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Kasthuri Gopalaratnam

Education Week Teacher Professional Development Sourcebook: Applicable Teaching Tools - 1 views

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    Educators are discovering that iPads and other tablet computers offer new routes to learning for students with disabilities
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    Kasthuri - I attended a session at ISTE last summer on using the iPad with Special Needs students (my oldest son has special needs) and discovered many apps that are created for "typical" learners can be adapted for students with special needs. The particular app and use in this article has (in my opinion) one huge advantage and one huge disadvantage. The advantage is price and therefore more widespread accessibility. Augmented Communicative Devices (http://www.abilityhub.com/aac/aac-devices.htm) can cost thousands of dollars. The iPad ($500-800) and app ($100) keeps the cost well below that and can give SES students with this particular need a greater chance in getting the device. The Disadvantage (in my opinion) is the FINE MOTOR skills necessary to operate the touch screen feature of the iPad. The children that I have seen who need this device to communicate have multiple issues at work that prevent them from isolating their fingers in such a way to make this a feasible way for them to communicate effectively. Some of the devices you can see in the link have distinct boundaries that account for mobility and fine motor deficiencies that make the use of the device successful to those who need that adaptation. I am not knocking the iPad for Special Needs students, simply pointing out that it is not the best tool for everyone.
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    Hi Bridget, I agree that it may not be for everyone. Would the use of a stylus rather than fingers make it easier to use the app?
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    Strictly speaking from my experience, the children that I have observed using these devices have Cerebral Palsy (or other muscular issues at work) to the extent where holding any device is not feasible for them. But I can see how a stylus might help specific students overcome this deficiency. Allison has had even more exposure to SN students than I have, so perhaps she can share some insight here.
Cole Shaw

Does ed tech need its own Consumer Reports? - 2 views

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    A new proposal calls for a Consumer Reports-like rating body to evaluate new digital learning tools. Ed tech innovators like the idea in theory but they worry that it won't work in practice.
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    Talks about different groups that are trying to help classify and rate the various ed tech products out there--more and more are released every day!! So how do teachers know what is useful and what is not? Discusses initiatives and some possible con's--so many are released and so many are updated that it may be impossible to keep up the evaluation pace.
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    Funny, I was just talking with someone about this very idea the other day. We absolutely need something like this and my guess is that we will have a few competitors, at least early on, for the top ed tech review site. I think there is space for both an organization that specializes and for a yelp like site that essentially crowd sources the reviews. It will be tough to keep up, but think of how many products and areas Consumer Reports deals with- we can do this, and need to do this, for ed tech to get used wisely in our schools.
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    With regards to e-learning, I think inevitably some company or organization will provide ratings of the quality of online degree programs and learning tools. Whether this is Consumer Reports or US World & News Report or some new player (investment opportunity?), the need for objective assessments of digital learning tools is definitely needed. The Benchmarking e-learning wiki is interesting http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmarking_e-learning
Devon Dickau

Google Instant search feeds our real-time addiction - CNN.com - 0 views

  • By providing results before a query is complete and removing the need to hit the "enter" key, Google claims users will save two to five seconds per search
    • Devon Dickau
       
      Two to five seconds to hit Enter?  In a society obsessed with saving time, even mere seconds are perceived as valuable.
  • Web connections have become significantly faster over time
  • Web connections have become significantly faster over time
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  • quick status updates
    • Devon Dickau
       
      Are the speed and brevity of these messages bypassing the potential exploration of a certain topic area in-depth, or is very topic only superficial?
  • many social sites now use our social connections to recommend content to us without the need to seek it out
    • Devon Dickau
       
      Search engines do the work for us.  We don't even need to know how to find the information ourselves these days.
  • What's more, this feature enables truly personalized discovery by taking into account your search history, location and other factors -- Google is essentially emulating social networks by trying to predict what we're looking for without the need to submit a fully-formed search
  • The next step of search is doing this automatically. When I walk down the street, I want my smartphone to be doing searches constantly: 'Did you know ... ?' 'Did you know ... ?' 'Did you know ... ?' 'Did you know ... ?
    • Devon Dickau
       
      Constant delivery of knowledge.
    • Devon Dickau
       
      In thinking about evolving technology in terms of both formal and informal education, I question whether or not constant and immediate access to information is improving or harming individual knowledge.  By this I mean that because we can so easily search for something online, what motivation is there to actually know anything.  If we have Wikipedia on our phones, and know HOW to find it, can't we just spend 30 seconds finding the page and "know" something for topic of conversation, or a test?  What is the point, then, or learning, of retaining knowledge?  I feel that this may be a problem in coming generations.  What knowledge will our students actually feel they need to retain? I took solace in the fact that at least we have to learn and teach HOW to find the information, but with new technologies like predictive and instant searching, it almost seems like that is a skill that will soon become unneeded as well.  We might as well just be physically plugged in to the Internet with access to all information simultaneously. Thoughts from the group?
Robert Schuman

GE | Plug Into the Smart Grid - 0 views

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    For those of you interested in trying out a bit of augmented reality at home, try out this green energy augmented reality application available from the GE web site. You will need a printout of the glyph (the black square design provided on the web site) and a webcam in order to get this to work. Audio volume adjust according to the distance of the glyph away from the webcam. This little AR app was designed using ARToolKit originally created by Dr. Hirokazu Kato.
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    Augmented Reality Sample created for General Electric using ARToolKit. You will need a webcam and a printout of the glyph (the black box design that the AR object will need to anchor to).\n\nI can't directly anchor to the augmented reality sample, so please bring your mouse pointer down to the bottom of the browser window to where it says, "Navigate the Smart Grid," and click the augmented reality icon on the far right of the navigation bar that appears.
James Glanville

Learning: Engage and Empower | U.S. Department of Education - 4 views

  • more flexible set of "educators," including teachers, parents, experts, and mentors outside the classroom.
    • Chris McEnroe
       
      This is an example of the promise of Tech in Teaching. It promotes the Psycho/Social pedogogical reality of the learner's sphere of influences into the vital center of our concept of school. To me, it transforms academic discourse into intentional design. Because school experience is so culturally endemic, this is a change in cultural self-concept.
  • The opportunity to harness this interest and access in the service of learning is huge.
    • Chris McEnroe
       
      This sentence makes me think of an explorer who has discovered a vast mineral deposit and is looking for capital investment. To persuade teachers, parents, and school boards the explorer will need to show tangible evidence that ". . . our education system [can leverage] technology to create learning experiences that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures." The sixth grade teacher will need to be able to demonstrate to the parent of a student the tangible benefits of a technology infused paradigm.
  • The challenge for our education system is to leverage technology to create relevant learning experiences that mirror students' daily lives and the reality of their futures.
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  • large groups, small groups, and activities tailored to individual goals, needs, and interests.
  • What's worth knowing and being able to do?
  • English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history, art, or music, 21st-century competencies and expertise such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas.
  • expert learners
  • "digital exclusion"
    • Chris McEnroe
       
      Isn't this just another iteration of the general disparity in all kinds of resource allocation? This could just as well be articulated by debilitating student/teacher rations, or text book availability, or the availability of paper, or breakfast, or heat in the he building?
  • School of One uses technology to develop a unique learning path for each student and to provide a significant portion of the instruction that is both individualized and differentiated
  • Advances in the learning sciences, including cognitive science, neuroscience, education, and social sciences, give us greater understanding of three connected types of human learning—factual knowledge, procedural knowledge, and motivational engagement.
    • James Glanville
       
      I'm interested in how our current understanding of how learning works can inform best practices for teaching, curriculum design, and supports for learning afforded by technology.
    • Erin Sisk
       
      I found the neuroscience discussion to be the most interesting part of the Learning section. It seems to me that the 21st century learner needs more emphasis on the "learning how" and the "learning why" and less focus on the "learning that." I think teaching information literacy (as described in the Learning section) is one of the most important kinds of procedural knowledge (learning how) students should master so they can access facts as they need them, and worry less about memorizing them.
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    "School of One uses technology to develop a unique learning path for each student and to provide a significant portion of the instruction that is both individualized and differentiated." I liked the definitions of individualized (pacing), differentiated (learning preferences/methods), and personalized (pacing, preferences, and content/objectives).
Amanda Bowen

How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education | Magazine - 3 views

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    One teacher claims that "The idea is to invert the normal rhythms of school, so that lectures are viewed on the kids' own time and homework is done at school." - Do you agree that this is a good solution? 
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    That is the way a couple of my colleagues (science and math) use Khan and they feel it creates more opportunity to use them as a resource for their specific needs. The spend some time at the beginning of class to answer questions as a group and then students begin working on problems and asking for individual help during class.
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    I think the idea of distributing video tutorials and courseware for free is a powerful lever for change and education (Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, etc). While I'm intrigued by Khan Academy and see the benefit to help student who want to pause and replay lessons, there is a limit to it's use as an educational tool. In the article linked below, the Los Altos district currently piloting the program noted that they have not seen any statistical difference between Khan students and the control group. http://losaltos.patch.com/articles/school-district-expands-khan-academy-to-all-schools
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    I too am intrigued by this "inverting" of time spent in the classroom and at home. My idealized model would be to introduce learners to new material at their own pace out of the classroom (allowing for pausing, note taking, reflecting and/or rewinding) and focus classroom time on face to face guiding and coaching of clusters of students or individual students engaged in applying or exploring the current material. To help facilitate this (and assist with accountability) some brief form of pre-assessment before class or at the start of class could illuminate for student and teacher alike what material has been mastered and what needs more attention. The research report from the TIE Foundations summer reading appears to support this type of hybrid approach. => Marsha Lovett, Oded Meyer, and Candace Thille (2008). The Open Learning Initiative: Measuring the effectiveness of the OLI statistics course in accelerating student learning.
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    An added benefit of tools such as Khan Academy is the option for reinforcement. In a traditional K-12 school environment students do not have the option to watch a video of their class or spend personalized time reviewing a concept they need more time with during class time due to the required pace of school curriculum. An online learning tool allows a student to watch a lesson as many times as needed and to learn from an expert. Often if a student needs help outside the classroom the only people they turn to is parents, who may or may not know about the content themselves.
Tomoko Matsukawa

Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" | Video on TED.com - 0 views

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    Not sure I posted this already. This "filter bubble" as he calls it should be a concern re: Ubiquitous Learning
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    one of the famous TED talk. personalization of information and its potential pitfall. what is necessary for 'functioning democracy'. makes me wonder what are the risks associated with too much personalization in education too.
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    Thanks for sharing Drew, this is an excellent talk showing the tension between our need to balance what we want/need and reliance on a technology to help filter the results. While we need to get out of that 'filter bubble', we also need it to be close by so we don't get overwhelmed.
Chip Linehan

Social Sector Innovation Funds - Lessons Learned and Recommendations - 2 views

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    Article on how the government and philanthropies can support innovation in education.
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    Chris mentioned this in class, that DOE has put $150M - a mere $150M - toward innovation in education. A drop in the bucket toward what needs to be resourced to education innovations. Philanthropies are certainly helping a great deal, but we need a lot more from our government (and our tax dollars).
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    What's the big barrier (besides government reluctance to spend money on education) to this? Historically, I thought that education funding was left to states as "states rights", hence the fact that the Federal government has even put up any money should be a step forward. I would be interested in hearing what people think are the levers for getting the Federal government to invest more...should education research be treated like NSF or NIH "basic research" and get core government support?
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    I believe that the federal government used to spend more dollars for basic research in education, but that number has been reduced dramatically over the years. I agree 100% that we need to increase this type of investment, and the federal government is the natural source. These social innovation funds are a separate type of investment, distinct from basic research. These grants are "translational" in that they seek to help commercialize promising research, but are not intended to fund the basic research. For a healthy and dynamic ecosystem of innovation in education, we need both.
Danna Ortiz

Caleb Clark: Why Our Schools Need EdTech Professionals - 1 views

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    Schools need edtech staff to provide "intensive, on-the-ground support" to "unite tools and training in a way that renders the marriage of technology and education feasible"
Billy Gerchick

10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have - 5 views

  • 1. Internet Search - students need to know how to do a proper internet search, using search terms and modifiers. This skill is needed for school, work and life in general.
  • 2. Office Suite Skills - students need to now how to create, edit, and modify documents, presentations, and spreadsheets. Businesses still use MS Office for the most part, but iWorks, OpenOffice / LibreOffice, and Google Docs are all getting more popular. They all work similarly so the learning curve when switching isn't that big.
  • 3. Self learning of tech and where to go for help - knowing how to search a help menu on software or hardware, where to go to find user forums for help, and where to find the manual for technology is a huge skill that many do not know about.
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  • 6. Netiquette - Internet/Email/Social Media etiquette - proper way to use the internet, write professional emails, use social media in relation to your job (not complaining about the boss).
  • 5. Social Media - how to properly use social media for school and work, how to protect yourself on it, the issues of cyberbullying, connecting with others in your profession (PLN).
  • 4. Typing - yes, typing. I can get much more work done since I know how to type, then people who don't.
  • 7. Security and Safety - antivirus, spam, phishing, too much personal information sharing, stalkers, and more are all issues they need to know about.
  • 8. Hardware basics and troubleshooting - knowing what different parts of technology are called, how to make minor fixes, and how to do basic troubleshooting for WiFi, networks, OS won't load, etc
  • 9. Backup data - with all of the data that students create for school and work, it is important to back it up and have access to it at any time
  • 10. Finding apps and software - how to find, evaluate, and use apps for school and business. Also, how to find quality, free alternatives to paid software, apps and services.
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    Gateway source for all students: high school and college composition and journalism and student of life. Bookmark this source and then bookmark the hyperlinks in this article. Do you have the 10 (11 for the bonus) tech skills down? I certainly can improve in some of these areas.
Stephen Bresnick

How Online Learning Companies Bought America's Schools | Truthout - 3 views

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    This article shows the dark underbelly of the educational policy world as it relates to technology. As schools are increasingly adopting online learning models in classes, companies are predictably lining up to get money from the movement. However, there are many companies who are taking it a step further and lobbying for policies that do not have children's best interests in mind and which operate under the simplistic and misguided assumption that "schools will not need teachers once computers become good enough." It should give us pause to consider what needs to be done in these early stages to prevent the edTech movement from falling into the wrong hands and killing our schools.
Bharat Battu

Technolog - Adobe gives up on mobile Flash, focuses on open Web standards - 1 views

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    in response to Jen Lavalle's post about games having to go cross-platform to survive. Adobe, makes of the Flash platform, have announced they are stopping further development of the plugin for mobile devices. They are instead now going to focus on open standards (like HTML5), to allow content to be viewed on all modern devices (mobile and computers) with no plug in required. They will also focus on tools to allow developers to push content speciically to the app stores of today's most popular mobile devices. This is a good & bad sign for app developers who use Flash (lots of them, it's been an industry standard for years. Flash has suffered from terrible performance on mobile devices, so it's good to see Adobe acknowledging the need to do something different for their mobile strategy. But what this means for the tools developers will (need to learn to) use? TBD...
Steven Burns

allAfrica.com: Africa: Fiber Optics in Sub-Saharan Region Improve Infrastructure - 1 views

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    Interesting example from a few years ago of infrastructure development coming about in unexpected ways. Here, the 2010 World Cup (and more specifically the need to broadcast matches to Europe and the rest of the world) presented an opportunity to develop the infrastructure of a region in need of development.
Chris Dede

I don't tag and I don't often need the tagging of others to "advance and personalize" m... - 21 views

I believe that many types of resources should be available for learning in a course, because people learn in very different ways. If tagging is not useful for you, fine. I know that a substantial p...

Devon Dickau

'Chalk and Talk' Colleges Are Challenged by India's Company Classrooms - Technology - T... - 0 views

  • The most high-tech classrooms in India are not at a university but at a technology company's training facility.
  • To make up for those perceived deficiencies, Indian companies spent more than $1-billion last year on corporate-training programs for new employees, according to an industry group that has been pushing for change at universities.
  • Each classroom bears the name of a famous innovator—Archimedes, J.P. Morgan, Steve Jobs. In a morning class in the Benjamin Franklin classroom, I observed about 100 students learning the Unix programming language. Each seat had its own PC, and most students had opened a copy of the instructor's PowerPoint presentation and followed along on their own screen, sometimes scrolling back to see what they had missed, sometimes looking ahead.
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  • The trainees, called "freshers" because they are fresh out of college,
  • The trainees said that their undergraduate teaching had been delivered mostly in chalk-and-talk form, with the professor lecturing at the front of the classroom. A few professors had tried PowerPoint, they said, but even that was unusual.
  • "More technology would have meant a lot more knowledge."
  • It turns out, how wired the classrooms are is not the point—the style of teaching is much slower to change than the gear in the rooms.
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    Indian college classrooms have not integrated technology into learning and teaching, so private companies - teaching the skills needed to perform in their specific career paths - are taking the lead, showing that universities need to catch up.
Ayelet R

Special needs students get help from iPads in Aberdeen - aberdeennews.com - 1 views

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    iPad app enhances verbal communication for students with special needs.
Katherine Tarulli

Online Educators Make Inroads in Public Schools - NYTimes.com - 0 views

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    This article highlights how virtual education can transform the learning experience for students with special needs, as well and low and high performing students by allowing them to slow down or speed up according to their needs. As more and more students enroll in online courses, public schools are trying to figure out how incorporate virtual learning into their districts.
Maung Nyeu

Joel Arquillos: Classrooms for Tomorrow - 0 views

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    Envisioning and exploring classroom and education in the future - the video of a panel session at the end of this article is quite interesting. "Learning communities are growing beyond the walls of classrooms. But before we move too fast into that realm, it is critical that students get the support they need to navigate this frontier. They need to learn to think critically, synthesize information, and communicate their ideas effectively and clearly."
Lindsey Dunn

How A School Becomes A Startup Whisperer | EdSurge News - 2 views

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    Some quick "look fors" for schools when assessing what type of edtech venture to partner with.
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    Great post! We definitely need more discussion about how edtech ventures can partner with schools, districts, and CMO's. This post is right to the point- helpful to both the schools and the edtech companies.
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    Schools describe what is needed to build a strong relationship between startups and schools. 
Susan Smiley

Digital Divide Hits College-Admissions Process - 0 views

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    Seems that students from low-income populations not only need access to up-to-date computers, but also they need much better college counseling supports. It's a shame that those who aspire to college, are stressed out that they aren't receiving the assistance they need.
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