We have Activboards in our district. The ActivInspire software that we use with the boards has screen recording. Our teachers can capture their lessons as they teach. They have bluetooth microphones they can use for audio. ActivInspire software has a free version. Teachers use it more for students who are absent or when they are going to be absent.
Students have Macbook Air which has Quicktime with built in mic and camera. They create projects.
"Years ago, when farms dominated our landscape, children were responsible for performing meaningful jobs that were vital to each family's success. Depending on their age, children would care for animals, repair farm equipment, prepare food to sell at local markets and more. Children were essential to the very survival of the family. At the same time, these jobs taught children the value of hard work, leading them to become more productive citizens within their communities as adults."
"4th grade teachers from Louisiana and Kansas, share their lessons learned, experiences, and celebrations as Skype buddies. Included are ways to find other classes to connect with and how to find projects to get started."
"Skype is a free and easy way for teachers to open up their classroom and their students to a world way beyond their campus. With Skype, students can learn from other students, connect with other cultures, and expand their knowledge in amazing ways. Teachers and parents can also benefit from Skype in the classroom. Read below to learn how you can take advantage of the power of Skype in your classroom.
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"Everything you do now ends up in your permanent record. The best plan is to overload Google with a long tail of good stuff and to always act as if you're on Candid Camera because you are." - Seth Godin
"Coming up with the right question involves vigorously thinking through the problem, investigating it from various angles, turning closed questions into open-ended ones and prioritizing which are the most important questions to get at the heart of the matter.
"We've been underestimating how well our kids can think."
"We've been underestimating how well our kids can think." Rothstein said in a recent discussion on the talk show Forum. "We see consistently that there are three outcomes. One is that students are more engaged. Second, they take more ownership, which for teachers, this is a huge thing. And the third outcome is they learn more - we see better quality work.""
"The author shares findings from her action research, focusing on the question, "How can I use critique to improve the quality of student feedback, student work and create a culture of collaboration?" "
"The essence of character is not mere backbone. As Dewey said, it is good judgment borne of having learned to really think and to be held accountable for one's judgments by the demands of schooling:"
"As teachers, we all know that we should create time to reflect on our professional practices… we need to experience the process of reflecting, in order to be able to guide our students…
….but what get's cut the easiest from our schedule if there is little time available? How can we see reflection as a high priority item on our never ending list of things to do? How can we get into the habit of making reflection time?"
" Returning to a learning experience or recapturing a learning event some time after it has taken place may allow the learner to revisit the entire experience from a fresh and different perspective. Learners may uncover previous knowledge that had been learned but was now buried or simply forgotten. "
"Collective Reflection
Monday, October 15, 2012
4:30pm - 6:00pm
SHCP - Herbst Library and Information Center
"Reflection is what allows us to learn from our experiences: it is an assessment of where we have been and where we want to go next."~ Kenneth Wolf
"We do not learn from experience…we learn from reflecting on experience." ~ John Dewey
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"Reflection is a form of mental processing - like a form of thinking - that we use to fulfill a purpose or to achieve some anticipated outcome. It is applied to relatively complicated or unstructured ideas for which there is not an obvious solution and is largely based on the further processing of knowledge and understanding and possibly emotions that we already possess (based on Moon 1999)
Moon points out that one of the defining characteristics of surface learning is that it does not involve reflection (p.123). She points out the conditions for reflection: time and space, a good facilitator, a supportive curricular or institutional environment, and an emotionally supportive environment. Moon further points out the qualities of tasks that encourage reflection:
Ill-structured, 'messy' or real-life situations
Asking the 'right' kinds of questions - there are no clear-cut answers
Setting challenges can promote reflection
Tasks that challenge learners to integrate new learning into previous learning
Tasks that demand the ordering of thoughts
Tasks that require evaluation"
"Reflection can be a challenging endeavor. It's not something that's fostered in school - typically someone else tells you how you're doing! Teachers are often so caught up in the meeting the demands of the day, that they rarely have the luxury to muse on how things went. Moreover, teaching can be an isolating profession - one that dictates "custodial" time with students over "collaborative" time with peers. In an effort to help schools become more reflective learning environments, I've developed this "Taxonomy of Reflection" - modeled on Bloom's approach."
"Can ICT redefine the way we learn in the Networked Society? Technology has enabled us to interact, innovate and share in whole new ways. This dynamic shift in mindset is creating profound change throughout our society. The Future of Learning looks at one part of that change, the potential to redefine how we learn and educate. Watch as we talk with world renowned experts and educators about its potential to shift away from traditional methods of learning based on memorization and repetition to more holistic approaches that focus on individual students' needs and self expression."