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"Students are so emerged with technology, sometimes they act as the educators, showing their teachers how to do certain things and use certain tools. This video asks the simple question of if we are paying attention to the way our students learn. Besides being a visual, spatial or audio learner, most students fall under the category of "digital learners." With fascinating facts like the 10,000 hours college graduates have spent playing video games and the 70% of our nation's 4-6 year olds that have used a computer; it is no wonder why students are being classified as digital learners. The video also asks if we as teachers are reaching our students. Are we engaging them? The technologies that students are using so much in their everyday lives should be infused into the classrooms so that we do reach our students and so that we do engage them. Blogs, wikis, podcasts, virtual tours. These are just a few of the dozens of items presented in the video that offer a new way to use technology with our students. It brings up a great point that since our students already know how to use these technologies, we should be using them to teach. Even recent graduates who are no longer in school encourage the idea of using technology to engage students, not enrage them. Podcasts are another great option to teaching. With thousands available in almost any subject, you can teach students without having to stand up and lecture them. This video offers great advice and inspiration for engaging digital learners today."

"In the face of the "new normal" of decreased budgets and increased expectations, many administrators are turning to technology to enhance teaching and learning while mitigating the consequences of consecutive years of budget cuts. Mobile learning, in particular, has attracted a great deal of attention for its potential to engage students by leveraging the technology environment they have grown accustomed to in their non-school lives; its potential to scale personalized learning and reduce the digital divide; its potential to extend learning beyond the four walls of the classroom and the limited hours of the school day; and its potential to enable new pedagogies based on the affordances of these devices that students already carry at their fingertips.Still, the field of mobile learning is still emerging and there are many questions to be addressed when contemplating a mobile learning implementation. How do we create a program with a sustainable impact on teaching and learning, rather than a superficial adoption of the currently "hot" technology? What are the steps involved in implementing a mobile learning program? How do we optimize the investment of our technology dollars? How do we choose devices, networks, and software for our implementation? What are the security considerations in implementing a mobile learning program? What are the policy considerations for a mobile learning program? What are the professional development considerations? What are the teaching models associated with mobile learning? What are the options for funding a mobile learning program?"

"iSchool: a closer look at Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program email Does Manhattan Beach Unified's iPad pilot program represent the future of education? Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Kindergarten students at Grand View Elementary School use iPads two times a week. Photo by Alene Tchekmedyian Just before 8 a.m. one recent Tuesday, Andy Caine wheeled a waist-high cart into his second-floor history classroom at Mira Costa High School, as the Beach Boys' "I Get Around" played faintly in the background. On the syllabus for the day: the First Amendment. As the first period bell rang, Caine unlocked the cart. "Come and get 'em," Caine said to his class of seniors, and stood behind his podium, on which he's pasted a sticker reading, "Think for yourself. Question Authority." The students put aside their pens and notebooks and lined up at the cart to pick up an unconventional tool that school districts across the nation have been implementing into classrooms. Each student grabbed an iPad and returned to his or her seat. Caine is one of 43 Manhattan Beach Unified School District teachers chosen to try the $500,000 iPad pilot program, which started last fall. At Mira Costa, two English, math, science and social studies teachers use iPads, along with eight science teachers at Manhattan Beach Middle School and 27 teachers of different grade levels at each elementary school. The district purchased 560 student iPads (32 gigabytes and costing around $700 each), in addition to iPads for pilot teachers and administrators. A quarter of the pilot costs are grant funded, while the district supports the rest. Later this year, the School Board will decide whether, and in what capacity, to continue the pilot. Caine and pilot teachers implement iPads into their curricula two to three times a week, a total of 30 to 90 minutes. "I would use them every day if I had the po

"Below are some of the inspiring videos made by teenagers at TedxTeen which is the adolescent version of TED talks. Show your students what other teenagers are doing apart from being glued to their mobile phone screens texting all the time.Let them see the potential inside of them that they are wasting in playing stupid and violent games all the time. Our students are living in a merciless commercial world where surrounded by savage advertising companies whose sole purpose is to make gains in the growing teens market. We should give them a hand and help them out. They are desperate for motivation and passion and with just some simple but creative ways we can make a change in their lives. "

Using edu.Glogster.com Kathe L. Santillo, Instructional Technology Coach A Glog is like a poster, only better. Glogs allow you to create an online poster using photographs, images, graphics, video files and sound files. Glogs allow you to add hyperlinks to other websites. When you use a Glog, you are referred to as a "glogger." The benefits of the Glogster Edu version are:  Students can't see content from the regular Glogster site when they are making Glogs in the EDU zone.  You can embed your work in wiki pages.  All Glogs made by students on the teacher page are PRIVATE.  You can easily set up accounts for your students…just register for the EDU zone, fill in the number of student accounts or add accounts from your dashboard.  Each teacher and all his students are connected, and students can leave comments on other student Glogs.  You can see Glogs of your students on their profiles.

"Does your school or school district provide a moderated, interactive web platform for video sharing among students as well as teachers? While education-specific video sites like Edublogs.tv, SchoolTube, and TeacherTube can and are being used by learners around the world to share video interactively (as well as YouTube and YouTube EDU) there can be a number of benefits when schools provide "homegrown YouTube" video services. Often school district network administrators are loath to unblock / open access to YouTube. A homegrown video sharing site can be moderated and controlled (an extremely important word in the lexicon of IT directors) in ways a public video sharing website outside the school network cannot. Bandwidth limitations are often cited as the reason video sharing sites in schools are blocked. While software and hardware solutions exist to limit the percentage or total amount of bandwidth allocated to services like video streaming websites, many school networks are not presently configured to implement these types of imposed limits. "The fight to unblock YouTube" even for teacher access and use is an uphill struggle in many schools, but the case for a homegrown video sharing site can be less contentious."

"Flatclassroom09-3 - Sounding Boards Every fall a global project takes place led by Julie Lindsay and Vicki Davis. This year over 220 students from 5 countries will research trends in information technology and globalization, write a collaborative research report on a wiki, and produce digital videos about their topics. Sound impressive? Well it is! These students are not graduate level university students. They are in high school. As part of this project, there is a peer reviewing process that takes place later this month. These Sounding Boards are simply a 1 -> 2 -> 3 review done by middle school students. I have my 7th graders do this. My students think they are reviewing college student work. When I show them pictures of the students involved, they are often incredulous. The global project has won ISTE's Online Learning Award (2007) and is included in Thomas Friedman's book, The World is Flat. Each team produces 5 videos to go with the research report. The wikis and the videos need you to peer review. Each Sounding Board classroom only has to review one team wiki. Sign up on the Flatclassroom page (scroll down) or if you prefer contact me and I will sign you up. I have found my kids love watching the videos. I like to make a wikisite for my classroom and have them do the 1 -> 2 -> 3 reviews that Kim Cofino recommends. So come volunteer! Let's overwhelm the project with our middle school enthusiasm! Navigate to the FlatClassroom09-3 Sounding Boards page and read over the description. Sign up or contact me to do it. Thanks in advance!! "

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

In April of 2011, the USD No. 448 Board of Education, based upon a recommendation supported by the administration and staff, voted to approve iPads for all staff and all students in grades 4, 9, 10, 11, and 12 beginning in August 2011. We have been "pioneers" in the iPad one to one arena. The journey has been challenging, interesting, frustrating, enlightening, but most of all rewarding. Our staff has done an incredible job of embracing change and integrating iPads into our curriculum. They are providing an extremely important service to other educators--being a model school. What I have observed is that because this is such a new concept, other educators are much more inclined to get excited about the concept if they are able to see it in action. Thank you USD No. 448 staff members for providing a working model for other educators.

Who are we? We are Mathletes! Actually, we are TeenMathletes. I know you are probably wondering what a mathlete is. Well, a mathlete is someone who plays competitve math. I know that proabbly sounds funny. But we see ourselves as athletes who compete in math instead of sports. Who would think that math could be competitive - well it is very competitive and we take it very serious. Not too serious of course . :D

"What is the Value of a Coach? Coaching done well may be the most effective intervention designed for human performance. Atul Gawande A district administrator recently wrote to tell me that her district was facing "tough financial decisions" that are naturally causing lower morale. Everyone in her district feels under attack. And "the coaches are naturally questioning their value."" All of us experience dark times when we wonder if we are making a difference, and coaches are no different. So I thought I would do my best to answer the coaches' question. What is the value of a coach? Coaches Support & Encourage Teachers. A coach is

"Teachers Guide on The Use of Wikis in Education guides, social networking tools, wikis in education Med kharbach Today's guide is about Wikis in education. This is the 14th guide we are publishing here and there are more coming on the way. We . in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning, are very much hoping that by the time we finish posting all the series of guides we have been working on, our readers ( most of whom are teachers and educators ) will have already acquainted themselves with some powerful web tools to integrate technology into their education. As I said in earlier guides, we will also publish a free ebook containing all the guides we have written plus several other surprises for teachers, so stay tuned."

"You might have wondered how those beautiful animated videos you see on YouTube are made. Sometimes you think people use expensive software ( well some do especially advertising companies ) but most of them are created using simple and free tools but with so much of creativity. Today I am introducing you to an awesome set of tools that are integrated into youTube and that will allow you to easily create videos without needing cameras or having to upload files or do any editing. They are very self explanatory and you can have a great video to share with your students in less than 10 minutes."

Touchcards is an iPhone app that supports loading cards from Quizlet and StudyStack, two of the most popular flash card sharing sites on the web. Thousands of great free sets are already available, and you can always create your own. You get the benefits of the hard work you or other people have put into creating sets on Quizlet and StudyStack, but also have the freedom to study the cards on your own. If the flashcards are edited and changed after you've imported them, you can easily re-sync them with Touchcards, so you'll always be up-to-date. If you need to create your own flash cards and don't want to use Quizlet.com or StudyStack.com, you can create a simple spreadsheet in Google Docs, with one column for questions (the front of a card) and one column for answers (the flipside of a card). Publish your spreadsheet as a web page and tell Touchcards where to find the set. Touchcards is easy to use and interactive, relying on swipes, taps, and shakes to study a flash card set. You can make your own cards in Google Docs or through Quizlet and StudyStack (both sites are free to use and have active communities). Thousands of free flash cards are already available, covering topics in math, Spanish, French, English, music, anatomy, the GRE, MCAT, SAT, LSAT, weather, body parts, history, algebra, geometry, chemistry, accounting, and many more. Flashcards can be an integral part of learning new material. It's important to mentally anticipate the answer or definition to a given card. Doing this increases retention of knowledge and facilitates building a mental model around the material. In short, you'll do better on tests.

"Welcome to the world of the iPad! I hope that you, like I have, will find this amazing device transforming in your approach to the utilization of technology for teaching and learning. Hopefully, we will soon be saying goodbye to the fifty pound backpacks our students carry around, and all of their textbooks and learning resources will be available on this one, small device! Whether you are currently using iPads in your school or for yourself...or if you are just beginning to explore the possibilities, I hope you will find resources here to benefit you in your journey. Enjoy this site, share the information with others, and feel free to contact me with any questions or to share your experiences! Below are some of my "musings" as I reflect on where we currently are in our journey with the utilization of technology with our students. Enjoy!"

"Educators are constantly seeking new strategies for using Wikis in the classroom. This is especially true for teachers who have formulated some ideas; however, they are still looking for additional ideas. Even teachers who have been using this technology for quite some time are on the lookout for new ideas. Regardless of being new to Wiki or a veteran, new strategies and techniques for engaging students are just around the corner."

We welcome you to our wiki and blog for supporting iPod & iPad devices in education. Although our focus is K-12, many of the techniques should work for you at any level and with any number of devices. On the wiki side of this site are the deployment and management articles, and on the blog side, you will find the classroom activities (written primarily by teachers) where iPods are supporting achievement improvement for our students. We are posting as many help and how-to articles here as we can and as quickly as we can so you can continue to be successful using iPod devices in your classroom. Please let us know if there are more or different things that you would like to have included here.

"10 Ways for Teachers & Students to Build Websites The lines between blogging platforms, website platforms, and wiki platforms are not always clear. I have a somewhat simplistic explanation that I give to teachers who don't have a web presence yet, but want to create one for their professional work. Here's the explanation: websites are good for providing a static resource of information, blogs are good for frequent updates and communication, and a wiki is great for collaborating on the creation of a reference site. For the teacher who wants to create a website, here are ten good platforms to try."

"Cell Phones for Learning Cell phones are rapidly becoming ubiquitous in many school communities, but their presence in the classroom is commonly viewed as disruptive and unwanted. Modern cell phones offer a variety of capabilities, which are being used effectively by educators in different schools to support curricular learning objectives and boost student achievement. Explore reasons some school districts are embracing the use of cell phones for learning both inside and outside the classroom and examine specific guidelines school districts are utilizing for student cell phones. Explore specific applications of cell phones for learning, including use as electronic response systems, data access, media recording, homework tracking and social networking. This session is also presented as: * Guidelines and Instructional Applications for Cell Phone Use at School * Cell Phone Digital Storytelling"

Discovery Education and 3M have partnered to bring the science of everyday life into your classroom. This fantastic collection of resources is for students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. On the site you will find videos and interactives that help kids learn about the science around them and make connections to what they are learning in school. Lessons are inquiry based and encourage exploration in life science, physical science, earth science and technology/innovation. Virtual labs are interactive flash-based labs where students can discover more about science like wind energy. At the Innovation HQ portion of the site, students can travel through time and look at innovations that they use in their every day life and "meet" 3M scientists. On the Student page, students can see a young inventors hall of fame.

"Welcome! At USD 207 in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, we are committed to developing TEAMS skills (Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math and Science) as part of the CYBER-TEAMS initiative. We are a community of K-9 educators serving 2000 students, most of whom are children of military families. Join our journey as we develop the next generation of leaders. "