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Sheppard Software: Fun Free Online Learning Games And Activities For Kids. - MentorMob
Use the buttons on the left to play this interactive whiteboard set of tools for some of the best things you can find for interactive whiteboards. This list was made by Theresa Allen and you should share it with all your teachers who use IWB's. GREAT games and tools. Thanks, Theresa.
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This is an incredible announcement - Wikispcaces classroom with so many tools you can use. You can create projects but also measure engagement of your students from a dashboard! This is exciting.
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
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Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Flipboard Magazines make curation for your classes EASY. #ipadchat
Flipboard Magazines make curation for your classes EASY. #ipadchat
Flipboard is a fantastic ereading tool which has also become a premier curation tool. I've created a magazine Education Inspirivation that you can subscribe to in Flipboard by clicking on the Flipboard link: http://flip.it/WaRGT
Curation is Evolving
Curation continues to evolve and this is just one way. I created this magazine just a few days a go and almost 200 people are following the magazine. For me, a sharer by nature, I gravitate to places where it is easy to share.
Make a Custom Magazine for your course and students using Flipboard
If you have 1:1 ipad program, you should consider creating a magazine for your students, what a cool way to have "required" reading. Same for college professors, imagine a neat, cool, beautiful magazine where your students can easily retweet and comment.
How does it work?
You set up Flipboard. Then, there is a plus in the bottom right hand side. Use it and it will ask you to set up a magazine and you can flip content to the magazine. There is a place for the comment but I can't find where that comment goes right now. Once you get content into the magazine, you can look at the magazine and click the share button to share it with others. Tweet out the link and share on Facebook so others know that you've got a magazine.
How to pull content into Flipboard: use diverse streams of information
If you'll follow the tips I shared in 15 Fantastic Ways to use Flipboard, you can curate from the hashtags for your course, your course blogs and work, and current news. (I also have a square just for Stephen Downes, I want to read everything he writes.)
So many ways to collect, share and curate! There are lot of wonderful magazines out there. After I've settled on my favorites, I'll be sharing those. There are many magazines emerging, for me, the question is going to be who creates and continues to curate their magazine in the long term. I'm hesitant to jump on any bandwagons yet as there are many flash-in-the-pan types out there. Robert Scoble has some great magazines, though. I'm planning on updating my Flipboard magazine daily (with Sundays off) to see how it works. You can also search through Flipboard's recommended content at the top right where you access your magazine.
There are a million questions for Flipboard (analytics, etc.) but in the meantime there's lots of potential for classrooms and teachers of all types. Thanks to the nice people at Flipboard who called me the week before this launched so I was ready to play with it while I had surgery during spring break. It is just as easy and cool as they said, a rare thing in this world of vaporware. Any teacher can do this easily.
Will you share the links to your magazines in Flipboard?
If you create or have a magazine, will you share the link in the comments below? If you have a favorite, will you share it as well? I'm experimenting and would love to find and play with some more magazines. Thanks!
Written by Vicki Davis, author - Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds - Posted with Blogsy from my iPad-
450,000 Early Journal Articles Now Available | Internet Archive Blogs
The Internet Archive has ended over 450,000 journal articles from the JSTOR early Journal content or pre-1923 materials. It you work in arts, humanities, economics, politics, math and other sciences you may be interested in perusing this catalog.
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700 Free Online Courses from Top Universities | Open Culture
As you work to align and tweak your curriculum, don't ignore these college courses which can give you resources for your course.
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New 3D laser scanner can capture objects over half a mile away | The Verge
We worry about stealing music. Soon people will be able to steal anything and the key to a stable society may just be our ethics.
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QR Codes for Sight Words: Attaching audio files | Technology In Early Childhood
Awesome ways to use QR codes to help children learn to read.
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The World’s Largest Repository of Free Online Learning Tutorials » The Rapid eLearning Blog
Love the rapid elearning blog. With over 102K subscribers, it is jam packed with great material. This organized blog post has some great information and links to tutorials. "Today I am going to fix that. I have listed every blog post that has a video tutorial that shows how to create something related to online learning. So, if you’re just getting started with building online learning courses (or new to the blog), now you have a handy resource with links to all sorts of rapid elearning tutorials."
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Teen Smoking Influenced by Middle-School Peers, Parents | Psych Central News
"Investigators determined that intervention to counteract friends’ influence may have more of an effect in junior high than in high school, and that parents remain influential on smoking behavior through high school — indicating another possible intervention target. “Based on social developmental model research, we thought friends would have more influence on cigarette use during high school than junior high school,” said first author Yue Liao, M.P.H., Ph.D. “But what we found was friends have greater influence during junior high school than high school. We think the reason may be that friends’ cigarette use behavior may have a stronger influence on youth who start smoking at a younger age. During high school, cigarette use might represent the maintenance of behavior rather than a result of peer influence.”
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The Importance Of Mobile Learning In (And Out Of) The Classroom
This infographic is an impactful one helping school boards and IT departments understand the important of BYOD environments. In 2011 70% of the workforce between 22-34 used tablets and globally 46% of the mobile workforce has a smartphone. Using, managing, and maximizing these tools is an important part of modern life. Perhaps today's issues are helping students learn to focus, but keeping them out of school is shortsighted decision that will be looked back upon as a lack of vision... that is if you can help kids focus and help teachers encourage the use of them effectively. "Smartphones and Tablet sales will soon take over laptop and desktop computer sales: Don’t stick just to books – why not let students use the technology they’ll need in the future?"
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With Tougher Standardized Tests, a Reminder to Breathe - NYTimes.com
Testing students over material that is NOT in the curriculum is not fair. I think that states should have a way to mark things not covered and just take the hits across the board for not having it in their curriculum instead of causing children to suffer through feeling ignorant. Common Core may be great, however, if it isn't in the curriculum it is unfair and shouldn't be done. What can we do? Do we cause children to stress out unfairly because adults can't get their act together or it takes time to change the curriculum? I don't know the answers, but the thought of a child looking at a test and knowing that some things didn't happen in the classroom and the impact of "feeling dumb" that will happen just turns my stomach, literally. From the NEw York Times. " And they are likely to cover at least some material that has yet to make its way into the curriculum. The new tests, given to third through eighth graders, are intended to align with Common Core standards, a set of unified academic guidelines adopted by almost every state and goaded by grant money offered by the Obama administration. They set more rigorous classroom goals for American students, with a focus on critical thinking skills, abstract reasoning in math and reading comprehension."
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Mexico Education Reform: President Enrique Peña Nieto Faces Teachers' Revolt
Rebellion from teachers in Mexico who have bought and sold teaching jobs for generations without any national certification. Teachers are striking and bearing crowbars. These are reforms that most agree need to happen, but putting them in place is tough and sadly, it often hurts those we should protect the most... the children. Despite what some say, reforms need to happen in the US as well and this means upheaval here too. It can be challenging to separate the truth from the fabrications but I hope that wherever the flag of edreform is raised that people will think of children and what is best for them. What is best for teachers is not always the best for children. It might be good in my own eyes to have a job, but if I'm not a good teacher, perhaps it is something that doesn't need to happen. Interesting reading. "The conflict is fueled by the importance of teaching jobs for the poor mountain and coastal villages where the dissident union is strongest. Teaching jobs in Guerrero with lifelong job security, benefits and pension pay about $495 and $1,650 a month, depending on qualifications and tenure, well above average in rural areas, according to teachers and outside experts. They said the price to get such as job can cost as much as $20,000, usually going to the departing teacher, with cuts for union and state officials."
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Great reflections on what is happening and finished up with the book club on Flattening Classroom, Engaging Minds. The book is about taking your journey and finding your projects for your classroom, it will likely be different for many of us.
Sunday, 14 April 2013
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Knight Time Technology 3 June 13, 2013 Keynote
Excited to be heading to Kendallville, Indiana this summer on June 13 to keynote the second day of the Knight-Time Technology Conference about how to influence change in the 21st century, how to flatten your classroom, how writing is being reinvented and how you can use it in your classroom and differentiating instruction with technology. It will be exciting. If you're interested, this it the link to find out more information.
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TechSplash 2013 | The University of Virginia's College at Wise
Excited to be in Virginia on July 17 at TechSplash! Hope you'll join us if you're the area. "The purpose of Tech Splash 2013 is to showcase exemplary examples of technology integration in the K12 classroom as well as focus attention on new and emerging technologies. Date: July 18, 2013 8-3:30pm Location: Lebanon High School, Lebanon, Virginia Cost: $25 prepaid, $35 onsite "
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Another Mooc, I got an email from Jeremy Short, the professor leading this course. I was a management major at Georgia tech, I love the incorporation of graphic novels into this course. Here's what Dr. Short sent me: "I’m a professor at the University of Oklahoma. My co-authors and I conducted a study that will soon be published in Business Communication Quarterly where we find that graphic novels are more effective than traditional textbooks for direct recall of material. The study used material about human motivation commonly taught in introductory management courses. In addition to the superior recall associated with the graphic novel version of the material, more than 80% of students indicated the graphic novel format compared favorably to traditional textbooks. Now anyone in the world can conduct their own study to see if their experiences match our findings, as I will be teaching a class beginning June 10 and ending July 15, that is free under the MOOC format and will feature a graphic novel textbook as well as a traditional principles of management text – both books I’ve co-authored. OU students can enroll through regular registration and take the course for credit, but anyone interested in the class can enroll for free under the non-credit option. The only cost of the class under the second option is the cost of the two texts, which can be purchased for under $100 total."
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Online chat widget |RumbleTalk group chat room platform for websites
Rumbletalk bills itself as a "boutique" backchannel chat tool for live events, Facebook events. etc. They are marketing themselves for integration into Facebook pages and events but it can be put in other places. Lots of backchannel capabilities are emerging as many educators and event planners see the value of providing, managing and leading in the backchannel chats that WILL and DO occur whether you wish they did or not.
Saturday, 13 April 2013
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There are many nations (like Finland) who have national standards but local flexibility. This technologist writes an article supporting Common Core while saying that many don't understand what they contain. Honestly, I see another person who hasn't read some of them. My biggest issue is - who controls the standards and how can they be revised in the future.In a country showing a poor ability to keep politicians from writing standards, by centralizing they become easy target to the whims and sways of the pendulum of politics in the US. That said, I think national standards are likely inevitable.I just hope they put enough different people onto Common Core that group think doesn't send us in a very bad direction. If we have national standards and make it there, they become very important to our future as a country.
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Hangout With Explorers of Land, Sea, and Sky on Earth Day – News Watch
Science and elementary teachers CAN'TMISS THIS. Every hour on earthday will mark another hangout by National Geographic with scientists and all kidsof amazing people. Get in on this! This is one of those things to forward!! 'This year National Geographic celebrates its 125th anniversary and a long legacy of exploration, conservation, and research. Every hour of every day, National Geographic explorers take to land, sea, and sky (each frontier represented by a colored band on National Geographic’s historic flag) trying to uncover, understand, or help care for the world around us.
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Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org: Break a Few Eggs - Stepping Away from Google
Miguel Guhlin is doing what many of us are doing after the last straw - Google pulling GoogleReader. He's documenting how he's going to pull his dependence upon Google. For me, my biggest decision caused by Google is that I'll be moving to Wordpress over the summer. I do think Google Sites is next although I've received several heated emails that this isn't accurate - if you look at the market share of google sites, it is far less than that of Google reader. Yes, it is something educators depend upon but you get what you pay for. I think Google would be better served to have a freemium model -- if advertising doesn't pay for it, we'll let you keep the service if you pay. I don't know how I"d move from gmail. I just don't but if I had to, I guess I could. I don't think gmail is going anywhere, but I do have my personal email boxes going into that inbox. I agree wikispaces is far superior to Google sites. It started quite a few years a go with Google Lively and it has just continued every year. Thank you Miguel for your transparency. I hope Google is listening, many of us are still HOT about Google reader going away.As great as Feedly is, it doesn't have Diigo or ifttt.com integration yet which is a problem.
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Aligning My Project to Standards - Flat Classrooms
Yes, you can align your global collaborative projects to standards. The difference between this and a worksheet is that flattening the classroom is a fantastic way to engage, excite, and intrigue students while giving you a teacher-partner in another part of the world and a second set of eyes and inspiration for both of you. Flattening is a fantastic way to teach.
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The Current State Of Education In The U.S. (According To The Census)
US Census data is out and is being sliced and diced liked done on this edudemic article: 98% of students aged 6-14 are enrolled in school; 93% aged 14-18 are enrolled in school. 60% of 3-5 year olds are enrolled in nursery school; 92% of 5-6 year olds are enrolled in kindergarten. These numbers represent huge increases for the 3-6 year olds compared with 1970. In 1970, 20% of women and 27% of men attended college, compared with 38.6% of men and 47.5% of women in 2010. Generally only about 52% of school expenditures are for instruction. 29.7% go to ‘support services’ (a category that is not clearly defined here) Only four states spend more than $9,000 per pupil per year. 20 states spend $6,000 to $8,999, leaving the vast majority of states spending under $6K per year, per pupil.
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9 documentaries that you need to see this year | TED Blog
I haven't seen these and some may not really be something I'd watch, but many of you are thinkers and I want you to know that this list is there and being circulated. Lots of video for thought. As always, screen before you show anything to students and some of these don't look appropriate for them.
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Google+ Passes Twitter to Become Second Largest Social Network, Study Finds - SocialTimes
So, people are clicking the plus signs. I've always struggled withGoogle plus and find it clunky but many are using it, and now it is supposedly the second social media website behind facebook, surpassing Twitter.
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Using Edmodo and FaceTime - Flat Classrooms
Edmodo and Facetime - how interesting. Some of the coolest ideas come from the Flatclassrooms educator ning and this is one of them. Learn more.
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Bard High School Early College, a Second Chance for Disadvantaged Youth in Newark - NYTimes.com
College / high school is being done in Georgia with the ACCELL program. I think the biggest issue is that it is accelerating classes and perhaps might be ahead of high school, but I promise, it isn't college. I have some concerns but am glad that it is helping people get started towards college. I just think care must be taken to ensure the quality and calibre of teaching and content, particularly if transfer credits are being required in state.
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BBC News - Google launches tool to determine data use after death
This is an important issue. Google will be the first to let you designate what happens to your data when you die. This is a great move and something important but can be misused if it isn't handled properly
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Why your 8-year-old should be coding | VentureBeat
I totally agree, students should learn programming and be exposed to it. I love Kevin Jarrett's STEM lab and what he's doing. Read this and discuss. It doesn't matter if you don't know how to code or if your teachers are afraid they are going to have to learn. Make it a priority. If you want to add volleyball, you find someone to coach it. If you want to add programming, find someone to teach it, it is that simple. I think this model of "everyone integrates" is great b/c everyone SHOULD integrate but to think or fantasize that technology integration is the same as teaching Computer Science is to think that a kind who can skate is ready to drive a car - not even in the same ballpark.
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Steps and Leaps Into Next-Gen Learning - Forbes
Must read article on blended learning (in particular if you're an elementary teacher or principal, you'll want to read about the "Rocketship model" of lab station rotation instead of learning centers. This was written by Michael Horn for Forbes Magazine on March 28, 2013.
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10 Apps For More Organized Project-Based Learning
So, you can look at this list but I totally disagree with it. Trello should be on the TOP of the list and secondly dropbox (which links with Trello.) Trello is based on agile. You can look at this list and talk about what it is doing, however, as a teacher, I use a totally different set. I'd put 1) Trello, 2) Dropbox and 3) Screencastomatic (ok, I do post screencastomatic to youtube.)
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2013 ON for Learning Award Winners
Common Sense media is an excellent organization and they've given their 2013 awards to many apps by age. They separate the apps by age and rate it by Learning. This is a credible source of information about the apps that you'll want to look into if you're using apps to help students learn.
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If you have to order tshirts or come up with theme ideas, I love this website. It has more than sports slogans but slogans for just about anything. People vote them up. Very cool site for organizers of anything and principals. Enjoy!
Friday, 12 April 2013
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Students Leading – Let’s Listen!
Student Voice Summit is in New York this Saturday. You can participate. Here's some more information from my friend Anne Ostholthoff, host of the Ignite Show. "Listening: This Saturday, April 13 in NYC, the first-ever Student Voice Summit happens. It is presented LIVE and sponsored by Dell and hosted by Microsoft in their NYC Office. You can be there – no matter where you are via Livestream: http://new.livestream.com/Dell/stuvoicelive . Also, be sure to follow these students via the #StuVoice hashtag on Twitter @stu_voice and http://www.stuvoice.org/ Here the hope is for a meaningful exchange between stakeholders in the education policy debate"
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globalcollaboration - Flat Classroom Workshop 2013
If you're heading to ISTE and you're ready to collaborate globally, Julie Lindsay, Flat Classroom cofounder will be hosting a Flat Classroom workshop at the International School of San Diego on June 20-21 - here's the information. "Julie Lindsay, co-founder and Director of Flat Classroom, award winning global collaborative projects, and Flat Classroom Conference and Live Events Inc. unique collaborative live events for teachers and students, announces the June 20 & 21, 2-day 'Flat Classroom Workshop - Seven Steps to Global Collaboration'. Educators who want to transform their learning and embrace global collaboration in their curriculum are invited to join Julie for a unique professional development experience at International School of the Americas in San Antonio, Texas."
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I really love Nozbe. This tip lets you create a nozbe task using ifttt and email. Make sure you use the * in the body of the email to create the task. They weren't showing up for me, it was because I didn't do that.
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John Langley, teacher, keynoted our Flat Classroom and NetGen projects talking about collaboration and how it should extend from entertainment into schools. If you want to see how a "keynote" works asychronously, this is the format we use. John works with the student leaders on NetGen to help them facilitate their videos. "As digital natives, your generation (labeled by Don Tapscott as the Net Generation) have become naturals at communication and collaboration. You have grown up with technology tools at your fingertips. My four year old daughter has proficiently used her iPod to play games and listen to her favorite Taylor Swift songs since she was one and a half. My 14 year old daughter stressed about one of her best friends getting enrolled in an academic program next school year across the country until she realized the Skype conversations that they have nearly every day will not change. The Net Generation is used to communicating and collaborating for fun. The business world is already using technology tools to communicate and collaborate, to be more efficient and productive, to reach a wider, more diverse market. It’s our responsibility as educators and students to use technology tools in education to communicate and collaborate through projects like the Flat Classroom projects that will prepare students for global citizenship."
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Understanding "Centrality Bias" in Teams | HASTAC
We all tend to think we are more central to a project than we really are. This is no surprise but is very important for those who think they are indispensible because you're not. ;-( I just think being realistic is important. This is also a challenge for us in Flat Classroom because students think they are important and central EVEN if they aren't communicating and reaching out to partners and this is a problem. I've had kids claim they "did all the work" and when looking at the words, it doesn't bear out. They are shocked when they realize how little they've done. I think this thought process is a a problem for collaboration. No matter what people do, they think they did it all even if the wiki says otherwise or data says otherwise. For this reason, it is important to point out this disparity to teammates and also how to quantify the participation of others. "Do you provide information or materials which are necessary for them to do their job? To what extent are the tasks you each do related? Now imagine that everyone in the group does a similar exercise, quantifying their own relationship to everyone else. According to research from Jonathon Cummings of -Duke's Fuqua Business school, you are likely to overestimate the degree to which others on your team depend on you!"
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Feedly Channel in IFTTT – Customer Feedback & Knowledge Base for Feedly
Feedly is not yet integrated with ifttt and we really need that (as well as Diigo integration. I can't find another RSS reader except Google reader with the integration. Content sharers automate everything and I'm hoping this will happen or there will be room in my dashboard for the first RSS reader that does.
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Tips for Google Reader users migrating to feedly | Building Feedly
If you're moving to Feedly from Google Reader, go ahead. Nice tool. The only drawback is lack of Diigo integration. I hope you'll go over to Feedly and ask for that if you use it like I do so we can have voices asking for it! Here are the steps.
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