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Using VoiceThread to Promote Learning Engagement and Success for All Students VoiceThread is one of many Web 2.0 tools created to help users communicate and collaborate around a varity of topics.   To create an individual VoiceThread, users can upload any combination of images, documents (e.g., from Word, Acrobat [PDF], Excel, or PowerPoint), and video clips to arrange these elements into a slide show. Teachers can then add comments to each slide in the VoiceThread by several different methods including typed text or recorded voice or video. Teachers can make a VoiceThread public, allowing other people to add their own comments to the slides, or set the VoiceThread to private, restricting comments to only invited users. Through this process, teachers can facilitate conversations around a series of images, videos, or an entire PowerPoint presentation with their students and provide them an opportunity to share their voice, literally, in the discussion in multiple ways. Individual account is free but you can only create 3 voicethreads.  A classroom account is encouraged for $60 a year. Benefits of Class Account 1. can register up to 100 students with no need for individual emails 2. teachers can access students usernames and passwords. 3. each student can create their own voicethread and it is private, only the class can see it. 4. all comments can be viewed and approved by the teacher before they are posted for the class to see. General Benefits of Voicethread 1. all types of learners can benefit from this tool 2. it can be used in whole class, small groups, or independently 3. it can be used in the classroom, computer lab, at home or anywhere there is access to internet 4. can be used in all subject areas.

This paper discusses the significant impact of digital technology in teacher education, and the necessity of having teacher educators model effective strategies for integration of digital technology. The author describes an initiative started in the California education system, called The Digital Flexbook, "The term flexbook refers to the free, nonlinear, highly customizable and easy-to-use nature of open source textbooks (Fletcher, 2010)." Benefits such as collaboration among school districts, interactive classrooms, and increased teacher creativity were observed. Barriers such as lack of funds, lack of student access to technology at home, and lack of PD for teachers were also observed. Further benefits such as the ability to accurately reflect a community, the presence of a collaborative space to construct knowledge in innovative ways, showing multiple perspectives, promoting higher order thinking, and democratising knowledge. The author lists Web2.0 tools such as "...video sharing sites, wikis, blogs, podcasts, and social networking sites like Twitter (Richardson, 2006a), all of which move students from consumers of information to editors of information. Research and experience show the need to infuse the TPCK model into teacher education, thus allowing students to become generators of knowledge and contributors to the Internet. One more big benefit of such constructivist pedagogy is allows for teachers and students to become more critical of the … intersection of race, gender, and socio-economic status on the writing of history, and integrated a model for how technology can and should be used in the classroom.

The Smart Way to Use iPads in the Classroom

GAFE sessions 2014

"Computers have had a transformative impact on many fields, it is thus natural to expect that they are having an effect on educational practice leading to a dramatically fresher, more engaging and more powerful process of learning -educational wonderland." Two observations: 1. Computers do very little to aid learning. Their presence in the classroom along with relevant software does not automatically inspire teachers to rethink their teaching or students to adopt new modes of learning. Teachers do not radically transform what they would do without computers, although it may make things more efficient and fun. Computer technology may provide interesting and powerful learning opportunities, but these are not taken automatically, teachers and learners need to learn how to take advantage of them. 2. It is the whole culture of a learning environment, with or without computers, that can affect learning in important ways "It's not what technology can do, but what learning demands, best points up to the potential contributions of technology." Technology is helping things along, sometimes in crucial ways, rather than in itself doing the real work of teaching. Computers can become partners in cognition with learners, rightly used computers can enable what needs to happen in knowledge networking. Computers can make easier and more efficient what might need to be done in more cumbersome and convoluted ways.

Jacky, This article seems to fit well with your flipped classroom page!

Tech's Role in Learning is a 33 minute video produced by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach that focuses on the implementation and use of technology in Project Based Learning.  Nussbaum-Beach begins by looking at the TPAC model and the revised Bloom's Taxonomy (http://www.apa.org/ed/new_blooms.html) with an emphasis on students becoming creators (or producers) of knowledge.  She argues that the current model of classroom instruction (desks in rows, learning independently) will not work in the 21st century, and that we need to help our students construct their knowledge in a way that will prepare them for their future in an online world. The main point that Nussbaum-Beach makes in this video is that when our students get out into the real world, they will be connected to a global learning network.  Whatever they do in life, they will be able to connect and collaborate with others around the world.  It therefore becomes our job as educators to not only become connected learners ourselves, but to teach our students how to be connected learners as well.  Our students need to be constructing their knowledge and sharing/publishing their learning with the world.  She presents new "digital literacies" as tools that all students need to know to become members of this new global society and to make a difference in the world.

This article highlights the shift from traditional teaching, termed transmission, to 21st century inquiry-based teaching, termed transformation. The digital age has changed the learner and if formal education is to remain relevant, the approach must also change. If students are to be equipped to solve the complex problems of society, the foundation of their learning must be critical inquiry which encourages critical thought. The article outlines the tools needed for inquiry-based learning, valid assessment and how it is more than having the students 'think outside the box'. It is a thorough overview of inquiry-based learning and what it can look like in a modern classroom.

Wow!  one stop shopping for info about using video in the classroom. 

This article focuses on the importance of using technology in schools. The author, Seymour Papert, compares how the introduction of computers into a school setting is very similar to providing pencils to people in a community who communicate entirely using oral language. How will the computers and pencils get used by the people in their communities? Papert expresses the realization that educators are often hesitant to change their practices and sometimes when implementing new concepts or tools, teachers find trivial ways to use them rather than seeing their full potential. Papert goes on to explain how technology can "intellectually engage" those not interested in the traditional learning that schools often offer to students. He gives an example of how a disengaged student can use technology to intellectually challenge himself, develop the ability to persist, and collaborate with people that have common learning interests. In addition, Papert says that the use of project based learning and technology allows students to "acquire knowledge for use" and not to just pass a test. The concept of being able to access learning regardless of the time of day and the learner's location is also discussed. Technology offers greater learning as it allows students to learn from a wide community of people and not just those the same age and grade. Even with the objective reasons provided by educators, to limit the amount of changes in schools, Papert believes that the students' knowledge and expertise that they acquire while using computers at home will drive schools to embrace technology. He knows that institutions believe change cannot happen due to the lack of funding available, limited teacher understanding and assumption of what "school" should look like. However, Papert believes that change will occur because children will require schools to keep up with the learning they are doing outside the school setting when it comes to the area of technology.

Promoting responsible talk and sharing in your class room.

I thought Carmel and Jacky might like this!

I launched my knowledge of PBL via this website. They offered free, online courses on this topic. They have numerous pre-constructed plans available to facilitate learning how to run PBL in the classroom.