February 2009 Blog Posts (194)

How much training in technology do you receive at your school?

Hi everyone,

I'm working on my Masters degree in Educational Technology and am in the middle of writing a paper. I'm trying to justify the conclusion in my paper that training in the use of technology has an effect on student achievement.

As part of this process, I'm conducting a very simple survey. How much training in technology do you receive at your school?

Check out my survey and please take a minute or so to answer it.… Continue

Added by David Wees on February 14, 2009 at 10:00pm — 1 Comment

Let's Disrupt the Educational Status Quo

"How do we move to a student centric system?" Michael Horn Jan 14, 2008 http://snurl.com/bwfl8 Your ideas? Here's more along these lines : http://www.edutopia.org/student-centric-education-technology and of course the Youtube at… Continue

Added by Durff on February 14, 2009 at 6:30pm — No Comments

Drop In: Connect the Dots

Don't settle, do what you enjoy. This was to me the basis for Steve Job's commencement speech of 05. As you look at two of the brightest technology leaders (Jobs/Gates) of our time, a common thread comes about. They both worked really hard and they both were true to their passion. At some point, the probably got a lucky break, but for the most part, they did not conform to the status quo. They both went about their success by leaving college early. They both were diligent in their passion and… Continue

Added by John Costilla on February 14, 2009 at 4:30pm — 1 Comment

Saturday Elluminate Session on Skype

Today was the first time I participated in the Classroom 2.0 Saturday Elluminate session, and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to follow along. I have used skype for personal reasons and have always thought that it would be an amazing tool to use in the classroom but never knew where to get more information on how to make it work or who to connect to.

My hope is that I will be able to connect to a few middle years classes who are interested in communicating with a… Continue

Added by Kirsten Carter on February 14, 2009 at 11:26am — No Comments

Best Sites For Online Games, ESL Tools, Australia Fires, and More

Here are some new "The Best..." lists:

The Best Sites For Learning About St. Patrick’s Day (and April Fool’s Day)

(http://tinyurl.com/cdxdw6)

The Best Educational Web Resources Worth Paying For…

(http://tinyurl.com/bof6pr)

The Best Sites To Learn About The Recession

(http://tinyurl.com/c7jnb4)

The Best Online Games Students Can Play In Private Virtual “Rooms”

(http://tinyurl.com/aqcdhu)

Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of… Continue

Added by Larry Ferlazzo on February 14, 2009 at 10:05am — No Comments

WebLog 4

It's been a while since I read The Global Achievement Gap because I thought it was assigned for the first or second week of class, but that got changed. I do remember finding it interesting and agreeable. I read the Hybridization article last night, however. As I was reading it I had the desire to check out many of the sites cited and doodle around with them. However, I don't have the time to just mess around with non-essentials this semester. I'm so busy! I think it is an article I might refer… Continue

Added by Ariella Epstein on February 13, 2009 at 7:35pm — No Comments

Community Building for STEM Educators

How do you build community for educators spread across the big state of Texas? and do that with a technology staff of 2. The answer is of course web 2.0 apps that take care of the infrastructure maintenance and offer a simple way to support users. Unfortunately for us, it also means tying together multiple technologies which each have their own log in system. But at least many have that wonderful link "Forgot your password" to take care of that support issue.

The Ning… Continue

Added by Keith Mitchell on February 13, 2009 at 3:00pm — 4 Comments

Evaluating online resources

A simple to use matrix for students to use for evaluating online resources, quick and easy. Useful for any source.

Added by Scott on February 13, 2009 at 1:02pm — 1 Comment

teaching

working as a special education teacher here in the greater denver metro area (lakewood). i work with students who are in a challenge classroom and have multiple disabilities. i ahve done this for seven years and my first year kindergarten student is graduating to middle school after this year.

Added by michael alexander on February 13, 2009 at 11:40am — No Comments

Why Do We Celebrate Black History Month?

Check out Remix America's latest blog post HERE.

Morgan Freeman is pretty adamant about his feelings on Black History Month... how do your students feel about it? Have a class discussion about hte importance (or unimportance!) of Black History Month. Assign your students to Talk Back to the video -- or… Continue

Added by Erika Johansson on February 13, 2009 at 10:43am — No Comments

Lost in Space

Probably the most exciting aspect of my job is working as a technical advisor and ocassional teacher in our newly refurnished planetarium. I once was a middle school science teacher so the blending on my academic knowledge and technical skills was a perfect fit. Our planetarium is outfitted with a dome projection system and we are running the lastest version of Uniview by http://www.scalingtheuniverse.com/. This software changes the way univese is… Continue

Added by Bob.Snyder on February 13, 2009 at 8:00am — 1 Comment

So wish I could be in Hawaii for the conference!

Sounds like a dream to me! Web 2.0, networking, and beautiful beaches and people. wish I was there.

Added by Scott Angstadt on February 13, 2009 at 6:49am — No Comments

The Future of Education

Here's a great article about the future of education in the 21st century that mentions two of my favorite authors: Ken Robinson and Malcolm Gladwell.

The article begins with one simple premise... …

Continue

Added by Patrick Stansberry on February 12, 2009 at 10:05pm — 2 Comments

EACH DAY IS A GIFT

The 92-year-old, petite, well-poised, and proud lady, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home today. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, I provided a… Continue

Added by Daniel on February 12, 2009 at 9:14pm — No Comments

Describing Twitter in 5 words or less

I was trying to compare Facebook with Twitter by a friend recently. While I was able to describe the friendship activities that happen on Facebook, I wanted to use very few words to explain Twitter. I turned to my PLN on Twitter and asked: How would you describe Twitter in 5 words or less?”… Continue

Added by Glen Westbroek on February 12, 2009 at 8:00pm — No Comments

Computer Science Text

I added a Computer Science text to the wiki. The intended audience is high school/beginning programming students. It covers C++ from a practical get yourself writing code point of view. From Hello World, to control structures, functions, and classes.

With some fun examples and eventually I will write some problem sets.

Added by Geoff St. Pierre on February 12, 2009 at 6:04pm — No Comments