May, 2010

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Banning is the Easy Way Out

A Principal's Reflections

'In the field of education change and innovation are words that are often spoken, but rarely acted upon. As our world evolves, technology has become increasingly prevalent in the lives of students. They are now part of a digital generation that have incredible opportunities to create content, collaborate on a global scale, and follow a path of continuous, life-long learning that extends beyond the walls of a school.

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Why Not Invite TED Into Your Classroom?

The Web20Classroom

'If you haven''t already heard, TED is one of the world''s coolest conferences. TED (Technology, Entertainment, Desgin) brings together some of the most forward thinking, progressive and really fascinating people on the planet to talk about, really anything they want. There are lots of things that TED can teach us in education and tons of ways we can use TED in the classroom.

Classroom 208
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WordWorld

SpeechTechie

'WordWorld is a cool resource from PBS, who have of late done quite a bit of web development to catch up with the BBC''s excellent interactives. WordWorld is a pretty open-ended, exploratory site, so you would want to allow for a child-centered approach, but along the way, you will find some excellent reinforcement of letter identification, rhyming, and sound-letter connections.

System 79
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Design, Genres, and Culture in Writing

Connecting 2 the World

I'm currently trying to work out some ideas that have come out of my dissertation analysis. These are still just the seeds of ideas. However, I am hoping by writing this post that I will be able to flesh out some of these ideas. Current Writing Theory: Genres In the current theory put forth by Gee and his colleagues, the design of writing is based on a form called genre.

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Reimagining Chickering & Gamson's Principles Post-Pandemic: Technology's Central Role in Modern Edu

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.

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3 Tools for Exploiting the Wifi During Presentations

Nik Peachey

Coming as I do from a background in language teaching that emphasises that the teacher should shut up and get the students to do the talking, I often feel uncomfortable doing conference presentations, many of which still follow the format of; speaker gets up in front of audience with presentation - does presentation - audience listen (try to stay awake) and desperately try to think of a few questions at the end to prove they were awake and listening.

Tools 40
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The Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard

The Innovative Educator

I spend a lot of time visiting innovative classrooms in New York City. As I do, there is something that I've noticed in many classes I've visited - there are still some educators that don't seem to know the no nos for teaching with a projector or interactive whiteboard (IWB). Perhaps it's easier to notice when you're sitting as an audience member or an observer which is not often the case for teachers.

Laptops 40

More Trending

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Beautifully and Simply Explaining Technology

The Web20Classroom

'One of the things that many of us who train teachers struggle with is finding explanations or the whys of certain types of tech. Twitter, blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasting, etc, all can be very complex for those just starting out and learning how they can integrate these into their classroom. Fortunately, all of us have Common Craft. Simply, their product is their explanation.

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Free App TODAY: My Pictures Talk

SpeechTechie

'The iPhone/iPod Touch app My Pictures Talk from husband/wife team Grembe Inc. is available free today from the iTunes store. View a full description of the app at Moms with Apps. This app allows you to record sounds to go with a photo on your device, and would be a great and motivating opportunity for kids to practice speech and language skills. You can use your camera or Safari (push the home and sleep/wake button at the top of the device simultaneously to save a screenshot in your Photos app)

iPhone 61
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Unofficial first day of summer

Connecting 2 the World

Memorial Day in the US (the last Monday of May) is the unofficial start to summer. Most of the country will have already finished up school last week and will be finishing school this week. But New York state doesn't end until the end of June. Growing up, this was always the toughest time of year as we were expected to keep focused on the end of the school year, tests, and finishing up the last bits that we did not yet cover.

Study 40
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Facebook as an Academic Resource? -- The Case of Brooke and Simon J. Ortiz

mauilibrarian2 in Olinda

'If you have to do research about a post-colonial poet who''s living, where do you look? Sophomore Brooke Sturdevant decided to try Facebook FIRST to look up Simon J. Ortiz and found that he was listed! Here''s the Facebook exchange. From: Facebook Sent: Monday, April 26, 2010 4:00 PM To: Simon J. Ortiz Subject: Brooke Sturdevant sent you a message on Facebook. facebook Brooke sent you a message.

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Behind the Bell: The Underlying Impact of Tardiness in K-12 Schools

Managing a K-12 campus with constant pressure to meet performance metrics is challenging. And tardiness can significantly limit a school from reaching these goals. Learn more about why chronic lateness matters, and key strategies to address the following impacts: Data errors caused by manual processes Low attendance and graduation rates that affect a school’s reputation Classroom disruption, which leads to poor academic performance High staff attrition and “The Teacher Exodus” Unmet LCAP goals t

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Join the Library Tech Geek Tribe!

The Daring Librarian

'adapted from Diane Cordell Tribe : A unit of sociopolitical organization consisting of a number of families, clans, or other groups who share a common ancestry and culture and among whom leadership is typically neither formalized nor permanent. A group of people sharing an occupation, interest or habit. "Due to copyright issues (about which librarians are VERY serious), we were unable to continue offering Library Tech Geek Squad buttons for sale.

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Google Sites Rock!

A Principal's Reflections

'The development and maintenance of a website used to be an expensive and complicated task that was not really embraced by many teachers. The financial constraints alone posed a huge discouraging factor. Creating a class website or page is now easier than ever. Teachers now have the ability or organize and routinely update content, assignments, videos, and presentations for students in an easily accessible format for free using Google Sites.

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Keeping Up With It All. My Favorite Tool Ever!

The Web20Classroom

'I admit it. I am addicted to Twitter. And I have admitted that before. I truly enjoy the people I am able to connect with and have conversations with. But I am most addicted to the resources because that is how I started. I spend lots of time finding stuff for my teachers. And I figure if it works for them, why not share with other educators. There are tons of links, articles videos and other great stuff that come across my screen everyday.

Tools 105
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Time for Bikes?

SpeechTechie

'The Urban Outfitters website has a nifty bike designer that could serve to develop some advanced descriptive vocabulary around bikes. The interactive design tool is intended to be a launchpad for an actual bike purchase, but you can change different attributes of the bike and see their names without buying anything. Kids would enjoy designing their own bike and searching for the changing attributes as they click (e.g. grips).

System 56
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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

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.

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A Switch in Comment policy

Connecting 2 the World

Lately, I've had a lot of spam on my comment function. So I have decided to moderate ALL comments in the future. This is as much for my readers as for my own blog. I still invite anyone to post a comment. I may not get your comment posted immediately as I work on my dissertation. However, I will be able to show your comment and respond at the same time now as I don't think I'll be missing a comment that might have been posted but that I didn't see.

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3D Computer Games with Young Learners: Spore

Nik Peachey

In a recent digital skills survey I carried out using Urtak I discovered that more than 50% of digitally skilled teachers don't feel able to utilise 2D and 3D computer games to achieve pedagogical goals ( See survey ), so I've been looking around and exploring some possibilities. The first of these is the Spore Creature Creator. Spore is a game which allows you to create creatures and evolve them along with their environment, all the way through to a space traveling society.

Video 41
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Library in Your Pocket

The Daring Librarian

'The Library in Your Pocket: Mobile Trends for Libraries View more presentations from Meredith Farkas. Today''s blog was inspired by the amazing Meredith Farkas, Head of Instructional Initiatives at Norwich University, columnist for American Libraries, lecturer at San Jose State University’s SLIS program, author, speaker and consultant on social media and managing change.

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Inspirational Follow Up From Filip

A Principal's Reflections

'Students never cease to amaze me. Late Thursday afternoon I looked at my Blackberry and saw an email from Filip Piasevloi, the student who wrote the amazing guest post entitled " A Student''s Perspective on Leadership ". Attached to his email was a document that contained his well thought out responses to comments on his blog post (see below). When I came up with the idea of inviting students to guest post on my blog I never could have imagined the profound impact that it would have on me.

Education 150
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The Roses and Thorns of an LMS Strategy: How to Flourish with the Right LMS

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.

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The Promethean Gala

The Web20Classroom

'Later today I have the honor and pleasure to join educators from all over in the opening of the Promethean Academy at the Promethean World Headquarters in Alpharetta, GA. As it says on the Academy Gala page: "The Academy seeks to empower those who represent Promethean as employees, business partners, and Learning Centers with the knowledge and skills needed to transform today''s traditional classroom to the 21st Century Classroom.

Classroom 100
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Simple Machines, Complex Language

SpeechTechie

'Cross-posted on Mindwing Concepts'' blog: Please click over to see my post that describes an awesome interactive website from Chicago''s Museum of Science and Industry. The site places the abstract curriculum content around simple machines in the context of an engaging and problem-based task that also taps narrative and expository structure. Plus, the site is so beautiful, you would think Pixar created it!

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Those were the days? Engaging with social media

Connecting 2 the World

Andy Cloverdale had an interesting post that echoes my own thoughts on blogging these days. As I am in the middle of grading numerous papers (most of which are NOT the assignment I gave students) and writing my dissertation (on which I would LOVE to have comments since I feel so isolated as I write it up), I wonder about the interaction that blogging seems to have lost.

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Students Are the Best Tech Advocates

A Principal's Reflections

'Scholastic recently visited New Milford High School in order to see how we were using and integrating educational technology. I could not be more proud of how my students represented NMHS and clearly articulated numerous examples of technologies that they have used over the course of the year.

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Building the Foundation for a Modern K-12 Classroom

K-12 looks different these days. But one thing remains the same: you need a reliable learning platform that serves as the foundation for teaching and learning––for all students, in a variety of learning experiences. Discover how the Instructure Learning Platform supports today's K-12 classroom through: A central, consistent, connected hub of the digital learning environment.

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Creativity Lies in Content Creation

A Principal's Reflections

'Yesterday''s #edchat topic focused on creativity in the classroom. Allowing students to create content not only fosters creativity, but also makes learning engaging and meaningful. Recently Joe Andolino (Applied Music Theory teacher at New Milford High School ) and his class hit upon a subject that every teen is interested in: cellphones. In previous classes the students created their own original music tracks.

iPhone 150
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The Complete Package

A Principal's Reflections

'As an administrator one of the most satisfying parts of the job is seeing teachers collaborate willingly on interdisciplinary lessons. This type of learning is extremely important in terms of providing students with connections between the content areas in order to provide a heightened sense of relevance and understanding. I was excited to learn last week about an activity that was being planned for a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Mobility 150
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New Posted Resources 05/22/2010

The Web20Classroom

'Teaching Parents Digital Citizenship at Katy ISD -- THE Journal tags : digital_citizenship , favorite The Power and Point of using Prezi in the classroom | learningblog.org tags : Prezi , favorite Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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New Posted Resources 05/18/2010

The Web20Classroom

'Apple - iTunes U - Learn anything, anywhere, anytime. tags : itunesu , favorite Jeff Goldstein: The Remarkable Power of Twitter: A Water Cooler for the 21st Century tags : edchat , favorite What''s Your Primary Focus: Leadership or Effectiveness? - Imagining the Future of Leadership - Harvard Business Review tags : leadership , favorite 10 Ways to Enable Student Collaboration « Technology Teacher tags : collaboration , favorite Posted from Diigo.

Resources 100
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Transform Your Classroom with Apple

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

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Looking For Change? It Starts At The Top.

The Web20Classroom

'(I had the honor of guest blogging for Jason T. Bedell, the brains behind TeachMeet Nashville that you might remember I gave the closing keynote at earlier this year. I appreciate the opportunity and you should head over and check out his blog and follow him on Twitter if you aren''t already.) Change. We hear a lot about change in education. Seems like everyday there is a new discussion popping up about something that needs to be changed.

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What Motivates You?

The Web20Classroom

'I am in the process of reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Dan Pink. I am only a few pages in (well a few screens because I am reading it on my Kindle) but I am already having a hard time putting it down. What Pink aims to do is lay out the science behind motivation and how we can use that to find success in our own lives.

Video 100
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New Posted Resources 05/15/2010

The Web20Classroom

'Recommended iPod Apps (Grade Levels & Subjects) Escondido Union School District - iRead - Google Docs tags : ipod , apps , favorite Free Audio Books - Download an audio book in mp3 or iPod format today! tags : audiobooks , favorite Video – Social Media Reading List for School Leaders | Dangerously Irrelevant tags : socialmedia , favorite 3 Points of Wisdom For Professional Learning Communities - PLC-Next tags : PLC , favorite Gazette » 140 Characters in the Classroom: Resources to Help Teachers

Resources 100
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New Posted Resources 05/12/2010

The Web20Classroom

'Official Google SketchUp Blog: SketchUp in a high school history class tags : favorite , Googlesketchup , sketchup Apple - Education - Central Elementary School Profile tags : ipodtouch , literacy , favorite Media College - Video, Audio and Multimedia Resources tags : media , multimedia , favorite Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Resources 100
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Enhancing HyFlex Education through the PowerTeaching Framework

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.