EBTL2

Building on the excitement of Hour of Code, the article asks, "will programming raise math scores?" Answering this in the affirmative has actually been an elusive goal, from a research standpoint. (In the 1980s there were all these studies on learning "transfer" -- how ideas learned in one context can transfer to another. Intuitively, this must happen, but it's been so hard to demonstrate with scientific rigor.) This includes a nice interview with Bootstrap founder Emmanuel Schanzer about this, and how Bootstrap may help. There is a 3 day PD planned for Bootstrap in the Greater Boston area for June 25th, 26th, & 27th, 2014. If you are interested in attending please let me know asap. At this moment a fee of $100.00 per attendee will be charged. Pending funding, you may be reimbursed your fee at the workshop.

A Somali student writes a guest post for a blogger I follow. She explains that social media is already present in schools, whether teachers are using it or not. Teachers have an opportunity to help students broaden their understanding of any topic through social media, and they should take advantage of it.

"Doctopus" is a script that makes it easy for students to submit assignments via Google drive, and it allows you to send them feedback. This looks very useful for what we are trying to do will Google Docs!

Jake, have you tried this out at all yet? It does look like it might be useful. We have been using google docs in 6th and I've done some commenting on student work. So far I've just used the commenting tool right on a google document and it appears to the right of the students work. They can comment back to me, and if it's something to do with editing, I can click "resolved" when the issue has been addressed, and I believe the comment goes away. I'd be curious to see the advantages that using Doctopus may have over just responding right on the google doc? I do agree with the blogger, however, that it's so much easier not having to track and carrying home the papers when you know you can just access everything through google drive. It makes it easier for the students, too, which is especially great for kids with organization and management issues.

I've thought a lot about this topic and how BYOD makes it so plain which students are haves and which are have-nots. We are lucky to be in the cohort and to have supplemental devices in our classrooms. How can we make BYOD more universal without making economic inequity so obvious in more classrooms. It seems unrealistic to put 10 iPads in every classroom district wide, so what is the answer?

Kerry, This is a really important article, and I'm so glad you posted it. I'm acutely aware of inequity in my classroom as well, but because I teach smaller classes, I've been able to skirt it so far. I agree that it is important to raise the question so that we can discuss it openly. It's bound to spark passionate opinions and discussions, but the issue of access is one of social justice in a way, and I agree that it's important for us to address it as much as we can in the public school setting.

This is a great site for anyone interested in learning about infographics. I like the fact that it is a marketing company and they use their actual examples to "sell" their product to others. Visual literacy is another 21st century skill that we should be teaching students especially because we are increasingly asking them to produce their own visuals for their work. Like coding, this could be of interest to many kids if they are exposed to it.

I've been searching for some great examples this week and am really impressed with what I've found on Google and this site. I'm co-teaching an ABC class with an 8th grade teach and am hoping to have students use Newsela articles as the source of the infographic. I did one myself and it's not as easy as it looks. I was surprised that it took me as long as it did, which will help me determine and appreciate how much time this will take students to complete. The challenge is synthesizing the information without using much text. You could easily use Glogster with an assignment like this.

I haven't tested this out yet, but here is a post by. A blogger I follow and respect (Byrne) on a tool that allows you to make your own infographic. http://feedly.com/k/1bKskyv

I agree with most of what this mother has to say. I like to think that I will feel the same way when I have kids. I'm curious what other parents think...

I definitely agree with the core of what this mother says. I feel that the time that our kids are with us, now, is their training ground for when I'm not there, and it's not fair for me to protect them from taking any "lumps". Sometimes that can mean leaving my 12 year old to manage a situation with her teacher on her own, or resisting making a call or email to the teacher to ask about an assignment that seems too difficult or confusing - this is not anyone in 7th grade! ;) It takes discipline on my part not to jump in to help her, and to let her feel the discomfort of doing something the wrong way or messing up a test because she was so sure that she had studied enough even though I was pretty sure she hadn't. My kids are the center of my world in that I am constantly aware of what's going on for them and constantly monitoring them to make sure all is well; the difference is that most of the time they don't know that I'm paying that kind of attention, because my husband and I work really hard to choose good situations for them where we feel confident to let our kids loose to sort it out (in school, activities, etc.) without jumping in to "save" them all the time.

Wow this was an interesting article. I totally want to share it out on facebook but I try not to be too controversial out there. I had a friend one time that talked about the feminization (if that's a word) of today's male. I guess I'm wondering if kids are not allowed to play rough how will that impact our society later. Will it impact our military.

I like to hold and read a book, but I do read a lot on my nook. I much prefer the nook to the iPad because of size and weight. It was interesting to read this article and see how the younger generation prefers a book in hand considering how many carry iPhones, etc. and are constantly logged in.

Wow, I thought for sure that kids would naturally gravitate to the e-books. My family loves the kindle. I tend to get digital books myself but I realized it is more because I can listen to them during my commutes via bluetooth. I'm going to have to poll my niece and nephew on this topic. Thanks for sharing the article Kerry.

I'll be presenting at the Blue Ribbon Confernece next week (along with several other people in our cohort). For part of our presentation, I asked my sixth graders questions about their thoughts on our classroom iPads and other technology we use in the classroom. I was happy to see that all of my students seemed to be enthusiastic about and enjoying some of the changes I've made this year! Some of the topics included are apps students find helpful, how we've been using Google Drive, and now having a set of iPads on our team has enhanced learning in all their classes - not just ELA.

Interesting article that discusses augmentation of the writing process with using the iPad. I think I need to try MindMeister with some students!

Interesting perspective on how SAMR, and tech integration in general, should be rolled out in professional development. It's not about using technology to teach better. It's about teaching better and using technology to amplify that great teaching.

This is a piggy-back to the video posted earlier that encourages girls to become engineers. We attended this event, which has been run every year for the past 16 years, and we saw about 25 individual "Rube Goldberg" contraptions joined together into one giant chain reaction that went around the perimeter of the MIT gymnasium. Anyone can enter a project, and many kids were there presenting their projects. MIT does events for kids every 2nd Friday as well. Looks like something very interesting to check out; we had a fantastic, weird time!

SAMR Model Explained

Thanks for posting, John. This gives me a clearer picture of the SAMR Model. The first I heard of it was in this class. Is it meant as a sort of hierarchy of progression? For example, the first step or minimum use of technology would be substitution of using paper/pencil means, and Redefinition would be a more sophisticated use, where we are actually achieving new results by using technology? Janet, I also downloaded the Aurasma app and tried it out. Very cool, and I can see many possibilities for students in the classroom.

Janet has mentioned Aurasma to me before. I definitely have to check it out soon and see if my students would like to use it to create some stations around the room. I also posted the link to this quick video on the SAMR model on Twitter a while back. http://youtu.be/us0w823KY0g It is a quick but clear way to explain SAMR to someone who has never heard of it.

If you know a history teacher looking to build a PLN on Twitter, this list is awesome! I was psyched that I was on it, but also found a whole crew of great educators I didn't even know were out there. Definitely worth a visit.

I have used the the "Comprehension Toolkit" by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis for many years. Now they have added technology to the toolkit. This is the sampler from Heinemann.

Thanks for sharing. We use the toolkit too!

Great evidence for the potential for taking visual notes.

I have a few students who are doing this! Mixing visual media with their notes in Evernote, Penultimate, Skitch, Google Drive, etc. They included images of European Romantic art with their analysis of scholarly article excerpts today. Seriously, their notebooks are amazing and Ovenell-Carter takes it to even another level. Can't wait to see what they're doing in a year or two once more students are coming to school with their own tablets instead of having to rely on ours. Next question: How do we convince parents of the value of this kind of note-taking and that putting a tablet in their child's hand will change the way they think about education?

I love these notes and took pictures in sessions at MassCue to jog my own brain. How do we encourage young ones to keep doing this as they grow in their learning in school. I watch the early childhood group already doing this naturally. I wonder when my own children will do this.

Great message, but it's the video here that is a must see - make sure you click link to see one of the most amazing Rube Goldberg machines.

This is great! The Rube Goldberg machine is quite impressive. I think it would be inspiring to show to the 8th graders before their Science Expo Day Rube Goldberg activity. It is nice to see some marketing that provides girls with an alternative to the stereotypical image of playing dress-up with cute pink dolls.

Love this! It is all over and I showed my 9 year old budding scientist and she was mesmerized!

I came across this on Feedly through Free Technology for Teachers. It's a weekly series of short videos that highlight interesting/important events that took place during the same week in history. Topics range from serious/somber events to record breaking, such as this week's titled, "Chuck Yeager Breaks the Sound Barrier." Worth checking out....

Thanks for sharing. Some great short videos.

I read this and immediately thought of ebtl2 where we are driven to think outside of the box. I wonder what our students will say when asked.

Importance of social networking not only for teachers but students as well. Very interesting..

This article brings up some really good points about the types of skills students need and how educators can make sure they are developing theses skills. Having students design and participate in PLCs is a great way to start developing the skills that are going to be essential in their future. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting article, Meg. I started following the guy that was mentioned, Paul Moss, on twitter, and hope to get some good ideas. I love the idea of starting to get kids networking in an educational way. They are already experts on doing it socially! If we have another EdCamp format, I'd love to have a discussion about what PLNs could mean for students, even as young as middle school.

This is a presentation put together by some middle school English teachers in the UK. There are some good ideas and interesting graphics-based resources for teaching and structuring various writing activities.

AnneMarie, This presentation is a good way for anyway who is thinking about class blogs to get started. It has some good ideas on how to begin and what to emphasize with students. Another idea is to participate in the Student Blogging Challenge this March. My class just finished the fall challenge. I would be happy to share our experience, if you are interested. http://studentchallenge.edublogs.org/category/september-2013/