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This article covers a wide variety of issues surrounding mobile technologies in the classroom and delves into how mobile technologies will affect society as a whole. It discusses how and why educators are gradualists at heart and why many are hesitant/resistant to introducing mobile technologies in the classroom. It also discusses how mobile technology is unstoppable and is changing the learner. "Our current educational system is obsolete and we as educators will become obsolete if we do not realize that we must embrace the changes that are upon us in how, where and why students learn." "Learners through the use of mobile learning, blended learning, and e-textbooks in socially-based, un-tethered, and digitally rich learning are being educated without us as the TEACHER." The article discusses how our job as educators is to Enable, Engage, and Empower students and defines some responsibilities for us as educators around developing the "rules" around how and when students, and therefore society, uses mobile technology. An interesting discussion of how digital citizenship is impacted by mobile technology is also contained. Interestingly enough the article also acknowledges the burdens and issues that mobile technology is placing directly on teachers both financially and with respect to their workload. Overall a thorough overview of the impact of mobile technology on the future of education. Having issues with annotations in diigo so I annotated it in Google Read & Write.

In the article, "Rethinking Learning in the Digital Age", Mitchel Resnick compares digital media with the creative interactive aspects of fingerpaint rather than the passive absorption of television. Like Eleanor Duckworth's article, "Helping Students Get to Where Ideas Can Find Them" he states, " that learning is an active process... people don't get ideas; they make them". To do this, he says we need to rethink how people learn with new technologies to take advantage of what these technologies can offer that older technologies could not. Learners need opportunities to become fluent with these new technology tools so that they can construct and create with them. He speaks about Computer Clubhouses as places that offer learners mentors to support them in a project based learning environment focused on the learner's interests. The creative process is the structure that uses new technology tools to actualize a significant creation. The Computer Clubhouse approach has clear connections to the two-fold approach mentioned in Duckworth 's article as well. Resnick recognizes that everything evolves; even new technologies are changing more to reflect the users of them and the purposes for them. The programable bricks sold as MindStorms is an example. He continues with stating the need to reform education with cross-curricular subject integration, grouping students by project interest rather than by age, changing the segmentation of the school day into longer blocks of time for deeper learning, as well as learning becoming not just a daylong but a lifelong experience. He concludes with the need for education to be teaching learners to be creative, innovative, and entrepreneurial with strategies and new evolving technological tools to discover the knowledge they need to create what they imagine.

Computers in the Classroom: Agents of Change By Seymour Papert This article appeared in The Washington Post Education Review Sunday, October 27, 1996 Seymour concluded that computers do not contribute to better learning. The computer lab fits into the structure of school by making "computer literacy" one more subject with its curriculum and its time slots. It's about access to computers and other technologies all the time, whenever needed. He has a new book, The Connected Family, He develops the idea that the computers that will be the pivotal force for change will be those outside the control of schools and outside the schools' tendency to force new ideas into old ways. He talks about the influence in classrooms of children whose access to home computers and to a home learning culture has given them a high level not only of computer expertise but also of sophistication in seeking knowledge and standards in what constitutes a serious intellectual project. The number of these children will grow exponentially in the next few years. Their pressure on schools will become irresistible.

This article is a PDF, and for some reason Diigo wouldn't let me highlight as I read. So here I am posting some of the main points: -Web 2.0 technology can be seen as "an ongoing transition of the World Wide Web from a collection of static websites to a full-fledged computing platform serving Web applications to end users. This includes applications such as wikis, blogs, podcasts, and social networking. -Example: A wiki is a Web 2.0 application that can be defined as a collaborative Web space where users can add and edit content to be published on the Internet. -Students do not have to be passive recipients of information but can become equal partners in the learning process as they collaborate and create knowledge in a social manner -mention of TPCK - content, pedagogy, and technology. There are also concrete examples of TPCK being implemented with students! Good to read (starting on Pg 228)! The examples revolve around the students creating their own Digital Flexbook, which are free, nonlinear, highly customizable and easy-to-use nature of open source textbooks. -Creation process happened along five distinct phases: awareness, analysis, collection, design, and reflection. Each of these phases was unique to the process but did not occur in isolation.

Kathy is a great resource for everything technology. Each year she goes deeply into one kind of topic or another. She's recently done lots of work on Chromebooks and ipads!

WOW! There is so much on this site! I will definitely be coming back here to explore the resources in regards to Chromebooks and ipads. Double WOW!

Website for book entitled: Teaching with Emerging Technology

Shakespeare and SAMR!!!

A good visual demonstrating some similar characteristics of teachers who use technology including starting with the WHY, being adaptable and willing to embrace change.

This is a very interesting article from a notable publication, (Teaching Exceptional Children) highlighting the benefits of VoiceThread technology. Within the first paragraph the following should resonate: "educators often make herculean efforts to engage students, motivate them, and differentiate instruction for students who struggle." (Pg. 28) As an interactive multimedia slide show tool, VoiceThread portends to be the answer to these challenges. The article notes that "its interface and feature set are well-suited for promoting student engagement ... as well as for helping students develop as independent learners." (Pg. 30) This Web 2.0 tool was created to promote a collaborative learning environment. Something similar to, but more powerful than simple PowerPoint presentations; the creation of an individual VoiceThread allows a combination of images, documents and video clips. VoiceThread is web based and runs on numerous browsers. Microphones are an added bonus if voice-recorded comments are desired. Otherwise students may doodle on slides, type comments or participate in learning activities "within the VoiceThread environment." (Pg. 31) The basic account is free, but a more classroom oriented format has a nominal yearly fee. This arrangement allows for unlimited VoiceThreads that can be shared with their peers, but not made public. This latter feature is an added security feature of this web tool. The article contains a number of student profiles, where VoiceThread has been put into practice. All of these highlight the opportunity of VoiceThread to assist those shy students or those who require a bit more time to formulate a response. What a great way to 'show their learning' and allow these students to participate within the classroom. A good article with a firm base of information and numerous professional references for future study.

This commercial makes a good point, that while technology can be wonderful and simplify many things, it can't replace everything!

Thank you for posting this site. There are some great web resources with descriptions. I will definitely be going back to this site and checking out some of their recommendations. *Note they listed some French resources in their list too! KKM

This document is a resource produced for Instructors and Coordinators related to the National Academy Foundation. It is a comprehensive overview of PBL that highlights the difference between activities vs. projects. It clarifies what PBL is vs. other forms of learning, and identifies what needs to be in place in order to complete technology-based projects. The use of Project-based Learning in the classroom also allows for the promotion of 'best practices' for classroom instruction as identified by the Foundation. The article clearly distinguishes between projects vs. activities. Types of work are presented, along with best opportunities to use PBL. The importance of many conditions being in place to support PBL cannot be underemphasised; as these may include the classroom and school environments, the community as well as parent involvement. The article presents published evidence and research that support Project-based Learning and the inquiry process. Many of the resources presented also include links to various groups and agencies that promote PBL, including The Buck Institute and the George Lucas Educational Foundation mentioned by Peter Skillen during our course on January 18th. The article discusses good project design including six powerful features of PBL (The Six A's) that should be present in all good projects, and concludes with a page of key student scaffolds to ensure project delivery. An aseptic, fact based article, but full of good, clear examples and links.

Video: The machine is using us. This video is a visual timeline that explains how the use of technology has changed since 1996. It demonstrates the difference between HTML which was designed to define the structure of a web document. When people were first creating websites, they had to understand and imput the computer code that supported the website, you had to be knowledgeable beyond what everyday users (such as myself) saw on the screen. Form and content were dependent on each other. Today, xml or digital text is used so the data can be formatted without having to know complicated code. It lets users create blogs and websites and edit wikipedia without having to understand the process behind their creations. This has made information much more accessible and changes the way people use and interact with "facts" and stories and any type of information we can think of. In other words, Web 2.0, which is really what this video is about, has redefined how we use our machines and it has become inextricably linked with the sharing of information in our world.

Blog that I have found interesting that is looking at effective use of technology in schools

This article is actually a review article by the authors summarizing their own work.  It was amazing.  We had a brief introduction to TPCK in class but it is so much more that what we had looked at.  I was unable to make annotations on the pdf but I have all my annotations as a google doc if anyone wants to look at them.  I found this article to be deeply thought provoking and hope to be able to convince my department to read it and use it as a discussion starter for our journeys into effective incorporation of technology into our classrooms.

This was the project site created by the IICTI Part 1s from last Spring

One of the easiest ways to learn more about VoiceThread is to view the introductory VoiceThread created by the developers of this interactive, multimedia slide show tool.

Article: If We Didn't have the schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today? Although a bit dated with references to CD Roms etc. (circa 2000), this article is talking about the difference between how we prepare our educators and the actual way students learn in a globally aware and connected world. We continue to base our public school system on the industrial age model where teachers are expected to know information, then parcel it out to students in a conscripted and linear manner. This article argues that today's learners have gone so far beyond this model, it's incredible that schools exist in the same way as they did for the last century. If engineers or doctors still operated the same way they did 100 years ago, they would have no credibility. Why then, do schools systems insist on continuing with the status quo. If we had the chance (if we weren't paid by provincial governments) would we still create the school system we have today or would we completely overhaul it? There is a place in Canada that is trying to do just that. My daughter has been looking into applying at Quest University, a private university in Squamish, BC where the educators don't call themselves professors, they have no defined departments, and the students have significant input into the curriculum. They work on a block system where students immerse themselves in one subject entirely for a month, then move on to another subject. They may take language for September, biology for October, then calculus for November etc. This creates the opportunity to immerse themselves in a discipline and develop a much deeper level of understanding. The similarities between Quest's mandate and this article is interesting. The author states "everyone becomes a learner in a Networked Learning Community, and the distinctions between students and teachers fade away." There are three dimensions to a networked learning community and today we only use the first one. Teacher.