Group items tagged

Differentiating instruction is a time-tested way of thinking about meeting students' needs as they make progress toward achievement or learning targets.  Differentiation is an elegant mindset that suggests to teachers a framework that permits them to engage students while focusing on learning results, and digital technologies offer many opportunities to differentiate instruction in meaningful ways.  However, differentiating instruction takes a concerted planning effort on our parts as teachers and teacher educators. This is especially so as we develop a mindset that differentiation can be effective. In this post, I propose a three-phase approach to planning differentiated instruction: Where do we start planning for differentiated instruction with technology, What are considerations for who we teach, what we teach, and how we plan? How do I put it all together?

"Take the grounded approach to teaching a slippery subject Common Sense Media offers this FREE Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum to help educators empower their students and their school communities to be safe, responsible, and savvy as they navigate this fast-paced digital world. NO COST to your school."

How one TX school districts gets parents involved in teaching Digtial Citizenship.

Chances are just that good that, in spite of anything you do, little Oliver or Abigail won't end up a doctor or lawyer - or, indeed, anything else you've ever heard of. According to Cathy N. Davidson, co-director of the annual MacArthur Foundation Digital Media and Learning Competitions, fully 65 percent of today's grade-school kids may end up doing work that hasn't been invented yet.

"As much the digital overlap of Google Search, Docs, Calendar, and Gmail software as it is a response to Facebook, Google+ has strong potential application in formal learning environments. First, a look at what makes Google+ tick."

K-12 education's early steps in movement to an all digital curriculum. Students in 4th, 7th, and 9th grade social studies will be on an iPad.

"Find the best apps, games, websites, and digital curricula rated for learning."

Just as a stormchaser uses available technologies, knowledge and skills to pursue and document an impending thunderstorm, storychasers use their tools and abilities to document stories of local, regional, national or international interest. In our classrooms and after-school programs, as educators we can empower learners of all ages to become digital witnesses and responsible citizen journalists as storychasers. Whether on a school field trip, conducting research for a class project or school journalism assignment, or interviewing local residents to share about their lives and experiences, storychasers can and are utilizing a rich array of new media tools to create, communicate, and collaborate. Come learn how to join the storychaser's communication revolution, and catalyze the development of a diverse array of 21st century as well as traditional literacy skills with students in your local community who can become empowered storychasers!

Great resources shared at an education conference for colleges in Oklahoma. Several tools to help teach literacy and 21st learning environments.

Differentiated Instruction resources.

"How-to video: Creating a digital classroom project, using Glogster Brief synopsis: With Glogster's education platform, located at edu.glogster.com, teachers can expand their use of the web-based poster creation tool, Glogster. The edu Glogster site gives teachers more power than the standard Glogster application. With the educational Glogster Web 2.0 application, teachers can register their students for their own glogster accounts, all of which are contained in the teacher's Glogster account. Students can complete projects on one unit (see how-to video above) and those projects can be shared in the classroom Glogster site."