Langwitches Blog Silvia Tolisano

"As I discussed in a previous post What is…will be obsolete in Second Grade?, I am taking a closer look at student jobs and responsibilities in the classroom in relationship to 21st century skills, literacies and "The Digital Learning Farm", a term coined by Alan November."

"I am constantly wrestling with the issue of using technology in schools to TEACH and to LEARN. Long ago, I have resolved that teaching and learning DO NOT depend on technology nor are "not real", good or effective without it"

"As promised here is the follow up video to the trailer from my previous post Bringing a 1:1 iPad Program to China. I am back in the US now and am trying to sort through and make connections to my experiences from the past 2 weeks."

"Through a tip from Twitter, I requested a beta invite from a promising new iPad app called ShowMeApp. It promised to screen capture AND upload the video recording AND then provide me with an embed code. That ability was the one that caught my attention. "

"In my previous post titled Enhancement-Automating-Transforming-Informating, I described the fusion (in my mind) of the SAMR model with Alan November's concept of Automating vs. Informating to transform teaching and learning."

"Mike Fisher and I had the pleasure to sit down with Stephen Wilmarth and five of his Chinese High School students in the International Experimental Class at the Number 1 Middle School attached to the Central China Normal University in Wuhan. Steve is piloting the first 1:1 iPad program in all of China."

"I am in Wuhan China… Don't know off the top of your head where that is? Take a look at the map below. It is on the same latitude as Jacksonville, Florida where I live…just on the other side of the globe…"

"A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is a group of people you count on to: * guide you in your learning * be your source of advice and resources * make you aware of learning opportunities * share their best practices * point you to answers and support"

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

"The more we podcast and have our students create video clips or other digital storytelling projects, the more we need to teach storyboarding as part of the process. Being able to pre-visualize how your story will unfold is becoming a vital skill to have for storytellers."

"It is time for another chapter in the series of Digital Storytelling for Educators posts. When I wrote The Guide to Digital Storytelling Tools for Educators (2008), I did not have a Smartphone yet and had yet to envision a device like the iPad."

"When I first learned about the term "Third Culture Kids", I was relieved since I finally could put a name to "the way I have felt most of my life".

"As a former World Language teacher, I know of the importance of hearing the target language as much as possible. In order to internalize a new vocabulary word, you have to hear it at least 70+ times. By hearing I mean not only the sounds of the letters that make up the word, but also the context the word is embedded in… the melody of the sentence that embraces that word… the words that lead up to it and the words that follow it to make meaning and conclude the sentence."

"I just finished two great days participating in the ECIS (European Council of International Schools) IT conference in Frankfurt, Germany. Besides attending very interesting sessions by David Warlick, Jamie McKenzie, Warren Apel (International School of Amsterdam) and Maggie Hos-McGrane (International School of Zug and Luzern) I also had the privilege of sharing two presentation with the other attendees. Below you can find my slides from each of the presentation. For further resources and links mentioned during the presentation, please visit my wiki."

"I had the incredible opportunity to attend TEDxNYED at the beginning of this month. The day was full of incredible presenters sharing their stories. Stories that I had heard before, but came alive with the passion of the presenters and the energy of the room filled with attendees ready to absorb, remix and disseminate in their own areas of influence."

"We are intensifying the quest to empower our learners by allowing the students to become contributors to their classroom learning community. Our model is Alan November's six roles he outlines in The Digital Learning Farm. One of these roles is The Tutorial Designer."

"Alan November's article Students as Contributors: The Digital Learning Farm has inspired me in my professional life beyond words and guided many of my research and actions in the classroom and professional development since then."

"What is a techno-tale? A techno-tale is a digitally told story. There are many ways to create digital stories. "

"Difference between social and academic commenting. You could create a blog for your young students, in order to allow them a safe online space where your young students can socialize and "practice" in an online environment. This type of blog fosters a virtual kind of classroom community that can spill over (positively or negatively) into the physical classroom as well."