Digital Promise

JULY 17, 2017

Over the years, I’ve been involved in developing research programs and projects in education technology, games, and virtual reality. As I’ve developed my thinking around funding and conducting research in learning technologies, I always come back to an unpublished technical report written by one of my early mentors in the Navy. Norm Lane was a brilliant behavioral scientist who was commissioned as a Navy Aerospace Experimental Psychologist in 1963 and had retired when I first met him in 1994.

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Technology EdTech Education Secondary 663

Ask a Tech Teacher

NOVEMBER 16, 2017

This December will again host the Hour of Code , a one-hour introduction to programming designed to demystify the subject and show that anyone can be a maker, a creator, and an innovator. Last year, almost 300,000 students (age 4-104) participated from over 180 countries and wrote almost 20 billion lines of code. The 200,000+ teachers involved came away believing that, of all their education tools, coding was the best at teaching children to think.

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Digital Citizenship iPad Common Core Tools 590

The CoolCatTeacher

DECEMBER 14, 2017

Karen Voglesang on episode 209 [A special encore episode] of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Today Karen Voglesang @NBCTchr teaches children to use thinking routines in her classroom. After participating in Harvard’s Project Zero , she is applying and using the methods in classrooms and with teachers.

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Classroom Elementary Resources How To 551

Teacher Reboot Camp

AUGUST 3, 2017

“How you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top.” – Yvon Chouinard. Digital portfolios are one of the most powerful ways my students take ownership of their learning and reflect on their learning journeys. Digital portfolios help students set, track, and achieve their academic learning goals. Check out several of my students’ reflective portfolios here.

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Conference Assessment Digital Learning Course 520

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.

Technology

Edsurge

JULY 14, 2017

There is no lack of evidence to suggest that online classes have deeply transformed the teaching and learning landscape in higher education. In 2015, for example, nearly 30 percent of college students took at least one online class. But as more faculty are being encouraged to teach online, how often are they aware of why creating the option to take online classes supports their students’ ability to graduate?

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Course Education Groups Learning 539

EdTech Magazine

JULY 21, 2017

By Joe McAllister Educators can keep students on task with tools from Google and GoGuardian.

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Classroom Google Education Tools 714

User Generated Education

JULY 24, 2017

I work part-time with elementary learners – with gifted learners during the school year and teaching maker education camps during the summer. The one thing almost all of them have in common is yelling out, “I can’t do this” when the tasks aren’t completed upon first attempts or get a little too difficult for them. I partially blame this on the way most school curriculum is structured.

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Khan Academy Education STEM Classroom 436

Dangerously Irrelevant

AUGUST 26, 2017

In Michigan, a student was suspended for using ‘profanity’ in a tweet that encouraged his district superintendent to clear the snow in the school parking lot. In Maine, a high schooler was suspended for tweeting that poor student treatment by administrators meant that “they’re asking to be the next Columbine.” And in Florida, a student was suspended for ‘cyberbullying’ a coach with a single tweet that allegedly just reciprocated the same insult that the coach had called her earlier.

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Social Media Education Twitter Learning 406

Catlin Tucker

DECEMBER 28, 2017

This year I have posted several blogs about grading and assessment. I encouraged teachers to stop taking grading home for two simple reasons: Grading in isolation robs us of the opportunity to have conversations with students as we assess their work and, ultimately, makes feedback one-sided and less effective. Grading at home robs us of precious time with our families, time to relax, and time to create dynamic learning experiences for students.

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Blended Learning Assessment Classroom Analysis 419

The Web20Classroom

AUGUST 27, 2017

Reaghan is my oldest daughter and about to start third grade. At 2 years of age I noticed she wasn’t talking much and when she did talk you couldn’t really understand what she was trying to say. After talking to her pediatrician it was decided to have her evaluated for her speech. She spent countless hours working with a speech-language pathologist for nearly 5 and half years.

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Accessibility Classroom Video Education 356

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Digital Promise

NOVEMBER 6, 2017

Last week, Digital Promise co-hosted the EdSurge Fusion conference. As part of the opening session, I wanted to show examples of what it looks like when students use technology in powerful ways. But before I could make a movie about this, I needed to make sure I knew what powerful learning looks like to me. I set out to find students who leverage their connected resources to improve the quality of life for themselves, others, and their communities.

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Learning STEM Robotics Video 471

Ask a Tech Teacher

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

If you’re evaluating math programs at your school, a good option to consider is ORIGO Education’s Stepping Stones. Here’s one educator’s story about how Stepping Stones made a big difference with his students’ math skills: How Magnolia ISD has ‘leveled the playing field’ for students in math. by Dennis Pierce. Like many U.S. school systems, the Magnolia Independent School District in Texas serves a diverse student population.

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Elementary Digital Citizenship Education Resources 561

The CoolCatTeacher

DECEMBER 8, 2017

Vicki Davis on episode 205 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. When I first started teaching, I used to believe some things about the profession that I just don’t believe any more. In today’s final episode of season 2, I reflect on those lies and how I’ve grown in my practice.

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Classroom Learning Education Twitter 479

MIND Research Institute

JULY 18, 2017

Thoughts of a traditional math classroom may bring to mind images of students sitting silently at desks while a teacher works through a math problem on the board. There could be more to this scene though. Perhaps one student is using her fingers to keep track of numbers while another quietly taps his pencil along to key points of the equation. These are both small examples of embodied cognition, the idea that features of thought are shaped by aspects of the body other than the brain.

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Classroom Education Examples Technology 333

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.

Comparison

Tech Helpful

JULY 18, 2017

One of the things I'm quickly learning as an instructional technologist is that teaching parents how to use technology you are using in the classroom eases their mind a bit and gives them a sense of understanding. In our elementary school we use QR codes quite a bit to help students easily access information, websites, and videos as part of their learning and sharing.

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Elementary Classroom Video How To 295

EdTech Magazine

JANUARY 31, 2017

By Meghan Bogardus Cortez Classroom tech and data will continue to boost learning outcomes.

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Trends Classroom Outcomes Data 488

Ditch That Textbook

SEPTEMBER 29, 2017

Today’s students face a technology-infused, innovation-filled world in their future. We’re already looking at the possibility of widespread smart houses, autonomous cars and artificial intelligence that can talk to us and work on our behalf. Our parents’ and grandparents’ curriculum won’t be sufficient. How do teachers identify the trends, predict what students will need and prepare […].

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Future Ready Trends Technology EdTech 461

Edsurge

OCTOBER 10, 2017

What’s the difference between selling an education product to California versus Indiana—or any other state, for that matter? A new report from the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) aims to clear up the murky waters surrounding the adoption of digital learning materials, a process that varies wildly between states. The report defines several different procurement models, including so-called “adoption states,” where decisions are made at the state level, and “local contro

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EdTech Instructional Materials Case Study Digital Learning 271

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.

LMS

Dangerously Irrelevant

DECEMBER 17, 2017

I had a wonderful time this past week at the TIES conference in Minneapolis. Having worked at the University of Minnesota for six years, it was super fun to connect with old educator friends and new (including a lot of goofiness with Shelly Terrell while at Flipgrid headquarters). I served as the lunch keynote for TIES on Sunday and then facilitated a lesson redesign workshop that afternoon using our trudacot discussion protocol (thanks, Julie Graber , for joining us!).

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Education Groups Conference Learning 419

Catlin Tucker

OCTOBER 22, 2017

On Sunday, October 8th I went to bed early. I had been waking up between 4-5 AM all week to do work for my doctoral program. We had also hosted my husband’s family for the weekend, and I was exhausted. Normally, we go to be at 11 PM, but that evening I crawled under the covers at 9:30 PM. It was a warm and windy night. I could hear the wind whistling through the trees outside my window.

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Education Learning 419

The Web20Classroom

MARCH 19, 2017

When I was 6 or 7 years old I was at home on a boring rainy weekend. Being an inquisitive kid and generally looking for mischief I found some tools in a closet and decided something in my house needed taking a apart. I'd always wondered how a toaster actually made toast so it became the subject of my experiment. I spent a while taking it a part looking at all the pieces and, of course not knowing how any of it worked.

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Classroom Maker Movement Resources Education 361

Digital Promise

SEPTEMBER 25, 2017

Recently, the 60,000-member National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) released a new “Research Compendium,” a handbook with 38 chapters , each summarizing the best research on an important aspect of teaching and learning mathematics. For the past three years, I was honored to work on the team that developed the chapter on “Technology for Mathematics Learning.

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Technology Learning Handbook Education 461

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Ask a Tech Teacher

OCTOBER 10, 2017

Over the years, I’ve struggled to teach in ways my students would understand. Standing at the front of the classroom stopped working so I researched (and tried in some cases) Whole Brain Teaching (WBT), Socratic Method , Understanding by Design , Mindfulness , and a lot more options that colleagues mentioned as helpful with their differentiated student groups.

Learning 524

Learning Digital Citizenship Education Assessment 524

The CoolCatTeacher

OCTOBER 3, 2017

Jeff Gearhart on episode 162 of the 10-Minute Teacher Podcast From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Are you studying Mars? Why not let students go live there? Jeff Gearhart is working with teachers in traditional subjects to let students immerse in the subject in Minecraft. In today’s show, learn about Minecraft EDU and how it is being used to teach.

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Classroom Education Resources EdTech 363

Tom Murray

DECEMBER 14, 2017

If serving is below you, leadership is beyond you. – Unknown. In many schools, the community,—particularly parents—feels left in the dark. Within their own walls, schools often work diligently to communicate the latest initiatives, results, and grading practices, or they discuss things such as the Common Core State Standards. However, the community is often unaware of such important topics until they hit a friend’s Facebook wall, an online gossip forum, or become part of the conversation

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Common Core Classroom Learning Facebook 279

EdNews Daily

AUGUST 10, 2017

Scott Heister, an engineering and physics teacher, began mentoring his high school’s FIRST Robotics Competition team in his home state of Michigan 19 years ago. Since then, the robotics program has overcome their fair share of obstacles, including nearby factories shutting and decreased funding for their program, while working hard to transform culture in their school and build leaders in STEM.

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Robotics Classroom STEM Examples 279

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

Classroom

EdTech Magazine

SEPTEMBER 15, 2017

By Meghan Bogardus Cortez The tech giant’s Be Internet Awesome campaign now includes a free course for teachers.

Training 419

Training Google Course Game-Based Learning 419

Ditch That Textbook

NOVEMBER 10, 2017

I had a pile of assessments to mark (grade). I knew was going to take the best part of four hours to get done. I seemed to be writing the same comments as feedback: “Use a quotation to support your argument.” “Include a religious view as an alternative.” (I am a religious studies teacher if […].

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Assessment Study EdTech Education 426

Edsurge

OCTOBER 20, 2017

Bill and Melinda Gates have poured billions of dollars into efforts to shape U.S. K-12 education over the past 17 years. So what’s $1.7 billion more? In his keynote address at the Council of the Great City Schools conference in Cleveland this week, the Microsoft co-founder reflected on some lessons learned about education reform, along with plans to “invest close to $1.7 billion in U.S. public education over the next five years.

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Education Learning Common Core System 266

Dangerously Irrelevant

JUNE 15, 2017

A growing number of schools are recognizing that they must start transitioning their learning environments toward deeper learning, greater student agency, more authentic work, and robust technology infusion. Making those transitions is complex work, however, and many school administrators and teachers aren’t exactly sure how to proceed beyond some vague ideas about doing things differently.

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Future Ready Education Classroom Resources 361

Speaker: Todd Theobald, Noel Gomez, Marcus Painter

Join educators and assessment experts as they discuss the role of formative assessment in student learning, how formative practices can guide the teaching and learning cycle, and the positive impact assessment can make on your classroom. We’ll cover topics including: Reframing the value of assessments and focusing on learning opportunities. Using assessment data to make informed decisions about instructional strategies.

Assessment