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This teacher chose to have his students create RSA Animate-style videos as "an easy way to make them visualize their information, make connections, and re-tell their facts in a story that had a very tight story line that flowed.  All skills that would transfer nicely to any traditional essay." He really emphasizes the preparation and planning stages, which is great. He also talks about the process, which is useful.  All said, a great resource.

A good article about one teacher's experiences with and criticisms of the "flipped classroom". This teacher focused on creating a learning environment that was student centered and put the ownership for learning on the students. Def. take some time to read this article if you are interested in and/or trying to "flip" any of your classes.

Selected key quotes from the article: "As I shifted my classroom from teacher-centered to student-centered, my students began to do lots of their their own research. Sometimes this resulted in them teaching each other. Sometimes they created a project with the knowledge they were acquiring. But the bottom line was that their learning had a purpose that was apparent to them, beyond simply passing the unit exam." "As this new way of learning played out over time, my students found they didn't need me to locate or create videos for them. Instead, they learned how to learn, and they were able to find their own resources. For me, this was a much more important skill than following my directions or using the resources I told them to use." "My students differentiated their own instruction. They worked at their own pace, since they chose their own resources. They could do extra work at home if they felt it necessary." "I talked to every student every day. I could look at their work, have them articulate their thinking process, and see where they were struggling. I could spend time helping those who really needed it."

A good article about how one college history professor used WikiSpaces to help his students become more engaged in the study of history and the writing process. With some modification for age/grade appropriateness this might be an interesting project idea for RCS history classes. This might also work well for learning in English classes (classes create Wikis based on novels/books read?). Key selections from the article: "Students did not agree on the merits of the wiki. Some were deeply offended when other students eliminated or modified their contributions. Others found the chance to pick apart other's words and conclusions exhilarating. Regardless, most students seemed to grasp the important lesson I hoped to share: that history is the conversation we have about the past. History is about the authorial choices scholars make. History is about the evidence included and the evidence excluded. By asking students to participate in a joint-writing exercise, they were compelled to pay attention to the language others used, the phrasings and structure employed, the anecdotes emphasized, the facts obscured." "The wiki, while not perfect, may help us change the way our students think about history. It may help them be more attentive to language and argument. Importantly, it may help them value civil discourse as a civic virtue."

A great overview article on ePortfolios. Some helpful sections from the article include: "WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO?" "THE PROCESS OF PORTFOLIO DEVELOPMENT" "WHY ELECTRONIC PORTFOLIOS?"

"How do we get people to understand programming? We change programming. We turn it into something that's understandable by people." Excellent demonstration of application of contextual understanding toward learning.

From iPad Apps for School: "Doodlecast Pro is an excellent iPad app for creating instructional videos. Doodlecast Pro could be a great iPad app for teachers to use to create instructional videos to use in a flipped classroom setting. Think of each page in a Doodlecast Pro video as a step in a process for solving an equation. Or think of the pages as sections in a short history lesson. Students could also use the app for creating instructional videos or creative short story videos."

Link to Doodlecast review by iPad Apps for School: http://ipadapps4school.com/2013/01/11/doodlecast-pro-makes-it-easy-to-create-flipped-classroom-videos/

Ink2Go is a screen annotation and recording solution that lets you write on top of your active desktop applications in real time. Save your annotations as image files or even record the entire annotation process as a sharable video!