3 Back-to-School Tips for the Tech-Savvy Professor If you are looking for some free and easy ways to engage with your students this fall, we have a few ideas that are guaranteed to help. Technology should never get in the way of your teaching, but, if used properly, it can be extremely helpful to you and your students. By leveraging a few free services on the Web, you’ll have the opportunity to communicate with your students and connect with other professors using new technology. Here are three ideas to get you started: Office Hours The traditional model for office hours is outdated — and boring. Use Social Media There are so many uses for social media that we’ll have to save them all for a separate post. Write a Blog Documenting your experiences inside and outside the classroom is a deed that other professors will be profoundly grateful for. We hope you are looking forward to the fall 2012 semester as much as we are.
What’s Up with QR Codes: Best Tools &... Eric Sheninger: An Idea Whose Time Has Come As we continue to move even further into the 21st century, technology becomes more embedded in all aspects of society. As a father, I see this firsthand with my son, who is in first grade. The gift he wanted the most this past Christmas was an iPod Touch, which Santa was kind enough to bring him. As society continues to move forward in terms of innovation, technology, and global connectivity, schools are being stymied by relentless cuts to education. The world of education is often defined by the "haves" and "have-nots." There are many well-respected educators that I greatly admire who feel that BYOT has no place in schools. We launched our BYOT program at New Milford High School this past September after just piloting it with the senior class last spring. Begin to change the way students view their devices by changing the language when they are referenced.
Big Fat Online Education Myths | Cheating Like Weasels in Online Classes An article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about ignited a fireball of blogging last week about how online learning will, once again, be the ruination of all higher education. The Chronicle article focused on anecdotal evidence that students enrolled in free massive online courses (MOOCs) are plagiarizing their essays in literature courses. So what’s the problem with online learning this time? It lacks credibility because it encourages people to cheat. To which I say: A business blogger for Forbes immediately picked up the sensationalist torch from the Chronicle and wrote, Says this Forbes blogger: Again: I have taken many tests for courses, both online and on-campus. I was graduated from a residential liberal arts college Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, and I can assure you no one, not once in all my years of residential learning, ever checked my I.D. when I sat down to take an exam. But enough of my opinion. Belief is Not Reality – Online Education Myths on “Rampant” Cheating
Higher education: Innovation and digital transformation Our exploration of digital transformation continues with a conversation about higher education. Colleges and universities face a combination of forces that require rethinking business model; re-considering relationships with constituencies such as faculty, students, and administrators; and understanding the rise of technology as an enabler of change. For a report I wrote with colleagues on innovation in higher education, we interviewed 10 higher education CIOs and one CTO. These executives focused on business issues such as: Student retentionStudent recruitmentFundraisingReduced costs and higher operational efficiencyGreater classroom innovation These business issues represent points where schools must evaluate current approaches, to keep up with both innovative peers in other institutions and the activities of private companies. The CIO of Georgetown University, Lisa Davis, was among the CIOs we interviewed for that report. Also read: Digital transformation and the innovative CFO
How to Turn Your Classroom into an Idea Factory Culture Design Thinking Teaching Strategies Brightworks School Students building a cafe at Brightworks School in San Francisco. By Suzie Boss The following suggestions for turning K-12 classrooms into innovation spaces come from Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World, published in July by Solution Tree. How can we prepare today’s students to become tomorrow’s innovators? If we’re serious about preparing students to become innovators, educators have some hard work ahead. How do we fill the gap between saying we must encourage innovation and teaching students how to actually generate and execute original ideas? Across disparate fields, from engineering and technology to the social and environmental sectors, innovators use a common problem-solving process. In the classroom, this same process corresponds neatly with the stages of project-based learning. Good projects start with good questions. Innovators have a tendency to think big. Related
Why Are Textbooks So Expensive? The beginning of a freshman’s college experience is an exciting time. Dining halls! No bedtime! Taunting your RA! Exorbitantly expensive textbooks! Wait, that last one is no fun at all. Publishers would explain that textbooks are really expensive to make. There’s certainly some validity to this explanation. In the simplest economic terms, the high price of textbooks is symptomatic of misaligned incentives, not exorbitant production costs. Professors pick the course materials, and faculty members don’t have any strong incentive to be price sensitive when it comes to selecting textbooks. Moreover, many students aren’t all that price sensitive themselves. Publishers also counter that widespread sales of used books cut into their bottom line. Is there any truth to this argument? Luckily for students, some external forces are placing downward pressure on textbook prices.
Are Teachers and Ed Tech Businesses Working Towards the Same Goal? Education technology businesses have come up with hundreds, if not thousands, of products meant to make teachers’ lives easier and improve student achievement. Most products bite off a piece of the education puzzle, trying to solve one corner of a complex web. Four of these businesses — MasteryConnect, Illuminate Education, Pearson, and Imagine K12 — were represented on a panel last week hosted by VLAB, a partnership between MIT and Stanford. “The goal is to understand immediately if a student understood that concept and to be able to re-teach it if necessary,” said Mick Hewitt, CEO and co-founder of MasteryConnect. MasteryConnect allows teachers to track student’s mastery of concepts through various kinds of formative assessments including quizzes, oral responses, or even scanning an image of an assignment. “We’ve tried to look at how schools and school systems can predictably accelerate student achievement,” said Scott Drossos, senior vice-president of Pearson’s 1:1 Learning program.
6 Education SlideShares To Inspire, Improve And Innovate Your School One of the things I love about the modern web is the willingness of talented people to share their amazing content for free. Online communities that encourage individuals to share their work in return for broad exposure and the respect and credibility that this builds. One of the strongest and most vibrant communities fostering this culture is SlideShare. SlideShare is a priceless resource and one that is often overlooked when searching and creating content on the web. With this in mind, here are six great educational SlideShares that you may like to share with your school audience. Re-envisioning Modern Pedagogy: Educators As Curators This very sharp and well designed set of slides focuses on curation of content for students and teachers. How I Flipped My Classroom A very hands-on slide deck, this presentation delves into the process that teacher, Michelle Pacansky-Brock, used to flip her classroom. The End Of Teaching Using Diigo in the Classroom QR Codes in the Classroom & Library, Too!
Recommends: Apps for Students More than half of middle and high school students carry smart phones, and the numbers are even higher among college students. Lots of apps promise to help students cram for exams and boost their grades. Read on for our pick of the app that jumps to the head of the class. We dove into study apps and found that most are not free, but price isn't always equal to usefulness. Those apps that were focused on study skills tended to be age- or grade-specific, which is fine if you want to buy study apps every year. There are plenty of great education apps. Our Recommendation: StudyBlue StudyBlue combines all of the things we liked in the apps mentioned above and it's free (there is a premium version, but most students can probably get by with the basic app). 3 Great Tools to Record Screencasts on Chromebook September 26, 2014 When it comes to creating screencasts on Chromebook, several of the popular screencasting web tools (e.g Screencastomatic and Screenr) are out of the list because they require Java and Chromebook does not run Java. That being said, there are , however, several alternative ways to for Chromebook users to create screencasts. Here are 3 of the best of them: 1- Google hangout This is one the my favourite ways to record a screencast on a Chromebook. Using Google Hangout Air will allow you to share your screen with others and and everything you do on your screen will be automatically recorded and saved to your YouTube channel. Watch this excellent video tutorial from Brian Bennette to learn more about how to record a screencast using Google hangout. 2- SnagIt The Snagit for Google Chrome Extension makes it possible for you to capture screenshots and screen video recordings within your Chrome browser.
Three Things to Unlearn About Learning Inquiry Learning Teaching Strategies flickr:CDsessums “If you’re not feeling uncomfortable about the state of education right now, then you’re not paying attention to the pressures and challenges of technology,” said Will Richardson, a veteran educator author and consultant, at a talk at ISTE 2012. “We need to acknowledge that this is a very interesting moment, and even though in a lot of ways this isn’t what we signed up for when we went into teaching… as educators, it’s our job to figure it out.” Seeing the balance move from a place of scarcity of information to over-abundance on the web — and the ability to “carry around the sum of human knowledge on our phones” — Richardson said educators must start thinking of schooling differently. “This abundance has the potential to be amazing, but it’s not amazing if we don’t do anything with it,” he said. 1. “We have to stop being in charge of the curriculum and allow kids to create their own education,” he said. 2. 3. Related
Board resumes effort to fire Lynden Dorval for ignoring no-zero policy | Canada Lynden Dorval, Edmonton’s Mr. Zero, gets a lesson in school conduct When students, as they sometimes do, decide they don’t like a school policy and make a show of defiance — showing up in the T-shirt they were told to leave at home, or with the pink punk haircut that violates the dress code — my general reaction is that they should quit making a spectacle of themselves and do what they’re told. There are rules in society; if you object there are established procedures for communicating and dealing with that fact. It’s hogwash to argue, as is too often done, that any hindrance on an individual’s ability to do whatever they please is somehow a violation of fundamental rights. Mr. More from Kelly McParland… Before the courier came to his suburban Edmonton home this week with a letter explaining that his boss wants him fired, high school teacher Lynden Dorval thought his principal had bowed to the media firestorm. Three months ago, Mr. Mr. Mr. News of Mr. Mr. But ahead of that review, Mr.