How Teachers Make Cell Phones Work in the Classroom
When we talk about using cell phones in class, we’re not just talking about using cell phones in class. The idea of mobile learning touches on just about every subject that any technology addresses: social media, digital citizenship, content-knowledge versus skill-building, Internet filtering and safety laws, teaching techniques, bring-your-own-device policies, school budgets. At its core, the issues associated with mobile learning get to the very fundamentals of what happens in class everyday.
Some Very Good Resources to Help Students Learn Coding
December , 2015 When you want to write a story, you need to understand grammar. When you want to cook a meal, you need to understand ingredients. When you want to build technology, you need to understand programming. Here are some resources to help students learn how to program. ScratchJr
Politics In The Classroom: How Much Is Too Much? : NPR Ed
The Confederate flag. The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage. Policing minority communities.
Do mobile devices in the classroom really improve learning outcomes? #edtechbc
Mobile devices as teaching tools are becoming a more and more common part of the American education experience in classrooms, from preschool through graduate school. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 58% of U.S. teachers own smartphones — 10 percentage points higher than the national average for adults. Those teachers are building that tech-savviness into their lesson plans, too, by embracing bring-your-own-device policies and leading the push for an iPad for every student.
12 Unexpected Ways to Use LEGO in the Classroom
LEGO Bricks are toys. They’re items that students willingly seek out to play with and get excited to receive as gifts under the Christmas tree. That’s one of the things that make them so useful to teachers. Lessons taught using LEGO Bricks don’t feel like dull schoolwork.
Get coding in your classroom! Enter the Challenge.
1. Pencilcode Draw Pencilcode.net is for everyone and works much like the old Logo program where you write simple commands to make a turtle move on a grid. forward 10, right 90, forward 10, right 90 forward 10, right 90, forward 10.
33 Digital Tools for Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom
I came across a great blog post the other day – Formative Assessments Are Easier Than You Think – that told the firsthand account of a teacher, Steven Anderson, who implemented formative assessment in his classroom. He used a sticky-note version of an exit ticket to elicit evidence of student learning and in his words, “what a difference that made.” Formative assessment is ‘easier than you think’ and with all the digital tools and apps now available for mobile devices it’s even easier. We’ve shared some digital tools before and with the five tools that Steven shared combined with our earlier suggestions there are now 33 digital tools that we’ve uncovered that are free or inexpensive and help teachers implement formative assessment in their classrooms. Here they are: A few of Steven’s discoveries:
7 Fun and Creative Apps and Websites That Teach Kids to Code
These iOS and Web Apps are Visually Oriented and Kid-Friendly and Help to Build Critical Logic and Problem Solving Skills Computer coding is becoming an increasingly popular activity for today’s technology oriented kids. Even kids who do not plan to grow up and become computer programmers are enjoying the control and autonomy that coding delivers. Coding encourages kids to be creative, think logically and develop critical thinking skills that they will need throughout their lives. The skills young students develop through these early coding experiences can also help them to succeed in their education. With coding, kids get to try out new solutions to problems and tinker around with what can happen in various situations.
10 Ways to use Instagram in the classroom
Instagram isn’t just a platform for selfies, business promotions, and cute animals. With a little creativity, you can bring the visual power of photos and videos to your classroom, weave them into your students’ learning process, and bring a little fun to their (and your!) days. Do you use Instagram in your classroom? How do you use it? Share your ideas, hits and misses, and insights with the Daily Genius community by leaving a comment below, heading over to our Facebook page and dropping us a line there, or by tweeting us a message on Twitter!
12 Sites That Will Teach You Coding for Free
There was a time when knowing how to program was for the geekiest of geeks. That’s not exactly the case today. As most entrepreneurs, freelancers and marketers will tell you, learning how to program can help you succeed.
Terrific Tales of Teachers and Twitter in the Classroom
Let’s have an honest discussion about Twitter and teachers. What makes Twitter a tool that teachers would want to use? How have teachers already used Twitter? What’s the honest feedback? There’s no better place to look than at examples of success with Twitter’s practical applications in the modern classroom.
