Group items tagged

A discussion of "disruptive innovations" and how online learning can be used in brick and mortar schools to engage students in richer, more complex learning experience and increase student/teacher interactions.

The article explains the importance of Problem-Based Learning in Education. It is crucial to create lessons that incorporate interesting, safe and useful activities.

I read this and thought how true it is that giving feedback to students taking an online course...or working on a website etc. is as important as feedback we give on essay writing, reading, speaking and listening. Feedback is a key communication tool for students to know where they stand. As is any feedback - provided it is constructive.

Spaaze is a website that allows for the simple creation of a virtual cork board. It is extremely dynamic and easy to use. You can add video, images, files, titles, and notes all in one spot so your students can have easy access to unit material. The canvass size of Spaaze is huge so you can add quite a few units to one canvass.

This is a review of a new app for iPad users. It allows users to share photographs and layouts with each other, keeping what they like. It also permits easy feedback to contributors via Twitter or blogs. Additionally, users can tag what they have kept so it's easier to find in the future when they want to use it. Although the reviewer's intersts are not explicit, the software appears to be useful for collaborative creation, and it's freeware.

I like that this app has a starting point so a person doesn't have to reinvent the wheel. Seeing what other people have done already to get ideas is always helpful and a time saver. I like this one.

I like this article and after buying my iphone and playing with an iPad; I don't think I can ever go back to android. LOL

This site gave a quick tutorial on how to use Adobe Presenter 8. It seemed like an easy video and voice tool to use. It reminded me of a you tube video and it was a little like animoto. It was hard to tell with the brief overview. This presentation tool could lead to some real creativty for use in projects at school. I read a lot of articles while I was in newsstand icnluding: Tech in the Classroom: Earbud yo-yo, and Social Learning networks promote student engagement, global awareness, but I thought the Adobe Presenter was the most creative.

Excellent podcast about astronomy - easy-to-understand explanations of everything from nebulae to searching for aliens to the planets in our solar system from a physicist and publisher. Go to their archive to find all the podcasts (over 100). Astronomy Cast takes a fact based journey through the cosmos as it offers listeners weekly discussions on astronomical topics ranging from planets to cosmology. Hosted by Fraser Cain (Universe Today) and Dr. Pamela L. Gay (SIUE), this show brings the questions of an avid astronomy lover direct to an astronomer. Together Fraser and Pamela explore what is known and being discovered about the universe around us.

This site overviews the importance of using media in instruction and provides some Web 2.0 tools to achieve animation for teaching.

This is a very cool article. I loved the comparison of a teachers introduction of education background is compared to a computer " It's like going to Dell's website to shop for a computer and getting nothing but photos of the factories and descriptions of how the computers were built." Use a video to introduce ourselves and explain all we can do in the classroom. We should be making them look forward to what they can do during the year with me. Very Cool.

This is a very cool article. I loved the comparison of a teachers introduction of education background is compared to a computer " It's like going to Dell's website to shop for a computer and getting nothing but photos of the factories and descriptions of how the computers were built." Use a video to introduce ourselves and explain all we can do in the classroom. We should be making them look forward to what they can do during the year with me. Very Cool.

Use PrimaryWall to create a virtual cork board/sticky note website that can be used for student interaction with a lesson. Easy to use and taylored to the K-8 teacher's classroom.

A great article about how it is actually quite easy to use many of the web 2.0 tools to collect and analyze quickly, the current media and create connections between it and your classroom, or at least ideas to which you teach. This teacher did a great job of doing what so many of us try to do everyday. Finding current events and relating it to our classroom. But by having more feeds connected to one site, she was able to quickly narrow her search to whatever it was that she was teaching at the time. She also made it a point to observe the news feeds with her students and ask them to try to make the connections. If there was a story that made sense or got them intrigued and interested, they researched and read it together. A great way to teach young students how to filter the information that they are being exposed to, and to seek out credible references to initial questions and information.

The final section talks about how teachers have changed the way they teach, now using the laptops as tools for students to create products, such as pubic service announcements, or podcasts explaining the concepts for other students.

Liz, This is an excellent article that should help us with our 1 to 1 program next year. As I heard in Shanghai last year, teacher training is key to a successful program.

Liz, This is an excellent article that will help us plan our 1 to 1 program. It reinforces what i was told in Shanghai in September, teacher training is the key to success.

Chartle is an awesome site that allows students and teachers the ability to create dynamic and graphic charts based upon data collected in the classroom. This site is extremely easy to use and can be easily used across most grade levels. Click the link to view a short tutorial and example of what Chartle is.

This post goes into more reasons for blogging in class. The 3 highlighted heare are distributing, discussing, and demonstrating. Each of these activities are done daily in the classroom. When and if Web 2.0 tools are available to assist the teacher and the learners they should be used to their fullest. The blog (web-log) is an easy tool to use in performing these activities.

An Interesting "brochure" categorizing Ipad apps using Blooms taxonomy of thinking skills; remembering, understanding, creating,  applying, evaluating & analyzing. A handy guide for how to use in the classroom.

I am glad for the realistic easy viewing of Bloom's taxonomy of skills. Using the iPad in the classroom it is a good quick reference to see what apps I am already using and promoting that my students use as well as which apps I would like to promote with enhancement of other skills.

I am not sure I agree with the categorization on many of these and I definitely do not think it is all inclusive. It is interesting though.

This article discusses the importance of differentiation and especially the need for students to "redo" their assignments until they get them correct. By allowing students to "redo" they are improving their higher level thinking skills. Good and short article with practical reminders.

I love this article! Great reminders for all of us as educators to simply differentiate learning for our students. -vary the length or quantity of the assignment. -extend or curtail the duration of the assignment. -change the language of the assignment. -scaffold the learning activity from hard to medium to easy. -compact the activity and teach only what they don't know. -give them learning activities that let them perform the same learning objective with multiple mediums like summarizing a story they have read through narrative, drama, song, poetry, art, or design They also discussed the ability to redo assessments and I agree with this but somewhere in my teaching experience this has been engrained in my head only once. But I realize the feeling of success this allows a student.

In this blog, Ben Johnson reiterates the misconceptions in education about all students getting concepts in education at the same time. He goes on to discuss the importance of true differentiation in the classroom and that it is not creating an imbalance among students but a way for all students to succeed. He emphasizes the things teachers already do in the classroom to help students succeed and ends with a suggestion to allow students to redo their work in all areas (not just English and history).

Create interactive and informative educational timelines in an extremely easy manner. Students will love being given the option of creating a timeline. Use Timerime for history, art, science, social studies or just about any subject in which they are required to understand the time frame at which events occurred.

How schools and families can partner to set boundaries with digital communication and make children conscience of how they use technology. 

Interesting view that schools have a powerful role to play..."Schools have taken on a more significant, all-consuming role in helping parents find the right language to communicate with children, especially in the digital realm." It is easy to forget that parents are looking for guidance about their children and effective technology use.

Shows 50 tips that your students can make use of when incorporating Google Docs into the classroom. I like using Google Docs instead of emailing attachments and create shortcuts.

An article as the title implies that is in favor of using projects int he classroom to enhance learning

I love the idea of using Video Calls to teach. It allows students to have real-world meaning behind their learning since they are responsible for presenting and teaching what they have learned to other students.

Collaboration with skype and google chat, what a great way for kids from Alaska to communicate with kids from Maine. Simple and easy way to collaborate across the nation.

A great resource for sites to use when writing literary criticism. Memorial Hall Library is located in Andover, MA and this particular article divides the information into the following categories: Plot Summaries, Criticism, Authors, Contemporary Authors, Reader's Advisory, Literary Awards List, and What do I Read Next? Easy to use and some new sites I did not know about.

The article From 'e' to 'we' Learning is about empowerment through collaboration of networking. According to article this more than" 80 millions adults use social media for health-related issues-creating or sharing content on blogs, message boards, and chat rooms". Soem example of network tools are Twittter and Facebook.. This article was not an easy read.