Nerdy Teacher - Use Ipad in Class I have had a full summer to think about all of the different things I plan to do with my iPad this year. I've surfed the 'net and have had some conversations with people and I have come up with a few ideas. I'm really excited to get started. I hope some of my ideas help fellow iPad educators use the iPad in their class. Safari (Free) No big surprise, but the web will be very important to my use of the iPad in the classroom. Another great thing about the web access is that I can email students any piece of content I have on the iPad. iBook (Free) I love reading books on my iPad. Many of the books I teach in class are free downloads. Here is a picture of the original cover of the book. Here is a shot of the note when selected by the user. Another cool thing I could do would be to take the highlighted portions and the notes and email them to others. Things for iPad ($19.99) I really like Notes for iPad. The quick email is also very nice. Dropbox (Free) Diigo (Free) Dictionary.com (Free)
MIT Now Granting Official Certificates For Their Free Online Courses This is big. M.I.T., the hub of education and technology where innovations seem to happen on an hourly basis… has just unveiled the future of online education. Basically, you can now earn official credits toward an M.I.T. certificate by taking their free and online courses. The school is calling the program “MITx” reminiscent of TEDx. I wouldn’t be surprised if the trend-setting M.I.T. pushes brick-and-mortar schools to also grant official certifications to those that can demonstrate a mastery of the subjects being taught online. A story in this morning’s New York Times has all the details (embedded below) and is worth examining. MITx While students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology pay thousands of dollars for courses, the university will announce a new program on Monday allowing anyone anywhere to take M.I.T. courses online free of charge — and for the first time earn official certificates for demonstrating mastery of the subjects taught. Mr. An Online Learning Community
LinkedIn Buys ChoiceVendor: ‘Yelp for B2B’ LinkedIn announced that it had acquired ChoiceVendor, a small-business oriented vendor review site. This is how founder-CEO Yan-David Erlich described it at launch back in September of 2009: “a website that helps business professionals find and manage their vendors—anything from payroll to IT to catering.” He also wrote about the future of recommendations in a July, 2010 piece in Forbes in which he said the following about ChoiceVendor: ChoiceVendor, the business-to-business review site I founded, displays the role and industry of the reviewer to help business decision-makers find reviews written by people who hold roles similar or relevant to their own. Erlich spent a fair amount of time thinking about the local segment and trying to find an angle.
The Flipped Classroom Model: A Full Picture Due to Khan Academy’s popularity, the idea of the flipped classroom has gained press and credibility within education circles. Briefly, the Flipped Classroom as described by Jonathan Martin is: Flip your instruction so that students watch and listen to your lectures… for homework, and then use your precious class-time for what previously, often, was done in homework: tackling difficult problems, working in groups, researching, collaborating, crafting and creating. Classrooms become laboratories or studios, and yet content delivery is preserved. A compiled resource page of the Flipped Classroom (with videos and links) can be found at The advantage of the flipped classroom is that the content, often the theoretical/lecture-based component of the lesson, becomes more easily accessed and controlled by the learner. It is important, though, not to be seduced by the messenger. The Flipped Classroom Model Experiential Engagement: The Activity Summary
Ipad Screencasts This post is the continuation of My World of Reading… Part I. Two months have passed since this post, I am continuing to read more and more.. almost exclusively in digital form now… books… RSS reader… via apps… on Twitter… I want to tackle and document the following questions, originally from Ryan Bretag in his post Reading Digitally: Exploring the World of eBooks. He is continuing to explore the questions he poses on his own- Evaluating eBooks, ePubs and book apps Are the habits of reading evolving with the web and digital content? Reading has taken on the form of a continuum. I heard a quote, unfortunately I don’t know the original author (if someone knows the name, please let me know) , that states something to the effect of A period used to tell us when to stop reading, but hyper-linked writing shows us how to continue… I no longer run of reading material, in any of my languages, any more. What happens to reading when readers have access to their own personalized device? How about you?
Infographic: How Has the Internet Changed Education? Email Share December 23, 2011 - by Sarah Cargill 0 Email Share At Getting Smart, we discuss often how the Internet, personal digital learning, social media and other technology tools are changing the face of education. Today, students have access to an abundance of information, knowledge and resources over the Web. Today’s infographic, “How has the Internet Changed Education?” Faculty and students in higher education are using social media, online videos, blogs and more to instruct students in classes. For more, view the infographic below:
Latin Text Generator for Mac OS X - LittleIpsum How the Flipped Classroom Is Radically Transforming Learning Editor's Note:Posts about the flipped class on The Daily Riff beginning in January 2011 have generated over 240,000 views to-date - thanks contributors and readers . . . See our other links related to the flipped class below this guest post. Since this post was written, Bergmann and Sams have released their book, Flip your Classroom: Reach Every Student in Every Class Every Day. Do check it out. - C.J. Westerberg How the Flipped Classroom was Born by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams In 2004, we both started teaching at Woodland Park High School in Woodland Park, Colorado. "And how the Flipped Classroom changes the way teachers talk with parents And then one day our world changed. Flipping Increases Student Interaction One of the greatest benefits of flipping is that overall interaction increases: Teacher to student and student to student. Some might ask how we developed a culture of learning. There are a myriad of reasons why a student is not learning well. Are you Ready to Flip?
1st Graders Use IPads The iPads are finally set up and ready to go into the classrooms! It happened to be our first graders who were the first ones to get their hands on them! A few days ago, I tested and reviewed a great new app: Book Creator. Students wrote a story, as a class, about the different stages of the butterfly. The first time, I brought the iPads into the class, we spent time talking about the care and handle of the devices. When picking the iPad up from the teacher we reminding them to carry the iPad with two hands to their deskset them down as quietly as possibledon’t hold the iPad from the SmartCoverdon’t walk around the classroom with an iPad in your handno pulling, showing or tugging on someone else’s iPad It was important to also introduce “iPad” vocabulary to our first graders, so we would all be able to use a common language when instructing or asking questions. Home buttonscreenswipingslidingtapappsiconspinch in/ pinch outfront cameraback camera Since this encounter involved: Like this:
The Lairds of Learning How did academic publishers acquire these feudal powers? By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 30th August 2011 Who are the most ruthless capitalists in the Western world? Whose monopolistic practices makes WalMart look like a corner shop and Rupert Murdoch look like a socialist? You won’t guess the answer in a month of Sundays. Everyone claims to agree that people should be encouraged to understand science and other academic research. You might resent Murdoch’s paywall policy, in which he charges £1 for 24 hours of access to the Times and Sunday Times. Of course, you could go into the library (if it still exists). Murdoch pays his journalists and editors, and his companies generate much of the content they use. The returns are astronomical: in the past financial year, for example, Elsevier’s operating-profit margin was 36% (£724m on revenues of £2 billion)(8). More importantly, universities are locked into buying their products. www.monbiot.com References: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 7. 8. 9.
Prompster™ How to use Google tools in Project-Based Learning When you think about some of the key features of Project-Based Learning (PBL), what do you think of? PBL should be student-driven, with a real-world connection. It should be core to learning, include structured collaboration, and have a multifaceted assessment. Many of the tech tools used in classrooms are made especially for classrooms. Google tools and project based learning Planning: Where do you start when deciding on a project your students will spend significant time on, have some say in, that will address a number of learning goals and be meaningful and relevant? Inquiry: Once you’ve decided what the students will be focusing on, they’ll need more information on the topic. Connecting and Collaborating: As a part of their work, students will likely need to connect with others – with collaborators in the classroom and with folks around the globe that can help them learn about what they need to know. Student Voice: An integral part of PBL is students having a voice in their work.