EdTech Magazine

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

By Eric Sheninger K–12 thought leader Eric Sheninger offers guidance on how to manage an arsenal of digital tools in the classroom.

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Tools Education Classroom How To 330

Catlin Tucker

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

This year, I’ve focused on using the Station Rotation Model to: create smaller learning communities within our larger class. spend more time working in small groups with students. more effectively differentiate instruction. make the most of our limited technology. Most of the time our Station Rotation lessons are focused on academic topics, but last month I experimented with a new spin on the Station Rotation Model that I called Inspiration Stations.

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Differentiated Instruction Guidelines Secondary Elementary 330

The CoolCatTeacher

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

The easy tool educators are using every day From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Google Classroom allows teachers to easily manage student work and teaching with Google Docs, Google Forms, Google Spreadsheets and anything Google. This handy tool has opened up the doors of blended learning and collaborative classrooms like never before.

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Google Resources Classroom Education 251

Doug Levin

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

I’ve established that I am a fan of open educational resources (OER) and think that K-12 educators and policymakers would benefit from thinking more deeply about the ownership of instructional materials. I’ve even offered up ideas on issues the K-12 OER movement needs to confront and work through in the coming years as it struggles with the success of greater adoption.

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OER Education Instructional Materials EdTech 278

Generative AI holds tremendous promise for all stakeholders in higher education. But guardrails are needed. Strong governance that empower instructors are at the core of a responsible approach to using generative AI in academia.

Education

User Generated Education

FEBRUARY 28, 2016

Many kids and teens are spending a lot of their time doing solitary screen-related activities. This most often occurs at home with their own devices. We are also living in an age where practically any and all content can be found via the Internet. The educator is no longer the gatekeeper to information. Internet resources can present and teach content better than a lecturing educator.

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Mobility Software Resources Technology 205

The Journal

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

This blog post kicks off a new blog theme: Reinventing Curriculum. Like teacher and pedagogy, curriculum is one of the keys to a successful learning experience. Due to three trends, we will argue, curriculum – its development, its distribution, and its use — is in a state of real turbulence. The educational community, in general, and educational technology, in particular, needs to focus on the “next turn of the crank” in curriculum!

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Trends Education Technology Learning 247

Catlin Tucker

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

In an earlier post titled How Challenging Is that Online Text ? , I shared the Readability tool that can help educators determine how hard an online text is to see if it is a good match for their students. Then in a training last week, someone asked me if there was a tool that could make a challenging text simpler. Yes, there is! Rewordify allows the user to: Simplify the wording of a text for improved comprehension.

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Software Training Examples Tools 329

The CoolCatTeacher

FEBRUARY 3, 2016

Every Classroom Matters Episode 213 From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Your recall of information is up to 55% greater with the use of a picture linked to the content, according to edusketch expert and National Board Certified Teacher, Wendy Pillars. Wendy coined the term edusketch and authored the book Visual NoteTaking for Educators: A Teacher’s Guide to Student Creativity.

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Tools Secondary Facebook iPad 186

Doug Levin

FEBRUARY 2, 2016

The glasses have been raised. The speeches made, and press releases issued. It’s now time to get down to brass tacks and figure out how the implementation of the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) can best be leveraged by state and local officials to improve educational outcomes for children and youth. To that end, I recently had the pleasure of addressing a cross-section of state board of education members from across the nation – working together under the umbrella of the National

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Strategy EdTech Broadband E-rate 231

Teacher Reboot Camp

FEBRUARY 7, 2016

“It isn’t that they cannot see the solution. It is that they cannot see the problem.” – GK Chesterton. Math doesn’t live inside of a book. That is the wrong way to teach math. Math is useful for solving problems, and necessary to figure out the world around us. We can get our students to learn math in engaging ways by making sure each lesson gets to use the math for real-world learning.

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Educreations Resources Tools eBook 229

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Schools face increasing challenges as technology becomes integral to education. Efficient device management is essential for maximizing technology use and safeguarding investments. Our article discusses the importance of tracking devices, outlines current challenges, and suggests modern solutions that go beyond traditional methods like Excel. Learn how advanced tracking systems can streamline operations, improve maintenance, and offer real-time updates for better resource allocation.

Learning

More Verbs

FEBRUARY 22, 2016

The Learning Through Technology Team at the Maine Department of Education is looking for a high energy, entrepreneurial-thinking, collaborative educator who would like to work with us. Are you making great things happen in your classroom, school, district, or region? Consider joining us and make great things happen across Maine! We currently have one opening for a Regional Education Representative: Digital Learning Specialist (and anticipate two more in the coming months).

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Technology Digital Badges OER Learning 223

EdTech Magazine

FEBRUARY 9, 2016

By EdTech Staff An infographic dives into the technologies, from 1860 to the modern day, that have helped shape the classroom experience.

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Technology Classroom EdTech Social Media 239

Catlin Tucker

FEBRUARY 18, 2016

In the last ten years, the narrative about teaching and education has struck me as extremely negative. I hear about schools failing students and bad teachers hiding behind tenure. As an educator pushing for innovative change in this space, I recognize that education must evolve to prepare students for an unknown future. However, the wonderful work teachers are doing every day is often lost in the conversation about education.

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Smartphone Accessibility Resources Tools 286

The CoolCatTeacher

FEBRUARY 1, 2016

Every Classroom Matters episode 211 From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Stress caused me to lose half my hair and gain weight. Stress put Angela in the hospital three times in a year. As much as we love caring for children, we’ve learned very hard lessons that mattering starts with loving yourself enough to take care of yourself.

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Exercises Twitter Classroom Resources 223

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How can we actively engage learners 24/7, on their level and according to their interests, while respecting their learning styles? It’s not impossible. In this guide: Explore how to transform traditional, one-way videos into two-way interactive learning experiences Understand different types of artificial intelligence (AI), including - Generative vs.

Personalized Learning

A Principal's Reflections

FEBRUARY 7, 2016

One of the best parts about blogging for me is that my parents read each and every post. My father takes a look at the content only, while my mom is my chief proofreader. During my early years of blogging I always posted each post to my personal Facebook page and emailed my parents a live link. It was at this time my mom got sick of all of the spelling and grammatical errors so she emphatically stated that I must send her each post to proof before posting.

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Personal Learning Network Elementary Personalized Learning Facebook 220

Teacher Reboot Camp

FEBRUARY 13, 2016

“Technology is just a tool. In terms of getting the kids working together and motivating them, the teacher is the most important.” – Bill Gates. Recently, I conducted a webinar for SimpleK12’s technology day, Technophobe to Technoninja. I had a fun time creating the presentation, The Tech Ninja Guide , which is full of tips for integrating technology effectively.

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VLE Haiku Learning Moodle Schoology 224

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

I recently watched an interview with Sal Khan, founder of the extremely successful ed-tech non-profit Khan Academy, and he touched upon three ideas that should resonate with ed-tech startups. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.

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Khan Academy Learning EdTech 215

EdTech Magazine

FEBRUARY 17, 2016

By Eric Patnoudes Reading and responding to students’ emotions could help boost engagement levels and academic performance.

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Outcomes Data Learning 239

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

Training

Ditch That Textbook

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

For years, educators have been using Google Forms to gather data, assess learning and create fun techy learning experiences. Recently, Google Forms got a facelift, and even more recently, it added some new features. These features make some new things possible in the classroom, and they make some things easier — and prettier — than before. [.].

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Google Classroom Assessment Data 197

The CoolCatTeacher

FEBRUARY 12, 2016

Design Your Classroom for Maximum Learning From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Blended learning happens when you mix the face to face classroom with online learning. While flipped classroom is a form of blended learning, it is not the only one. Today, researcher Thomas Arnett breaks down the eight types of blended learning and explains how they are being used to improve student outcomes.

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Blended Learning Flipped Classroom Learning Analysis 217

A Principal's Reflections

FEBRUARY 14, 2016

The following is a guest post by Dr. Bill Daggett , Founder and Chairman of the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) and Dr. Guy Sconzo , Superintendent of Humble ISD in Humble, TX. In my last guest post , I outlined the ways in which the Every Student Succeeds Act, recently signed into law, gives us a unique chance to create the indicators of achievement that will mean and matter to us—indicators catered to the unique DNA of our states, districts, and schools.

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Conference System Strategy Examples 216

User Generated Education

FEBRUARY 19, 2016

There is a huge disconnect between how people learn naturally and how students are taught in public education. Mark Twain once quipped, “I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”. In school, students are expected to. Sit in uncomfortable desks and chairs, and expected to pay attention for long periods of time. Learn out of textbooks specifically designed for the institution of education – books that almost no one buys in real life.

Learning 0

Learning Social Media Elementary Groups 0

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Classroom

Tom Murray

FEBRUARY 5, 2016

This post is sponsored by Samsung. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own. Having traveled the nation and spent extensive time in schools throughout 2015, there’s one thing I can say for sure: Many of today’s classrooms have amazing 21st century tools sitting in 20th century learning environments. Quite often, a student’s hard metal desk is separated by a packet of worksheets on one side, with a dynamic learning tool on the other.

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STEM Learning Tools Industry 185

EdTech Magazine

FEBRUARY 4, 2016

By Jena Passut TCEA 2016's opening session keynote was an inspirational message from the CEO of DonorsChoose.org.

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Classroom 236

Ditch That Textbook

FEBRUARY 25, 2016

Timelines are excellent tools for showing spans of time, but many people forget to use the tools for critical thinking and meaningful lessons. Timelines are great graphic organizers because of their linear, but discrete, nature. Each event is separated on the line itself – and two events can occupy the same time, just on opposite [.].

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Tools EdTech Technology Learning 192

The CoolCatTeacher

FEBRUARY 19, 2016

Powerful Pedagogies for Every Teaching Professional From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter. Star Trek script writer and professional game author Lee Sheldon has designed his entire college course as a game. His book The Multiplayer Classroom: Designing Coursework as a Game is a favorite of many game based learning experts.

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Classroom Game-Based Learning BYOD Gamification 216

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

Comparison

A Principal's Reflections

FEBRUARY 28, 2016

Jargon in education is nothing new. Luckily there are so many resources available to make sense of it as it applies to our professional practice. Just check the Dictionary of Educational Jargon to get some clarity, then have some fun with the Educational Jargon Generator. Words are always flying around in education circles. Whether it is in person at events and workshops or in social media spaces, I routinely see conversations play out where educators take a certain stance on the meaning of spec

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Future Ready Outcomes Social Media Assessment 212

Digital Promise

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

Sara is the Director of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools. You can reach her on Twitter at @sschappy. Members of the Digital Promise League of Innovative Schools serve as examples of how forward-thinking leadership can transform learning. Since we launched the League in 2011, we’ve been proud to recognize over 70 school districts and their superintendents as they work to solve the challenges facing today’s K-12 schools through innovative strategies.

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Competency Based Learning Learning Laptops Accessibility 183

Waterford

FEBRUARY 24, 2016

The year is well under way and we have been anxiously watching the Internet to see the latest edtech predictions for 2016. Based on the numerous articles we’ve read, we’ve compiled our top 3 list edtech predictions for 2016. Coding. In the past, coding and computer science were weak points for students in the United States. However, over the last couple years, there has been a big push for computer sciences in schools.

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EdTech Mobility Mobile Learning Smartphone 177

EdTech Magazine

FEBRUARY 8, 2016

By D. Frank Smith President Barack Obama's new Computer Science for All initiative will give states federal funding to widen access to K–12 computer science lessons.

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Accessibility Video STEM Classroom 234

This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.

Technology