Karen Fasimpaur's Blog (26)

Common standards - what do you think?

Forty-six states have signed on to an agreement to create common academic standards.

I think this is a tremendously positive change and one that is long overdue. In addition to seeming like good common sense to me, it could save states a huge amount of money. It could also be another crack in the travesty of the educational bureaucracy that is… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on June 3, 2009 at 10:00am — No Comments

What are the tech basics no teacher should be without?

I do a lot of professional development on integration, and I am always surprised by how many teachers, even those who use computers every day, don't know what I consider "must-know" tech skills. I'm not talking so much about broad areas like word processing or spreadsheets, but more small skills that make life easier no matter what application you're using.

Here are some "must-know" tech skills on my list:

- Right-clicking

- Tabbed browsing

- Efficient file… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on March 26, 2009 at 2:19pm — 14 Comments

Student identity issues

We expend a lot of effort to make sure that only student first names and last initials (or sometimes use aliases to avoid even that) online publishing.

However, student first names, last names, and even pictures appear routinely on school web sites as a part of honor rolls, sports team listings, and other extracurricular activities.

Why the discrepancy? And what exactly is the concern with having student first and last names appear online?

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on March 24, 2009 at 4:16pm — No Comments

Getting technology into the mainstream

I have been talking for a while about the need to get technology integration more into the mainstream of curriculum discussions. Technology shouldn't be a separate subject or another thing to implement -- it should be one of the tools we use to accomplish our curriculum goals.

One way to move this to the mainstream is for experts like all of us to present not only at technology conferences, but at curriculum conferences.

Another way to do this is to get involved in… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on March 16, 2009 at 6:09pm — No Comments

The Open Writing Space

[cross-posted from K12 Open Ed]

I've been thinking about creating a high quality curriculum resource that is open and have focused in on writing as a subject matter. Why? First and foremost, I love writing and think it has the ability to transform lives. Beyond that, it transfers to all other subject areas and grade levels, and success in writing is correlated to success in many other endeavors. Writing is fun and rewarding. Technology can… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on December 17, 2008 at 5:30pm — 1 Comment

Mashup, current events, and the elections

My latest mashup is on news-related podcasts and the upcoming elections. I hope some of you can use these resources.

Please encourage everyone in your sphere of influence to vote this Nov.!

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on October 16, 2008 at 5:16pm — No Comments

Hard policy questions about student blogging

I have been having some interesting discussions in the last couple weeks about a challenging, but important, policy question for you: Should all student blogging (in a school environment) be moderated?

I invite you to think about this and post your comments here. Thanks for the discussion.

----------------------------

[cross-posted from Mobile Musings]

A question… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on October 7, 2008 at 5:00pm — No Comments

Vocab ideas I'm excited about

I have been thinking a lot about vocabulary lately. It seems to me that it's such a fundamental part of academic success and something that lends itself to technology and potentially building some great reusable resources.

Then I read Marzano's "Classroom Instruction That Works," a must-read if you haven't read it… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on September 8, 2008 at 5:57pm — 1 Comment

Huh?

I got this in an email today:

"Come see the launch of Edubook 2.0 in the Educational Publishing Pavilion (EPP), Hall 4.2. EduBook 2.0, the next generation textbook from MindPicture Institute of Technology features revolutionary technology. In our books, every abstract point is visualized by a unified image that exactly reflects its essential abstract meaning. Through reading these integrations of images and text, the audience will intuitively understand and easily remember the… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on August 27, 2008 at 12:00pm — 1 Comment

Wanting the education world to change faster -- we're in a funk

Many in the edublogger community are in a funk this summer. The enumerated reasons vary, but for many, it seems to have to do with trying to change the world and then watching it pretty much stay the same.

After NECC, I personally am left with a strong sense of “preaching to the choir.” The vast majority of people who go to… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on July 10, 2008 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

The first kids open dictionary

I am very excited to (finally) be able to show the new project we've been working on -- the first kids open dictionary. The first phase of this is the collaborative, wiki-based dictionary builder. If you have a second, check out the site and make a quick addition to a definition (or edit one someone else has done).

This project grew out of the need we have seen in classrooms and other informal learning environments for a dictionary… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on July 7, 2008 at 11:07am — No Comments

Make your voice heard

Tell Obama to get FISA right!

(This is the biggest group on Obama's site and growing fast.)

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on July 3, 2008 at 3:30pm — No Comments

Web 2.0 wiki resources

We had a great time at the Web 2.0 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet workshop in San Antonio.

All of the resources we shared are available for anyone to access, share, and use in any setting in the Web 2.0 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on June 30, 2008 at 1:59pm — No Comments

Open Office

I have not used Open Office a lot in the past, but have recently begun doing so. In using it on Windows, I am finding it to be very buggy. Is that others experience or is it just me?

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on June 6, 2008 at 5:21pm — 2 Comments

VoiceThread sample

Please join in and add your memories and thoughts about events in our recent… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on May 26, 2008 at 9:43am — No Comments

Presentation for kids and copyright

| View | Upload your own

See below for… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on May 20, 2008 at 6:48pm — No Comments

Kids, copyright, and open ed - one of the biggest learning experiences of the year

This week I had one of my best classroom experiences of the year. I had the opportunity to teach a bunch of middle school kids about copyright and open ed.

It was an incredibly active and engaging discussion, and I learned as much as they did.

A summary of my observations is below. (cross posted from my Mobile Musings blog)

Here is the lesson plan and accompanying resources if anyone wants to use them:…

Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on May 16, 2008 at 2:29pm — 2 Comments

Photoshop Express is here!

Oh yes! Oh yes! The Web 2.0 app I've been waiting for is now Web 2.0, free and online. It's Photoshop Express! (Sign up fast to get the personal URL of your choice. :)

It's beta and undoubtedly new features will be added, but right now it lets you upload photos, crop, rotate, retouch, etc. The interface seems very intuitive (compared to Photoshop or the Gimp) And, of course, optionally,… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on March 27, 2008 at 12:47pm — No Comments

Resources for podcasting in ed

Here are some mashups I've done to start off workshops on podcasting in education. It helps people to see the relevance and to come up with ideas for making their own podcasts. [Credits below.]

Fastest 5 Minutes in Podcasting

(audio; includes admin, PD, instructional, and student-produced)

Fastest 3 Minutes in Podcasting

(audio; includes instructional and student-produced)

* See my playlist for links to these. [I'm apparently not smart… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on March 18, 2008 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Open Content

I am getting increasingly interested in the area of Open Content and Open Educational Resources (OER).

This is educational content that is "copyleft" licensed to permit sharing among users worldwide. The philosophy is similar to Open Source software, but this is for content. Groups that are doing work in this area include OER Commons, Wikibooks, Curriki, and others.… Continue

Added by Karen Fasimpaur on August 17, 2007 at 10:41am — 2 Comments