IPad Apps for the Common Core!

Well, I figured it couldn't be too long

before we had some tech help to get up to speed with the Common Core Standards!  I was perusing a site called Teachhub.com, and this particular entry caught my eye.   I don't know about you more seasoned teachers, but for those like me who have yet to run a classroom, this bit of news was a welcome relief.

I think I'll do some more digging and see what else is out there, but to me, every little thing is a decided help.

What do you think?

What about blended learning?

I have been reading quite a bit about the concept of blended learning recently, and have to admit I am a definite fan.  My own children have been doing blended learning for the past few years, starting in 1st grade with a program called Xtra Math.  My kids love this site, and I do, too!  The teachers supplement the work they do in school with a constructed curriculum of after-school activity (homework to those old-school types) that really excites the kids.  I never thought I would see them that happy to do homework!

Another that starts in 1st grade for this district is SpellingCity.com, where they not only have assigned work, but are encouraged to go out on their own and try creating their own lists of words.  Again, the kids love it.

All of this is aside from any project work they do in school, some of which pertains to online software such as Prezi and Glogster.  Blended learning, indeed!  On the above-mentioned site, the authors predict that by next year, 50% of secondary school students will have taken a class online, and that by 2019, 50% of their learning will BE online.

I don't know about you, but I think it is happening faster than that.  What do you think?  Fan or foe?

It Just Gets Easier All The Time

It gets easier, but it gets complicated.  The inexorable move to online technology will define who we are, both as individuals and as a society, but we are still early and like the automobile industry many years ago, there are many entrepreneurs trying their hand, creating new products.  There were literally hundreds of car manufacturers in 1900, most of them building cars in their barns!  Now how many are there?

I truly believe our technological development is following a similar path.  In one hundred years, there will be fewer players than today.  The question becomes, what can we use today that will help us become better teachers?

Richardson (2010) talks about particular products he favors, and that's great.   Flickr is wonderful, we all know (and some of us even love) Facebook, and Google -- well, what can I say about Google? Will they still be there in ten years?  I guess we'll find out.  I used to think Microsoft would rule the world for at least 50 years.

For now, however, I am favoring Google's list of tools.  They are easy and intuitive and available for free.  As I see it, most of the data can be shared, whether from Google Drive to Google Earth, and when set up correctly, they can help me avoid the trap of taking hours and hours trying to determine if a particular software is really worth the time.  Plus, from a security standpoint, Google can be set to high levels of privacy, which would be a true boon in schools.  If you haven't really tried out what they have to offer, give it a try now.

Another that I live and die by (and take all my class notes on) is Evernote, which I can't say enough about.  I am having fun using Diigo, but Evernote is my go-to app for both notes and web page snapshots.  Check it out.

photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022/">Ludwig Gatzke</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/">cc</a>

Whoo-hoo!!  My very first Animoto!  I have selected a lesson on the Giant Panda which I believe would be appropriate for grades 3-5.  Take a look and see what you think.






One thing I will say is Google Chrome gave me some difficulty in my ability to embed this video, so I ended up going to IE9 instead.

Let THEM Come to YOU!

As the parent of three rather busy and precocious elementary school students, I am always in the market for something that is efficient.  Enter the world of RSS.  It reminds me of Peapod, the service Stop & Shop uses to get groceries to busy families so they don't have to brave the lines.

It really is very simple (actually, Really Simple Syndication), and most important, a massive time-saver.  One thing, however:  you have to decide how you want to set up, otherwise you will get too much info, which is what RSS is designed to avoid.  I remember a Chinese restaurant in Washington DC (where I went for undergrad) whose menu was 20 pages long.  It was very hard to make a decision!  RSS can be like this if you aren't careful, so learn how to make it work.

Perhaps equally important, the RSS function can help you as a blogger.  Most who blog want to be read, and there are tricks to help it happen.

Once I started, I was hooked.  How about you?

Big Bounty of Beautiful Blogs!!

The more I think about classroom blogging, the more I like what I think!  What a wonderful opportunity for our classrooms to reach out beyond old, static borders and participate in the global community.  Reviewing an article by our esteemed Judy Arzt, Online Collaborative Inquiry: Classroom Blogging Ventures and Multiple Literacies, I see now, more clearly than ever before, that using technology to link classrooms into a global collaborative is the wave of the future, and this will be what helps our society and workforce move forward into the 21st century.

Technological advances have always dictated the direction taken by societies that adopt them, from the development of the wheel to the advent of the computer age.  Our task, as educators, is to see beyond the here and now and become more like visionaries, who help our students adapt to the changing nature of our society and economy.  Fifteen years ago, I worked in an international company that, although a fully formed technology operation with sophisticated computerized equipment, still had no presence on the Web.  Many of us could see that international transactions were going to move almost entirely to the Internet in the years to come, and we were quickly proven correct in our assessment.

Fast forward to the present, and in several communities where I have observed classroom activity, the resistance to a web presence is shocking.  I have met several bright, intrepid teachers who have helped create a technology movement within their schools, but many more are alarmed at the shift to an electronic world.  Admittedly, this new world is daunting:  so many options from which to choose, so many rabbit holes in which to potentially disappear.

Enter the wonderful world of Judy Arzt!  In her article, she not only gives wonderful examples of classrooms that have moved into a constructivist, collaborative, multi-modal atmosphere of learning, she gives an astounding number of links to websites that can help the reticent teacher develop a web presence for their classroom (and perhaps for themselves).

I am charged up!  I am invigorated!  What do you think?