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This site looks at information literacy and looks at the 5 different "minds". They relate them to ethical, disciplined, synthesizing, creative and respectful minds when talking about students using web 2.0 applications.

Interesting article that discusses how our brains change when using Web technologies. The term "partial attention" is explained as "a state of constantly scanning for information." Insightful description of how our world has changed significantly now that technology is here to stay.

This article from eLearn Magazine discusses how neuropsyhcologists are studying the effects of using new media and Web 2.0 tools on our brains. Their results show both positive and negative findings. Some of the benefits include certain areas of the brain being worked harder and making strong neural connections allowing us to process and evaluate large amounts of information quickly. A downside is that we are not retaining information for extended periods of time and we are losing the ability to communicate with feeling because we are not always in face-to-face contact with others. The article also discusses Psychologist Howard Gardner's "Five Minds of 2.0 Learners." These are higher order thinking skills he believes individuals need in order to be successful in the digital world. These include disciplined, synthesizing, creating, respectful, and ethical minds. This is an interesting read and could start a great classroom discussion about technology use with your students.

Teachers and students using social networks for curricular work.

I use Edmodo as a social media "tool" to use as an extension of my classroom and the students love it.

An brief article cautioning with interesting statistics about the number of teens who use blogging on a regular basis. Might have some implications for introducing and educating students about blogging into the classroom.

This is an interesting article about the small percentage of teens 13 to 17 that are blogging. According to the Millennials reports, although social networking sites have increased, they are more interested in text messaging than twittering or blogging. The author suggest that "Understanding why teens go online, and what tools they use, can give teachers clues into how they conduct research, and even complete homework". This is something to consider

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.

By using social media in schools, students will learn about online engagement and the importance of making connections and networking.

"An Insightful analysis of Information Literacy..." shared through the National Forum on Information Literacy. A learning connection to gaming.

This is a resource that explains that students who can only read text but not analyze, synthesize and utilize that information are still considered illiterate! The resource reviews a program that was put together called Digital Youth Network (DYN) and how this organization empowers young people with critical digital literacy skills that make them academically and professionally competitive.

Because today's students use so many digital devices that use up bandwidth that colleges have had to block students from using online services like Naptser, Netflix and Youtube during severe storms when students are forced to stay indoors for days at a time.

This article puts forth the premise that if student transgressions with technology are handled early on with an open school, parent, and student communication loop - then there will be a decreased likelihood of a major transgression later on in life.

After reading the article and as a parent myself. I tend to disagree with this article. Students learn by reading, seeing and applying. It's great to be book smart, but you need to know how to apply the smarts. I love my classes and the project based learning. I think that's all I do the majority of the day. It's great to be a teacher and facilitator at the same time. All students are different.

The article looks at how to shift from limited classroom instruction focused on lecture, homework, discussion, memorization to using the web as a tool to expand the learning experience. Imagine getting a tweet from a student who is outraged when Lennie kills Curly's wife in Of Mice and Men? Aaron Iffland explains how to make your classroom viral while requiring students to engage more in their own learning.

I like this article and I think students learn best by doing. I think I am addicted to my phone. I can paly games, read, wrtie, email and socialize all at the sametime. It's fun and educational!

This article gives reasons why schools should encourage tweeting among their student body. It shows the benefits of connecting students to students, teachers, parents and the entire community. Reading this article could give the reader new ideas for communicating and connecting using a popular Web 2.0 tool.

This article has merit from the perspective of a district principal. The 12 reasons are aligned with the school mission statement and since Tweeter is free, it is accessible to all stakeholders in the school community. It suggests that parents receive training in the tool to build two-way communications. Tweeter will help build a Personal Learning Network (PLN) and allows for anytime, anywhere PD, and that it is easier to send a tweet than it is to correct a webpage. The last reason #12 actually seems to be the most important in that students can make a connection not with only one mentor but with "a million other mentors" to learn from using Tweeter.

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.

Merlot is a CA university site with open source materials. I found it interesting since the topic was the subject matter that I teach.

An interesting look at an "objective" method of assessing student work. Rather than looking at the Web 2.0 tool, this looks at the level of Bloom achieved and the amount of time spent.

Over the past two years, Forsyth County Schools in Cumming, Ga., has slowly allowed some of its 34,000 students to bring their own notebooks, iPhones or other computing tools to school and connect them to the district network. By allowing students to bring these devices into school they are allowing students to be creative in the classroom by giving the opportunity. So many districts have students "shut down" when they come into the building, and using mobile devices is what students know best, we need to embrace their knowledge, creativity and abilities in the classroom.

Here is an amazing Prezi focusing on the creative potential inherent in collaboration, social networking, and humanity's learning to collectively think "outside the box." The link to the Prezi is via Eric Tremblay's blog titled, "e-Learning Acupuncture." Enjoy.

After viewing the award winning Prezi, I can see just how creative we can get using a Prezi. I enjoyed the History for Music video presentation set to Lady Gaga's song. Now that was pretty impressive!

I loved the History for Music Lovers video presentation set to Lady Gaga's song! Spectacular! The award winning Prezi in the shape of a musical staff sign is also special. "Oh the places we will go!" (Dr. Seuss)

This short article (that I hope you don't have to sign in to read) outlines survey data about how students and schools are using social media to enhance collaboration and the development of a school community. Notably 96% of students surveyed say they use social networking sites and 50% of those say they discuss schoolwork on those sites. The last 5 paragraphs of the article explains ways in which teachers and schools can capitalize on this. The subtext is that schools should move away from bans on social media.

An intriguing article delineating several useful methods to bring online classrooms to life. While text and self-teaching methods were the way of the past, we now have a multitude of means to engage the student both visually and audibly via an incredible assortment of tools and resources just brimming with creative potential.

Using online math course as the example, this article provides teachers and students with a lot of technology tools to create a rich online learning and problem-solving environment. With these digital tools, students get more engaged in learning and become more creative thinking. It's a good reference for subject teachers.

This article asks how we teach students the tools to learn how to talk, read, write, and think online. It mentions many of the media literacy tools presented in one of our readings.

A categorized directory of hundreds of school-produced and educationally-relevant podcasts

This news article begins by pointing out that "online digital technology has empowered users in ways that were unimaginable twenty years ago." Social media sites, for example, allow the average user to persuade and influence others on a global scale. The author argues that with this power comes the responsibility to apply a media literacy framework that will ensure that we are not perpetuating harmful media messages and ideas. The framework developed in 1987 by the Center for Media Literacy is still relevant in today's media landscape, and its five key concepts should serve as guidelines for all those currently engaged in online social networking.

This blog explains about the key concepts in social media and by reading this blog you understand Key Concepts explained further in this article. List of 5 key Concepts: All Media Messages Are "Constructed",Media Messages Shape Our Perceptions of Reality, Different Audience, Different Understanding of the Same Message,Media Messages Have Commercial Implications and Media Messages Embed Points of View

This article spells out the five key concepts of media literacy (created in 1987) in order to gain a critical understanding of social media. Now that we are creators and not just consumers of media we need to think more about what we are putting out there and the influence that has.