Group items tagged

This article discusses how students at one school learn by designing their own video games. There is a separate class set up for this. The article exposes many challenges to implementing this type of curriculum.

This article describes a virtual environment, which has hypergridding as a feature. Students can teleport from one community to the next. This was the first platform to do that.

I wonder how popular environments like this are right now, and how they are being implemented into classrooms. This is fairly recent.

In this feature, Apple profiles HOW their products are used in a variety of educational settings. It's one of the least 'promotion-based' sites I've seen from Apple in awhile... Typically, I'm cynical when a company "profiles" its own products; however, this one is done fairly well. This site could be a helpful model when attempting to demonstrate functional use of a product, highlighting the ends, not the means...

Thanks for sharing this link! I know that there are some schools which have bought iPads and then didn't know what they were going to do with them. This community obviously had a clear idea of how to use them, what problems they were going to solve and how to assess their outcomes. Nice!

A brief overview of 10 different schools/school districts that have implemented BYOD programs. A good starting point for those who want to explore what BYOD looks like in different schools, as well as the different ways each school uses such programs.

Georgia's Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) has taken a huge step forward in its move to an all-digital education for its students: The district has partnered with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) to implement a single sign-on platform for delivering curriculum, assessment, analytics, professional development, parent information, and more.

"The best professional-development research shows that teachers need sustained contact hours (between 30 and 100) of training before altering their practices. So, she did a back-of-the envelope calculation about how much time it would take to implement 50 hours of formative-assessment training over the course of a school year...... Teachers would need about six hours a month, for eight months, which amounts to one early-close afternoon a month plus two additional hours. (Good luck with that in this economy.)"

Perhaps this is where technology can play an enabling role. Easy to use and real-time tools like Socrative or technology based learning environments with embedded formative assessments (like my formative assessment design proposal for VPA) could help reduce the time / training barriers for teachers to incorporate formative assessment into the teaching practice. At the very least, new curriculum initiatives aligned with common core standards SHOULD BE REQUIRED to incorporate formative-assessments. Unfortunately on PARCC is. "Of the two assessment consortia, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, is not developing formative-assessment resources as part of its federal grant. The other consortium, known as SMARTER Balanced, is."

The public school district in St. Louis, Missouri was awarded an Innovative Technology Education Fund grant to buy iPads for all students with autism in six autism-specific classrooms. This seems to be an example of utilizing an emerging technology in an excellent way with proper teacher training, rather than using technology for technology's sake. The schools will be advised on how to implement the iPads by an autism science and advocacy organization and have two full days of professional development planned.

This is great news on the autism-rights front! I know a severely autistic 21-year-old who is highly communicative because of the technology he has used since he was young.

"Idaho is set to become first state in the nation to require high school students to take at least two credits online to graduate." Has anyone seen this yet? Comments/thoughts? I think the main motivator for this initiative is to lower costs...I fear that if finance is the driving force, it won't be implemented as effectively as possible....

Many of you have read my "rants" about buying iPads before the teacher's even know what to do with them. This article speaks to the need for Professional Development before full scale implementation.

This article discusses ways to use mobile technology in a higher education setting, including uses to increase engagement among students and to provide safety and emergency information. The author fails to include any uses that actually involve learning or improved communication and transparency between students and teachers, which I believe is an oversight that many schools have when considering implementing mobile technology in their schools. 

Jeff Kirchick is Director of Universities at SCVNGR, the popular mobile game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. He presents regularly about the future of mobile and location-based services in education. You can follow Jeff on Twitter @JeffreyKirchick or e-mail him at jeff@scvngr.com.

Like most Facebook users, many educators use Facebook to connect with friends new and old, but the Internet's most popular site can also be a great learning (and teaching) tool. There are many Facebook pages that have been created as a resource to collect, share, and disseminate information about education and education technologies.

10 Beneficial Facebook Pages For Educators To Check Out

Interesting article about a multimedia tool for teachers with the main goal of implementing best methodologies in the classroom. Teachers can share students' performance via text, photo, audio or video.

NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS are the science equivalent of Common Core. They are supposed to be released this coming Winter/Spring. Possibly a good opportunity for TIE and other HGSE master's students to get on top of the ed tech game!

Recommendation 1: Complete the Shift from Print-Centric Textbook Adoption Practices to Digital Resources within Five Years Recommendation 2: Develop a Vision and Roadmap for Completing the Shift 2a: Eliminate Unnecessary Regulations and Enact Supportive Policies 2b: Invest in Infrastructure and Devices to Support the Shift 2c: Ensure Effective Implementation of Digital Policies. Recommendation 3: Ensure a Vibrant Marketplace for Digital and Open Content

Captures the complexities of actually implementing new technologies in school at scale.

Looks like the white house is already seeing the value of educational games. But as we have read and seen, is it the right kind of games and will it be implemented correctly?

Implementing blended learning in schools, in one awesome visual.

Infographics make me so happy. This one is fantastic!

Tried to post in reponse to Ryan's article. Any thoughts about the implementation or potential success of this project? Will this degree program impress employers or carry the same clout that Georgia Tech's in person master's programs in comp. sci. do?

Some Chinese school officials have gone against the wishes of the national government and removed Internet filtering software becuase it "has strong conflicts with teaching software we need for normal work." On the other hand, many public schools in the US not only tolerate draconian filtering policies, but elect to implement such policies on the local level! Why are we willing to sacrifice educational opportunities for some imagined sense of security about our children? If you haven't looked over the "Unmasking the Digital Truth" Wiki, I highly recommend that you do so. It discusses some of the common misconceptions about Internet filtering in schools and associated laws. (http://unmaskdigitaltruth.pbworks.com/)

Article about how some schools in China have uninstalled the controversial Internet filter (Green Dam), which was required to be installed on all public systems by mandate of the Chinese government.

The article defines and describes the characteristics of authentic learning.

The author's top 5 keys to successful education technology... do you agree? Is it missing anything?

One of the more powerful messages I have learned in Stone's class is when you are designing an educational intervention you have to know WHEN to ask the question: what technology, if any, will improve our educational problem? Before you ask this question, the problem should be clearly identified, and the steps to assess if the problem is improving should be laid out. When you have this information, you can then tailor the technology to specifically meet the needs of your current problem. In this way, technology is sort of the means (not the ends!) towards improving education. So, in addition to the author's 5 key factors for educational technology, I would like to add: Is the technology a good fit for addressing our clearly defined educational problem?