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- This terrific episode is all about nanotechnology. Share with your science teachers.
- Who says symphony orchestras have to be boring? Share this with your favorite music teacher
- Check this out.
The education technology space has seen an explosion of new offerings in the past few years. What has been missing is a centralized platform for schools and universities to easily evaluate and utilize web apps. Today we are excited to launch an education category in the Google Apps Marketplace designed specifically to help schools and universities easily discover and deploy new web applications that integrate with their existing Google Apps accounts.
The new education category includes over 20 applications from 19 vendors ranging from learning management systems (LMS) to student tools and teaching aids – all of which integrate with Google Apps for Education. Each app can be accessed through single sign-on and the Google universal navigation bar and many offer deeper integrations that synchronize with Google Calendar and Documents. - Wow. Share this with your art teacher(s) The videos are on this page, but check out the other galleries, as well. Won't raise a math score, but the art folks will love it
- " This Module covers the basics of Google Apps Education Edition and how you can use Google Apps on your school domain. "
- "These sessions, taught by Google Apps for Education Certified Trainers, have received a great response and we've decided to hold them more frequently – you can now tune in every Tuesday at 4:30PM PT/7:30PM ET to hear tips and techniques for using Google Apps for Education."
- Make images with clickable regions. Nice.
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Saturday, January 29, 2011
Post weekly (weekly)
Thursday, January 27, 2011
A Fun Teachable Moment Today
I had the pleasure of visiting a school near here today to see the kinds of activities that the teachers and students were doing with technology. One of those classes was being taught by a third year teacher. He is the Special Education teacher there, and he's been using the various technology tools in some powerful ways with his students. They have a moodle class set up, and when they're in the lab they're totally focused on the tasks at hand. It was something to see.
But that's not the story.
They were studying water pollution and I sat down beside a senior boy and asked him to show me what he was doing. He was fine with that, and he showed me the moodle class and "... all the stuff we can do in there." When I saw the title of the chapter they were in, I mentioned that I had seen a picture recently about the world's most polluted river. As I was talking about it, he opened a new tab and googled, "worlds most polluted waterways." He then clicked on the images link at the top. I hadn't suggested it; he did it on his own. As he did, I wondered, "How many times would he have done that in class if he had the opportunity to explore the ideas the interested him?"
The first image he found was this one: http://seawayblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/manilas-floating-rubbish-dump.html and the other images on that page. Then he found this one: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread576911/pg1(the second image on the page). He sat there and stared in silence at that picture for a good while before saying, "That's just awful! How can they live like that?"
Indeed.
But, I really have a feeling that this little bit of self-guided exploration did more to bring home the idea of why pollution is an important topic than ANY Study Island lesson could possibly have done alone. As I got up to leave he was still going through the images. I said, "THAT'S why we study the topic of water pollution."
Oh how I wish kids could have more time for that sort of thing. When you hear about something that sparks some interest, check it out. Look at images. Post to a discussion forum. Share those images with the rest of the class. Talk about it. If we'd had time I would have shown him the two poptech videos I had mentioned in a previous blog post. I had his attention and his interest. That's the time to provide more.
Anyway, just a thought about the difference a computer in front of a student can make.
But that's not the story.
They were studying water pollution and I sat down beside a senior boy and asked him to show me what he was doing. He was fine with that, and he showed me the moodle class and "... all the stuff we can do in there." When I saw the title of the chapter they were in, I mentioned that I had seen a picture recently about the world's most polluted river. As I was talking about it, he opened a new tab and googled, "worlds most polluted waterways." He then clicked on the images link at the top. I hadn't suggested it; he did it on his own. As he did, I wondered, "How many times would he have done that in class if he had the opportunity to explore the ideas the interested him?"
The first image he found was this one: http://seawayblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/manilas-floating-rubbish-dump.html and the other images on that page. Then he found this one: http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread576911/pg1(the second image on the page). He sat there and stared in silence at that picture for a good while before saying, "That's just awful! How can they live like that?"
Indeed.
But, I really have a feeling that this little bit of self-guided exploration did more to bring home the idea of why pollution is an important topic than ANY Study Island lesson could possibly have done alone. As I got up to leave he was still going through the images. I said, "THAT'S why we study the topic of water pollution."
Oh how I wish kids could have more time for that sort of thing. When you hear about something that sparks some interest, check it out. Look at images. Post to a discussion forum. Share those images with the rest of the class. Talk about it. If we'd had time I would have shown him the two poptech videos I had mentioned in a previous blog post. I had his attention and his interest. That's the time to provide more.
Anyway, just a thought about the difference a computer in front of a student can make.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Post weekly (weekly)
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10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports - TheApple.com
- A bookcast is a movie trailer-like audio review of a book
- Students can add photos, video, audio and text to their timeline to support telling the story sequentially.
- Wikis are an excellent place for students to share book reviews.
- After students read a book, they can create their own book talk using a web cam or video camera.
- Students can create a slideshow summary of their book with pictures, audio, and text. Other students can leave text, audio, or drawn comments on the book reviews.
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10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports - TheApple.com
- Let students create a cartoon version of the book they have just finished.
- summarizing the book they just read.
- Students can create an interview type show where they interview characters in the book, create a short movie trailer for the book, or actually have characters act out portions of the book.
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Students should include the title and author of the book, key characters, use pictures that support the story line, and create a tag line that will make others want to read the book.
- Encourage students to create their own virtual bookshelves with Shelfari http://shelfari.com.
- they can log onto their Book Adventure account and take a 10 question multiple choice quiz based on the book they read.
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Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff – TechLearning.com
This list has several sites I'd not heard of before. (Thanks, Doug Leisher) for sharing this with me via email.
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Excellent search results for Technology related search
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MATHCOUNTS Foundation - MATHCOUNTS
For Middle School students
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Tech Learning TL Advisor Blog and Ed Tech Ticker Blogs from TL Blog Staff – TechLearning.com
Sites to Promote STEM
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Post weekly (weekly)
- Shared by Will Richardson on twitter the other day. He described it as 'brilliant.'
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- Y GOTTA watch this'
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- Another great article about the impact on the environment of something we take for granted - cell phones. (Thanks to Justine Kobeski for sharing this with me)
- All things Google Tools
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Saturday, January 08, 2011
Post weekly (weekly)
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Google Maps Mania: 10 Great Car Journeys in Street View
Talk about virtual field trips. Here are 10 great Car trips that you can play right in your browser. Show your students!
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More Schools Embrace the iPad as a Learning Tool - NYTimes.com
- less costly options, like smartphones
- paying for their iPads through federal and other grants,
- “You can do everything that the iPad can with existing off-the-shelf technology and hardware for probably $300 to $400 less per device,
- About 5,400 educational applications are available specifically for the iPad, of which nearly 1,000 can be downloaded free.
- “It has brought individual technology into the classroom without changing the classroom atmosphere,”
- “It’s not about a cool application,” Dr. Brenner said. “We are talking about changing the way we do business in the classroom.”
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More Schools Embrace the iPad as a Learning Tool - NYTimes.com
This REALLY upsets me. To me, it's clear that these folks should NOT be making decisions about what matters in education.
- teach Kafka in multimedia, history through “Jeopardy”-like games and math with step-by-step animation of complex problems.
- The iPads cost $750 apiece
- Educators, for instance, are still divided over whether initiatives to give every student a laptop have made a difference academically.
- “IPads are marvelous tools to engage kids, but then the novelty wears off and you get into hard-core issues of teaching and learning.”
- “If there isn’t an app that does something I need, there will be sooner or later,”
- $56,250 for the initial 75
- 32-gigabyte, with case and stylus
- play math games, study world maps and read “Winnie the Pooh.”
- “I think this could very well be the biggest thing to hit school technology since the overhead projector,
- The New York City public schools have ordered more than 2,000 iPads, for $1.3 million
- More than 200 Chicago public schools applied for 23 district-financed iPad grants totaling $450,000. The Virginia Department of Education is overseeing a $150,000 iPad initiative
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Tuesday, January 04, 2011
Response to "Top 10 Predictions for 2011 (with proof)
I wrote this as a response to this article: http://www.techlearning.com/article/35406 but it turns out that it was over the character limit, so I decided that rather than try to trim it I'd just make it my own post.
Here'is my response:
I do believe that you will see these predictions happening around the country - just not in the same schools. A school here or there will stop textbooks, for sure. That's not that far fetched. And there are already some schools that are allowing their students to bring in their own tech, or using cell phones for educational purposes. But, there are a couple of these predictions that I think are harder to make happen except in rare instances.
The idea of assessments being comprehensive and constant, for one, will be much harder to see happening except in rare instances. Why? Because there are SO few models of what that looks like, and precious little professional development time being spend on showing that model. Teachers can't easily and suddenly change how they are teaching and assessing without some sustained PD to show them what it looks like and how to transpose those alternative assessments into letter grades. ANd that's their reality. Letter grades.
Students forced to use phones in class? Why? What pedagogical reasons are there to force the use of a cell? Force? Grounds for detention? In these litigious days? I highly doubt it. Schools are far too worried about the (perceived - right or wrong) dangerous uses of the phones. I don't think you'll see this in many schools at all. At least not to the degree that you have mentioned here.
Another area that I don't see changing is the use of Facebook. Yes, a student could make a facebook page about an historical figure and friend other historical figures. Is that all there is? That and friending a teacher? If that's all there is then I think, for all the distraction Facebook access would cause I just don't think it's worth it. It's certainly not the hill I'm going to fight for. Have you noticed how addicted some folks are to facebook? Do we want/need that distraction - for students AND teachers? I think it's a forced fit at best. If you can't do anything with it other than pretend to be an historical figure, then let's move on to what we KNOW to work in Education.
Finally, the end of testing? I have the utmost respect for Chris Lehman, but I respectfully disagree with the idea that the end is in sight. I see nothing to support that. A switch from NCLB to RTTT? No end to testing in sight there, for sure. And, I keep going back to the idea that there just isn't enough PD for teachers for them to know how to make that kind of switch. And, even if every day of PD this year were devoted to it, it's just not going to go away that quickly. I just don't see it. At the end of the day the teachers need to record a grade, and until they have a LOT of experience creating and using rubrics to score projects, it's just MUCH less work and FAR less subjective (if you have to support your grade to an upset student or parent) to give tests.
I'm not saying that I favor tests. I'm just saying that until colleges begin to show their education majors alternative ways to assess students (and start to model it themselves) that the test just isn't going to go away.
My hot button is the filter. (Ever hear me screaming?) The notion that this year students will be able to surf away is an exciting idea. But, in 2011? Again, maybe in isolated instances, but I doubt if you'll be able to look back on this year and say that you've seen a significant change. Not until the CIPA gods stop the nonsense of functioning as a "Gotcha!" To have such vague rules for being compliant and then keeping everyone on their guard about being audited and losing that e-rate funding (especially in these days of funding concerns) is not fair to anyone. If schools could run down through a checklist of searches that would show areas of concern then at LEAST they would know the boundaries. As it is, we've got some districts that block Google Docs and wikis, for crying out loud. When there is THAT much rampant fear in this country, then the idea of surfing freely is just unrealistic. IMHO.
Your article sure gave us food for thought. Thanks to Ellen for getting us thinking more on the topic(s).
Here'is my response:
I do believe that you will see these predictions happening around the country - just not in the same schools. A school here or there will stop textbooks, for sure. That's not that far fetched. And there are already some schools that are allowing their students to bring in their own tech, or using cell phones for educational purposes. But, there are a couple of these predictions that I think are harder to make happen except in rare instances.
The idea of assessments being comprehensive and constant, for one, will be much harder to see happening except in rare instances. Why? Because there are SO few models of what that looks like, and precious little professional development time being spend on showing that model. Teachers can't easily and suddenly change how they are teaching and assessing without some sustained PD to show them what it looks like and how to transpose those alternative assessments into letter grades. ANd that's their reality. Letter grades.
Students forced to use phones in class? Why? What pedagogical reasons are there to force the use of a cell? Force? Grounds for detention? In these litigious days? I highly doubt it. Schools are far too worried about the (perceived - right or wrong) dangerous uses of the phones. I don't think you'll see this in many schools at all. At least not to the degree that you have mentioned here.
Another area that I don't see changing is the use of Facebook. Yes, a student could make a facebook page about an historical figure and friend other historical figures. Is that all there is? That and friending a teacher? If that's all there is then I think, for all the distraction Facebook access would cause I just don't think it's worth it. It's certainly not the hill I'm going to fight for. Have you noticed how addicted some folks are to facebook? Do we want/need that distraction - for students AND teachers? I think it's a forced fit at best. If you can't do anything with it other than pretend to be an historical figure, then let's move on to what we KNOW to work in Education.
Finally, the end of testing? I have the utmost respect for Chris Lehman, but I respectfully disagree with the idea that the end is in sight. I see nothing to support that. A switch from NCLB to RTTT? No end to testing in sight there, for sure. And, I keep going back to the idea that there just isn't enough PD for teachers for them to know how to make that kind of switch. And, even if every day of PD this year were devoted to it, it's just not going to go away that quickly. I just don't see it. At the end of the day the teachers need to record a grade, and until they have a LOT of experience creating and using rubrics to score projects, it's just MUCH less work and FAR less subjective (if you have to support your grade to an upset student or parent) to give tests.
I'm not saying that I favor tests. I'm just saying that until colleges begin to show their education majors alternative ways to assess students (and start to model it themselves) that the test just isn't going to go away.
My hot button is the filter. (Ever hear me screaming?) The notion that this year students will be able to surf away is an exciting idea. But, in 2011? Again, maybe in isolated instances, but I doubt if you'll be able to look back on this year and say that you've seen a significant change. Not until the CIPA gods stop the nonsense of functioning as a "Gotcha!" To have such vague rules for being compliant and then keeping everyone on their guard about being audited and losing that e-rate funding (especially in these days of funding concerns) is not fair to anyone. If schools could run down through a checklist of searches that would show areas of concern then at LEAST they would know the boundaries. As it is, we've got some districts that block Google Docs and wikis, for crying out loud. When there is THAT much rampant fear in this country, then the idea of surfing freely is just unrealistic. IMHO.
Your article sure gave us food for thought. Thanks to Ellen for getting us thinking more on the topic(s).
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