The Journal
NOVEMBER 17, 2015
Unlike a previous blog post where we pooh-poohed blended learning, in this blog post we do a flip-flop and hail blended learning as the model for the future of ed tech. Now our formulation of Blended Learning may diverge from the orthodoxy, but so what: We see a future where K-12 students, with their 1-to-1 computing devices, will be engaging in lessons that are computer-based and computer-mediated.
Doug Levin
NOVEMBER 19, 2015
Benjamin Herold of Education Week has put together a real cracker of a series on the challenges of ensuring school broadband access in rural communities – and how E-rate (pre- and post-modernization) is helping to address the situation. Really good in-depth reporting and happy to see that Evan Marwell at EducationSuperHighway is continuing to shine a light on and advocate for affordable connectivity solutions for schools.
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Ed Tech from the Ground Up
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
An ed-tech startup from Hawaii explores what it takes to innovate outside of a large, urban area without access to investors or vast numbers of students. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.
The CoolCatTeacher
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
Great teachers self-assess. Poor teachers change nothing. Test yourself. Is your teaching solid? Don’t take for granted that students are learning. Give yourself a regular check up. Great teachers learn. They learn about their pupils. They understand their classroom. They make it better. Great teachers become a better educator every day. I can tell a great teacher with one question.
This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.
Ask a Tech Teacher
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
Collaboration is the new rigor in the classroom. Who hasn’t been mesmerized by children gathered at a table engaged in a high-level discussion, making shared decisions, and demonstrating deep, scaffolded learning? When students share organic ideas and peer review projects, they build authentic knowledge that everyone takes ownership in, but the saying is easier than the doing.
A Principal's Reflections
NOVEMBER 29, 2015
“ Your digital footprint paints a portrait of who you are as an educator, leader, school, or district. Make sure it conveys your true values and work.” – Eric Sheninger In the age where billions of people have taken both their personal and professional lives online you better be cognizant of your digital footprint. With each Facebook post, email, Instagram photo, comment on a blog, YouTube video, Skype call, etc. you are leaving a trail that can be seen, searched, or tracked.
EdTech Update brings together the best content for education technology professionals from the widest variety of industry thought leaders.
Doug Levin
NOVEMBER 5, 2015
Today, I’m pleased to release a new research brief entitled Pencils Down: The Shift to Online & Computer-Based Testing – U.S. K-8 Market (2015-16 School Year). The top line finding is eye-opening: The 2015-16 school year will mark the first time that the majority of state mandated summative testing in U.S. elementary and middle schools will be administered via technology and not in a paper and pencil format.
Neo LMS
NOVEMBER 26, 2015
There is this argument on whether social media and learning can coexist, because really, how can the noisy environment of social media become an effective tool for learning? Call it cliché but the first app we usually open on our devices is always Facebook. A status update here, share a post there, Facebook basically owns the majority of our social media life.
The CoolCatTeacher
NOVEMBER 29, 2015
November 2015 November has been a busy month. Not only are teachers using new tools, but they are struggling with burnout and old-fashioned interpersonal skills. We are needing inspiration and simple edtech advice as shown by the top blog posts here on the Cool Cat Teacher Blog and shows this month. Top 10 Blog Posts of November 2015: The Cool Cat Teacher Blog. 10 Ways to Flip a Kid and Turn Their Day Around.
Catlin Tucker
NOVEMBER 25, 2015
When my daughter began kindergarten, she would come home with notes pinned to her shirt–informationa about upcoming events, permission slips for field trips, and monthly newsletters. I found this incredibly amusing, but I had to admit it was an effective way to get information home to parents when you are dealing with 5-year-olds. As a high school teacher, I often wish I could pin announcements to my students’ clothing or backpacks to ensure they actually make it home to parents.
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EdTech Magazine
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
By D. Frank Smith Keeping one step ahead of network troubles requires a solid plan. Learn a few tips from a K–12 networking expert in EdTech's latest webinar.
Voyager Sopris Learning
NOVEMBER 11, 2015
How many more times do we have to hear from NAEP ( National Assessment of Educational Progress ) that 30 to 40 percent of middle and high school students are struggling and/or can’t read? It’s a catch-22. Because reading is difficult for them, older struggling readers don’t like to read, and therefore they don’t read. As a result and over time, vocabulary, sentence structure, comprehension, and academic language become less familiar, and these students begin to fall further and further behind.
User Generated Education
NOVEMBER 27, 2015
I currently teach graduate level educational technology courses. I like to acknowledge exemplary work by tweeting out the best of the best to my 21,000+ followers. A past student of mine was asked by one of her current teachers to describe a major learning experience in her education and she replied it was my course due to: A major moment in this course was some validation of my work that I was not used to.
Neo LMS
NOVEMBER 24, 2015
Are your students self-directed learners? Here we are in the 21st century where students are becoming academically independent. They can learn on their own, oftentimes without the teacher's intervention and most of the time they look for answers on their own. However, not all students are, what I’d like to coin, self-directed learners. There are still students left behind, still stuck on the traditional chalk-and-board, teacher-oriented classroom setup, and there are students that are somewhere
Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions
There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.
The CoolCatTeacher
NOVEMBER 24, 2015
Every Classroom Matters Episode 193 How should we be talking to children about terrorism? Did you know children under six shouldn’t be watching the news? Do you know the biggest worries of high schoolers when they hear of terrorism? Child trauma expert Dr. Steven Berkowitz helps parents and teachers understand how we talk to kids of various ages about terrorism.
Digital Promise
NOVEMBER 25, 2015
Emily is the Project Associate for the VILS initiative at Digital Promise. This fall, each of our 21 Digital Promise Verizon Innovative Learning Schools (VILS) rolled out tablet devices to its students and teachers. Device rollout is an exciting time and becomes a huge celebration for the school and the community. Every student and teacher in the VILS project receives a tablet device with a data plan that can be used both in and out of school.
EdTech Magazine
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
By D. Frank Smith Did you miss our latest webinar on networking and E-Rate? Don't worry — we have the social highlights right here.
Battelle for Kids
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
Volume 2, Issue 14, Number 2. Driving Question: Where does Professional Learning Fit in High Tech High's Commitment to Deeper Learning? In order to foster its aim of deeper learning, High Tech High teachers must become adept at building relationships, designing authentic work, and reflecting on their practice. It's a many step journey. An internal document called The High Tech High Teacher is used throughout the organization to communicate the attributes we hope to see emerge within our teachers
Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions
The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.
Dangerously Irrelevant
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
High school student Jeff Bliss famously said in 2013 , “If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a freakin’ packet, yo. It’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. They need to learn face to face.” Unfortunately, too many alternative high schools are just about worksheet packets and self-paced online courses. East Campus in Muscatine, Iowa takes a different approach, one that is paying enormous dividends in terms of student engagement, academic success, and high school c
Ditch That Textbook
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Songs can embed themselves deeply in our minds and our memories. Can you remember a specific song that immediately takes you back to a place and time in your past? For me, these three have very vivid memories: When I was moving into the dorms at Indiana State University my freshman year — a wide-eyed [.].
The CoolCatTeacher
NOVEMBER 24, 2015
Every Classroom Matters Episode 191. What is the secret to effective online project based learning? How can we get kids excited about writing? Nancy White shares how. She reflects upon two big projects. Nancy had one that worked well. She had another one that floundered. What was the difference? Apply Nancy’s principles and have better online writing today.
Class Tech Integrate
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
As we approach Computer Science in Education Week this year. I wanted to share 3 iPad apps that are great for your young students to use for their Hour of Code. The age/grade ranges are suggestions, you may have to differentiate accordingly for your students. REMEMBER: "Hour of Code" doesn't mean that a child needs to be on an app for a solid hour non-stop.
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Edutopia
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Andrew Miller Assessment Instead of issuing zeros, penalizing late work, and grading formative assessments, teachers should make the classroom a place of hope instead of fear.
Battelle for Kids
NOVEMBER 29, 2015
Volume 2, Issue 14, Number 1. Driving Question: What Does A Hard Look at Principal's PD Teach Us? We know that effective principals are key to student learning. Research in the last decade shows that school leadership can have a significant effect on student achievement. Two important studies came out in the last two years that point to this. In School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results , Waters, Marzano, & McNulty (2005) identify 21 leadership responsibilities that have a signi
Dangerously Irrelevant
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Last week in a session at the Iowa Association of School Boards annual conference, we were asked how our communities defined school success. Superintendents and school board members started voicing their mission and vision statements, which sounded quite lofty. I chimed in that, despite our school systems’ rhetoric, the reality for most community members probably was quite different.
Iterating Toward Openness
NOVEMBER 16, 2015
There is much that’s wrong with the educational technology (“edtech”) market. However, the title of an essay I read last week sums up the biggest problem as succinctly as possible: Caring Doesn’t Scale. This three-word sentence captures so much. First, it clearly communicates that “scale” has become a virtue. More importantly, it implies that old-fashioned virtues – things like caring about people – simply can’t compare in importance to moder
Speaker: Aaron Webb, Jamf
Apple empowers educators and students by design. Whether using Macs, iPads, or Apple TV, Apple devices encourage creativity and can simplify teaching with apps to make the classroom more flexible, collaborative and personalized for each student. To unleash the full potential of the technology and create the best learning environment, you need to understand the tools and resources available, and develop an education-focused, comprehensive plan, from equipment purchase to deployment, management an
The CoolCatTeacher
NOVEMBER 23, 2015
Social Media Insights Twitter counts on blog posts are broken. Can you fix Twitter counts? Why did this happen? Is Twitter in trouble? Let’s not panic, let’s analyze what has happened and how we can still find Twitter counts on a page (for now.). Although Twitter announced some time ago their plan to get rid of the counts that show how many times a page has been tweeted, they turned off the service on November 20.
TeacherCast
NOVEMBER 29, 2015
Download. Listen in a New Window. iTunes. Stitcher. SoundCloud. Leave a Review. Clammr It. Subscribe via RSS Subscribe on Android Follow @TeacherCast. Leave a VoiceMail. In this Episode, we discuss and demonstrate our favorite Google Apps for Education Tips, Tricks, and Chrome Extensions. The TechEducator Podcast is a weekly round table discussion about current topics in educational technology.
ASIDE
NOVEMBER 22, 2015
Students are writing more than ever before. They are tapping out rapid-fire fingerstrokes across multiple platforms. From text messages to social media, children and adults of all ages are engaging like never before with the written word. This type of transliteracy emphasizes more than ever the need for thoughtful conversations and clear instructions that guide students in how best to express high quality feedback.
Battelle for Kids
NOVEMBER 29, 2015
Volume 2, Issue 14, Number 1. Driving Question: What Does A Hard Look at Principal's PD Teach Us? We know that effective principals are key to student learning. Research in the last decade shows that school leadership can have a significant effect on student achievement. Two important studies came out in the last two years that point to this. In School Leadership that Works: From Research to Results , Waters, Marzano, & McNulty (2005) identify 21 leadership responsibilities that have a signi
This whitepaper explores integrating the PowerTeaching pedagogical approach within a HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible) educational model, focusing on employing cooperative learning strategies and efficient classroom management techniques.
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