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This insightful article written by Bill Smoot stresses the importance of the ubiquity of digital devices impeding the growth of the individual. In today's day and age we are all hyper aware of society's dependence on media. This realization led educator Bill Smoot to assign his students the challenge to spend 48 hours, from 7:00 p.m. Friday to 7:00 p.m. Sunday, without electronic media. The result, "by their own admission, their soulfulness and their capacity for human connection are limited by their media-obsessed way of life." I think these findings and this article as a whole prove very helpful to our class, as although the power technology lends to us is undeniable, it has slowly disconnected us from numerous realities and relationships in our own lives. We soon will have to face this specific issue within our own classrooms. I chose this particular article because I believe we need to remain aware that we are going to be teaching a different generation, one that lives and dies by their digital devices. As educators we need to be prepared to react to this aversion to real life experience and connection. We need to strike a balance for our students so that they realize that technology is provided to enhance our lives, not consume it.

The article talks about the importance in keeping up with technology. They believe that people, such as teachers and programs would be "silly" to not stay update with the new technological systems, because that is the way our future is learning and growing. The talk about teachers teaching teachers, stating The Teacher Leadership Project, a nationally recognized, award-winning professional development model that is used in 18 states by 4,200 teachers, is a prime example of the good work being done in technology-infused teaching. "The whole '21st century' mindset is more than technology itself. It's the confidence teachers have to effectively use it in class."

This article outlines new improvements for teacher professional development, involving newer technology upgrades.  One key point of the article was the passing of the Enhancing Education Through Technology, or (EETT) state grant program, which includes a $650 million stimulus package to upgrade technology in classrooms across the country.  Funding is also provided to train the teachers to properly use the technology to its fullest capacity, this way educators can have confidence using these new tools.

Today students are expected to learn analytical skills for preparation for work and life in the 21st century. Teachers are expected to teach way that develops those skills. President Obama and congressional leaders included 650 million dollars. 25% had to be used to buy the most updated technology for students. International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) states "It would be "silly" not to keep up with the changes of the world today" National Staff Development Council says we have failed as a nation to meet highly effective professional learning. Today 18 states (4,200 teachers) were recognized for technology integration in the classrooms. Enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies (eMINTS) is a program that aims to create classrooms where all students are motivated to succeed, build enthusiasm and creativity. eMINTS trained 3,500 teachers and 300 administrators since its formation in 1999. In the 21st century student will have a difficult time succeeding without technology. The article states "Technology integration in the end, is not really about technology, but rather the life skills it instills in students and teachers."

Project ReimaginED is based of of Sarah Winchester's idea for her eighth grade students workshop which allowed students to comment and grade each others works anonymously. This was a great idea and could be a tremendous help to anyone need a technological helper in their creative writing class or if the class is new and not comfortable with each other yet. Project ReImaginED is a contest for teachers to show off their ways of infusing technology into their classrooms in order to win. Winchester's idea allowed the students to express their ideas without having to share their identity so some may be more inclined to say more than the usual, "It was nice. I liked it." When they have to workshop their peers. Project ReimaginED "allows teachers to see what their peers have already or plan to implement in their classrooms and encourages teachers to try technologies in ways they have never imagined." It does not say what the prize is for winning. 

This is a good example of how a teacher used technology and tech tools to not only teach her students but coincide with the common core curriculum. Her tip is to use an assignment that her students can use to complete as a grade as well as understanding and focusing on analytical thinking, decoding a document, and being able to explain a math problem.

Report Comments Bank is a Google extension app for educators. The app helps teachers shorten the amount of time to write progress reports and it allows teachers to create, save and edit reports throughout the year. Being able to save the reports throughout the year also saves teachers hours from creating end of the year reports. The app is quick and easy to learn and saves teachers a lot of time from writing report cards. This app would be helpful for us because it would help future educators complete reports on time and also have more time to create lesson plans. Reviewers rate this app with five stars for how convenient and how easy it is to use.

This looks like a great extension. Teachers time seems to always be stretched very thin. By helping teachers save more time they can put more time into classroom lessons and activities. I agree that this is a beneficial extension for any teacher.

Wow, that's extremely useful in many ways! Of course any way to save time for a teacher is key. But this also gives the teacher an easy way to track progress of individual students, and really see what areas they shine or need an extra push in. I could also see this as a great way to pass a student off to the next grade level. Upon the new school year, it would be great to give a comprehensive report of the students prior year to each teacher they are starting with. This way, if the student is experiencing the same struggles, there might be a different solution the new teacher can use, or if something worked in the past they could try that method again!

Google Earth Pro is now free! After reading the comments it was a little confusing. It appears there is a licensing key which is GEPFREE (google earth pro) is my guess for the acronym. A facet acquired by obtaining the Pro version is also being able to record and share journeys which could be very useful for field trips or even if a teacher wanted to show what life looked like in another country to students. The videos Google Earth Pro is able to produce are mindboggling clear and vivid. The image is nearly flawless and all of it can be recorded and uploaded to Youtube if a teacher needed to pull it up quickly to show to the class. In the Pro version, you are also able to find out the voter turnout rate, where there are more Fair Trade farms, and if the population is higher in one city to the next. If you are having students conduct data gatherings, they can also import their results to Google Earth Pro to show them how the findings they obtain can be put to real world use. There is also traffic maps incorporated into this version which is a convenience to anyone I would like to say. If there was a property dispute in an old time non-fiction story, the students could look up to see who was right with the app. You can also look at how states looked thirty or forty years ago. And of course, you can still look at the universe. This was a very informative article written by Matthew Hughes.

4 things you didnt know about google earth pro Go on a tour and show all your friends Find out more about the world Find out how bad the traffic is in your neighborhood Solve property disputes For 11 years, Google Earth has allowed anyone with a fast Internet connection to explore the world from their desk. Without having to step foot on a plane, you can see the dizzying skyscrapers of Manhattan, marvel at the reddish splendor of Uluru, or even take a trip to space, all for free.

This article outlines the benefits of using technology to go paperless. Gwynn Moore, a media technology teacher in Aurora, Colorado, uses Google Classroom with her students. She also uses Google Docs. WIth over 200 students, they help her keep organized. There are many benefits: students can work at their own pace, grading is efficient, templates are easily designed, the sharing of documents, opportunity for collaboration, and voice-to-text writing abilities. Cloud-based tools improve the learning environment.

The article explains how a teacher's decision to go paperless affected the learning process of her students and her performance and organization as a teacher. Using Google Classroom made the grading process easier for her because she did not have to fight with "unreadable" handwriting anymore. She was able to grade the assignments from any device or computer without having to carry tons of paper around. And she was able improve her classroom's organization by keeping track of her students assignments in the cloud. This allowed her to view, grade, and comment on their assignments without damaging or losing them. For the students, it was beneficial as well because it gave them independence and ownership over their own learning. They were also able to work at their own time and space. Google Classroom proved to be beneficial for both the students and the teacher.

I can completely relate to this article for the fact that I get confused trying to incorporate and use as many tools as I possibly can. It's important to remember that there are many tools out there, many of them made for the same reason built in different ways. It's good to listen to your students and get feedback about which tools your students like and don't like. The reason so many tools are out there is because different variety of teachers and students like different ones. After reading this article I understand it's also really important to remember to assign one tool for one thing and not to overlap and cause confusion for you and your students in your classroom. This can be especially important in elementary classrooms where students are just becoming friendly with certain tools. Although the majority of the tools out there can do a variety of convenient things, it's better to assign one tool for them all or one tool for each. 

As the school year kicks into gear, try these painless ways to incorporate technology into your teaching day.

This article gives teachers multiple ideas of how to integrate technology into their curriculum. It allows for multiple ways to incorporate technology as well as having the students engage with technology in the classroom. The ideas that the article presents are very interesting as well as fun for the students to do. 

This article states that having computers in a classroom does not constitute it being a tech integration classroom. It offers several easy steps that teachers can take to integrate technology into their classroom. For example, accessing the weather forecast or showing a today in history clip. 

When the teacher isn't the all-knowing expert, students feel more empowered to take ownership of their learning. Rather than filling students with information, show them how to find answers. Pose challenging questions and allow students to gather information, analyze, and conclude themselves. Having flaws shows that it's ok to make mistakes and learn from them. Teachers and learners are on a"learning journey" together.

"Teachers and learners are on a"learning journey" together." Perfectly stated.

This is an insightful article. Teachers do not want to spend 80% of their day teaching common core lessons. Since their administrators force them to do so, they spend less time reading about new and exciting facts they could be sharing about broader subjects. To sum it up I believe teachers are being pulled from learning more to teach robotic lessons.

This constructive article written by Nicole Krueger stresses the importance of developing student's abilities to tell their stories through the use of many technological mediums, focusing primarily on video. In today's digital age, sharing our stories or work with the world is an integral part of making learning meaningful and positioning oneself to take place in digital society. While many teachers are still hesitant to integrate video projects into their curriculum, "creating a video can provide an authentic learning experience that brings together critical skills, such as analytical thinking, problem solving and collaboration." Therefore, I think this article is very helpful to our class and other educators alike as it promotes the use of technology in a very creative, innovative, and opportunistic way for students to think beyond the classroom, develop essential abilities, and strive for excellence. The progression of utilizing video projects in the classroom can only implicate stronger motivation for students to exercise technological tools as a major pathway of transferring their learned knowledge and skills to real world application.

This article acknowledged that with the heavy curriculum of high school classrooms preparing for AP test, Standardized testing and SAT/ ACT testing, it is hard to find the time to add unnecessary technology resources. However, it then lists great ideas to use it everyday. This article is very useful for prospective high schools teachers who want to integrate technology more than power points and research. The best point made was that the more preservice teachers are trained in technology the more they tend to use it in the classroom!

I like this article a lot because it has to do with integrating technology in high-school. Most articles are directed at elementary school teachers and how to make it fun for the kids. Well adding a game or an activity that is fun for a ten year old is not going to please a sixteen year old. Most examples of integrating technology are examples of elementary school activities too. So this article is a nice refreshing take on how to integrating technology in high-school.

Technology can be integrated into language courses to help students with their listening and comprehension skills.Teachers can use Audio and VideoPrograms to have students differentiate between accents and slow down speech if it is not their native language to help break it down. Online Activities and ebooks allow for programs to be interactive with student and is a great resource for reinforcement and remediation. The internet has so much to offer wit tons of variety and different teaching methods. Overall, technology allows for higher order thinking, contributes to student motivation, mastery of basic skills. 

This article basically discusses what technology integration is. Then it goes into why it is important. One of the things discussed is that kids today are growing up in a strong technology based world and it is important for them not to only learn the basics but what is needed for everyday life 

It is a true balancing act. Because of the workforce skills students will need when they graduate the push is on to have them use technology often and well. Unfortunately, it takes skill to integrate technology in the most appropriate manner and to its best advantage.

I think that we need to integrate technology into the classroom at a young age because the youth will be using technology going forward for the rest of their lives. And for them to be successful in school, they should begin to use technology to help them.

The article "How to Integrate Tech When It Keeps Changing," it explains the step you should take in knowing the newest and staying up to date on technology. For example, some sites change or update their site. So make sure to check once in awhile. Make sure you have an understanding and now what to do. With things that you are sometimes unsure with, make sure to try to get help with it from someone that may know.

This article speaks on how technology is evolving. With the constant changes it states how schools and teachers need to dive into technology and swim around in it. Classrooms need to correlate classroom learning and technology every day. It will be a lot easier in the future, because students will be more comfortable with it.Technology changes every day and the only way to keep up with the times is constantly working with it.

This article is helpful to us considering we are all aspiring teachers. I'm sure we will all have the opportunity to attend this convention so this can contribute to our experience during that time. Also, who knows how advanced technology will be by that time so there is more of a chance we could have a 10x better experience!

This article is helpful to us considering we are all aspiring teachers. I'm sure we will all have the opportunity to attend this convention so this can contribute to our experience during that time. Also, who knows how advanced technology will be by that time so there is more of a chance we could have a 10x better experience!

This article is helpful to us considering we are all aspiring teachers. I'm sure we will all have the opportunity to attend this convention so this can contribute to our experience during that time. Also, who knows how advanced technology will be by that time so there is more of a chance we could have a 10x better experience!

this is great; i hope it will help you. To truly meet the Common Core, we have to teach students to dig deeper, think bigger and apply what they learn to real-world problems.

this is great; i hope it will help you. To truly meet the Common Core, we have to teach students to dig deeper, think bigger and apply what they learn to real-world problems.

There are five effective ways to integrate technology. Identify relative advantage to see if there is a need that a given technology too can address and search for the most appropriate tool or process to meet that need. Determine objectives and assessments by asking what will students be able to do?, how long will it take for them to do it? and how are they going to demonstrate that the objective was met?. Design instructional strategies by taking into consideration students readiness levels along with their physical and effective needs this will help create appropriate student groupings and a flowing activity sequence of instruction. Prepare the instructional environment by being aware of the classroom layout, available materials, and preparing a backup plan for when technology issues arise. Analyze results and make revisions by making conclusions about what worked and what didn't work.

This article talks about Google Expeditions, which is a new technological tool being used in the classroom. Google has created this for students to be able to take virtual field trips. Many schools cannot afford to take their students on field trips but now they can without leaving the classroom. Teachers are able to pause throughout the tour and discuss with students what is happening or what they are seeing. As of right now this has been given to some schools free of charge. Overall, we can think of this as something like Google maps but ten times better!