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Shelly Landry

Step C… Seven Steps To Website Evaluation For Students… Promoting Digital Cit... - 1 views

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    This blog contains the first 3 steps (out of 7) for website evaluation.  The author is using letters to represent each step.  Thus far, he has A for author; B for bias; and C for currency.  Each step is explained and a poster is included for teachers to print and use in the classroom.  This is very important information for students in order to become responsible digital citizens.  Students need to think about who is writing, why they are writing, and when they are writing.  I am anxious to see what other steps the author will include.
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    Very useful resource for teaching information and digital literacy. The idea of A to G is brilliant and inspirational! I think the break-down steps of each aspect can be truly helpful for students to understand what exactly they're looking for in terms of author, bias, or currency (and soon more). For teachers, each aspect could be introduced and focused in each topic or project, and the posters can serve as visual prompt in classroom.
Libby Turpin

Making Online Discussion Boards Work for Skills-Based Courses - Faculty Focus | Faculty... - 10 views

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    This article explores ways to enhance online communication between students.
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    How to make a disucussion board effective. Divide a large group into smaller study sections. Make certain to post application questions, not fact-based or calculation questions. Apply the questions to the students' life/future.
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    The author describes using discussion boards for his accounting course.
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    This article highlights some key points about how to successfully integrate online discussions into core subject content. He does this by pairing down the discussion groups much like we are doing in the Web 2.0 course right now ,"When I did discussions with the class as a whole, the students grumbled about having to read repetitive messages. They were much more willing to participate in the study group if there were relatively few messages". He is also looking for an inital post and a follow up post written with correct grammar and spelling.
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    In this article, Rob Kelly discusses how he uses online discussion boards to enhance the learning in his classroom. Students end up helping one another, and the conversations go beyond accounting so that students really see the applicability of the subject matter to their future lives. Students who really excel in accounting help students who struggle, and the split classroom discussion helps to make it manageable for all students.
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    This article talks about how to make online discussions work for skills-based courses. Using Professor Roger Gee's practice and approach as an example, the author offers examples to guide students in expressing themselves creatively and persuasively, which engages and motivates them. The class is divided into study groups for the discussions. Each discussion begins with a posting by Professor Gee, the discussions are to begin after students have read the material, viewed the PowerPoint, and taken a quiz. Professor Gee encourages students to work within the study groups to help each other.
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    This article shows how to let online discussions allow for higher order thinking skills to flourish in a skills-based classroom.
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    "Making Online Discussion Boards Work for Skills-Based Courses" is an article written by Rob Kelly and posted in a higher education newsletter. The author describes ways on how online discussions can enhance learning in skills-based online courses. He suggests rather than having students resolve math problems for example, steer students to coming up with an opinion supported by facts they have learned. Students should have the opportunity to have read the lesson, PowerPoints and other related resources before a discussion takes place. The discussions should also give students the opportunity to share opinions and how the material may affect their personal life. Like our class, the author suggest each student to post a reply to the instructor's question and reply to at least one other student's reply. The posting should have good spelling and grammar as if they were in the business world. Another way to enhance learning is to have students work collaboratively and help each other out. The suggestions offered by the author are similar to what we have received in this course. Although the article is written for higher education, I would assume, but I have to also wonder if this is valuable information at the secondary level too?
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    This is a first-rate article on how to run an online discussion for a class on a technical subject. The article elucidates the techniques used by an accounting professor at San Diego Messa College. Issues addressed include whether to focus on calculations or opinions, the size of discussion groups, at what point in the lesson plan students should post, and what role the teacher should play in introducing a topic. Professor Gee advocates that posts focus on opinions rather than facts or calculations, since the latter provides an opportunity to spread error. He also discusses dividing a class of 35 into two groups, having students post after they have reviewed a substantial part of the lesson, and the teacher introducing discussion topics and modeling the first comment.
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    As a teacher of a 2 year high school accounting program, I enjoyed reading this article about Professor Roger Gee's use of online discussion boards. I introduce my students to several elements of personal finance as it relates to a service business owner's personal finances and wondered how I could engage my students to delve a bit deeper into their own thoughts on their personal finances now and in the future. I will be using Gee's suggestion as it helps students use some critical thinking to plan for their future. Some of the items mentioned actually are part of the "flipped classroom" concept; students already having read the lesson, watched the PowerPoints, and taken the test. Then comes the discussion using the learned skills. I appreciate this information for a skill-based course be it high school or community college. As we articulate with our neighboring community college, and attempt to make our students college-ready, this concept fits the bill.
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    Rob Kelly discusses how to he used online discussion boards in a skills based course. This concept could be followed for any type of study group. Given students learn best when they not only teach the information but share and collaborate with others, this idea enhances the learning process.
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    I'm the only Accounting teacher and have been teaching for 2 years at the high school level. I feel this article does a great job not just on how discussion boards can help and guide deeper levels of thinking among Accounting students, but provides the opportunity to take baby steps including technology in the classroom and push critical thinking. I can appreciate this article greatly because I believe we all learn through experience and as Gee mentions, some of the students have worked in the field and may be able to offer their peers another insight.
Kristin Steiner

Ten Steps for Better Media Literacy Skills - 7 views

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    This article discusses research that has been done regarding the needs of people to obtain media and information literacy skills in order to better many of their experiences in 21st century society. The article states that "knowing how to search for, analyze, and interpret information is a skill that will be used for more than just writing a good research paper: People use media literacy skills for applying for jobs online, getting relevant health information, and sifting through online educational opportunities, for example." Ten recommendations for developing stronger media and information literacy skills are given in the article. Legislative efforts from the federal government to provide funding in support of programs that help to develop these 21st century skills are also discussed.
NIM Facilitator

Storify - 1 views

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    Platform for combining writing and stories from social media into a unique mashup. Once signed in, create a story by searching various social media platforms for content. For example, you can search Twitter for a certain keyword or hashtag. Then, drag selected content into the story pane. Content from multiple searches can be included in one story. The key feature is the ability to add text throughout the story. For example, you could ask students to take a stance on the budget battles in the U.S. Content from social media and the web can be pulled into the story. Then, students create their own content, justifying or disagreeing with the stories incorporated into the story. Completed stories are published and then shared. Give Storify a try for current events projects as well as teaching media literacy.
laurel Ridley

Jan's blog - 1 views

  • Cools Tools for Schools Wikispace is Inspirational!
  • A colleague of mine found and bookmarked this wiki site and I have spent hours engaged in the multitude of avenues that learning can take place here.  The link is http://cooltoolsforschools.wikispaces.com/Home .  If you have a desire to learn a great deal about Web 2.0 learning tools, you will thoroughly enjoy this wiki.
  • The site is well organized with more than seventeen categories of “tools” ranging from Presentation Tools, Collaboration Tools, Audio Tools, Music Tools, Converting Tools, Image Tools, Research Tools, Mapping Tools, Quiz and Poll Tools, Graphing Tools, Creativity Tools, Video Tools, Slideshow Tools, Drawing Tools, Writing Tools, Widgets, etc.  I did not find one link that did not work and the pages were all very nicely linked for moving from page to page
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  • I was pleasantly surprised that there was a link to a site still under construction but already containing many marvelous finds entitled “Cool Apps for Schools” and the link is http://coolappsforschools.wikispaces.com/home .  I especially liked the list of essentials for ipads, ipods, and iphones and I would highly suggest that you check out this list if you are a mobile device user
  • Web 2.0 Tools support Community and Collaboration Posted on February 21, 2013 by alwaysjan This is a Mind42 Map about Web 2.0 Tools.  These tools are used for collaboration and support of community.
  • “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” (John Dewey)
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    There are some amazing tools listed on these sites, including a Mind42 map of Web 2.0 Tools. I can see that my map is quite lacking compared to these. But, now I have an idea as to what to aim for. It would be great to set my students loose of some of these tools. "If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow." (John Dewey). This has been one of my favourite quotes along with "We need to prepare our students/children for jobs that have not been created yet" (Unknown). For me, they sum up what we as teachers need to strive for and that we need to keep on trying to stretch ourselves and our students...after all, we are 13% of the way through the 21st Century. It's exciting.
Ann Chapman

Efficient and Effective Feedback in the Online Classroom - 20 views

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    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.
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    Example of prezi presentation. Also at the top are tabs to learn how to make a prezi presentation and an explore tab showing other prezi presentations and reasons to make one. Good background for anyone to learn more about Prezi.
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    RSS aggregator
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    Nowadays IPAD is being used in the classrooms for more and more functions. This article introduced APPs offering 5 new software and assistive technology for special needs kids.They have a lot of other options for a child's particular needs. I am sure IPAD(APPLE) will keep their great contribution in the education in the future.
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    "We believe the more connected students are with their peers and instructors, the more likely they are to enjoy the overall experience and successfully complete their course. Decades of research from scholars such as Lev Vygotsky and Gabriel Tarde indicate that by making groups more interactive and social, student learning experiences can become more productive and fun. We are working hard to evolve the online learning process from markedly remote to highly collaborative." Original article site: http://adaptcourseware.com/adapt-courseware-delivers-new-social-learning-tools-to-improve-student-engagement/
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    Online homework is beneficial to students. They get feedback promptly, even more promptly than that provided by very conscientious instructors. Online homework can also be designed so that it allows students to work on areas that frequently cause trouble and/or on areas where the individual student is having difficulty. Original Article site: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/instructional-design/online-homework-systems-can-boost-student-achievement/
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    This brief article points out that many new online teachers focus on two of the three critical elements identified by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) that support instruction and learning: cognitive presence and teaching presence. The third, social presence, might be overlooked. The article's author, Dr. Oliver Dreon, offers five ways to build social presence in an online class, many of which are familiar to the VHS community.
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    While this article is about 'flipping' in general, it also describes a team-based learning approach to flipping. The author used this approach at the university level by grouping students into heterogeneous and permanent teams of six or seven. The students then used the author's templates to explore course material.
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    This article fully explains implementation of blogging in a classroom. The teacher explains: expectations; use of blog posts for classroom discussions, and decorum. She highlights that student blogging enables her to bring to the classroom, without pinpointing a particular student: "insightful responses, inaccurate interpretations, good questions, and lively exchanges". Excellent Information!
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    This is actually one of the most useful blog things I've seen. It's a solid reminder that teaching an online course is not a checkout for the teacher. Students really want constant feedback - because many things are not verbally explained and the students have to break them down into steps for themselves, it can be overwhelming. They want to know "Am I doing this right? Is this what you're looking for?" so constant feedback and grading reinforcement in more necessary online than in f2f.
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    This blog really hits home with me. I do get overwhelmed at all the different places I have to navigate to get my work done, so it is important, as the article stated to have an easy-to-access-course - design. Trying to tab to resources , clicking on links, then opening up different websites. I love the videos, which help me, because I am a visual learner. As stated in the article, it is difficult for the teachers to be present all the time.to answer questions, but if students and teachers work together the class can work out. Some students take longer to master a new process than other, so good communication is the key here.
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    The article explains the importance of Problem-Based Learning in Education. It is crucial to create lessons that incorporate interesting, safe and useful activities.
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    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.
bdellanno

Twitter: Best Practices for Educators - 1 views

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    This article by Vicki Davis, author of the book Reinventing Writing and the blog post "Cool Cat Teacher Blog," is for educators who have decided to use Twitter in the classroom. Davis provides "the essential apps, hashtags, and tips to help." Davis discusses 100 ways to use Twitter in the classroom, safely and for maximum benefit. She discusses apps that allow teachers to manage classroom Twitters (Hootsuite) and create schedules (Buffer) as well as offering 14 tips for writing Twitters. Lastly, she offers three valuable hashtags for classroom use.
Andrea Jones

Most Recent Materials in Merlot Teacher Education - 1 views

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    This article is about using Skype in the classroom for global education. I am categorizing it as media literacy because of the use of skype. Thousands of teachers are involved in a large variety of global educational projects. One of the partners in this program is NASA's Digital Learning center. Projects there are live so that students can learn how to prepare a space vehicle for take off or for them to design something for the spacesuit. There are many other partners to this program.
Jean Bostley

Report: Students Use Smart Phones and Tablets for School, Want More - 0 views

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    This article succinctly describes the results of a comprehensive research study conducted by Harris Interactive for educational publisher, Pearson. Within the articles a link is provided to access the results, including a 40-slide PowerPoint presentation and a 32-page detailed report, each containing several statistical charts. The report is useful for schools deciding which device(s) to provide for students or to use in a BYOD situation.
NIM Facilitator

Online NotePad - 0 views

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    you are presented with a very simple text editor perfect for student journals. Each note can include images, links and attachments as well as tags to help with searching. For example, journal entries for a history unit might be tagged, "WWII". In addition, multiple notebooks can be created with one account. NotePub, like many online writing tools, works great for role playing assignments. Have your students assume the role of a person they are studying or character from literature. Then, your students write a daily journal entry. Completed entries can be shared in several ways including email.
NIM Facilitator

Tumblr - 0 views

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    blogging platform for posts larger than Twitter and smaller than a traditional blog. Posts are usually rich with a combination of text and multimedia. A unique feature is the ability to "tumble" blog posts. This takes a post of a friend and posts it on your page. If you use Twitter, this is similar to retweeting. Tumblr is a nice tool for teachers and older students but everyone will need accounts. Create an account for your class and have your students create accounts as well. Then, follow your students' accounts and vice-versa. Now you are all connected and can interact in numerous ways. Your students now have an excellent vehicle for all manner of writing and multimedia projects.
Sandra Besselsen

Learning with Students vs. Doing for Students | Faculty Focus - 0 views

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    I was looking for an article that had to do with blogs, but ran across this article and while it isn't on blogs - our topic for the week, it might help answer a question that has come up in discussion. The where-when-why to use blogs in the classroom question. This post talks about building expectations for a classroom as a group, teacher and student together. Why not do this with blogs? We have all said that they have value in the classroom - maybe the students can help us figure out where they would get the most value from them in their work/assignments. She contrasts that with a syllabus that "perform[s] as a living, negotiated document." (p. 41) It begins with these four questions: What topics or areas are of greatest interest to us as a class? How can we adapt the classroom space to be conducive to cultivating enhanced communication? How can we best connect our readings and discussions to our everyday lives?
EdTechReview Community

13 Great Products for Preparing Students for Tests - 0 views

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    13 great products, apps and tools for preparing students for tests.
NIM Facilitator

hums3001 - home - 3 views

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    Ben Miller, a teacher at the University of New South Wales, wanted his students to build learning materials for his course. He decided a wiki was the best platform to capture the group's work over the semester. Ben chose to create his wiki on UNSW's Wikispaces Private Label site as it gave his students a university-branded environment for their academic work. Students loved the wiki and after several weeks, were building most of the content for the site - summarizing theories on free speech, arguing their viewpoints, and highlighting censorship cases that they wanted to further explore. The final product was a rich body of knowledge that helped the students prepare for their end-of-year exam. We encourage you to check out this wiki and listen to Ben's discussion about his wiki project.
Miss OConnor

Attract Students' Attention in 30 Seconds or Less « Experiencing E-Learning - 4 views

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    Some useful strategies for creating effective presentations.  While the audience this writer is addressing is creating presentations for adult professionals, there are many useful strategies that can be integrated by any teacher. This post covers not just how to create the presentation, but also strategies for delivery as well.  It could be useful for helping teachers learn how to overcome the "traditional" Powerpointless presentation.
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    I found the suggestions useful but also really liked the link to places to get photos to use in presentations. Much more professional then google images.
Jennifer Weeks

Can Repetitive Exercises Actually Feed the Creative Process? | MindShift - 1 views

    • Jennifer Weeks
       
      This statement is consistent with my own educational experience. I was in the immersion French program as a child in Ontario and half of my day was in French and half of my day was in English. I honestly feel like I spent 6 years of my life from grade 2 to grade 8 copying verb charts and doing worksheets. Clearly, it has paid off as I am a French teacher and I have an excellent vocabulary and understanding of verb conjugations and tenses. 
  • John Kounios, Professor of Psychology at Drexel University and co-author of upcoming book Insight: Aha Moments, Creativity, and the Brain, the connection between creativity and automaticity is complicated.
  • mastered something
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  • thinking about it often becomes locked in and it’s difficult for them to break out of this mental straightjacket.”
  • repeated practice walks side-by-side with the creative process.”
  • This would be the same as memorizing the rules of basketball and shooting endless free throws without ever learning to play the game.”
    • Jennifer Weeks
       
      This is the trouble with foreign language instruction sometimes. We don't let students apply what they learn at a fast enough rate to keep them interested. 
  • Focused practice, Lemov has found in his research training teachers, actually automates a process in one’s body, which then becomes fertile ground for creative breakthroughs and individual variations.
    • Jennifer Weeks
       
      This article talks about the interplay between rote practice/memorization and creativity. It also cites a number of books that are helpful in understanding the nuances of the topic and arguments for and against rote learning. 
  • Can Repetitive Exercises Actually Feed the Creative Process?
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    "Kurt Wootton, co-author of A Reason to Read. "In my view, the repetition must not come before allowing students to participate in the creative tasks, but rather repeated practice walks side-by-side with the creative process."" I find this statement to "hit the nail on the head" as the debate between rote memory and creative "aha" moments continue. The analogy of the musician practicing for hours playing scales as well as note for note renditions of other's work is appropriate to this discussion. The book, "Outliers",by Malcolm Gladwell, addresses the 10,000 hour rule. To paraphrase; To become world class at anything, it takes 10,000 hours of focused practice. The author's examples range from Bill Gates to The Beatles. When two sides are set up as an US vs THEM debate, it misses the oppoprtunity to combine perfect practice with creative inspiration. Putting together a perfect meal is based on proper choices of various food combinations. Putting together a perfect learning environment is very similar in that a combination of repetitive learning and creative opportunity helps the learning as well as creative process.
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    "Kurt Wootton, co-author of A Reason to Read. "In my view, the repetition must not come before allowing students to participate in the creative tasks, but rather repeated practice walks side-by-side with the creative process."" I find this statement to "hit the nail on the head" as the debate between rote memory and creative "aha" moments continue. The analogy of the musician practicing for hours playing scales as well as note for note renditions of other's work is appropriate to this discussion. The book, "Outliers",by Malcolm Gladwell, addresses the 10,000 hour rule. To paraphrase; To become world class at anything, it takes 10,000 hours of focused practice. The author's examples range from Bill Gates to The Beatles. When two sides are set up as an US vs THEM debate, it misses the oppoprtunity to combine perfect practice with creative inspiration. Putting together a perfect meal is based on proper choices of various food combinations. Putting together a perfect learning environment is very similar in that a combination of repetitive learning and creative opportunity helps the learning as well as creative process.
Florina Merturi

Role of Information & Communication Technology in Education - 5 views

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    This is a brief article that expresses the importance and convenience of communicating with technology in education.
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    Information and communication technology plays a large role in changing the field of education. With laptops, PDAs and even smart phones finding their way into daily lessons, these devices are changing the way teachers and students share information and the way schools communicate both within their own organization and to the community.
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    This article and a few others on the site explain the role of Information and Communication Technology in education. This ICT concept is important to me as a Business teacher who is responsible for teaching the tpes of applications that are ICT. To think that the concept of communication technology being added to information technology due to the Internet back in 1997 is interesting.
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    In this article, "Role of Information & Communication Technology in Education", the author briefly discusses the benefits of technology in education. Because of the brevity of the article, most of the advantages were only skimmed over. However, the author does mention a point that resonates with me as I attempt to integrate technology into my classroom: "The ability to digitally record any data, from tests to transcripts, is a feature of information technology that has long-term potential to save money on both paper and ink as well as make organization and management simpler for administrators and teachers" (Page). The ability to streamline classrooms and to reduce the need for paper intrigues me. Also, her point about technology making "organization and management simpler" is key to sustainable implementation of technology in my future classroom.
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    In this article, "Role of Information & Communication Technology in Education", the author briefly discusses the benefits of technology in education. Because of the brevity of the article, most of the advantages were only skimmed over. However, the author does mention a point that resonates with me as I attempt to integrate technology into my classroom: "The ability to digitally record any data, from tests to transcripts, is a feature of information technology that has long-term potential to save money on both paper and ink as well as make organization and management simpler for administrators and teachers" (Page). The ability to streamline classrooms and to reduce the need for paper intrigues me. Also, her point about technology making "organization and management simpler" is key to sustainable implementation of technology in my future classroom.
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    In this article, "Role of Information & Communication Technology in Education", the author briefly discusses the benefits of technology in education. Because of the brevity of the article, most of the advantages were only skimmed over. However, the author does mention a point that resonates with me as I attempt to integrate technology into my classroom: "The ability to digitally record any data, from tests to transcripts, is a feature of information technology that has long-term potential to save money on both paper and ink as well as make organization and management simpler for administrators and teachers" (Page). The ability to streamline classrooms and to reduce the need for paper intrigues me. Also, her point about technology making "organization and management simpler" is key to sustainable implementation of technology in my future classroom.
weirba11

Educational Videos for Free as well as other Visuals for Education - 0 views

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    PBS Learning Resources is an excellent site for teachers and students to find educational films as well as other media types such as sound, images, and lesson plans. This site has a couple thousand videos for you to see. These videos are all free.
laurel Ridley

Education World: Brenda's Blog: VoiceThread: Capturing and Sharing Student Voice with a... - 0 views

  • VOICETHREAD PROJECTS
  • Not only is that a great way for students to share their learning orally, it provides a platform for students to give and receive feedback as peers, parents, and teachers respond to the project.
  • Used as an assessment tool, VoiceThread projects give teachers a birds eye view into the thinking of their students, especially students who have difficulty communicating their learning through writing.
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    Brenda offers some great suggestions and ideas for using Voicethread in classes. Brenda suggests using Voicethread as an assessment tool for teachers but I am thinking it might be a great tool for students to assess/comment on each other as well.
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    Laurel, I agree that students could also use Voicethread in class as a tool for commenting on peers' work. I could see groups viewing each other's work and offering feedback, as well. I like that you can add images to this. Have you used Voicethread before? I will have to spend some time checking this out.
Jeanine Keyes-Plante

eLearn: Best Practices - eLearning Tools for English Composition - 1 views

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    30 New Media Tools and Web Sites for Writing Teachers. This article is really for adult learners but it offers loads of information and ideas for how best to incorporate technology into your lessons...everything from online learning to screen video capturing programs to online collaboration to web conferencing to video to animation creating tools...and it goes on and on! Worth looking at all the options.
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