Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Part 2… Creativity In The Digital Classroom… Web 2.0 Tools… Are They In Your School? | 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Part 2… Creativity In The Digital Classroom… Web 2.0 Tools… Are They In Your School? | 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning
Facilitating creativity can be rewarding and exciting. Integrating creativity into the curriculum can be engaging to the learner. Creativity can be fostered by smell of a new crayon, the engagement of being able to tinker, the excitement of relaxing and creating, or some amazing technology already in your classroom. It allows student to go beyond the role of being curriculum consumers and blossom into curriculum producers. Creativity allows classrooms to go to the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy in the vivid and colorful action verb each step was meant to be. I have divided these creativity resources into four different group I have included below. Today’s post will get us started with the second topic including interactive web apps. Remember that the Web 2.o requires two way interaction. For this reason, keep in mind that most of the Web 2.0 Apps should be researched before using at your school. Please check with District AUP, administration, and the Web Sites Terms Of Agreement. At the same time teach your student proper digital safety and citizenship. Let’s begin!

Top 3 Resources to Discover and Curate Digital Curriculum for Teachers and Students | 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning

Part One Digital Learning … Top 3 Resources to Discover and Curate Digital Curriculum for Teachers and Students | 21 st Century Educational Technology and Learning
As education begins to embrace technology and digital resources, we as educators must also remember that these new tools allow teachers to move students at the center of their learning. It is this concept that allows a real magic that will provide exciting transformation in the 21st Century of education. When I first started my teaching career close to 35 years ago the textbook was not only the curriculum, it was also the center of learning. I was able to curate by finding an occasional article, ordering a 16 mm film several weeks in advance, finding a filmstrip with its exciting beeps between slides, and an occasional field trip. Today, technology and the internet open up a vast array of resources. In fact, it is so big that teachers have had to become familiar with the art of curation. If anyone started bookmarking awesome resources a few years ago … they will probably find it a challenge today locating what they have saved in the past. Our file cabinets have gone beyond the classroom and are now part of the ever growing cloud. This series is really not centered on all the amazing resources available, but rather how to we find quality material and how do we archive it so we can find it later. I wish to explore some amazing tools and techniques you can use. Some of these tools you may know, but I hope to show you a few things about them you might not have discovered yet. I will also discuss how we might involve our students following proper procedure and providing necessary guidance. Even where there might be age and district policy restrictions, there are ways we can use some of these applications as productivity tools in our lessons. Most of all I hope to give you… the educator… some thoughts and ideas as you move each student to the center and surround them with an engaging and exciting world of information and learning possibilities. Let’s begin the journey! – Mike Gorman

Become a Google Search champion!

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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

30 Ways To Turn Yourself Into A Google Search Pro

30 Ways To Turn Yourself Into A Google Search Pro | Fluency21 – Committed Sardine Blog
Since it first came onto the scene in 1998, Google has grown exponentially, delving into different areas like mobile, technology, broadband, and mapping. However, the jewel in its crown has always been search, where is regularly improved and fine-tuned.

However, because there are so many changes, chances are you missed a lot of them and you’re only using search for its most basic purpose. There are many tips and tricks that will help you refine your search results and whether you already know them or not, it’s always nice to have a review of just what it can do for you.

The 25 Best Pinterest Boards in Educational Technology

The 25 Best Pinterest Boards in Educational Technology | Fluency21 – Committed Sardine Blog
Blogs and Twitter aren’t the only social tools out there that can help you keep up with the latest and greatest developments in educational technology. Pinterest is rapidly becoming a favorite tool of educators all over the nation, and many have amassed some pretty great collections of edtech-related pins that teachers and students alike can use to explore new ways to learn, share, teach, and grow. While it would be nearly impossible to highlight every edtech pinboard out there, we’ve shared some of the boards we think stand out among the crowd here. Many are maintained by major educational websites, key figures in edtech, and well-known bloggers, but others were created by teachers just like you who simply want to share resources and tips with others in education.

13 books to help you in 2013

Presentation Zen: 13 great books to help you succeed, create, & communicate better in 2013

Here are some things to read this year...

Monday, January 14, 2013

Talk about Storytelling

What a fun thing they did here

Apps for Storytelling .... part 1

- Apps for Storytelling (Part 1)
Stories has always been one of the most popular mediums in the classroom to stimulate creativity and thinking process, providing opportunities for reflection, enhancing the learning experience both for the teachers and the students … and storytelling has never been that much fun and easy with all the mobile applications that we can use today!

Sunday, January 06, 2013

A list of current and future connectivist MOOCs

A list of current and future connectivist MOOCs | Connectivist MOOCs
A list of current and future connectivist MOOCs

This site is an attempt to collect together a list of upcoming and in-progress connectivist MOOCs (massive open online courses).

Four Free Assessment Apps for 1:1 Classrooms (Edutopia)

Four Free Assessment Apps for 1:1 Classrooms | Edutopia
One-to-one technology can transform a classroom. When implemented correctly, students are engaged and excited to learn, and teachers can assess their progress in real-time. The amount of technology resources available for educators can be overwhelming.

Whether your students regularly visit a computer lab, borrow a cart of laptops, or have access to a class set of iPads, there are a variety of assessment tools that are free and customizable. These online resources can be used before, during, and after a daily lesson or semester-long unit.

Here’s a list of free assessment tools........