Group items tagged

"There is something about doodling…illustrating… as you are listening to, absorbing and reflecting about content or an experience. I have questions…? Does doodling calm a mind, that is constantly bouncing of its walls? Does doodling help one focus on auditory material? Can doodling help clarify content? Does doodling only work for the artistically inclined? (What if I can't draw?) Is doodling only beneficial for the visual learner?"

"When you are multilingual, you are used to the fact that news is being reported differently (from another point of view/perspective) in different countries. Before the Internet, you only knew this, when you were traveling between countries, spoke to friends or relatives on the phone, or were able to get you hands on old media (newspapers or magazines). Since the advent of the Internet and World Wide Web, we are finally able to connect to information and web sites without having to cross any geographic borders or time zones."

"As an extension to my first blog post "Add a Global Perspective to your Google Search", I wanted to add a video that was inspired by last week's keynote presentation by Alan November at CMI 2011."

"Here is another post in the series of showing Alan November's Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors in Action."

" A stirring story of survival set against the backdrop of the founding of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. In 1606, King James I granted a charter to a group of London businessmen known as the Virginia Company to establish an English settlement in North America. In 1607, 104 men set sail aboard three tiny ships on a voyage to a new land. What they found became the first permanent English settlement in the New World-Jamestown. Among the brave adventurers who made the journey was a young boy named Samuel Collier, the page of famed Captain John Smith. How could we move away from assigning the traditional reading of the book (chapter by chapter), then writing a book report and possibly give an oral presentation in front of the class? How could we tie the lessons, delivery, supported skills and objectives NOT only to curriculum, but also to our Learning Target (based on and adapted from www.galileo.org )"

"To piggy back onto my last post about Alan November's call to make students contributors to their own learning, I wanted to share the "Skype Jobs" of my students. There is a sense of excitement in the room, when our students get ready to conduct a Skype call. I almost want to compare it to a "traditional" vision of a newsroom before a deadline. Everyone is buzzing, running here, running there to get ready for their job assignment. Don't ask why, but I have the memory of a scene in the "Watergate"movie with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in my mind."

"Images like the following ones, visualize for me the urgency for all of us to become information literate to wade through the incredible, ever increasing, amount of information being created and shared with the world."

'I confess, I am a visual learner! I also relate better to metaphors, since they paint a picture in my mind."

"I brainstormed a few more workflow possibilities with a basic app toolkit. The Basic App Toolkit contains app that I consider helpful/useful for creating workflows for teachers and students in the learnflow of LEARN-> CREATE-> SHARE."

"As I am on a Twitter adventure with our 4th and 5th graders and their teachers @teitelbaumsteph & @shellyzavon, I am breaking down steps to tweeting and the process of learning during Tweeting as a classroom. Ryan Bretag's post Twitter for Thinking Publicly echoed beautifully my thoughts about the "use of Twitter beyond the usual lower level posting assignments, message blasting, or basic discussion forum-like uses.""

"In the back of my mind, I continued to have Alan November's Six New Roles for Developing Empowered Learners and Contributors, which I have written about before: Math Lesson? Empower Learners? , "Skype Jobs" for Students & Students as Meaningful Contributors "

"The issue of copyright came up with our 7th graders as they were creating Gloggs about different characters of a story. The Language Arts teacher asked me to join them to reinforce and discuss copyright, creative commons, public domain and fair use. Not an easy task … I decided to show the class the ~10 minute The Fair(y) Use Tale video clip."

"I am a documenter, I have always been… maybe it is in my blood… …from keeping diaries from an early age on, being the family letter writer, to taking pictures to document our lives, vacations, family and friends… even when it was tedious… (taking 24 or 36 exposures at a time, then taking it to a photo store to develop them and waiting a week to being able to pick them up)."

"There is no question that I am a visual learner. Not only do visuals created by others help me make context and content clearer to me, but visuals also play a pivotal role in the process of thinking about, wrapping my mind around, developing, connecting, and making my work visible in order to share with others. I have experimented with infographics, sketchnotes, slides, and hybrid visuals. I use tools such as: Piktochart Canva Paper by fiftythree Keynote Here are the Top 10 Visuals & Infographics on Langwitches."

"The picture above makes me smile… I see a group of Kindergarteners thinking, wondering, discussing, testing things out, collaborating, being proud of their independence as they are working with iPads. It was the first time, we "let go" with the iPads. Previously, we had iPad Centers, working with 3-4 students at a time or we took two buddies out of the class to record each other in a separate room. This time, we decided students were ready (I was not so sure, if I was ready) to give each 5/6 year old their own iPad in hand. My eyes were constantly darting across the room, trying to foresee any potential disasters or accidents about to happen in regards to the physical well being of the devices (I am happy to report that there was not one incident!)"

"There are, no doubt, many technophobes (among educators and in general) out there. Technophobia is defined by The Free Dictionary as: Fear of or aversion to technology, especially computers and high technology."

"The following is a wonderful description, step by step, how one librarian upgraded traditional "animal reports" with a first grade class (six year olds)."

"Students need our guidance to use virtual platforms for ACADEMIC purposes. We can't rely on their "so called" native status to know how and what to do. Just a few years ago, no one had heard of "backchanneling", nowadays, it has become main stream (although most people might not associate the term "backchannel" and "backchanneling" with something they might be familiar with."

"The app development market is exploding. More and more companies are creating "educational apps". In some cases, they are simply digital versions of a book or a web based tool. Some seem to have "no educational value" to it at all, but are still sold under the label of "education". "

"Wes Fryer, a blogger I have been following for many years, has created a wonderful resource page called "Mapping Media to the Curriculum" page. He starts with the simple question: What do you want to create today?"