Sat.Nov 14, 2015 - Fri.Nov 20, 2015

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8 Great Ways to Level Up Game Based Learning in the Classroom

The CoolCatTeacher

Play Good Games, Get Great Results Game based learning in the classroom should not be worksheets with points. It should be engaging and exciting. Here are eight ways to level up game based learning. Because, face it, many educational “games” fall short. Chocolate on broccoli. That is what many educators call these games that fall short of what great gaming can be.

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Quick Ways to Teach Vocabulary With Limited Class Time

Ed Tech from the Ground Up

Vocabulary instruction is important, but it can be really hard to find time for it with limited class time. Here are some ways to teach vocabulary that won't take up a lot of time. Click the headline to read the full post. Questions? Email websupport@epe.org.

Learning 310
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Beyond the Silver Bullet: Making 1:1 Matter

EdTech Magazine

By Eric Patnoudes Technologies will have little to no impact on learning if teachers are not also provided with training and professional development.

Training 321
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Design a Thematic Art Gallery with Google Art Project

Catlin Tucker

At the end of Lord of the Flies , there is a section titled “Notes on the Lord of the Flies,” in which William Golding says, “The theme [of the novel] is an attempt to trace the defects of society back to the defects of human nature. The moral is that the shape of a society must depend on the ethical nature of the individual and not on any political system however apparently logical or respectable.” I asked students to design a thematic art gallery that explored the truth

Google 293
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Quickly Create Personalized Learning Experiences that Work

How can we actively engage learners 24/7, on their level and according to their interests, while respecting their learning styles? It’s not impossible. In this guide: Explore how to transform traditional, one-way videos into two-way interactive learning experiences Understand different types of artificial intelligence (AI), including - Generative vs.

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How we can stop TEACHING TO THE TEST and start empowering learning (for a change)

The CoolCatTeacher

Every Classroom Matters Episode 189. I’m sick and tired of excuses. Everyone makes them but the biggest, most obnoxious dumbest excuse we’ve adopted is “we have to prepare kids for THE TEST.” Sure the test has become a reality. But with so many people seeing the schools KILL THE LOVE OF LEARNING so we can help kids memorize rote facts for a TEST — why isn’t more happening to CHANGE THINGS?

Learning 301
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The Change Revolution

A Principal's Reflections

"We must learn how to unlearn and relearn in order to create schools that work for kids." - Eric Sheninger Change is a word that is spoken about in education circles more and more each day. Herein lies the problem. Talk and opinions get us nowhere. The fact of the matter is that education has to change dramatically, but how this is initiated should no longer be a contentious topic for discussion or debate.

Strategy 263

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Is your classroom ready for BYOD?

Neo LMS

We’re in the digital age where practically almost all students are digital natives and almost every student owns a device that they usually bring to class. So why not encourage students to use their devices as tools for learning? BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) classroom setups are very common nowadays, but there are a few aspects to consider before implementing them.

BYOD 238
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Top Education Tweets of the Week: November 14, 2015

The CoolCatTeacher

Trends and Topics on Twitter A subtle shift is happening in language as seen in the top education tweets this week. After we’ve gone down enough techno-innovation-as-Savior trails and found them to be dead ends, it seems many in education are circling back to one simple point: the greatest innovative force in the classroom is an innovative teacher.

Education 283
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Blended Learning Is the Future of K-12 Educational Technology

The Journal

Unlike a previous blog post where we pooh-poohed blended learning, in this blog post we do a flip-flop and hail blended learning as the model for the future of ed tech. Now our formulation of Blended Learning may diverge from the orthodoxy, but so what: We see a future where K-12 students, with their 1-to-1 computing devices, will be engaging in lessons that are computer-based and computer-mediated.

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MakerBot’s Thingiverse 3D Printing Community Hits 2 Milestones

EdTech Magazine

By D. Frank Smith Tinkerers, students and engineers have helped Thingiverse become one of the most influential 3D printing communities online.

STEM 252
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Can Brain Science Actually Help Make Your Training & Teaching Stick?

Speaker: Andrew Cohen, Founder & CEO of Brainscape

The instructor’s PPT slides are brilliant. You’ve splurged on the expensive interactive courseware. Student engagement is stellar. So… why are half of your students still forgetting everything they learned in just a matter of weeks? It's likely a matter of cognitive science! With so much material to "teach" these days, we often forget to incorporate key proven principles into our curricula — namely active recall, metacognition, spaced repetition, and interleaving practice.

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Ensuring Access to Robust Broadband for ALL Students

Doug Levin

Benjamin Herold of Education Week has put together a real cracker of a series on the challenges of ensuring school broadband access in rural communities – and how E-rate (pre- and post-modernization) is helping to address the situation. Really good in-depth reporting and happy to see that Evan Marwell at EducationSuperHighway is continuing to shine a light on and advocate for affordable connectivity solutions for schools.

Broadband 261
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Hip Hop Language Education: Using Rap to Teach, Really?

The CoolCatTeacher

Every Classroom Matters Episode 190. Language teachers have the daunting task of helping students memorize so many words! How can it be fun? How can you help students learn them faster? Jason Levine uses hip hop in his language education classes. Surprisingly, he teaches teachers (even those, like me, with no rhythm) to use hip hop in their language education classes too.

Education 276
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Identifying the Top Four Challenges in K-12 Education

Digital Promise

Aubrey is the Research Director at Digital Promise. You can reach her on Twitter at @aubreyfrancisco. Kelsey is the Research Communications Manager at Digital Promise. You can reach her on Twitter at @kelseye144. Across the country, schools are adopting new approaches to teaching and learning in order to prepare students for life in a technology-rich world.

Education 222
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Student Voice Comes With Teachers as Listeners

User Generated Education

This piece was actually sparked by an interview of Lady Gaga by Soledad O’ Brien at the Born This Way Emotion Revolution Summit where Gaga stated, “It’s time to stop telling learners what to do and start listening for we can do for them.” One of those accepted practices, sadly, in most educational settings is that the teacher is the authority to be respected and listened to without question.

Strategy 208
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Reimagining Chickering & Gamson's Principles Post-Pandemic: Technology's Central Role in Modern Edu

This white paper examines and proposes revisions to the "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education" introduced by Arthur Chickering and Zelda Gamson in 1987 for today's technology-driven world.

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Hour of Code: Scratch Jr.

Ask a Tech Teacher

ScratchJr. ages 5-7. Free. Overview. ScratchJr (released July 2014) is an introductory programming language for ages 5-7 similar to the wildly popular Scratch (for 3rd grade and up). ScratchJr adjusts Scratch’s interface and programming language to make it developmentally appropriate for pre-readers with features that match young children’s cognitive, personal, social, and emotional development.

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How Teachers Can Self Publish Books

The CoolCatTeacher

Every Classroom Matters Episode 188. Self publishing seems hard. But as UK-based educator David Hopkins shares on today’s episode, if you can use Microsoft Word, you can do it. David has self published three books. He explains simply how teachers and authors can self publish books in print and ebook format. Essential Questions: How Teachers Can Self-Publish Books.

eBook 270
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When School Leaders Fail

Brilliant or Insane

Brilliant or Insane. When school leaders fail, the discussion turns away from teaching and learning. It becomes bitter, defensive, and combative. When school leaders fail, negotiations with teachers become less about negotiating and more about pointing fingers and calling names. The people superintendents cheered in the past are suddenly considered overpaid, lazy, incompetent, and opportunistic.

Learning 199
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The Future Belongs to the Curious: How Are We Bringing Curiosity Into School?

User Generated Education

What is curiosity? The word is associated with the irregular form of the Latin verb cura , which can mean worry or care about or cure. The word closest in meaning is inquisitive, which also has a Latin root: quaere , to search into, to seek. ( How Can Teachers Foster Curiosity? ). Curiosity is the quest for new ideas and information. Folks who are curious aren’t satisfied with what they already know or have figured out.

Strategy 208
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Behind the Bell: The Underlying Impact of Tardiness in K-12 Schools

Managing a K-12 campus with constant pressure to meet performance metrics is challenging. And tardiness can significantly limit a school from reaching these goals. Learn more about why chronic lateness matters, and key strategies to address the following impacts: Data errors caused by manual processes Low attendance and graduation rates that affect a school’s reputation Classroom disruption, which leads to poor academic performance High staff attrition and “The Teacher Exodus” Unmet LCAP goals t

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Hour of Code–Program with Alt Codes

Ask a Tech Teacher

As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy! A hidden coding secret on every computer is the ‘Alt codes’ Those are the symbols you invoke by typing Alt+[a number] on most digital devices.

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Teaching 6 grades in 1 day, and the activities we did

Ditch That Textbook

As a high school Spanish teacher, my life has consisted of teaching six classes a day for the last 11 years. Six classes a day is the norm. No big deal. But teaching six different grade levels in a day? I’ve never done that. Principal Kristin Dyer from Elgin Elementary School in Marion, Ohio, emailed [.].

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Resignation

Brilliant or Insane

Brilliant or Insane. On my drive home from work yesterday, I found myself thinking about Sakena Yacoobi. Like many of my friends, this courageous woman wakes up each day and renews her commitment to teaching and learning. Like many of my friends, Sakena Yacoobi has a very clear vision of the difference she hopes to make despite the many […]. The post Resignation appeared first on Brilliant or Insane.

Learning 195
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LED Throwies Meet the Magnetic Board

User Generated Education

I have been offered an opportunity to teach maker education again at a local summer enrichment program during summer, 2016. Last summer was my first time around so I experimented with lots of different maker education activities to see what worked and didn’t work with the 5 to 10 year old kids. I now have this foundation and can build upon this foundation.

Meeting 188
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The Battle of the Authoring Tools: A 10-Point Comparison for Picking the Right One

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

There are plenty of great authoring tools for developing eLearning, but the one you select could directly impact your course's outcomes. Depending upon your learners’ needs and your organization’s performance goals, you could be overlooking considerations that impact the both effectiveness of your courses and how long it takes to finish them. From general capabilities to specific workflow structures, some aspects are critical when it comes to learning objectives and deadlines.

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Hour of Code: Program Shortkeys

Ask a Tech Teacher

Creating a shortkey for a program will quickly become a favorite with your students. I use it for the snipping tool–because we use that a lot in class–but you can create one for any program you use a lot. Then I discovered how to create a shortkey for it: Go to Start. Right click on the desired program. Select ‘properties’ Click in ‘shortcut’ Push the key combination you want to use to invoke the snipping tool.

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Becoming Connected Is Easier Now More Than Ever

The Web20Classroom

This post is sponsored by Samsung Business. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Across the globe educators just wrapped up celebrating Connected Educators Month. During October the focus was on helping all educators, everywhere, understand the importance of being connected to one another and an examination of all the ways to make that happen. It's always a fun month filled with book clubs, webinars, chats and conversations.

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NEO says hello!

Neo LMS

Welcome to the NEO blog, the place where we jibber and jabber everything about educational technology, e-learning, and basically 21 st century learning in schools. This blog, by the way, is a repository for everything about ed tech. Whenever you feel the need to read something new, something fresh, and something modern , save this on your browser’s bookmarks list – you’ll never know when we might come in handy.

BYOD 150
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The Primary Problem with Educational Technology

Iterating Toward Openness

There is much that’s wrong with the educational technology (“edtech”) market. However, the title of an essay I read last week sums up the biggest problem as succinctly as possible: Caring Doesn’t Scale. This three-word sentence captures so much. First, it clearly communicates that “scale” has become a virtue. More importantly, it implies that old-fashioned virtues – things like caring about people – simply can’t compare in importance to moder

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The Roses and Thorns of an LMS Strategy: How to Flourish with the Right LMS

Speaker: Amanda Davis, Chief Experience Officer and Liam O'Malley, VP of Association Solutions

The "new normal" is now a little less new, a little more normal. Does that mean your current LMS strategy is in need of a refresh? Is your organization or association leaning into the always-evolving eLearning environment to ensure you have the tools and content to remain relevant through all this change? There are many complex decision-making processes within your learning & development strategy and LMS lifecycle management, including: Selection.

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Hour of Code: Minecraft Review

Ask a Tech Teacher

Every week, I share a website that inspired my students. This one is perfect for Hour of Code. Make yourself a hero for an hour: Age: Grades 3-8 (or younger, or older). Topic: Problem-solving, critical thinking, building. Address: Minecraft. Review: It was a warm spring day. Most students were outside enjoying one of the first pleasant days since the chill of winter faded.

Wiki 180
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10 edu-buys from my backpack, classroom and wish list

Ditch That Textbook

It’s the middle of November, and that means that a few things are on the horizon for us in the United States: the Thanksgiving holiday as well as Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping deals. Pretty soon, shoppers will pack shopping malls and department stores for deeply discounted goods. Some will avoid those crazy crowds [.].

Classroom 138
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Part II: It’s Not “What is Taught”. It’s “What is Learned!”

Battelle for Kids

Volume 2, Issue 13, Number 8. Read Part I here. Fostering student agency means we must think deeply about the teaching-learning equation. As teachers and leaders, the perspective is ostensibly on our teaching and us. It's about teacher quality, as well as teacher qualifications, or even teacher evaluation. Yet, when we think about the end game, this concept of developing student agency, we imagine every student as college and career ready, prepared for on-the-job training, further specialization

Learning 133
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4 Software Piracy Myths to Abandon Today

EdTech Magazine

By Calvin Hennick Blind belief in these misconceptions could compromise efficiency and security.

Software 163
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Enhancing HyFlex Education through the PowerTeaching Framework

This whitepaper explores integrating the PowerTeaching pedagogical approach within a HyFlex (Hybrid Flexible) educational model, focusing on employing cooperative learning strategies and efficient classroom management techniques.