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Throughout the ages of educational ideas and philosophies teachers have been big fans of having their students keep a journal. Journals are kept in language arts, foreign language classes, and I have seen them in science classes. Students don't particularly like doing them unless they enjoy writing. If given a choice between keeping a journal in their spiral notebook and keeping it online, I would wager that a majority of students in this digital age will prefer to keep it online. So why not give them the choice and tool of Penzu.

digital natives- can we keep up?

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

Information graphics, visual representations of data known as infographics, keep the web going these days. Web users, with their diminishing attention spans, are inexorably drawn to these shiny, brightly coloured messages with small, relevant, clearly-displayed nuggets of information. They're straight to the point, usually factually interesting and often give you a wake-up call as to what those statistics really mean.

In this article, Larry Ferlazzo discusses the need to keep students motivated - even at the end of a school year - and the ways in which to do so. The article also mentions ways in which to keep teacher energy at its best. At least for me, this article is very timely (7 student days remaining). I think it's also very important for communication. If we forget our purpose in teaching (even in the last few days of school), we can also forget about motivation from our students. All of these things truly work hand in hand.

Not an amazing article. But, it is important to note that four...maybe all five of her "five lessons" are based on communication. "1. Keep the student at the center of every decision that needs to be made. 2. Foster relationships with students and parents, because parents can be a teacher's biggest help. 3. Talk with your students every day by phone. Dove said that the majority of her day is spent talking directly with students to build a one-on-one relationship with each of them. 4. Celebrate every effort and success, no matter how big or small. "Always be positive in your feedback, even if the assignment may not be stellar. The written word is so powerful online, and you always want your students to feel that you are cheering them on and appreciate their hard work," she explained. 5. Build relationships with fellow teachers. Share resources, best practices, and stories to feel less isolated or alone in the home office."

As more and more students learn in a virtual classroom, teachers need more facilitation skills that work in an online learning environment. This article provides teachers with some practical online facilitating strategies and how to use many features to keep students engaged in learning.

This teacher makes a really strong argument that you should not feel that you have nothing important to say. This is the way to make some strong networked relationships. I like her quote "This has led to many great conversations with other educators about teaching issues." Blogging has connected her to peers throughout the world. I find that being an online educator is lonely so this may be the way to go to share resources and to discuss with others that share our online world.

I really enjoyed reading this article because I'm feeling the same excitement as the author did when she first began blogging. While I'm just learning how to "officially" blog, I have been using Edmodo with my students as a way to connect with my students outside my classroom. It allows us to communicate and ask questions to one another outside of normal school hours, yet in a more structured classroom like forum, unlike Facebook. But because it works similar to Facebook, the students love it and don't mind logging on and doing their assignments. One day when I was out sick, I was able to log on an have real time discussions with my students. If they had questions about the assignment they were able to ask. They can also turn in their assignments via Edmodo instead of waiting for the next day/week. My feelings are if the students are into it, then it's something we need to be doing as well to keep up with them. Teachers who use Web 2.0 tools such as blogging have an advantage over those that don't because these are the social networks that students know and are familiar with. Also, the author of this article points out the fact that teachers have a new way of connecting to each other and share ideas. From what I remember when I was younger, the traditional teacher's only way of communicating and sharing ideas or concerns with other teachers were via phone or before/after school meetings. I don't know how often that actually happened, but now with blogging you can share your information any time with any body.

Simplicity and Organized--important in blogs and concept maps. Great way to spark and then keep interest.

Teaching students and faculty to produce videos to enhance education and schools are also using videos on their web sites to keep parents informed about school events.

"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.

"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.

I thought this was an interesting article to plea to people during and after Sandy to use text messages and social media to keep people updated so they can use cell towers to manage rescues.

Textbooks, encyclopedias and newspapers are educational resources of the past. Today, students seek answers from the sky -- specifically, the clouds. A new way of using the Internet is making data limitless. It's called "cloud computing," and it's allowing educational institutions, businesses and individuals to keep more information at their fingertips than is possible with even a room full of computers.

This is a link to a video of a high school that uses only Project-Based learning PBL, a teaching/learning style where students create projects to demonstrate their learning of the objectives set out by the teacher. It goes through the process of how to set up PBL projects as teachers. It's a decent introduction to the process: something to pique one's interest. At the end there are links to other videos with more information about PBL.

Project-based learning has come to the forefront of education as it is being used to assess what the students know and how they can use the knowledge in the "real world" to problem solve. The approach by the school to implement PBL into their curriculum goes directly back to state standards. I thought the video was well informed and I was impressed with the 60-65 times the students speak in front of others (public speaking).

Go inside Manor New Technology High School, part of the New Tech Network of schools, where an unwavering commitment to an effective schoolwide PBL model keeps both students and teachers motivated and achieving their best. More to this story.

In order to give and receive information, it is essential to be aware of your openness to communication. Understanding the others in your "conversation" is the first step towards choosing media that will keep them engaged. A true-false quiz is linked to the post.

Schools are giving students access to technology, such as Study Island, via their home internet connections. Students are able to keep up on skills, review, and continue working with education resources even when school is not in session.

Being a student of the PRS (Personal Response System) ideals through the UMASS/NSF Funded program, I have personally embraced and concur with so much of the data and thought process of using digital forms of assessment, that it has become a cornerstone in determining the understanding and competency of my students through both Formative and Summative assessments. If the life of a teacher is not going to change, and more is to be placed on the plate, something either needs to be removed or made simpler. Digital assessment offers a solution to teachers struggling with the load and tasks of being a reflective and responsive teacher. By keeping students more in the loop on progress and using the data to determine many of the factors associated with duration and direction of lessons, teachers can remain most informed and proactive.

Four years ago we toured the Portland HS. They were all warm and fuzzy about their new 1:1 student laptops. We asked about blocking sites and they stated they were teaching responsible use over locking everything down. We must teach responsible use but everyone needs to realize that the lure of wasting time on connected devices is too much for many of them.

/we began our 1:1 initiative 5 years ago and each year we have a different image for the students. We have several eBooks and programs which are used for curriculum. Deep freeze was installed to prevent "distractions" and DyKnow is used by teachers to keep students on track. The district filters based on the State guidelines. Teaching guidelines really doesn't work, neither does locking the system--it prevents so much education using Web 2.0 tools. I'm not sure there is a happy balance unless the students are mature enough or afraid of consequences. Taking the tablet away hasn't helped either.

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.

Student debate has the capacity to both deeply engage the students in relevant learning, and to encourage students to be deep thinkers. Debate is more than simply arguing. It has structure and rules that are designed to keep both sides calm.

This article highlights the academic and intellectual benefits of student debate activities. According to the article, students who study and practice debate are able to think more deeply and critically and defend their opinions with evidence--definitely elements of HOTS.