Group items tagged

One main concern with integrating technology into the classroom is who is going to teach the current teachers how to use this technology if they don't know .. well here is a great article for teachers who are struggling with technology. Learn It In 5 is a relatively new site that features short how-to videos for teachers. The videos are intended to help teachers quickly learn how to use some of the the web tools are essential to being a successful user of classroom technology. The videos cover tools like Skype, Diigo, VoiceThread, and more.

This article highlights the importance a personal learning network can have on the success of a teacher. Like Mrs.Wendt this article stresses a PLN as a vital tool to help learn from others and become a better teacher to your students, which we all are striving to be in the future. The article gives 5 reasons why educators should network. They are, learn with others, serve your students, access a dynamic resource, extend your learning base and to stay engaged in education.

This is a very great article, I think that networking with other teachers is how you truly become a great teacher. If teachers did not network and talk to each other they would only know what they were taught in college and not have any hands on experience from other teachers who may have been there for a long time. I also believe in staying in touch with others through social media, it is a great resource.

This article is very enlightening and describes how important it is to network with other teachers. Now that you connect virtually connect with anyone in the world at anytime, its makes it much easier to gain insight from other teachers no matter where they are located.

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.

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.

Digital age learning is driven by two facets: the pedagogical side and the wires-and-lights-in-a-box side. But truth be told, you can't have one without the other. Schools must create a unified vision for their tech integration. They must use tools with a proven track record. Implementation should be widespread; across departments.

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."

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. 

This post talks about integrating relevant information into the use of technology in a classroom. This means going beyond teaching the kids how to use the device and download apps but applying technology to specific areas of learning. This includes collaborating with the teachers of certain subjects and creating google docs to be able to openly see students progress as well as create ideas. They also talk about the SAMR model and i'll post that word for word because its an important model that was adopted by the school in the article for this idea. Substitution: Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with no functional change. Augmentation: Technology acts as a direct tool substitute, with functional improvement. Modification: Technology allows for significant task redesign. Redefinition: Technology allows for the creation of new tasks, previously inconceivable.

A Chrome extension called Honey can automatically find coupon codes to apply during your online checkouts. Honey, a Chrome extension which can do the coupon-hunting for you. Honey adds a "Find savings" button to many prominent sites which you can use at checkout. I love this extension because I love saving money!

Thank you for sharing this cool extension. I'm always scrambling in line to find coupons on my iphone, now with this quick, easy, and efficient tool, I can leave the scrambling to Honey. We all love another way to save money!

Tired of reading? Select text you want to read and listen to it. SpeakIt converts text into speech so you no longer need to read. SpeakIt is an app that uses Google and iSpeech text-to-speech service. It allows students to select text and it will read it in more than 50 languages. I think this will be a great tool for English learners and special education students because it will offer material in a different way. Some schools do not have translators for English learners and this app is going to facilitate their communication with the teachers as well as their understanding of the material.

This is a really cool extension. I especially love that it is able to read other languages.

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.

exciting ideas that utilize technology in the classroom.

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.

This is an article that highlights some of the learning tools developed and made available by both NASA and ISTE. A great read for physics and space science teachers.

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 discusses technology that is being used in biology classrooms such as virtual dissections, 3-D animations, and computer modeling and calculations often used in biotech and genetics.

Use the Hightlight extension to highlight important text on specific web pages in different colors! This would be extremely helpful in classrooms, especially when teaching students how to research and find important words and phrases in text!

This definitely seems like a useful tool, not only for teachers but for people who want to share certain parts of an article. I always feel like sharing certain parts of article or stories with friends is tricky to achieve online, but this seems like it would make it much easier, and the fact that there are multiple different colors to choose from makes it that much better

This article starts off by showing you how to install Chrome extensions and which ones to be aware of that could possibly harm your computer or give you issues during use. The article then gives you a link to 50 of the best Chrome extensions for educators in alphabetical order. As an educator, it is important to be able to have a variety of different learning tools for your students.

I took a look at this article as well and loved it! I thought the step-by-step instructions to install Chrome extensions was very helpful. I liked the descriptions of the extensions on the Google doc.

This source not only tells you about 15 great chrome extensions, but it also explains how to get and use chrome extensions as well.

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.