iPads in Education X14

This is a great article called "A Parent's Guide to 21st Century Learning" by Edutopia.org. In summary, it is a parent's guide that is intended to bring more parents into the conversation about improving education. It is organized into different grade levels. There is a page with 10 tips for parents to help them bring 21st century skills home. For example, they recommend that parents help their child discover their potential through community arts programs. They also recommend parents build on their kid's interest in gaming by getting them connected with Massively Minecraft. I had never heard of this before reading this article. It is a digital media learning community created by parents and teachers for students ages 4-16. You can check it out at massivelyminecraft.org. This article also lists organizations that offer more in depth info about project based learning and social/emotional learning. I found it helpful as a teacher too because it provides links to a lot of projects and activities for the classroom. Lastly, this article gives examples of what teachers do in the classroom and matching ideas for how parents can get more involved. For example, teachers are using Skype in the classroom to extend projects and learning beyond the school building, so they recommend that parents who travel a lot for work can further support what is going on in the classroom by Skyping with the class and doing a "parent on the street report" or tour of wherever they are in the world. Most of all, this article just has so many suggested links that you can learn so much from it.

Brief blog post on how technology is not just one more thing to learn or cover but a means to creating a learning atmosphere built on the four C's. Check it out!

This is an article which explains that the 21st century classroom is not about teaching technology, but rather learning in a new way and using technology as a tool.

This video sends a powerful message to all educators on the importance of letting our students use technology. The message that kept being sent throughout this video is "We are digital learners". Throughout the video they had students write messages on different white boards and a lot of the messages being displayed were powerful and made me think twice. Our job as educators is to motivate and engage our students in their learning, which was seen in the multiple message from students that said "engage me". The use of technology and other digital equipment is used all around us today. Students of all ages are exposed to this technology at home and it is our job to bring it into the classroom. The video begins with statistics showing that students of all ages are spending more time playing video games, watching tv, playing on the computer/ipads, rather than reading a book. It also points out how students spend their time using the computers/ipads to have stories read to them or read books on different apps. Something that was important to me was a statistic that said 14% of teachers will allow their students once a week to create something using technology and that 63% of teachers never do this. The need for teachers to become more comfortable and integrate the use of technology is essential for our students to learn. A powerful message that I took away from this video is "If we learn by doing, what do we learn by sitting here". It is so true, we know that students learn best by doing, that they are most engaged by learning this way, yet so many teachers still lecture to their students. Another powerful message was when a student held up a spelling assignment where they had to write their spelling words three times each and the message was "How will this help me?" and then they held up a digital camera, computer/laptop, and ipad and the message was "How could this help me?". This video was enlightening as to the importance of helping all students from K-12 learn