Group items tagged

"In my last post, I mentioned Validity, Reliability, Authenticity, and Efficiency. In evaluating tools that either students or I can use for the purpose of classroom assessment, I look for Value. I want to know what a tool offers me, in terms of saving me time/effort, or what it offers my students, in terms of access, ease of use, and accuracy. What does this tool cost my school (or, more often, me) per year? In short, how is this better than a pencil and paper quiz in class? I've warmed up to several digital tools that I use on a regular basis. As you will see, some of them have been in my toolbox for years and others are brand-new. All of the them have passed the test of providing value and each offers a different advantage."

A great infographic making tool.

"As a teacher, it is a wonderful feeling to see students being engaged and interacting in their learning. Since our school's 1:1 iPad initiative in all Math and Science classrooms, I have become passionate about finding technology tools that will motivate and inspire my students to learn. Great use of iPads technology tools directly impacts the learning environment of the classroom. The following is a list of free apps and websites that I have found that really motivates and inspires my students to be actively engaged in their learning."

"Participate in this activity for students to explore current issues using social media. Do Now is a weekly activity for students to engage and respond to current issues using social media tools like Twitter. KQED aims to introduce 21st Century skills and add value to learning through the integration of relevant local content and new media tools and technologies. Do Now gives students a chance to practice civic engagement and digital citizenship skills while they explore ways to connect topics in their classes to the present day. Here's a breakdown of how Do Now works: Do Now activities are posted every Friday evening at kqed.org/donow. There's a brief intro to the topic and a media resource that can be played directly on the website. At the top of the activity, there's a question for students to respond to after they go through the intro and media resource to deepen the understanding of the topic. Students should then respond to the Do Now either in the comments section on the website or they can tweet their response (each student must create a Twitter account)."

"The following is a guest post by Catlin Tucker, one of SimpleK12's presenters. Click here to watch Catlin's Webinars inside the Teacher Learning Community. Tech Tools Perfect for Teaching Common Core Math Standards MathTools1 The Common Core Standards for math stress real world relevance, creative problem solving, collaboration and communication. "One hallmark of mathematical understanding is the ability to justify…why a particular mathematical statement is true or where a mathematical rule comes from" (Common Core Standards). Encouraging students to engage with math actively is easier to do when educators explore technology."

"The biggest reason that the #EduBros event was a big deal is that it is the best example of educational professionals leveraging Social Media to connect with the world around them. Our only goal was to put together a party for friends. It turned into a trending event around the world where people took pictures of their finger in front of their face in the hopes of attending. I was able to connect to people I never thought possible because a friend and I decided to be a little silly. Social Media is a tool that can be used in so many different ways that it is just wrong for any educator to say there is not value in using it. Like all tools, educators need to search for the value and utilize it. While this specific event does not make me a better teacher, it has connected me with more educators which can make me a better educator. That is the big take away from this whole event. It's what I hope everyone who reads this walks away with as well. "

"The concern about sharing students' videos on YouTube that I hear most frequently is about privacy. Many teachers and school administrators don't want to put videos online that have students' faces in them. Yesterday, YouTube launched a new editing feature to address that issue. There is now a face blurring tool in the YouTube video editor. These are the steps for using the new face blurring tool: 1. upload your video to YouTube. 2. open the "enhancements" option for your video. 3. select "blur all faces" in the "quick fixes tab." See the slides below for screenshots of the process."

"Finding ways for kids to communicate information can be a bit of a challenge. Its easy to fall into the Power Point or Prezi track. Or even easier to not offer up any technology opportunities at all. There are loads of great creation/presentation tools out there. Voicethread, Google Sites, Animoto just to name a few are some of the creative ways in the past I've covered. But I am always on the look out for something new and easy to use. And I think I might have found that. Tackk. "

A digital tool that allows you to show videos to kids and embed questions in the video that students need to answer before moving on in the video. Answers can be tracked at the student level and videos can be assigned by class.

Russel Tarr has just released a new version of Fakebook. Fakebook is Russel's tool for creating fake Facebook profiles. The latest version of Fakebook makes it easy to create a page by just clicking on a field and entering as much information as you like. In the profile picture field you can enter a name and Fakebook will search for images to use. For example, if you create a Fakebook page about George Washington Fakebook will search for pictures of George Washington.

Addy is a tool for creating custom landing pages for any address.

For six years, I taught in a basement classroom with no windows, and yet I could see what was happening around the world thanks to the Internet. Though I tried learning something new each day, until I put systems in place, I spent more time searching for materials than actually learning. I realized that to effectively engage in professional learning, I needed tools in place to curate content, save what I found, and connect to other educators.

"It's hard to quantify the value of Twitter. I just hopped back on a few days ago and it feels . . . odd, like I'm the awkward guy who came back to the party after leaving to hang outside alone for awhile. I kind-of expected to write a post about being back, where I described how much better life was without Twitter. The truth is that I missed it. No, I really didn't miss "it" at all. I didn't miss hashtags and 140 character limits. But I missed the people. I missed the teachers who, despite the separation of space, have become my friends. I missed the community. "

"8. How do we tap into all learners' sense of agency, idealism and their social imaginations, i.e. their capacity to imagine the world, as it should be, and the tools and capacities to act?"

"Since this blog is called "Practical Theory," I think it is important sometimes to show the powerful, practical work that kids can do. This is a PSA made by SLA 11th graders for their English class. We need to always remember that kids care deeply about their world, and they are capable of sharing a vision of that world when we give them the tools and give them the chance. What if high school wasn't just preparation for real life? When we treat high school as real life, kids can do work like this:"

"Poking through my Twitterstream the other day, I stumbled across a great quote from digital thought-leader Marc Prensky. He wrote: "Technology gives kids power that people their age have never had. Let's help them use it wisely." That's an incredibly important point, isn't it? The fact of the matter is that the kids sitting in your classroom - whether they are six or sixteen - don't have to sit on life's sidelines waiting until they grow up in order to make a difference in the world around them. Instead, they can be agents of change today. In my classroom, that agency starts and ends with digital tools. "

"Poking through my Twitterstream the other day, I stumbled across a great quote from digital thought-leader Marc Prensky. He wrote: "Technology gives kids power that people their age have never had. Let's help them use it wisely." That's an incredibly important point, isn't it? The fact of the matter is that the kids sitting in your classroom - whether they are six or sixteen - don't have to sit on life's sidelines waiting until they grow up in order to make a difference in the world around them. Instead, they can be agents of change today. In my classroom, that agency starts and ends with digital tools."

"I am keenly aware that many of my colleagues are not, for various reasons, gung ho about educational technology. And it's interesting. Quite often, the teachers who are hesitant to adopt new technology are great - in fact, amazing - educators. They are frequently veterans and usually leaders in their academic field and within their institutions. In my role as tech advocate, I habitually find myself trying to coax these established educators to use new tools and incorporate new methodologies. Here are some ways I have found to be successful in this endeavor."

"ImageStamper is a free tool for keeping dated, independently verified copies of license conditions associated with creative commons images. You can use it to safeguard your use of free images from license changes, or to prove you are the original image creator. Simply paste the URL of the page that contains the image you intend to use. ImageStamper will produce a timestamp of the image's license and will store this timestamp permanently in your account. The timestamp proves you obtained the image under that license and you can show it to others using a unique permalink. Sign up and start using ImageStamper now - it only takes a few moments!"

"Since I work in the field of special education, many of these tips mention the built-in accessibility features of the iPad. The iPad is an excellent tool for implementing the concept of universal design for learning (UDL) in the classroom because it allows students who have special needs to use the same device as their peers, but with a number of built-in supports that allow these students to more easily access and create content. The tips I mention here assume you are running iOS 6, the latest version of the iPad's software at the time of writing. "