Group items tagged

541, instructional software

Members of the Education World Tech Team list 22 different software programs that are essential in all classrooms.

This article follows the progression of a group of doctoral students in their journey to become scholars. Students were to use Communities of Practice in their studies, ultimately trying to see if this will allow them to emerge from the program with a stronger self-identities as scholars. Students had to learn to rely on one another while also providing for one another. Using COP, students were guided to not sit back and take the role of the student, but to get involved in their own learning to reach the role of scholar.

With this program a student can speak math problems and they will be written out on the computer. This can help students who have a motor skills disability.

Metroplex Voice Computing is the leader in speech recognition mathematics. Our exclusive speech recognition software products are designed to operate without needing the keyboard or mouse.

A paid online program that allows students to work on closing their academic gaps in Reading and Math.

Great way for kids to practice using a variety of activities.

Study anything for free. Even has a Quizlet app for iPad, iPhone, and iTouch. This is a great program for teachers or for students to create their own quiz as part of a larger project.

Simple and easy flashcard tool for students. They can build their own list, access teacher lists, or find pre-made lists to study and play games with.

The fun and easy way to learn basic algebra for students in grades 3 - 8. A whole-brain approach to algebraic equations and word problems. Teachers can use physical classroom sets, a computer program or an app. Also works well for at-risk students or those with cognitive difficulties.

On this page you will find the best 166 free Windows programs for all your needs. This is truly a great resource for those who use a PC.

Education affects society as a whole; when society fails, education is often to blame; education is a social-sorting tool that affects societies and culture; social networks allow education to take place anywhere

Interesting blog post about developing PLN examples.  Provides a bit on how, a bit on why and a few examples of the PLN

Hey Ben. I was lucky enough to go through the PLP program and have heard/talked to Will on a number of occasions. His energy and ideas are what have me heading in this direction.

This is a nice post. Good information on developing my own PLN and the examples are useful. I too have seen that name out there and after reading this article I think I may need to research these Authors a bit further.

This webpage from the US Department of Education describes how Communities of Practice can improve education.

SUMMARY: The DOE gets behind CoPs as potential answer for achievement gap and underperforming teachers and leaders. Money, time, and resources were thrown at this initiative to see if online CoPs could become the missing link in the instructional shortcomings. Citing examples of success, one is drawn and intrigued to look further at the project as we are now 2 years later.

Finding and researching CoP sites I came across the Department of Education's answer on the Communities of Practice within education. The Department of Education has added the communities of practice within an initiative called the Investing in Innovation along with a series of other initiatives.

Smith, M. K. (2003) 'Communities of practice', the encyclopedia of informal education, www.infed.org/biblio/communities_of_practice.htm . In this article, author, mike smith explains the beginning concepts that Jean Lave and Entienne Wenger developed for communities of practice. What I liked most about this article is it was the first reading I had that took communities of practice and put a learning centered spin on the theory. "Suppose learning is social and comes largely from our experience of participating in daily life. Their model of situated learning proposed that learning involves a process of engagement in a community of practice" (Smith, 2003). Mr. Smith defines and reiterates what Lave and Wenger argued, structure communities of practice. I also appreciated the time Mr. Smith took note the weaknesses that could be potential downfalls within their own research, such as "romanticizing communities of practice" as Mr. Smith puts it. "In their eagerness to debunk testing, formal education and formal accreditation, they do not analyze how their omission [of a range of questions and issues] affects power relations, access, public knowledge and public accountability" (Tennant 1997:79). He goes on to discuss organizational development and follows up with a conclusion that included the below phrase I really enjoyed. "Learning is in the relationships between people."(Smith, 2003) If you think about the history textbook version of what the authors and historians assumed thanksgiving was like and the weeks and days leading up to the day of thanks, you can see a great example of learning as a relationship between people.

An older program that has chemistry simulations that allow students to visualize abstract chemistry principles.

The authors conducted a study of two groups of students (ages 13-17) with two mentors in a teacher education program at Brigham Young University. The study examined how interaction within the two study groups contributed to social construction of shared knowledge. Group A had social interactions previous to the six-week online project, while group B had no previous social interactions. The researchers examined a variety of data including email exchanges, chat room transcripts, electronic logs, and discussion board entries. The conclusions suggested the effectiveness of an online mentor whose role helps establish social interaction, a supportive climate for the exploration of ideas, consensual decision-making, and open discussion. The strength of the study involves using two groups for comparison, as well as a variety of authentic data resources. Limitations include whether results can be generalized and limited ability to analyze students' prior social interactions as factors in the results.

Resources to design a BYOD program, including how to ensure your wifi is up to snuff and how to write an AUP

Tips on writing an AUP for use with a 1:1 device program

Interesting observations about a middle school 1:1 program.