Group items tagged

Media Sharing

Pinterest  Create connections, encourage collaboration, ignite discussions, or simply share mutual interests through Pinterest. Uploaded or “pin” images and videos from websites, blogs, or your own computer, smartphone, or tablet to create boards. These boards can be private or public, and others can be invited to pin on any of your boards. Any “pin” can be "repinned", and all pins will link back to their source. Grades 6-12. Tip: Have students work in groups to create research projects and share their sources visually.

Manage & Organize Standards for the 21st-Century Learner 2.1.2 Organize knowledge so that it is useful. 2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information. 3.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to organize and display knowledge and understanding in ways that others can view, use and assess.

While lectures and lessons can be informative and even “edutaining” when delivered with passion and good materials by knowledgeable experts, sadly many traditional lectures and lessons are boring, and even worse often ineffective.

Even if you don’t have computers or tablets available in your classroom, the fact that an increasing number of High School and college students have smartphones is making it easier than ever to leverage technology to create engaging, active lessons students enjoy working on. For younger grades, if you don’t have access to devices with Web access, perhaps you can access a computer lab by request, or use devices in your library.

1. Incorporate Student Input & Gather Feedback

I believe that each child is a unique individual who needs a secure, caring, and stimulating atmosphere in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially.

Developing a curriculum around student interests fosters intrinsic motivation and stimulates the passion to learn.

The tech solutions available to teachers now go far beyond the overhead projector. Below, a look at some tools in this burgeoning category. BetterLesson The Boston-based startup BetterLesson, founded in 2008, is a social media platform that educators can use to organize and share their curricula. Last year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded BetterLesson $3.5 million. “Considering the startup allows teachers to browse a serious repository of documents, presentations, lessons and even complete units and courses, all through a simple search interface, and upload their own lessons onto a dashboard, you can see why teachers will love this kind of resource,” TechCrunch wrote in 2011. “Add the ability to share curricula directly with international educators and receive feedback, and you’ve got yourself a goddamn deal, as Dave Chappelle would say.” . ClassDojo Launched in August 2011, ClassDojo helps teachers with what many call their hardest task: classroom management. The platform, which teachers can use on a smartphone, laptop or tablet, allows them to give students points (or take them away) “in real-time, with just one click,” as the website has it. Students are notified (“Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!”), and teachers can use the platform to generate analytics and reports to share with parents and administrators. . PowerSchool PowerSchool allows teachers to track attendance, grades, and a lot more for students and parents to view at home. According to Pearson, which sells the system, PowerSchool supports 10 million students in over 65 countries. . SMART Board An “interactive whiteboard,” SMART Board allows teachers to write class notes digitally, so they can be saved for students to access later. (Feel like building your own whiteboard? At TED in 2008, Johnny Lee showed how you can hack a Wii Remote to build a simple interactive whiteboard.) . Remind101 Started by a team of two brothers, Remind101 enables students and parents to sign up to receive teachers’ text-message reminders about assignments. It’s private—these are mass texts, and teachers can’t see students’ phone numbers. It’s also one-way, meaning that teachers can send out texts, but students can’t respond to them. . Educreations Using Educreations, teachers can produce video lessons using a “recordable interactive whiteboard” via an iPad app or the website. There’s a public directory of lessons, available for browsing by students or other teachers (or you).

Effective use of the Smart Board technology can without question quickly produce increased student interaction and engagement with specific instructional material and can have lasting benefits on the classroom dynamic and cognitive development of the middle school age student population

In the 21st century not only do most K-12 students have or are in the process of acquiring technological literacy, but concurrently the use of technology has become the central focus of their lives

While the classroom should not become simply a conduit for students to further immerse themselves in technology, the classroom should not pretend technology does not exist as well

6) With technology, the classroom is a happier place. Students are excited about being able to use technology and therefore are more apt to learn.

aching With Technology

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se technology to create portfolios of students' work.

Chris Williams, the Mathematics Co-ordinator at Spring Cottage Primary School in Hull, England, has a list of ten interactive iPad apps that helped him teach math to his students. Red Bull Kart Fighter, a track racing game, helped teach students how to calculate averages. 

Educators at Ringwood North Primary School in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, created the Epic Citadel Challenge to foster storytelling, creative collaboration and individual initiative.

For example, AutoRap will take your words and turn them into a rap and Strip Designer enables the creation of comic strips.

Children need real-life experiences with real people to truly benefit from available technologies. Technologies should be used to enhance curriculum and experiences for children. Children have to have an integrated and well-balanced set of experiences to help them grow into capable adults that can handle social-emotional interactions as well as develop their intellectual abilities.

Unfortunately, technology is often used to replace social situations and I would rather see it used to enhance human interactions. And I think that can happen.

A number of trends are combining to create new opportunities for students and the field of technology. As more and more content is available online, sometimes exclusively, it is important to ensure that the information is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities; assistive and learning technology offers great promise in helping these students. Special education delivery now happens more often in the general education classroom, not in segregated special needs classrooms. Also, the stunning innovation of technology; has made it easier to use and customize. It has become more powerful and available at lower costs, therefore making it attractive as part of a school wide solution. Tremendous advances in technology in the past decade have led to the development of speech synthesis and recognition technology, interactive software, and miniaturization and portability that help these students achieve and thrive (National Center on Technology Innovation.(2006). Moving Towards Solutions: Assistive Learning Technology for all Students. Washington, DC: Author)

Question 1: How can social media tools such as Facebook, wikis, and blogs be used in high schools as learning tools? Question 2: Can you provide concrete examples in how schools and districts are using learning and assistive technologies to help students with disabilities succeed on the high school level? Question 3: What funding is now available for high schools in regards to technology with American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) 2009?

1. Get Some Training. You don't have to become a computer expert, but you need to have some basic understanding of how computers operate and what to do when they do not operate properly. You should also become familiar with a web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer and websites that provide tech-integration resources and tutorials. Your school or college likely has an instructional technology specialist to help you in this regard. 2. Don't Re-invent the Wheel. There are plenty of credible and experienced educational technology organizations, administrators and teachers out there who can lead you to quality materials, lesson plans and activities for use in your classroom. You don't have to spend hours using search engines to locate appropriate sites and materials. Some of the best educational Web sites for integrating technology in the classroom are: Center for History and New Media Classroom 2.0Edutopia Discovery Education: Kathy Schrock "Guide for Educators"PBS Teachers: Media InfusionThinkfinity 3. Establish a Partnership with Your Students. Many of your students will be excited about computer use, but you and they may be apprehensive about how technology will change your learning environment. Tell your students that computer use in your classroom is new and exciting for you as well, and that you are all part of an experiment whose ultimate success will largely depend on your combined efforts and cooperation. Stress how special this educational opportunity is and how much you need their input. Remember, it's about the students, not you. Your students will probably appreciate you asking for their help, and it may spur them to take ownership of the program. It also may soften some frustrations when technical problems occur. 4. Have a Plan B Ready. You are going to run into some technical difficulties in class and how you handle them will go a long way in determining how successful and enjoyable your technology experience is. You can minimize unwanted surprises by getting some training from an instructional technology specialist and by minimizing your reliance on live web connections. However, you will invariably run into technical problems during class that you are not able to solve immediately. In such instances, if you appear overly perturbed and frustrated you will send a signal to your students that they too can moan about technical problems and perhaps use them as excuses to forego completing computer-based work. Even worse, you may inadvertently cause them to question the ultimate merit of computer-based learning. Instead, try to make a smooth transition to a backup lesson plan, thereby sending a signal that technical glitches are just part of your educational adventure.

Integrating technology into a high school classroom isn't a one-step process. "You can't just slap a netbook [computer] on top of a textbook and say, 'Great, now we have technology," says Bob Wise, former governor of West Virginia and president of the Alliance for Excellent Education, an advocacy organization.Wise says that digital learning starts with teachers, whose performance is enhanced by technology—not the other way around. That's also the idea of Digital Learning Day, which the Alliance is spearheading.

ning practices," says Sarah Hall, director of the Alliance's Center for Secondary School Digital Learning and Policy.