also discusses their continued importance and changes that may occur.

This blog gives a very brief definition of a personal learning environment and then includes a video created by a seventh grade students that describes her personal learning environment.

This is a blog post summarizing the annual ISTE conference in, I think, 2011. I really love the video here. It is of a 7th graders experience with her PLN. It shows how simple, fun, and rewarding a PLN can be.

Cool resource told from the perspective of a 7th grader learning with PLNs. I also like how the post references PLNs importance by mentioning its place in the Horizon Report.

Two more of those "C" words- helping to discern between them. The argument here is that connectivism is new, thus the misspelled word suggestion every time I type it in, whereas Constructivism is the "old" term and connectivism brings in more social media use to let people be more connected. I'll have to book mark the other blog they mention so look for that to be posted soon.

Mark, I agree with your point, although my thought is that Siemens and others associated with the theory would not discount the importance of offline interaction (traditional social constructivism) but rather highlight the new opportunities to learn that until now where being ignored in formal educational settings.

This blog talks about online education specifically science in an online environment. The blog post attached here talks about connectivism vs. constructivism. The post runs through how both of these learning theories discuss how students learn. The blog then goes into his takes on constructivism and connectivism.

This is another resource from Albertson's Library. If you click on the link you will be prompted for your MyBoise login information before being redirected to the article. This article looks at how professional learning networks are developed and why they are successful. It describes how people use their social network to reach out and find the content they are most interested in. It also talks about networked learning being focused on the learner whether the learning is personal, collaborative or collective. It describes the importance of having a far reaching social network to facilitate the learning and how this approach is being adopted by educational institutions.

A great resource for presenting the importance of Internet safety to kids of all ages. Slide presentations and learning guides are available for younger kids, tweens, and teens.

Google is usually one of the first places students turn to when tasked with an assignment. Whether it's for research, real-time results, or just a little digital exploration ... it's important they know how to properly Google.

A breakdown of the components of a thorough Acceptable Use Policy, including examples.

The Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for Internet use is one of the most important documents a school will produce. Creating a workable AUP requires thoughtful research and planning. Education World offers food-for-thought and a few useful tools for educato...

This video is a fantastic resource to watch what to do visually when creating interactive slides. This video describes the importance of "clickable" areas and helped me realized that the user can not read my mind on where to click for the slides, therefore create a giant object hidden in the background will send the user to the correct page.

Video showing how to use Zapier, a workflow app to connect Survey Monkey to Google Docs.

A LibGuide from the James C. Kirkpatrick Library at the University of Central Missouri. Provides a ton of resources about various aspects of gaming in education, including the important of play, digital learning, game-based learning, gamification, and subject area examples.

A Prezi by Ralph Marlon Saravello that describes why technology use in physical and health education is important and how it can be integrated.

This project has students recreating scenes from older text using social media. Here, students were given different scenes from the play Romeo and Juliet. Students had to retell the scene using different social media platforms. This involved them creating accounts for the characters in their scene and reenacting it through the digital medium. When they were finished with their project they needed to tweet out the results to the class. Then they could view other peoples projects and comment on what they had done. This project gives students a way to think about older situations and reimagine them. It requires them to understand the important pieces of their scene and express them in a contemporary way. The feedback element through Twitter provides an audience for their work where they can get praise and feedback. This project would likely take a longer amount of time if social media accounts had not already been made, but it would be a great culminating activity. Freshman at my school read this play and I could see myself using this project.