Featured 7-9-2014: Global Writes

 

Global Writes works with schools and school districts to develop and implement programs integrating performing arts techniques with literacy programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools develop technology applications to share student-created work for publication and feedback. This includes the use of digital media, videoconferencing, podcasting, and blogging.

 

Schools and districts can get assistance in finding local arts partners as a classroom collaboration resource as well as in seeking local funding to sustain arts integration programs.

 

Global Writes helps schools around the world work together to foster communication and collaboration among students around literacy-based projects integrating the arts using technology as a resource.

 

 

Professional development opportunities focus on arts integration with existing literacy curriculum, providing teachers with opportunitites to develop an appreciation of the arts across the curriculum and confidence in using performing arts techniques in their classrooms.

 

 Watch a Global Writes overview

 

Global Writes provides both formative and summative evaluations to monitor student progress in their programs and supplies data to support increases in student achievement and teacher knowledge.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured 6-24-2014: Kids Discover

 

In order to help you integrate core nonfiction topics into your curriculum, Kids Discover has developed hundreds of free downloads, articles, lesson plans, and other resources. 

 

The mission of Kids Discover is "to expose kids to all the wonders in the world—science, space, nature, history and culture—in one easy-to-understand, beautiful publication” with the goal of encouraging kids' natural curiosity while fostering an enthusiasm for reading and learning.

 

A Teacher’s Guide and a Power Vocabulary packet accompany every Kids Discover title. These free downloads come with with activities, exercises, and assessments to help you integrate their nonfiction titles into your curriculum.

 

 

More Kids Discover resources:

• Reproducible, one-page infographics and lesson sheets bring complex concepts to life with diagrams and short captions.
• Long-form Spotlights articles each cover one topic in-depth, and include a photo gallery and short assessment to help improve reading comprehension and vocabulary.
• Short (about 300 words) Quick Reads nonfiction pieces are intended to get kids interested in exploring new ways to read and digest information.

A subject-matter expert from a prestigious university or museum authenticates each issue of Kids Discover. All issues are ad-free.

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Featured: 1-8-2014 Big History on H2

The Big History series on H2* poses questions and mixes history and science to change the way people view history.

 

Big History takes familiar topics and, by weaving science into the core of history, examines them in new ways that will have you rethinking everything you thought you knew.

 

 

The series creates an interconnected view of things that links history to multiple fields such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, and geology.  The first season ends with a two-hour finale that pulls everything we know about science and history into one grand narrative.

 

 View Not Your Father’s History

 

New episodes of Big History run Saturdays at 10 pm EST (11 pm PST) on H2.

 

*H2 is a digital cable and satellite television network featuring historical and popular science documentaries as well as pseudo-scientific entertainment programs and is a sister network of History Channel. 

 

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

11/8/2012 GinkgoTree [Tools]

Easily create a course which integrates any media you want with GinkgoTree. Organize all your course material in one place for simple editing, sharing, and distributing.

GinkgoTree lets you use your own content, incorporate open source material such as a YouTube video or Project Guttenberg book directly in Ginkgotree. Also, use copyrighted materials like books and journal articles you already use, with appropriate permissions.  

Share a private link with your students to start teaching when you begin a new course. Give them the opportunity to interact with all those resources without ever leaving Ginkgotree. Your Ginkgotree coursepacks can be shared with other educators as well.

Comment on any of your students’ public notes and posted questions. You can also make public notes for your students and private notes for yourself.

Add selections from the books you already use, including your own hand-written notes. GinkgoTree does the scanning for you, free. Finish your coursepack, attach the provided shipping label onto your pack of books, and drop them in the mail. GinkgoTree will scan the pages you’ve specified, insert them into your coursepack, and return your books within a few weeks.

Watch an episode of the Today's Campus Innovation Interview Series in which Kirsten Winkler talks with Scott Hasbrouck, co-founder and CEO of GinkgoTree.

Less expensive for students than traditional textbooks, Ginkgotree costs up to $40/semester ($30/quarter) to use.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

11/6/2012 EduMinder [Management]

Eduminder is a public non-profit organization established to provide K-12 schools free Internet-based software solutions to support and manage all educational and administrative activities.

Eduminder provides solutions and support to five groups: students, educators, administrators , school districts and school operations, and parents and communities.

Eduminder works toward solving common problems in education by eliminating inefficiencies that result from using disjointed computer systems. The Eduminder Education Information System (EEIS) has been built from the ground up specifically for K-12 education. EEIS delivers support to enhance and improve teaching, learning, and other aspects of the education process.

The EEIS is a fully integrated, single sign-on, web-based solution consisting of more than 70 application modules providing functionality, reporting, communications, and information sharing with real-time updates throughout the system.

The EEIS features unlimited data storage and no limitations to the number of supported schools, districts, administrators, teachers, students, and parents, while complying with all regulatory requirements.

Eduminder was initially developed as a nationwide solution in the US. EEIS now serves approximately 140,000 schools and 90-95 million users.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

COD - 5/2/2012 - Engrade [Tools]

Bring together all the people, tools, data, and curriculum in your schools on one user-friendly platform with Engrade.

Founded in 2003, Engrade has grown to more than 3,000,000 members today. Engrade has been adopted by teachers and schools in all 50 states and in 150 countries around the world.

Features of Engrade:

• Unified classroom management: gradebook, attendance, seating chart, discipline, and more 
• Advanced administrative reports
• Access anywhere with a mobile device or Google apps account
• All-in-one parent communication
• Connected curriculum and assessment
• Safety and security

Watch a video introduction to Engrade

Engrade provides all teacher services and a large number of school services for free. An optional premium service, EngradePLUS, offers advanced reports and customizations.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0  

In the iCloud

As many of you are already aware, Apple revealed its new iCloud service Monday. Scheduled to go live in the fall, the iCloud service will store documents, books, pictures, music, and more within the cloud and automatically push them out to all your devices using iCloud. That includes iMacs and MacBooks as well as iOS devices. You can also sync applications between Apple devices over the Internet.

In my opinion, this is a huge step forward in making technology user friendly and easily accessible. I find it unbelievably exciting that changes made to a document on any device I choose to use will be updated on every other device where I have that document stored. If I edit a Keynote presentation on my iPad, those changes will be pushed wirelessly to my iPhone, my MacBook, and my iMac.

The free iCloud service gives you 5GB of storage for e-mail, documents and backup. Music, books, apps, and pictures don't count in that amount.The iCloud Photo Stream wirelessly pushes any pictures you take with your iPhone or iPad onto all your other devices and keeps them stored in the cloud for 30 days.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

Catch of the Day - Enhance Learning with Technology - 9/13/2010

Enhance Learning with Technology is a Canadian website loaded with links to classroom technology resources.

The links on this site are intended to help teachers …

• discover that technology can be a useful tool in the classroom
• develop the methodology for integrating computers into the learning environment
• locate professional development resources

There are a dozen main resource categories on the Enhance Learning with Technology site, including Changing Attitudes, Learning Strategies, Integrating Technology, Sample Lesson Plans, Thinking Skills, and Tutorials. Most of these groups are further divided into more specific sub-topics.

Use the navigation bar on the left to navigate Enhance Learning with Technology, or use the "Site Map" buttons located at the top left and bottom right corner of any page.

P. Theroux, a teacher in Alberta, Canada, maintains the Enhance Learning with Technology site.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

Catch of the Day - STEMresources.com - Jun 28, 2010

At STEMresources.com, teachers can gain quick and easy access to standards-based instructional tools, quality curriculum materials, and the latest Internet resources.

An understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics is important to enabling full participation in modern society.

STEMresources.com will give teachers the means to offer a curriculum that is integrated, to emphasize questioning and inquiry, and to provide students with frequent opportunities to apply engineering design and problem-solving.

Teachers will find that the resources in the STEM Education Apps section of STEMResources.com offer ideas and strategies for implementing STEM curriculum, instruction, and assessments.

The STEM Teacher Resources section is divided into two categories …

• The WebLink collections can help teachers effectively integrate digital resources into their teaching. Further, STEM WebLinks can serve as a starting point for locating information on the Web.
• Teacher Work Samples includes a compilation of teacher-generated materials, models and examples that could aid teachers in visualizing how the STEM tools could be used.

The content of STEMresources.com is based on Tennessee state and national science and math standards.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

 

Catch of the Day - Center for Technology and Teacher Education - 22 Feb 10

Center for Technology and Teacher Education is today's tasty catch

Center for Technology and Teacher Education is a cross-disciplinary group of faculty working together at the University of Virginia.

Center for Technology and Teacher Education Home Page

Center for Technology and Teacher Education faculty and graduate fellows identify and explore innovative technologies with the following goals: to develop the next generation of educational technology leaders; prepare K-12 teachers to effectively integrate technology in their content areas; develop, implement, and assess procedures to help teacher educators appropriately integrate educational technologies; assist corporate partners in developing products for the K-12 classroom; and contribute to state and national policies related to integration of technology in the teacher preparation process.

Digital Images in the School Curriculum

Center for Technology and Teacher Education staff write and apply for grants throughout each academic year. There are numerous initiatives currently in progress, such as …

• Primary Access which allows teachers and students to tap into original material archived on the Internet through institutions such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
• The Impact Project to develop resources to facilitate appropriate uses of technology in teacher preparation programs. This initiative has addressed secondary mathematics, science, English, and social studies education.
• Digital Images in the School Curriculum to aid educators in taking advantage of the utility of digital cameras in the classroom to help students better visualize abstract concepts and communicate with images.

Content Areas Resources

One of the goals of the Center for Technology and Teacher Education is to prepare K-12 teachers to integrate technology effectively in their content areas. Each content area represented includes lesson plans and other resources.

DISCLOSURE OF MATERIAL CONNECTION: http://cmp.ly/0

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21st Century Skills Maps

The 21st Century Skills Maps from the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

These 21st Century Skills Maps are the result of hundreds of hours of research, development and feedback from educators and business leaders across the nation. The leading advocate for integrating 21st century skills into education, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, has issued these maps for the core subjects of English, geography, mathematics, science, and social studies. Each skills map is a downloadable PDF document. These are rather large, graphics-intensive documents so be patient.

Core subject maps -

• English
• Geography
• Math
• Science
• Social Studies

More TV Ad Technology

Earlier in the week I posted a TV ad from Sprint that I thought was a good illustration of why we need to be teaching with technology. I since came across this VISA ad from Australian TV that further emphasizes that need.

What's Happening Now

This is why we need to be teaching technology ...

Online Text-to-Speech Solutions

In an educational setting, there can be a number of reasons to convert written words into spoken words. Naturally, the most obvious use would be to assist and support visually impaired students. Readers who struggle can be helped by reading along along with an audio version of the content.

Students can be provided MP3 files of class notes, study guides, review materials, or any other textual material which they can then listen to on their iPods or other MP3 players.

Text-to-Speech technology is improving constantly. The old monotone, mechanical speech patterns have been replaced by spoken content that sometimes sounds nearly natural.

I've provided links to a number of online text-to-speech services. Some are quite good, ReadTheWords and YAKiToMe! are my first choices. Some are free, some charge a fee, and others have both limited free and paid plans which offer more. Most will allow you to embed a player into your own blog, wiki, or web page or direct link to their site.

Visit each and find the one which best suits your needs.




Zamzar


BlindSpeak

HearWho.com

iSpeech

PediaPhon

ReadTheWords.com

SpokenText

YAKiToMe!

Here's an example of this post read by Tom from ReadTheWords ...

Here's an example of this post read by Audrey from YAKiToMe!...
Text-to-Speech Solutions

The 5W/5E Concept for Integrating Technology into the Classroom

The aim of this Tech&Learning article by Wanda Walters is to show that the 5W’s and the 5E’s can be combined to create an instructional planning tool that allows teachers to easily and efficiently integrate technology into any instructional program. The strategies presented are appropriate for all grade levels and content areas.

I have summarized that planning tool here:

WHAT ...
… are you teaching?

• Instructional goals
• Specific educational objectives

… technological resources are available?

• Templates and models
• Specific productivity software, ie, Word, Photoshop, MovieMaker
• Specific educational software, ie, Inspiration, Google Earth
• Classroom response system
• Interactive whiteboard
• Digital cameras
• Specific web sites, ie, Grammar Ninja, Museum Box, GeoGebra

… technological resources would you like to use?

WHO is being targeted to use the technology?

• Whole group
• Small groups
• Individuals
• Special needs students

WHERE will the technology be delivered?

• In the classroom
• . Teacher presentation
• . Student activity
• Outside of the classroom
• . At home
• . On a field trip
• . On school campus
• . Computer lab

WHEN will the technology integration take place?

• Entire lesson or class period
• As a warm up or review activity
• What's the timeline?

WHY are you using this particular technology?

• to ENGAGE students in the topic
• to EXPLORE other aspects of the topic
• to EXPLAIN or define the concept
• to ELABORATE the idea and extend understanding
• to EVALUATE understanding of the concept

Read the article.

Tips for Your Tech-integrated Classroom

Image via Wikipedia Here are three great ideas using a wiki and engaging students in your online classroom.

• Have students use the wiki to track background research for term papers, and you will gain insight into the project at the beginning.
• Use the wiki to post lecture notes and handouts to keep your class organized.
• Ask your students to post exam questions and respond to questions from their peers. Use these questions in your exam.

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