Free Technology for Teachers
There Are No Technology Shortcuts to Good Education
Kentaro Toyama There are no technology shortcuts to good education. For primary and secondary schools that are underperforming or limited in resources, efforts to improve education should focus almost exclusively on better teachers and stronger administrations. Information technology, if used at all, should be targeted for certain, specific uses or limited to well-funded schools whose fundamentals are not in question. (Caveat: Because this article was written for an audience most interested in government-funded primary and secondary education in developing countries, words like “wealthy,” “average,” and “typical” should be read with that context in mind. But, the conclusions are relevant for a broad class of primary and secondary schools in developed countries, as well.) To back these assertions, I’ll draw on four different lines of evidence. The history of electronic technologies in schools is fraught with failures. . Computers: The Latest Technology Cycle
Top 10 Social Bookmarking Tools For Educators
This is a guest post by Julie-Ann Amos who is a freelance writer who covers topics such as online university ratings and reviews, elearning tools, and more. Social bookmarking is a highly useful tool for educators since it allows specific categorization of websites for easy access and sharing. It works on the basis of the user creating tags or categories in which websites are then placed. Unlike standard search engines that are generated by computers and therefore often misclassify or categories websites, social bookmarking is done by people, usually people that are knowledgeable and informed on the particular subject. The following social bookmarking tools can definitely help out in the classroom, both in sharing information with your students as well as other educators in the field. Stumble Upon – this free service allows you to click on the Stumble integrated browser and instantly receive a list of relevant topics that have been rated by other Stumble Upon subscribers.
Android Tablet for Indian Schools to Cost Just $35 Per Unit
Published on: Note -- this news article is more than a year old. By: Ian Mansfield The Indian government has launched a new low cost Android based tablet device that will be distributed to schools in the country. The device will cost the government US$49.98, but will then be subsidised to US$35 per unit. This current phase was a pilot to procure 100,000 devices. The Aakash UbiSlate 7 tablet comes with a 366 Mhz processor and 256MB of RAM along with a 2GB Flash Memory. The screen is a 7-inch display with 800x480 pixel resolution and connectivity is Wi-Fi only. Tags: android tablet India
Adult Education and Technology
Three Essential Tips for New Online Training Designers
One of the biggest challenges online training developers have is that they often have no background in online training. Online training is very different than face-to-face training, yet many classroom trainers inherit the online learning developer role simply because their organization has decided to begin offering online training. This is further complicated by the various reasons that many organizations venture into online training, such as scalability, cost savings, and optimized resource use. These are decisions of budget, not of learning and performance. Is it any wonder that many online learning developers are metaphorically taking the square peg of traditional classroom workshops and trying to fit it into the round hole of online training? So where does someone new to the field of online learning design begin? Read. I can’t emphasize this enough. I also recommend reading relevant articles and blogs. Connect with Other Online Learning Designers That’s not design.
Infotech with Mr. Losik
Demystifying ICT4E Terminology: 10 Acronyms and Names You Should Know
Last week, amidst reading the various blogs and tweets for Open Education Week , I came across several acronyms that were unfamiliar. Terms like Edupunk and Aakash are just a few of the terms that you simply have to “be in the know” in order to know. Anyone new to the field of information and communication technology for education (ICT4E) might be a little overwhelmed at first by the plethora of acronyms, terminology, and program and developer names that pervades internet searches and tweets. Whether you’re an education professional looking for new opportunities to use technology in a development project, or a seasoned ICT4D veteran exploring the new advances being made in open education, there’s usually a new term that pops up, sometimes coined at a recent conference, that might be unfamiliar. So to offer some clarification, here are some ICT4E terms you should know: ICT4E: Information and Communication Technology for Education BYOD: Bring Your Own Device OCWs are a type of OER.
huffenglish.com — Issues, ideas, and discussion in English Education and Technology
