Group items tagged

videos to help teachers new to tech

Might help create a blended classroom, even when you have to share the blender.  Common sense advise for the real world of underequipped classrooms and stretched thin teachers.

A fun discussion topic with technology students, this blog post about futuristic inventions in wearable tech includes buttons that are really mp3 players, a dress with room for a sim card that makes it funciton as a mobile phone when you lift your wrist, and the one I want -- the Massage Me Massage Video game - that makes a game out of having someone massage your back! (Oh yeah!) This would be a great area to review and then have students invent their own.

"Despite the vast array of options when it comes to EdTech, walking around exhibitions you can't help but notice that the technology is converging, and that one black screen looks like all the other black screens, the 'solutions' are solving the same things and the high prices, alas, are also ubiquitous. But what impact is this having on learning? Few educators truly use the full capabilities of the tech available to them, due to a lack of time, training, or ideas for how it can be deployed, and some teachers can allow the technology to take precedence over pedagogy and learning."

There are many nations (like Finland) who have national standards but local flexibility. This technologist writes an article supporting Common Core while saying that many don't understand what they contain. Honestly, I see another person who hasn't read some of them. My biggest issue is - who controls the standards and how can they be revised in the future.In a country showing a poor ability to keep politicians from writing standards, by centralizing they become easy target to the whims and sways of the pendulum of politics in the US. That said, I think national standards are likely inevitable.I just hope they put enough different people onto Common Core that group think doesn't send us in a very bad direction. If we have national standards and make it there, they become very important to our future as a country.

Here is the video recording of the skype interview with Professor Boyer's World Regions class at Virginia Tech. I blogged about this Sunday. If you're studying Burma you'll want to watch this exclusive interveiw.

An homage to some of the best blogs in educational technology including: Vicki Davis, Kathy Schrock, and Richard Byrne. More to come for others. 

Welcome to your new Google smarthome - not smartphone - smarthome. They've bought a smart thermostat maker - I can imagine all kinds of cool things with Google Glasses, Droids, and other Google integrations with this. This interesting article covers many of the things Google has gone into besides their traditional search box/ advertising model and it tells you about the future of our world as a major giant positions for the Internet of Things which moves far beyond our screens into the air we breathe. This will impact our schools beyond what we understand as our surroundings become smarter and able to be controlled remotely in ways we can't really understand today. These are trends I'll be discussing in my Intro to Computer Science classes. "Google Inc announced plans to acquire smart thermostat maker Nest Labs Inc for US$3.2bil (RM10.54bil), signalling the Internet company's intention to expand into a broader array of devices and bringing valuable hardware design expertise in-house. "

Phablet is the new term - a portmanteau of phone and tablet - these larger devices really look more like the devices held by star trek officers. ;-) HP is back in because I guess they realize the future is in the palm of users hands. Increasingly our handheld device is becoming our major device and finding just the right size is the holy grail of manufacturers who are fighting for market share.

Excellent word clouds created by Ben Rimes over at Tech Savvyed related to the Common Core State standards. This demonstrates how technology standards are related and embedded in the standards, particularly the writing standards. This is one big reason I'm publishing the book "Reinventing Writing." I think a lot of people know they need to write with technology but just don't understand how. This blog post is useful to read if you're having anything to do with Common Core implementation and these charts would be useful to share with your teachers in a quick teacher's meeting. Great post, Ben!

Chris Craft helped in the creation of this site for tech assistance as part of his Google Teacher Academy project

Nice post about how to evangelize advanced tech to fellow teachers

Tech encourages students' social skills Studies illustrate how some classroom technology can lead to student collaboration

Ways to incorporate music/tech into curriculum

Music and tech integration

Lot of resources and ideas about how Duke Univ integrates tech in the classroom.

Lot of resources and ideas about how Duke Univ integrates tech in the classroom.

Really nice post on Randy's Tech Tactics about the many great lists of youtube videos for education and also a tutorial on how to embed youtube videos into Powerpoint. Hey, Randy, thank you for taking the time to put this together -- great blog post to share from Randy Doughman!