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Today ISTE Standards list digital citizenship as one of aspects, which all members of a school district should support. Today digital technology is growing at a fast rate not only in schools but also in society as a whole. Mike Ribble and his college Gerald Bailey wrote a book called "Digital Citizenship in schools." The book defines 9 key elements on how use technology in school, home and within the community. Among the 9 elements are 3 categories: Respect, Educate and Protect. Respect covers using technology correctly and not stealing others property. Educate covers helping users communicate to each other properly and to use literacy correctly as well as buying items online correctly. Protect covers educating others to know their privacy rights. Mike hopes to have these 9 elements created into a curriculum so teachers can use technology at various levels. Mike wants to make sure that educators make sure to help students understand the issues they may encounter online while also showing the positive impact technology can have.

A brand new article, Technology changing the culture of the classroom is about as up to date on the benefits of technology as you can be. In the Southwest Allen County school district, they take technology very seriously. They have a 1:1 ratio of student to ipad. They also use assigned technology for 1:1 learning and allows students to work at their own, as well as letting them to use their own imaginations and minds to work through critical thinking.They digitize the entire process so that work can be done at school and at home. Digital literacy is becoming just as important a skill to learn as regular academia literacy.

This article shares some key ideas from Sharon Sakai-Miller, author of Innovation Age Learning: Empowering Students by Empowering Teachers. Her book proposes an educational shift from "acquiring knowledge to using it." Students need to learn how to become innovators in the workplace, to devise creative solutions and join the rising tide of "Makers."

This ins interesting because Microsoft is planning to integrate Skype within Outlook.com, Excel, Word, OneNote Online and PowerPoint.This will give users the option to collaborate with other people on a shared document. This will help a lot with students in a classroom setting or for online or hybrid courses. 

This is a very interesting article. I liked the options it has to collaborate with other people on a shared document. I think it would be very helpful in the classroom setting.

This relates to our class because its connecting students with technology while saving them money As we all know, Graphing Calculators were also around the same price as a college textbook. But in this innovative age of technology that we are living in, why are we still paying well over $100 for the same piece of equipment? Desmos is a free Google extension that can replace the graphing calculator all together. It preforms all of the same functions while giving a way better look to your graphs. Your curved graphs will actually look curvy!

SpeakIt! lets you highlight any text from a website and converts it into speech. With latest text-to-speech abilities added to software, reading through lines of text may now become optional for those who prefer a faster, more accessible alternative. The technology extension can detect over 50 languages. In addition to US and UK English, the extension can also translate text into Spanish, Chinese, French, Italian and Russian, to name a few.

I think this is a very cool extension. It will also become very popular in the world of assistive technology for special needs students I think. Some students may have problems reading especially from computer screens and this will help with those issues both in the classroom and at home.

Cant find your old notebook?. Only have your phone on you but need to study for a test on a train? Not a problem.  Evernote is an application that allows you to access your notes anywhere at anytime from any device. Ever note web clipper extension takes the Evernote application one step further. Evernote makes studying for a test and organizing information easier then ever. When you find a good site or good pdf, clip it and save it in your evernote file forever from anywhere. Random computer not a problem just log into your account and you have all the notes you have ever taken on it organized in notebooks. 

I've used the Evernote app in the past, but with this chrome extension, it seems much more useful! The combination of the highlighting feature and the anytime access definitely improves the tool.

"Is the phone the new pencil?" article I found was very interesting and can help teachers be more open minded when it comes to technology. Yes, often teachers as well as parents think that technology is taking over many things even when t comes to education, but in a way it is keeping our children's mind working and thinking about what they are going to write. However, the downfall in my opinion is that are children using correct grammar? Also, how does this affect the social skills when it comes to being face to face versus on a screen. There's many factors that even out the usage of cell phones and pencils.

Writing professor and researcher Jeff Grabill discusses a Michigan State University study which suggests that, although students spend much of their day with cell phone in hand, their "writing lives" are blossoming.

When integrating technology into the classroom, it is important to remember 5 different topics - attitude, pragmatism, humility, adaption, and self-scaffolding. Be open to ideas and uses of technology students may want to show you and when introducing something new, always remember baby steps.

"What if there was a simpler way to figure out how to use the most popular tech tools in education? That's the idea behind the new Global Education Database (GEDB) - it's still in the very early stages but has an aim to be something akin to the 'Yelp for Education' thanks to the robust and brilliant education crowd around the globe. Each listing in the GEDB features expert reviews, pros, cons, tips on using each product in the classroom, what the product is good for (flipped classrooms, Common Core, etc.), and more."

This article explains what holographic technology is and how it can be possibly be used in classrooms in the future. Microsoft has created products that allowed used to interact with 3D images, and while not available as of yet, have impressive applications for a classroom setting. For example, this futuristic technology would allow students to virtually conduct science experiments that would otherwise be too difficult or expensive to conduct in real life. The learning process as a whole could be greatly improved with the use of holographic technology.

This article is a great read for teachers integrating technology! The article specifies why integration of technology in the classroom improves student achievement. The article also gives step by step instructions and which tools are proven to be needed in the classroom. The article also includes where to start. 

This article is an excerpt by Boni Hamilton. This shows her "philosophy" of technology integration; what it is, why integrate, and effectiveness of research. She also talks about how schools need to be properly equipped for integration. She gives ideas of how to start and what the administrators as well as the teachers need to do. As prospective educators ourselves, this would be of great use to us.  

This article is helpful to our class because it establishes how important technology integration into our classroom is, and that in order to do so we teachers must be trained professionally. This improves our quality as educators.

I think this article is very helpful on how to bring technology and art together. It gives many examples on how to use technology and art such as the iPad green screen videos the class made and the Art and Technology night they host at the school. I would definitely use the examples in this article in my class room.

This article is great because it provides insight into how art and technology can be helpful to each other. Unfortunately art is often overlooked in education but this article explains how it can be salvaged through the use of educational technology.

I found this article in a Twitter Chat and I found it extremely informative to teachers who are hesitant to use technology in their classrooms.

This article calls into question finding a balance between technology and educators in a classroom. It describes a need to find a way for technology to enhance teachers, not replace them. This relates to our class because as we are learning to use new technologies, we must also learn how to effectively incorporate them into a classroom in a way that augments what we are teaching to students.

A justification and practice of teacher blogging for developing a personal learning network. An interesting read for pre-service teachers and teachers who are seeking a rationale for blogging. This blog post also points to best practices in blogging such as the use of grammar and the citation of images or use  of images from wikimedia commons.

A justification and practice of teacher blogging for developing a personal learning network. An interesting read for pre-service teachers and teachers who are seeking a rationale for blogging. This blog post also points to best practices in blogging such as the use of grammar and the citation of images or use  of images from wikimedia commons.

This article explains the best way to integrate technology. It mentions Edmodo, which we use in our classroom, as well as other applications that can be used within a classroom. It speaks about having a balance in your classroom, and mentions the best method to integrating technology is to have a plan as well as a back up plan. 

It is important as a teacher to know how to use classroom management especially with technology involved in the classroom.

I also found this article very interesting. It points out very important information on applications used in the classroom, integrating technology, and always having a back up plan which is very important.

Abstract The problem of integrating technology into teaching and learning process has become a perennial one. Common excuses for the limited use of technology to support instruction include shortage of computers, lack of computer skill and computer intimidation.

This article was good in addressing issues in teachers limiting themselves to only integrating technology they were comfortable with, and the vast area of issues concerning teachers not expanding their learning to expand the learning of their students.

This article explains the pros technology has in the classroom and gives many examples of how before technology was used in the classroom it evaluated differently than the way is done today.