Saturday, October 10, 2015

Whiteboards - Interactive Or...

The most important question to ask when looking to purchase an interactive whiteboard (iwb) is how the teacher is going to use it. Direct substitution is the lowest level of tech integration and is the least effective at improving student engagement and learning. Teacher training can remedy having iwb's used for only lecturing or for mainly teacher-centered use. The focus should be on the student interactivity combined with teacher-led structure.
Some Rights Reserved

Some Rights Reserved
Here are some resources for an iwb purchase:

The Ten No Nos of Teaching with a Projector or Interactive Whiteboard by the Innovative Educator, Lisa Nielsen

The Reasons Why Interactive Whiteboards Are Being Attacked by Emily Starr

IWB Resource Links

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

Tech Alone is NOT Enough

Why Ed Tech Is Not Transforming How Teachers Teach

Students in a classroom at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Del., listen to a social studies lecture from their teacher.
Students in a classroom at Mount Pleasant High School in Wilmington, Del., listen to a social studies lecture from their teacher.
—Charles Mostoller for Education Week

Student-centered, technology-driven instruction remains elusive for most

Article Tools
Public schools now provide at least one computer for every five students. They spend more than $3 billion per year on digital content. And nearly three-fourths of high school students now say they regularly use a smartphone or tablet in the classroom.
But a mountain of evidence indicates that teachers have been painfully slow to transform the ways they teach, despite that massive influx of new technology into their classrooms. The student-centered, hands-on, personalized instruction envisioned by ed-tech proponents remains the exception to the rule.


"The introduction of computers into schools was supposed to improve academic achievement and alter how teachers taught," said Stanford University education professor Larry Cuban. "Neither has occurred."

Click here to read the entire article...

Sunday, October 12, 2014

How Teachers Can Use iPads

5 Ways Teachers Can Use their iPads Professionally

chaos-391652_640This is a guest post from Jennifer Carey (@TeacherJenCarey) and EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site.

iPads are powerful tools for teachers in the classroom. In addition to being robust, mobile creation devices for students, they help you to stay organized, be on top of your classes, create content and lessons, focus on continued learning, and build your PLN. Here are five ways to turn your iPad into a robust, education machine!

Organize Yourself

You can easily sync your Outlook or Google Calendar to your iPad by going to iPad Settings → Mail, Contacts, & Calendar → Add Account.

Click here to continue reading this...

Saturday, September 6, 2014

Free Online Tech Course

I came across this online tech course. It looks like it's free. Check it out if you're interested and if it is indeed free, please leave a comment so we can all know for sure:
http://www.movenote.com/v/3CrctQdBkh2CP

Thursday, July 3, 2014

How is Cheating Being Redefined?

Cheating vs Collaborating in Online Learning Environments



Say what you like about technology use in the classroom, the biggest difference for me is that it changes the way I teach, and the way my students learn.

That may seem easier for me to say, since I’m a mostly-live online teacher. But I’ve joyfully discovered that there are plenty of benefits that affect educators in face to face or asynchronous education as well.

One big plus of utilizing online tools is the ease of organizing course material. Here is a photo of a student locker at a private school in Paramus, NJ. Sadly, this was not the only one: there were rows and rows of these disaster areas.

The division head who showed me around the school waved it all off with a smile. “Yes, they always look like this.” How can students keep track of their belongings and assignments when this is what their lockers look like? Are students taught organizational skills or given time to organize and leaf through old material?

A huge benefit of using a Learning Management System (LMS) is never receiving the excuse: “I lost my classwork/homework.” It’s true that students find other excuses – “I didn’t see that question posted” and “I didn’t understand what to do” are popular. However, most of my students get the hang of and appreciate the benefits of using an LMS.

Click here to continue reading this post...

Sunday, April 27, 2014

SAMR & TPCK

Here's a good video on Educational Technology Integration featuring the SAMR and TPCK models.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

NCCE Notes

I put together this Prezi with my thoughts and takeaways from this year's NCCE Conference. The conference was a great experience full of great learning and great people.
  Here's a link in case the embed doesn't show up.

NCCE Livebinder

http://www.livebinders.com/play/play?id=1288261&backurl=/shelf/my


This livebinder includes notes from three sessions at NCCE.