Higher education, a field that gathers an astonishing array of data about its "customers," has traditionally been inefficient in its data use, often operating with substantial delays in analyzing readily evident data and feedback. Evaluating student dropouts on an annual basis leaves gaping holes of delayed action and opportunities for intervention. Organizational processes-such as planning and resource allocation-often fail to utilize large amounts of data on effective learning practices, student profiles, and needed interventions.
Dawn Casey-Rowe hits a tough topic that is the number one complaint that teachers have. I had her on my show not too long a go and she speaks from a tough situation with lots of blocks and bans but gets it done anyway. If your complaint is blocks and bans, then take time to read this post to focus on what you CAN do. Dawn is offering a set of PD blog posts that you'll want to dig into.
"This week, we're going to discuss the white elephant in the room.
Tech frustration.
Many teachers struggle to bring students the type of tech experience they would like because of systemic blocks and bans, or worse, feel embarrassed as students have more access to tech than teachers do. This is the issue that brought me to the tech world myself. Students continually asked the hard questions about why they couldn't utilize technology such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets, and why phones were confiscated when students were using them for educational purposes. I wanted to improve my classroom experience and give my students more, but budget was a concern.
Tech access is a problem in many schools. There are legitimate reasons-the desire of administrators to protect students from the darker side of the internet, fear of the unknown, lack of wireless capacity and budget difficulties which cause insufficient numbers of computers or the inability to upgrade existing tech. Some educational leaders have overcome these hurdles, but others are still working to get to that space."
"Windows can be seriously annoying sometimes, but thankfully there's also usually a workaround or third-party utility that fixes the issue. We've rounded up the ten things that annoy us most, along with how to fix them."
SafeSearch Web features safe links for those who want to search the internet without the risk of inappropriate material being viewed. Enter your search term utilize Google SafeSearch.
No search filter can replace parental supervision when it comes to children on the internet, but every little bit helps. You can also customize your computer settings to increase safe search filtering.
Students, administrators and teachers at Gilbert Classical Academy have a new tool to express themselves that is rarely tapped by schools as a teaching aid: blogs. Blogs have been available on the Internet for years, offering Web users an opportunity to opine on various subjects and post images in a personal journal that anyone on the Internet can read. But schools have generally not utilized them as a classroom tool because officials have such worries as: What if inappropriate messages are posted? What if a hacker steals personal information on a child or staff member?
ShowYourself is a simple to make, easy, free and fun utility to help establish your identity across the web. Have a Flickr account and a Facebook and AIM? Combine all your profiles on the web into one attractive widget that you can put on your blog, your myspace or anywhere on the web.
From Kim Cofino's blog always learning http://tinyurl.com/38a43j
The Reflective Principal: A Taxonomy of Reflection (Part
IV)
Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in
school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Principals (and
instructional leaders) are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the
day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went.
Self-assessment is clouded by the need to meet
competing demands from
multiple stakeholders.
In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments,
I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach.
It's posted in four installments:
1.
A
Taxonomy of
Reflection
2.
The
Reflective Student
3.
The
Reflective Teacher
4. The Reflective
Principal
It's very much a work in progress, and I invite your comments and
suggestions. I'm especially interested in whether you think the parallel
construction to Bloom holds up through each of the three examples - student,
teacher, and principal. I think we have something to learn from each
perspective.
4. The Reflective Principal
Each level of reflection is structured to parallel Bloom's taxonomy.
(See
installment 1 for more on the model)
Assume that a principal (or
instructional leader) looked back on an initiative (or program, decision,
project, etc) they have just implemented. What sample questions might they ask
themselves as they move from lower to higher order reflection? (Note: I'm not
suggesting that all questions are asked after every initiative - feel free to
pick a few that work for you.)
Bloom's Remembering
: What did I do?
Principal
Reflection:
What role did I play in implementing this program? What
role did others play? What steps did I take? Is the program now operational and
being implemented? Was it completed on time? Are assessment measures in
place?
Bloom's Understanding:
What was
CutMP3.net is a simple Web 2.0 utility that enables you to cut out pieces of a MP3 files without having to decode that MP3. You don't need to upload MP3, CutMP3.net cuts MP3 locally. Cut MP3 files online for Free!
Open source educational tools development site for school. Large projects including student information systems, utilities, anti-virus and more. Fun take on the Sourceforge concept of open-source commercial developers.
Strategies are provided for taking advantage of often under-utilized tools and techniques offered by this online tool for building a professional network.
Kristin Hokanson's PETE & C 2011 presentation regarding a clear understanding of copyright law. For any teacher who has students utilizing multi-media in the classroom, this is a must review & must teach.
Planning is imperative for any technology initiative - iPad or otherwise. You need to ensure that you clearly understand and communicate how the technology integrates with your overall pedagogical objectives. Too many institutions purchase technology and then search for ways to utilize it ... or leave it collecting dust on the shelf.
Alternative currency the future of money and a summary of recent systemic economic collapse
A call to educate youth to utilize Internet for mutual currency exchange for skills given and received.
Executive Office of the President Council of Economic Advisers
Unleashing the Potential of Educational Technology
September 16, 2011
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Educational technology holds the promise of substantially improving outcomes for K-12 students, but there are significant challenges in bringing new educational technology products for this population to market. It is difficult for producers of these technologies to demonstrate the effectiveness of their products to potential buyers and market fragmentation creates barriers to entry by all but the largest suppliers. The spread of broadband Internet and Common Core State Standards have improved the landscape for educational technologies, but these factors alone are likely insufficient for a "game changing" advance. Working together, stakeholders can form a plan of action to provide local school systems with easy access to good information about the effectiveness of various educational technology products and give prospective developers of these products access to customers on a scale sufficient to make it worthwhile for them to enter the market. The payoff - in the form of more effective and more widely utilized educational technologies, leading to better outcomes for students - could be enormous.
Portaportal is a web based bookmarking utility that lets you store links to your favorite websites online. Now your bookmarks are no longer limited to any one machine.
"Children's positive perception of moving is an important supporter for natural physical activity and developing motor skills. A study at the University of Jyväskylä suggests that children had high perceptions of motor skills. Some gender differences were identified, however: girls were better in locomotor skills and boys had higher perception and actual skills in ball skills.
"Because ball skills are typically utilized in versatile surroundings and good ball skills are a predictor for more frequent physical activity levels in adolescence, we should encourage girls to play more with balls already in early education," says PhD student Donna Niemistö from Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences. "In boys, there could be more locomotor skills like galloping and hopping involved. Niemistö concludes, "All children regardless of gender have a right to have positive and encouraging experiences of movement.""
"School-based services delivered by teachers and other school-based professionals can help reduce mental health problems in elementary-aged children, reports a study published in the March 2018 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP).
"Given the limited accessibility of traditional mental health services for children-particularly for children from minority and economically disadvantaged backgrounds-school-based mental health services are a tremendous vehicle for overcoming barriers to mental health care and meaningfully expanding the reach of supports and services for so many children in need. Treating children in schools can powerfully overcome issues of cost, transportation, and stigma that typically restrict broad utilization of mental health services" said lead author Amanda Sanchez, MS, of the Center for Children and Families at Florida International University."