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More educational institutions provide free online education. This trend we are now seeing from places like iTunes U, TED talks and Kahn Academy, for example make this world more open to learning.

A very cool site that matches up iPad apps with learning objectives.

There are so many things out... some good, some bad, so when I find a resource that has done some of the leg work for me, I'm always interested.

Wow, What great tools? We are thinking about incorporating apps into the Web Development class next year. Very excellent sources and information. Thanks for sharing Sterling!

An excellent piece on the relationship between Web 2.0 and the development of high-order thinking skills. The article describes a project by EDC to train teacher-trainers in Indonesia via Web 2.0 tools. The article describes in very concrete detail how specific Web 2.0 tools promote thinking skills in the upper realm of Bloom's Taxonomy. The article includes a useful chart linking applications like Diigo and Voicethread to the specific skills they promote. It also explains why Web 2.0 tools are more conducive to higher-order thinking than less interactive Web 1.0 tools.

threading and tagging

Technology competition opportunities for students.

This site was great. Our students compete in a few contests, but there is no comparison to what is out there for them to explore.

What I liked about the site and the TSA overall is that it is STEM related. Not specific to content area but general to all technology courses. Had many types of technical competitions. A change from FBLA or Robotics competitions which are specific.

This is a brief article that expresses the importance and convenience of communicating with technology in education.

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.

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.

Have you ever thought, "Gosh, I wish I had time to learn more about Flickr, wikis, or (enter your Web 2.0 tool here)?" Well, this is your chance to take the time to focus on your personal and professional development around Web 2.0 tools. It's fun to explore these tools and figure out ways to use them in the library, with your personal Web sites, or in other ways.

I will give Zoho a look. We use google docs at my school now. Each staff member and student was given an account with the same extension. With so many sites to choose from it takes time to see which ones you lke. Google docs seems to show up in many articles.

Zoho Writer looks interesting as you need to be invited to participate. Google Docs are used extensively within our school, though I only used them for our NGY Ning project last year. We also use Google Docs for attendance in our after school programs.

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.

Steve Wheeler's article discusses seven benefits of teacher blogging.

This article is encouraging for someone like me that is just being introduced to blogging. The author, Steve Wheeler, states that blogging causes students to reflect, can open up to other people that are interested in their subject and can provided valuable feedback. He stated, "Blogging can create personal momentum". I hope as a new learner, I learn to understand and appreciate his enthusiasm.

This article written by two Danish academics, Johan Jessen and Anker Helms Jorgensen, discusses the issue of determining whether sources are credible and how we can do this online. They explain the credibility can be random and that perceived trustworthiness plus perceived expertise equals perceived credibility. However, they put forth that aggregated trustworthiness can actually be an accurate determination of whether information is credible. Readers can look at "likes" and user evaluations to determine if a source is trustworthy. As users of Web 2.0 tools we must become media literate and be able to determine which sources are trustworthy.

Interesting interview with Dr. Chris Dede, Professor in Learning Technologies at Harvard's Graduate School of Education, about using technology in the classroom and re-imagining teaching and learning. You need to be a member of the Thinkfinity Community to view the video.

This was a very good video and put into perspective what the 21st Century Learning Classroom would be like.

Starting in 2013 VA will require all students to take some sort of online course in order to graduate. Taking online courses requires higher order thinking for students and teaches them valuable 21st century skills like collaboration, independence, communication and digital literacy.

This article, written by EDUDEMIC author, Jeff Dunn, offers 5 distinct reasons why schools need to move toward Digital Textbooks/ebooks as opposed to traditional paper books/texts. He begins by adding support to his stance by citing Ed Secretary, Arne Duncan's call to make "textbooks obsolete". Among Dunn's reasons and pertinent to our Media/Inform Literacy discussion are these ideas: Using digital texbooks or ebooks on line, allows for students to interact with the book. Some books have videos, highlighting/notetaking features, moveable models and interactive diagrams. In addition, such technological books are more immediate-they are simply accessed by the press of a button. Arne Duncan also remarked that the US is lagging behind other countries in converting to these computerized books. With states desiring a lead position in education in the US, and Obama's push (Connect Ed) campaign to have all schools connected (internet/computer/tech), this transition to Digital Text/ebooks seems a likely probability-and exciting one too. Though sitting back, especially in a beach chair, with a paper book still holds an appeal for me.

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.

Science oriented flipped classroom

Really liked the link to this article to the infographic explanation of the Flipped Classroom.

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.

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.

Prezi Timeline - Evolution of American Literature

ooooooo! I really liked this Prezi. It demonstrates a consistent use of symbols and movement to remind viewers of where they are in the presentation. Prezi seems to be a solid tool for these kind of "evolutionary" topics.

This article is about using predicative analytics to improve instruction. Predicative analytics has been used in industry for years. Netfix will send you suggestions for your next movie pick; Big Y will generate a coupon for a product they think I much like to try. By looking at a student's "breadcrumbs", we should be able to improve instruction. Data driven instruction is here to stay. We need to able to understand the data and do something with it.

Awesome idea for a collaborative group project! I'd like to see the comments that students might make for each date. Could there be a single prompt...or perhaps 13 prompts? Nice work...really inspiring.