Group items tagged

Nice alternative to Skype-up to 18 people Needs really good connectivity

Set up free conference calls and allows as many people as you like to set up and participate in the conference call. Many of us use skype, however, if you go over 10, and people are just in the US, you could use this instead. The great things is that this gives you recording of the conference with no time limit. The MP3 file is given to the host.

"The modern American school faces rough challenges. Budget cuts have caused ballooning class sizes, many teachers struggle with poorly motivated students, and in many schools a war is being waged on distracting technologies. In response, innovative educators are embracing social media to fight back against the onslaught of problems. Technologies such as Twitter and Skype offer ideal solutions as inexpensive tools of team-based education."

I will be skyping into this free webinar hosted by Scholastic with David Rowe, Chief Scientist of Cognition and Learning at the Center for Applied Special Technology. Join us. April 21, 2010 - 3:30 pm EDT - free!

Useful website to help with digital literacy.(via Larry Ferlazzo which was sent by thingsforteachers through tumblr to me - boy it is getting hard to cite sources.) From phishing to how to set up skype. It also has a link to help you find educator tools.

Our 6th grade collaborative project with a focus on global issues. We are looking for schools to join us with the hopes of working on some collaborative lyrics in Google Docs, remixing audio tracks shared between schools and possibly a skype session. We are running the project 5 times this year for 6 weeks at a time. Email me if you are interested i taking part at one point. jennifergarcia@abc-net.edu.sv

Great article about the partnership between University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and our latest Flat Classroom Project, NetGenEd. This sort of arrangement in which preservice teachers served as expert advisors and judges for the project provided real, authentic learning experiences for both students and participants. We skyped into Eric's classroom a few times to talk to his students about pedagogy and they did a great job providing feedback and input on the project. It would make sense that many more preservice programs are going to want to put in authentic distance learning experiences for their preservice teachers and there are many teachers who need high quality feedback and educator review and interaction for their projects.

Connect Skype with folks using Polycom type devices for a multi-platform video conference.

As more people connect via Skype, the demand for live streaming is there. I think conferences can either acknowledge this and make it possible or they will continue to see us do it ourselves, taking bandwidth. The tough thing is that sometimes licenses are tricky and presenters may not want it recorded - this information is not usually shared publicly as it should be. Great read for administrators

I agree with Audrey Watters -- we need a way to QUESTION TED talks. Good ideas worth spreading are worth interrogating and discussing. There is NO platform for that and a growing issue, I think that TED MUST address if it is going to live long and prosper. Good educators, good leaders always question and are curious. We try things out and we wonder. We want solutions but solutions packaged in a cute 15 minute presentation aren't ever really as simple as they seem. There is a different between a sound byte and a bit of something I can REALLY use.  I agree with Audrey - READ her post. My worry is that we're spreading ideas that haven't, perhaps, been tested and gone through full examination. IF we didn't learn anything from the Mortensen "3 cups of tea" fiasco then education deserves to be mislead again. We should examine and have transparency with the speeches and be able to continue the conversation. "But I have questions. I have questions about this history of schooling as Mitra (and others) tell it, about colonialism and neo-colonialism. I have questions about the funding of the initial "Hole in the Wall" project (it came from NIIT, an India-based "enterprise learning solution" company that offers 2- and 4-year IT diplomas). I have questions about these commercial interests in "child-driven education" (As Ellen Seitler asks, "can the customer base be expanded to reach people without a computer, without literacy, and without any formal teaching whatsoever?"). I have questions about the research from the "Hole in the Wall" project - the research, not the 15 minute TED spiel about it. I have questions about girls' lack of participation in the kiosks. I have questions about project's usage of retired British schoolteachers - "grannies" - to interact with Indian children via Skype. I have questions about community support. I have questions about what happens when we dismantle public institutions like schools - questions about

Home page for project to web conference with schools around the world.

by blocking and banning many of the tools and Web sites that form the cornerstone of teenagers' experiences, educators deny themselves access to the conversations that students are having about how to use these tools intelligently, ethically, and well. And given the overwhelming flow of information that students can access using such tools, it is essential that educators become part of those conversations.

by blocking and banning many of the tools and Web sites that form the cornerstone of teenagers' experiences, educators deny themselves access to the conversations that students are having about how to use these tools intelligently, ethically, and well. And given the overwhelming flow of information that students can access using such tools, it is essential that educators become part of those conversations.

This is an excellent example of how a globally connected classroom can provide students with an experience unparalleled to classroom not using tech!

This brief blog post on social media usage among educators links out to the more detailed report. Highlight: 80% of professors have at least one account on a social networking platform.

Strategies and techniques are provided regarding the benefits of using digital tools to support teaching and learning in any content area or grade level.