Sunday, June 30, 2013

Visual Notetaking » Mapping Media to the Common Core

Visual Notetaking » Mapping Media to the Common Core: "Visual notetaking is a process of representing ideas non-linguistically. (That’s a fancy of way of saying, “drawing pictures.”) Visual notetaking can include concept mapping, but also more artistic ways of visually capturing and representing ideas. On the simpler side of the visual notetaking continuum, visual notes can be used to create narrated art. "

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Friday, May 31, 2013

Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism? | Dangerously Irrelevant

Cell phone cameras in the K-12 classroom: Punishable offenses or student-citizen journalism? | Dangerously Irrelevant: "Take a look at the seven YouTube videos below, all taken by student cell phone cameras in classrooms. Do we want students bringing to public attention these types of classroom incidents? Should students be punished or applauded for filming and posting these?"

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Friday, May 17, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: The Old Reader - A Google Reader Alternative That Looks A Lot Like Google Reader

Free Technology for Teachers: The Old Reader - A Google Reader Alternative That Looks A Lot Like Google Reader: "Ever since Google announced that Reader will be shut-down on July 1 I have been recommending Feedly and Flipboard as alternatives. Both of those services use a magazine-like format to display your RSS subscriptions. Some people like that while others wish that they could stick with the old Google Reader lay-out. If you prefer the old Google Reader interface you might want to try The Old Reader. "

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Friday, May 10, 2013

Tip of the Week: Structured Academic Conversation | History Tech

Tip of the Week: Structured Academic Conversation | History Tech: "One of the best things about working with social studies teachers is that I get the chance to see all sorts of great ideas and strategies. Several weeks ago, I watched a teacher use something called a SAC or Structured Academic Conversation.

It’s a discussion / debate strategy that I haven’t seen used before. And it worked great so I figured I would share it with you."

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April 2 Tip of the Week – Fence Sitting | History Tech

April 2 Tip of the Week – Fence Sitting | History Tech: "One of the best things about being a social studies teacher is that we get to discuss and argue all of these great questions.

Should we have dropped the bomb? Is it ever okay to violate the Bill of Rights? What really happened during the Gulf of Tonkin incident? Is it legal for law enforcement to search student lockers? Why did the South lose the Civil War?

The problem, of course, is finding a structure that ensures that everyone gets involved. I’ve run across a great way to encourage participation and keep the focus on content."

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Monday, May 6, 2013

300 Free MOOCs from Great Universities (Many Offering Certificates) | Open Culture

300 Free MOOCs from Great Universities (Many Offering Certificates) | Open Culture: "Most of these courses offer “certificates” or “statements of completion,” though typically not university credit. (See the key below to understand the credentials offered by each course.) Courses are arranged by start date, while evergreen courses, which can begin whenever you wish, are found at the bottom. Also don’t miss our separate collection, 700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities."

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Saturday, May 4, 2013

Hack Education Ed-Tech Guide

Hack Education Ed-Tech Guide: "What Techies Should Know About Education

What should education technology entrepreneurs know about education?

Below is a collection of resources to help technologists learn more about education — about teaching, learning, policies, and the history of the field and its institutions."

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Hack Education Ed-Tech Guide

Hack Education Ed-Tech Guide: "What Educators Should Know About Technology

What should educators know about technology?

For decades now, education technology — both hardware and software — has been appeared in schools without much input from teachers or students. But with the rise of consumer Web technologies and the ubiquity of personal computing devices (particularly mobile devices), that’s changing.

Below is a collection of resources to help educators learn more about (education) technology — the industry, its culture, its investors, its politics, and the code that runs all our shiny gadgets and applications. "

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The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy

The Wrath Against Khan: Why Some Educators Are Questioning Khan Academy: "There's an article in this month's Wired Magazine about Khan Academy. The headline speaks volumes -- "How Khan Academy Is Changing the Rules of Education" -- as do the responses I've seen to the article.  As usual, there's plenty of praise for Sal Khan and his one-man-educational-video-making machine. But there's also push-back from some quarters, particularly from educators who are highly skeptical of what Khan Academy delivers and what it stands for."

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Entrepreneurialism, Student Voices and Authentic Work | Langwitches Blog

Entrepreneurialism, Student Voices and Authentic Work | Langwitches Blog: "Our 4th and 5th grade students(9-10 year olds) have been working with Mike Fisher, co-author of Upgrading your Curriculum and author of children’s poems. The goal of their collaboration is to create an eBook of Mike’s poems with students’ illustrations. "

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Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Moving at the Speed of Creativity | Create YouTube Channel with Custom URL (April 2013)

Moving at the Speed of Creativity | Create YouTube Channel with Custom URL (April 2013): "Following recent changes in Google+ and YouTube, the steps and menu options for creating a professional YouTube channel have changed slightly. The following steps outline how (as of April 2013) you can create a “custom channel URL or name” for a YouTube channel you associate with your school Gmail account or another Gmail account you own."

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

“Wonderville” Is New Virtual Classroom Site | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

“Wonderville” Is New Virtual Classroom Site | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…: "Wonderville just became available to the public and lets teachers (or parents) create virtual classrooms (for free) with content and multiple choice questions where children’s progress can be monitored. It’s focusing on K-5 content now.
It looks like it might be one of the better sites of its kind, though it’s perplexing to me why they’d include a YouTube video as a key part of each lesson — since YouTube is blocked by most schools, that means students won’t be able to view them there."

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Announcing Wikispaces Classroom

Announcing Wikispaces Classroom: "Wikispaces Classroom is a brand new product from the Wikispaces team entirely and exclusively for teachers and students.

Over the years we’ve distilled what we believe and do into one simple thing: help teachers help students. And Wikispaces Classroom is our attempt to take that to the next level."

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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: gClassFolders Version 2 Improves Google Drive File Management

Free Technology for Teachers: gClassFolders Version 2 Improves Google Drive File Management: "Last fall I introduced many of you to gClassFolders. gClassFolders is a Google Drive script that will create folders for you for as many course sections as you need. The concept behind it is this; students have a "dropbox" folder in their Google Drive accounts that you have shared with them. To submit work students drag files into that "dropbox" folder. From there gClassFolders sorts submissions to the correct folder for each student."

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Friday, April 12, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Good Video Sources for Math Students and Teachers

Free Technology for Teachers: 10 Good Video Sources for Math Students and Teachers: "Earlier this week I shared ten video sources for history students and ten video sources for science students. To wrap-up the week I have a list of ten video sources for math students. Like the other lists, I've intentionally left out Khan Academy because everyone knows about that option."

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Kids don’t hate history, they hate the way we teach it | History Tech

Kids don’t hate history, they hate the way we teach it | History Tech: "About 15 years ago, I had the chance to drive James Loewen around for a couple of days. He was in town for a two day workshop and afterwards had to get to Kansas City for a flight. As his chauffeur, I got the chance to pepper him with all sorts of questions. And much of what I wanted to know revolved around his most recent book at the time, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong."

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Ways to Add Interactive Elements to Your Videos

Free Technology for Teachers: 5 Ways to Add Interactive Elements to Your Videos: "Over the last few days I've featured a couple of free tools for adding interactive elements to your videos. In the last year I've reviewed a few other services and methods for doing the same thing. This is a round-up of the ways that you can add interactive elements to your videos. The first four tools could be used by students to create a series of choose your own adventure videos. These tools could be used by teachers to enhance the short videos that they create for flipped lessons."

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Monday, February 11, 2013

Moving at the Speed of Creativity | Is Embracing Digital Learning a Moral Issue for Educators?

Moving at the Speed of Creativity | Is Embracing Digital Learning a Moral Issue for Educators?: "While there have been and will continue to inevitably be older teachers who will retire from education rather than learn “new ways” of teaching and learning in the digital information landscape, that choice is not a moral one for those of us who choose to remain twenty-first century educators."

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Friday, January 25, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: Teaching Objects - A Lesson Planner That Integrates Google Drive

Free Technology for Teachers: Teaching Objects - A Lesson Planner That Integrates Google Drive: "Teaching Objects is an online lesson planner that I stumbled upon today and that I think has great potential. The first thing that you'll notice when you try Teaching Objects is that you have to create your account using a Google account (either a personal account or a Google Apps for Edu account). Then you can optionally authorize Teaching Objects to access your Google Drive and YouTube accounts. Giving authorization will enable you to pull materials from your Google Drive and YouTube accounts into your Teaching Objects lesson plans."

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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Free Technology for Teachers: Use Edcanvas in Edmodo for Visual Organization and Sharing of Resources

Free Technology for Teachers: Use Edcanvas in Edmodo for Visual Organization and Sharing of Resources: "Edcanvas is a well-designed service for organizing and sharing digital materials with your colleagues and students. I was impressed by the service when I reviewed it earlier this month. This week Edcanvas launched an Edmodo app. Now you can use and share your Edcanvas content within your Edmodo community."

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Monday, January 21, 2013

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Learn more about Flat Classroom! Connect your students globally.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Learn more about Flat Classroom! Connect your students globally.: "I get tweets and emails asking "what is this Flat Classroom thing?" When you flatten your classroom, you remove the walls. You connect your students to others around the world in a level playing field where they collaborate, work together and learn from each other. "

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Thursday, January 17, 2013

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Make Google Reader your Powerhouse sharing system

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Make Google Reader your Powerhouse sharing system: "Productivity and simplicity, these are two things the modern knowledge worker craves. Google Reader is my "secret weapon" of productivity and I'd like to show you how I get the most out of this program."

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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Understanding SOPA/PIPA

Most everyone has noticed the swath of websites that were blacked out in protest of the pending PIPA / SOPA legislation in congress, but not as many people understand exactly why those bills are such a problem. This short documentary explores PIPA and SOPA, how the bills work, who's behind them, and why all internet users have reason to be concerned. The fight to prevent online censorship in the U.S. is far from over. While SOPA's future seems increasingly bleak, PIPA has not been pulled from consideration in the senate, where it will be up for a vote later this month. It is important to understand that PIPA has the same fundamental problems of SOPA. It is NOT a compromise bill; at this point, it is little more than a legislative strategy to abandon the SOPA branding in favor of PIPA. Both bills contain vague language and reach too broadly, threatening free speech and innovation on the web. Both institute a private right of action for companies to block access to infringing content without due process. Both contain an immunity clause to protect these companies from legal consequence if they make mistakes. And both set the wrong global precedent by encouraging other countries to censor the internet based on their own domestic laws. While President Obama is opposed to the DNS-blocked mechanisms proposed in the bills, the language still exists. As well, Obama has not come against the legislation itself, nor has he signaled his intention to veto the legislation if it passes. These bills don't need to be fixed, they need to be scrapped. - Note this correction: David Sohn from the Center for Democracy & Technology is incorrectly shown as David Cohn. - Produced and edited by Chase Whiteside (interviews), Erick Stoll (camera), and Liz Cambron. Graphic design by Chase Whiteside. Motion design by Ashley Walton (ashleywalton.com). Music from Nicolas Jaar's brilliant debut album Space is Only Noise. THANKS: David Sohn and the Center For Democracy & Technology, Chris Riley and Free Press, Ashley Walton, Steve Bognar, John Aravosis, Jay Marose, Walter Herrera

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Using TED-Ed Videos | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Using TED-Ed Videos | Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…: "Using TED-Ed Videos
January 12, 2013 by Larry Ferlazzo | 0 comments
I have a number of reservations about flipped classrooms (see The Best Posts On The “Flipped Classroom” Idea) — both regarding pedagogy and practical issues (many students just wouldn’t do it).
However, I have found that some of the sites on my The Best Sites That Students Can Use Independently And Let Teachers Check On Progress list useful for a different situation — sometimes I have a student who is facing so many challenges, that periodically he/she needs a break from what we’re doing in class (and the class needs a break from them). During some of those times, I put the student at my desk in front of the computer, and he/she does a different project using one of those sites. It’s a far better alternative than sending the student to the office on a “referral.”
The two sites I think are the best for those situations are SAS Curriculum Pathways and TED-Ed talks."

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Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Personalize Learning: OMG! Teacher Roles are Changing

Personalize Learning: OMG! Teacher Roles are Changing: "Personalized learning means it starts with learners having a voice and choice in how they learn. They create their Personal Learner Profile using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) lens determining how they learn best indicating their strengths, challenges, aspirations, interests, and talents. They know how they prefer to access resources, engage with content, and then choose the best ways to express what they know. They self-regulate their learning. They own and drive their learning. It is does not mean technology personalizes the learning for learners. It does not mean that your role as teacher is no longer needed. Your role changes in a personalized learning environment more than ever as a partner in learning with your learners."

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Tuesday, January 1, 2013

World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12)

World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT-12): "ITU convened the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, from 3-14 December 2012. This landmark conference reviewed the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), which serve as the binding global treaty designed to facilitate international interconnection and interoperability of information and communication services, as well as ensuring their efficiency and widespread public usefulness and availability."

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Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet | Official Google Blog

Marking the birth of the modern-day Internet | Official Google Blog: "Today is the 30th birthday of the modern-day Internet. Five years ago we marked the occasion with a doodle. This year we invited Vint Cerf to tell the story. Vint is widely regarded as one of the fathers of the Internet for his contributions to shaping the Internet’s architecture, including co-designing the TCP/IP protocol. Today he works with Google to promote and protect the Internet. -Ed."

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