What is the Technology Footprint in Your Classroom?

What is the Technology Footprint in Your Classroom?

Jan 28, 2011 By David R. Wetzel

What Is The Technology Foot Print In Your Classroom - jaylopez
Strategies and techniques are provided regarding the benefits of using digital tools to support teaching and learning in any content area or grade level.

In contrast to the technology teachers’ use in a classroom for their professional use, what is the technology (digital) footprint students’ use in your classroom? When effectively integrated into teaching and student learning, technology has the power to transform a classroom into an influential learning community. Within this digital community students use technology tools to create collaborative and personal learning networks to support their learning.

So what is the technology footprint? This is the digital toolbox containing offline and online technology tools and programs students select from as they complete assignments or projects. These digital tools may include and not limited to computers, iPod Touches, cell phones, online problem solving situations, blogs, podcasts, interactive websites, and other Web 2.0 tools.

Benefits of Optimizing a Classroom Digital Footprint: Building a Learning Community
Through optimizing the power of digital footprint within your classroom, students benefit by transforming from passive to active learners. The effective use of education technology components – hardware, software, interactive websites, online research sources, and blogs or wikis – means movement beyond the novelty of using technology. When incorporating technology within your curriculum, it must leverage students’ prior knowledge and experiences (PKE) with content.

By leveraging students’ PKE with technology components comprising a digital footprint, they are able to build learning communities within and outside the classroom. These communities are often referred to as personal learning networks. Regardless of term used, when describing this technology, group work has moved into the 21st century.

Using a classroom's digital toolbox students are gain new content knowledge with the assistance of technology to support collaborative team work and learning, instead of playing games or texting. This is an important skill they will need later in life as they enter the 21st century workforce.

To Continue to Read Full Article: http://www.suite101.com/content/what-is-the-technology-footprint-in-your-classroom-a339675#ixzz1CaKaRbPJ

Improving Access to Global Literacy for Students

Newspaper Map shows you the front pages of newspapers from around the world, displayed on a Google Map and lets you click on the front page to gain access to the entire newspaper. And, even better, with one quick click, you can choose the language you want the paper translated into. It’s very simple and easy to access!

Blog Booker

What is this ?
BlogBooker produces a high-quality PDF Blog Book from all your blog's entries and comments.
Archives can be generated from any blog running on WordPress, LiveJournal (and derivatives) or Blogger.

The whole process takes about 3-4 minutes, depending on the size of your blog.

"BlogBooker: From your Blog to a PDF Book."

Blogbooker is a FREE service offered thanks to donations.

How does it work ?
You submit an export file provided by your blog system to BlogBooker.
Your file is verified and all linked images are fetched.
Entries, Comments and Images are assembled into a high-quality PDF.
PDF is provided without any restriction and thus can be submitted for printing to third-parties.

How to export your blog ?
Exporting your WordPress blog.
Exporting your Blogger blog.
LiveJournal export/backup is automatically handled.

Why ?
You can print your BlogBook and make it real, read it more comfortably or share it with friends, publish it ...
The main purpose is to let you have an archive of your blog/journal. The PDF embeds all images and is consistent over time.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons

Our Vision
Realizing the full potential of the internet — universal access to research, education, full participation in culture, and driving a new era of development, growth, and productivity.

Share, Remix, Reuse — Legally
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that develops, supports, and stewards legal and technical infrastructure that maximizes digital creativity, sharing, and innovation.

10 Steps for Educators New to Twitter

Educators from all around the world are beginning to use Twitter as a valuable piece in their professional growth toolbox. As professional development continues to evolve and transform, we will need new ways to encourage teachers to embrace new opportunities. Here is a "How to Twitter Guide" to share with new and veteran teachers. Enjoy!

1) - Sign up for your Twitter account! Click Here!

Sign up for your Twitter account and get started. Make sure to fill out your profile as much as possible, and it is also a great idea to make sure you upload a picture of yourself! Educators on Twitter will feel more comfortable knowing what you look like...it also helps to keep the social in social media - say cheese!

2) - Spend some time watching and observing others...

Take some time to learn the ins and outs of Twitter. This step is important because it will lay the foundation of how others are using and embracing Twitter as a professional development tool. If you are looking for a few awesome educators to follow and learn from, here is a great list to start with:

@gcouros @web20classroom @mcleod @NMHS_Principal @tomwhitby @kylepace @cybraryman1

@Becky_Ellis_ @principalspage @ShellTerrell @MrWejr @shannonmmiller @bhsprincipal @L_Hilt

3) - Talk to educators who are using Twitter...

I would be willing to bet that you learned about or heard something about Twitter from a colleague. This is great news! This means you most likely have someone in your building or in your district who is using Twitter, and this gives you the opportunity to question them about how they use Twitter as a professional development tool. Tap into their experience and find out how Twitter has affected them professionally. These colleagues can be huge when it comes to supporting you and your future growth and development. Treasure them!

Continue to full blog post by Justin Tarte- Life of an Educator:
http://justintarte.blogspot.com/2011/01/10-steps-for-educators-new-to-twitter.html

10 Ways to De-clutter Your Digital Life: 2010 Edition

LifeHacker offers their latest blog on how to help clean up email, fix digital files and tidy up your digital life in 10 steps:

Click here to get to the original blog post and hyperlinks that LifeHacker offers: http://lifehacker.com/5513009/top-10-ways-to-declutter-your-digital-life-2010-edition

10. Declutter and Streamline Google Reader Feeds
RSS feeds can start out as a convenient way of streamlining your news and site reading. After some time, and a few too many feed additions, it can feel like opening up a fire hydrant in front of your face. Read up on how the How-To Geek streamlines and declutters his Reader inbox, starting with some statistical work, stepping deep into folder organization, and then filtering the remaining feeds with a little Yahoo Pipes tweaking.

9. Clean Up Your Contacts
These people that show up when you start typing in a Gmail address—where did they come from? Google Contacts, where Gmail and other Google apps keep your peeps, can get real messy, real quick. We've offered a complete (for now) guide to fixing Google Contacts, along with some tools that help in Outlook, like the Outlook Duplicate Items Remover, and a date-sorting trick that works best for those who haven't made huge imports. (Original post: Outlook Duplicate Items Remover)

8. Compact and Manage Social Network Alerts
Facebook has a way of making you sorry you use it, at least if you regard your inbox as something more than just a junk pile. To trim down on the messages that Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, and other services send you, we've suggested a two-part filtering and management scheme for social networks. The short version: use Nutshell Mail and a good RSS reader. Facebook has made email management a bit more convenient itself, offering in-email replies to comment mail, which we took as an opportunity to show off our Facebook-taming Gmail filter.

7. Build Yourself Serious Gmail Filters
We know, we know—nothing we haven't said before, right? There is, however, some new stuff under the sun. If you're not already keeping annoying stuff out of your inbox and making it easy to get at the real communication, do so by building advanced filters and persistent searches. Need some inspiration? Download ten of our own filters and install them in your own inbox. Maybe you've found a filter need that's not quite covered by Gmail's built-in tools? At least one editor (ahem) digs how Syphir adds a few key criteria, like timing and number of recipients, to the mix. (Original post: Syphir)

6. Pack a More Efficient Laptop/Go Bag
If you know what you need to get work done on the go, you spend less time wondering if you packed the necessities and more time remembering, for instance, to include a bathing suit. We can't offer the ultimate laptop bag, or non-computer "go" bag, for everyone. All we can do is point to our bags, the bags our readers have shown us (in Part I, Part II, and Part III of our show-and-tell series), the bag that NYT tech columnist David Pogue carries, and hope you get a sense of how the right kind of geeky gear can actually feel liberating, rather than just more stuff taking up bag space.

5. Clean Out Your Hard Drive
Dig your way through your hard drive, and you'll find all sorts of stuff. Most of it can be deleted to make room for more important stuff, like your complete collection of Herb Alpert import album tracks. Digging through his own drive, Adam found lots of room for cleaning, so he showed us how its done. He used the simple, pretty Disk Space Fan, the classic and open-source champion, WinDirStat, recommended Disk Inventory X and Grand Perspective for Macs, and some automated tasks, like setting up CCleaner to run on a schedule.

4. Free Up Space in Gmail
You never thought you'd use up all those free gigabytes in Gmail—seven, as of this writing—until you went and did. Need to clear up space to stop losing archives, or step a bit further back from the brink? Gina's previously provided a seven-step clean-out system, while the New York Times recommends a back-up-and-wipe-out solution, akin to how we've suggested backing up Gmail with Thunderbird. You get the added benefit of likely having access to Gmail when it's down, and an offline copy of all your data, which is never a bad thing.

3. Automate Your Folder and File Organization
Downloads go in the Download folder. Unless they're finished video downloads—then they should go in Videos. And anything older than 30 days? That should get stuffed in a folder marked for deletion. You could do this yourself and give your mouse hand a workout, or you could automatically clean up and organize your folders, using Belvedere for Windows, Hazel on Macs ($22, but with a 14-day trial), and some clever settings that Adam, the creator of Belvedere, details in his step-by-step explainer.

2. Use Dropbox—For Almost Everything
The file syncing service Dropbox does one thing very well, and that is give you access to a certain amount of file space (2 GB in free accounts) on any computer you use, as well as on smartphones. By doing so, geeky types have figured out many ways to use that hard drive in the sky. Make it your ultimate password syncer, as storage for any file on your system, and, as the How-To Geek explained, just about anything. Keep a copy of Firefox portable in your Dropbox, and your concerns about having a decent browser on any given computer are gone, and you don't have to think about whether you formatted that USB keychain drive or not. That's just one of many de-cluttering steps you can take when liberated by having 2 GB floating all around you.

1. Ban Cables and Clutter from Your Desktop
Your desk is where you use your computer most, and it's likely encroached on by many things, begging for your attention and personal space. Cables tend to multiply and tangle, unless you fight them back with a total cordless setup, or something simple like a $5 coat hanger or cable organizer, or something so simple as binder clips attached to a desk. There are lots of other transient things trying to take up residence on your space. But with the help of pegboards, flush-mounted gadget ports, and other anti-clutter tactics, you can keep the hounds of excess stuff at bay. (Original posts: transient stuff, power basket)

8 Ways Technology Is Improving Education

Don Knezek, the CEO of the International Society for Technology in Education, compares education without technology to the medical profession without technology.

“If in 1970 you had knee surgery, you got a huge scar,” he says. “Now, if you have knee surgery you have two little dots.”

Technology is helping teachers to expand beyond linear, text-based learning and to engage students who learn best in other ways. Its role in schools has evolved from a contained “computer class” into a versatile learning tool that could change how we demonstrate concepts, assign projects and assess progress.

Despite these opportunities, adoption of technology by schools is still anything but ubiquitous. Knezek says that U.S. schools are still asking if they should incorporate more technology, while other countries are asking how. But in the following eight areas, technology has shown its potential for improving education.

CLICK HERE for interactive list of 8 Ways Technology is Improving Education

New technology plan released for the nation's schools

Education Secretary Arne Duncan released the final version of the National Education Technology Plan. The plan, which emphasizes the role of the department as a facilitator, is focused on enhancing academic instruction through Internet-based learning, a decreased emphasis on "seat time" and a preference for more flexibility. The document also includes plans to fund the creation of open-source resources for schools and online professional learning communities for teachers, among other initiative

Transforming American Education
The National Education Technology Plan 2010 (NETP) calls for revolutionary transformation rather than evolutionary tinkering. It urges our education system at all levels to

• Be clear about the outcomes we seek.
• Collaborate to redesign structures and processes for effectiveness, efficiency, and flexibility.
• Continually monitor and measure our performance.
• Hold ourselves accountable for progress and results every step of the way.

The plan recognizes that technology is at the core of virtually every aspect of our daily lives and work, and we must leverage it to provide engaging and powerful learning experiences and content, as well as resources and assessments that measure student achievement in more complete, authentic, and meaningful ways. Technology-based learning and assessment systems will be pivotal in improving student learning and generating data that can be used to continuously improve the education system at all levels. Technology will help us execute collaborative teaching strategies combined with professional learning that better prepare and enhance educators’ competencies and expertise over the course of their careers. To shorten our learning curve, we should look to other kinds of enterprises, such as business and entertainment, that have used technology to improve outcomes while increasing productivity.

We also should implement a new approach to research and development (R&D) in education that focuses on scaling innovative best practices in the use of technology in teaching and learning, transferring existing and emerging technology innovations into
education, sustaining the R&D for education work that is being done by such organizations as the National Science Foundation, and creating a new organization to address major R&D challenges at the intersection of learning sciences, technology, and education.

A Model of Learning Powered by Technology
The NETP presents a model of learning powered by technology, with goals and recommendations in five essential areas:learning, assessment, teaching, infrastructure, and productivity. The plan also identifies far-reaching “grand challenge” R&D problems that should be funded and coordinated at a national level. The challenging and rapidly changing demands of our global economy tell us what people need to know and who needs to learn. Advances in learning sciences show us how people
learn. Technology makes it possible for us to act on this knowledge and understanding.

Learning: Engage and Empower
The model of learning described in this plan calls for engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners. The model asks that we focus what and how we teach to match what people need to know, how they learn, where and when they will learn, and who needs to learn. It brings state-of-the art technology into learning to enable, motivate, and inspire all students, regardless of background, languages, or disabilities, to achieve. It leverages the power of technology to provide personalized learning and to enable continuous and lifelong learning.

Many students’ lives today are filled with technology that gives them mobile access to information and resources 24/7, enables them to create multimedia content and share it with the world, and allows them to participate in online social networks where people from all over the world share ideas, collaborate, and learn new things. Outside school, students are free to pursue their passions in their own way and at their own pace. The opportunities are limitless, borderless, and instantaneous.

The challenge for our education system is to leverage the learning sciences and modern technology to create engaging, relevant, and personalized learning experiences for all learners that mirror students’ daily lives and the reality of their futures. In contrast to traditional classroom instruction, this requires that we put students at the center and empower them to take control of their own learning by providing flexibility on several dimensions.

To Continue on to full Technology Plan 2010 click here

Cameraphones: iPhone Tips

How to squeeze decent photos out of an iPhone

By Meg Pickard

I love camphones. I love “real” cameras, too – I own and regularly use a number of digital and analogue cameras including a Nikon D80, a Canon IXUS, a Holga 120N and a Vivitar Ultra Wide & Slim. But the camera in my phone is always with me, and as a result, over the years I’ve found myself using it a lot to capture odd and interesting things spotted during my daily commute and everyday life.

Because some of the most interesting things which we come across in our daily lives aren’t pre-planned or anticipated, the camera in our phones is sometimes the only way of capturing an image, even though it can be very frustrating in terms of quality and available functionality. That makes it even more important to know how to get the best out of the tool which happens to be at your disposal.

To continue to read full article (and the author's tip sheet) click here

Teens Read for Pleasure, Even in the Digital Age.

By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, October 31, 2010; 10:44 PM

That's how it looks here in a Rockville library, where 14-year-old Olivia Smith is propped in a comfy chair, deep into a Japanese novel genre called manga. She has already been reading on the computer for an hour, and later, when she texts her friends, she will still be turning pages between messages. "I'm sort of a bookworm," she says.

Recreational reading has changed for teens in an era of ebooks and laptops and hours spent online, but experts and media specialists say there are signs of promise in spite of busy lives and research findings that show traditional book reading is down.

"It's not that they're reading less; they're reading in a different way," says Kim Patton, president of the Young Adult Library Services Association.

A detailed analysis into the trend on reading for fun - in books, newspapers and magazines - comes from researcher Sandra Hofferth, of University of Maryland, who analyzed the detailed daily time-use diaries of a nationally representative sample of children 12 to 18.

Pleasure reading dropped 23 percent in 2008, compared with 2003, from 65 minutes a week to 50 minutes a week - with the greatest falloff for those ages 12 to 14. Still, she says: "They could be reading on the cell phone, in games, on the Web, on the computer. It doesn't meant they're not reading, but they're not reading using the printed page."



Michael Kamil, an education researcher at Stanford, sees it much the same way, noting that teens "still read quite a bit but in different ways and for different reasons than the adults believe they should," he says.

The question of what really constitutes "reading" has been debated for decades, says Kamil, whose own definition is broad: It includes not just books, magazines, newspapers and blogs but text messages, multimedia documents, certain computer games, and many Web pages. "It's all important," he said.

Recreational book reading looked stronger in a January study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which found more reading overall than the Maryland study. For kids 8 to 18, it reported a decline from 43 minutes a day to 38 a minutes a day, entirely related to magazines and newspapers. At the same time, students reported online reading of those publications - an average of two minutes a day.

"The data say to me that kids have a love of reading that is enduring and that is different than other things teens do," said co-author Victoria Rideout.

Clearly, books still can create a phenomenon.

Think "Harry Potter." The "Twilight" series. And lately, "The Hunger Games," a science-fiction trilogy that librarian Deborah Fry says has created "quite a waiting list" in her Loudoun library branch in Ashburn.

Click here for full article

Primary Sources Available for History Lessons

Using DocsTeach, educators can create interactive history activities that incorporate more than 3,000 primary-source materials from the National Archives
Curriculum, Top News, eClassroom News
Oct 18th, 2010

The National Archives has created a new web site to help educators teach with primary-source documents. The site, called DocsTeach, not only lets teachers explore thousands of documents in a variety of media from the National Archives holdings, but it also includes online tools to help teachers combine these materials and create engaging history activities that students can access over the internet.

“DocsTeach.org is a significant and welcome addition to our popular education programs,” said United States Archivist David S. Ferriero. “It will engage teachers and students in new ways and stir their interest in history through the use of original documents in the National Archives. It is also consistent with our goals to make as much of our holdings available to the public as easily as possible.”

DocsTeach combines access to more than 3,000 primary-source materials from the National Archives—items such as George Washington’s draft of the Constitution, the cancelled check for Alaska, Chuck Yeager’s notes on the first supersonic flight, and President Richard Nixon’s resignation letter—with the interactive capabilities of the internet in ways that teachers who have pilot-tested the site say have great potential for the classroom.

The seven tools featured on the site are designed to teach critical thinking skills as they relate to history activities, such as weighing evidence, interpreting data, focusing on details, and so on. Each tool employs interactive components such as puzzles, scales, maps, and flow charts that teachers and students can tailor to their needs.

On the site, teachers can (1) browse or search for primary-source documents and activities, (2) customize any history activity to fit the needs of their own classroom, (3) create a brand-new activity with its own web address from scratch, using one of the seven tools, and (4) save and organize activities in an account to share with students. After participating in a history activity, students can submit their work to their teacher via eMail.

Click here to continue to full article

100 Useful Youtube Channels for Teachers

YouTube has earned a reputation for featuring brain cell-slaughtering fare such as the truly abysmal Fred and playing host to the some of the most depressingly stupid comments this side of Yahoo! News. But for every participant liberally dishing out misspelled racist, sexist and homophobic talking points, there is at least one whose channel genuinely offers something provocative and educational.

For teachers hoping to infuse multimedia into their classrooms, YouTube makes for an excellent starting point. Plenty of universities, nonprofits, organizations, museums and more post videos for the cause of education both in and out of schools. The following list compiles some of the ones most worthy of attention, as they feature plenty of solid content appealing to their respective audiences and actively try to make viewers smarter.

Original List Produced & Credited To: http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/

Direct Link: http://www.onlinecollegecourses.com/2010/10/20/100-incredibly-useful-youtube-channels-for-teachers/

Cited By Mr. Byrne at: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2010/10/useful-youtube-channels-for-educators.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+freetech4teachers%2FcGEY+%28Free+Technology+for+Teachers%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Twitter & Education = Twiducate

twiducate.com is a free resource for educators. An attempt to fill a need for a more educationally focused, safe venue for teachers, schools, and home learners in a social networking environment.

Many students already use social networking sites. Why not give them an opportunity to develop their learning in this type of environment but with control over visibility and content. Talk about student engagement!

It is a fact that students will need social networking, blogging and basic internet skills to compete in today's business world.

As educators with an interest in web 2.0, we understand how education has and will continue to change. We want to provide an opportunity for our students to explore web 2.0 but are constantly facing barriers with existing social networking sites.

Welcome to twiducate.com.

Not only will twiducate.com give your students the web 2.0 skills they need, but also expand their reading, writing, thoughts and ideas beyond the classroom setting.



Here’s a quick look at what Twiducate offers for teachers:
An online community for classrooms
A way to have a password-protected place for your class to discuss things online
A place to share inspiration, ideas, reading, and thoughts
A spot to post discussions, deadlines, and homework
A way to instantly create surveys for your students
An easy method to keep parents informed of daily projects
Here’s what Twiducate offers students:

A way to collaborate with fellow students
The assurance that anything you write will be viewed only by classmates and / or your teacher
An easy way to track deadlines and homework
A method to share and record thoughts and ideas with classmates
A social network that actually improves writing and punctuation
A way to connect with friends outside of the classroom

A "How To" On Using Wikis With Elementary Students

Wikis: Pulling It All Together Online

Elementary teachers are using wikis in and out of the classroom. The collaborative, teacher-moderated technology allows educators to set up sites quickly and at little or no cost, creating instant learning resources for students. But wikis aren't without their challenges.

By Bridget McCrea10/20/10

David Lindsay discovered wikis in 2005, several years before collaborative Web 2.0 innovations would officially infiltrate the educational space. Armed with Web site design experience, this elementary school teacher started tooling around with the idea of wikis after seeking out a better way to manage an annual competition that paired students with a local business alliance.
"I was looking for an easier, free way to manage the competition," said Lindsay, a fourth grade teacher and technology coordinator at Rosedell Elementary in Saugus, CA. Through the event, students work closely with the business alliance to develop their own online businesses. Lindsay coaches students through the process, which finds children using the Web to experience hands-on entrepreneurship at a young age.

"At the time, there was software available for what I wanted to do, but it was cost-prohibitive," said Lindsay, who was also challenged by the fact that Web site design five years ago still required the developers (in this case, the students themselves) to write code. "Programming and HTML were still pretty complicated for a fourth grader to learn and use," said Lindsay. "While I was looking around for better options, I stumbled upon wikis."

By definition, a wiki is a Web site that allows for simple creation and editing of multiple, interlinked Web pages. Using simplified markup language WYSIWYG text editor and a browser, teachers can get set up online and start interacting with their online communities quickly. Powered by wiki software, these sites are used frequently in educational settings, where teachers can exercise editorial rights by removing inappropriate or off-topic material.

Click here for full article

Google Demo Slam

Google Demo Slam is a new Google site featuring short tech demonstrations. The idea of the site is to have people compete to make the best short tech demonstration videos they can. Users upload their videos to YouTube then Google picks a "slam of the week" in which two videos face-off. The winner is determined by viewer voting. The prize is bragging rights. Right now Demo Slam is in "pre-season" which means all of the videos have come from Google employees.

Five Truths of Teaching Tech to Elementary Students

Rugrat-ical Technology: Five Truths of Teaching Tech to Elementary Students

A third-grade teacher offers educators five suggestions for using technology in elementary-school classrooms. Gaetan Pappalardo writes that students should be consistently exposed to technology and should be given "achievable goals." He also suggests that teachers find a capable student who can assist as a technology guide. Pappalardo suggests several free tools for teachers, including the technology platform Tumblr and Prezi for presentations.

Excerpt from blog:
I often get a look of confusion when I tell my students to, “Go mess up, will ya’.” Their eyes widen and they turn to a neighbor for a lifejacket because I just threw them in the deep end of technology. Come on, it’s only a computer. Using tech in the classroom requires trust. Are they going to mess up? Sure. Are they going to add another call to your list, a dreaded call to the technology department? Maybe. Are they thinking? Absolutely. Are they applying what they know about technology to create something original or to solve a problem? Yes, brothers and sisters, yes. This is what we want from our kids. We want these rugrats to think. You just have to let the reigns out a little bit and let them mess up. Let them crash their bike, get up, and try it again.

Here are a few tips and technology suggestions from my experiences with third graders.

Truth #1: Time + Exposure = Progress
May I be blunt here? If you're not putting time into technology, your kids will not be technologically proficient. Anything worth doing is always hard and it always takes time. Using tech with rugrats takes a considerable amount of time. Try to grab it whenever you can. Whether your school uses a mobile lab or a traditional classroom, sign up for extra time when they're not being used. Consistent and extended exposure to technology is key. Initial time to learn how to use programs and platforms builds a strong foundation on which kids will learn to learn. Why not block off a whole afternoon for your kids to explore programs. No assignment, go explore. Try stuff. Get into trouble and get out of it.

Click here for link to full blog post

Cyberbulling Site Offers Self-Assessments for Students

Slimy, creepy crawlies are the ugly image of cyberbullying in a new interactive website aimed at children in the years before high school.

Created by the non-profit organisation SchoolAid, CureTheBullies targets children between eight and 12 years of age who may witness bullying behaviour or even act as accomplices to bullies through their use of email, social networking or text messaging.

An online self-discovery test helps children identify passive bystander behaviour in themselves and offers them tools and advice on how to rid themselves of "Bullies Viruses".

Six cyberbullying behaviours have been turned into slimy viruses in the interactive program. If infected, kids use a "cure" such as Understanding or Courage to defeat their virus.

For instance, a "Gang Green" infection has the symptom of ganging up on someone on Facebook, blogs or forums. Its cure is "Friendship".

Kids infected with "Forwarditis" exhibit symptoms of forwarding emails, pictures or messages that could make someone feel bad. The cure is "Understanding".

SchoolAid founder Sean Gordon says there's an urgent need to address the issue of passive, bystander behaviour around cyberbullying.

"CureTheBullies will mobilise kids to take a stand, not because a teacher or parent tells them to, but because they understand that bullying and bystander behaviours are potentially in everyone - but they can be changed," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

10 Safe Search Engines for Kids

10 Search Engines For Kids That Help Out Parents & Teachers With Safe Browsing

Resource Site:http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-search-engines-kids-parents-safe-browsing/

You can say that kids are sufficiently net savvy these days. With a bit of parental help, they can easily grasp the basics of search. The commonplace search engines cater to kids as well as to adults. But even with the moderation search engines use, some content may not be suitable for impressionable minds.

Browsing safe content is the single most reason for calling up search engines made specifically for kids. A search page that appeals with its looks could be the second. Letting a kid having the run of the web using a search engine for kids helps to lessen the worry load on a parent’s mind.

Of course, there is no guarantee that every search will be kid-safe, but there is a higher probability with the content indexed by these niche search engines for kids. You can tweak the search engine settings which every search tool worth its name has. On the other hand you can use these ten ready-made search resources.

Click here for full article and descriptions

Video Games & Learning_James Paul Gee

James Paul Gee, an expert on how video games fit within an overall theory of learning and literacy, in response to The New York Times Magazine article “Learning by Playing.” It featured a public middle school where every aspect of learning is designed to be game-like.

Excerpt from Part I of the Question/Answer Feature is included below with link to full article and Part II:

Q. Are there low-tech ways to replicate the things that make video games effective learning tools (“fun” and engagement, interactivity, problem-solving, higher-level integrated thinking skills)? How do you shape effective pedagogies around a game-based curriculum? — oiseausauvage

A.
What I advocate is not learning with games, but problem-based learning in which learners practice skills as they solve problems. Today our schools focus on facts and information and not problem solving. Thus, many of our students cannot actually solve problems even when they can pass tests on facts and information.

When students use facts and information to solve problems they both gain the facts and information and learn to solve problems. Games are one good way to do this, because a video game is problem solving with lots of practice, feedback, and assessment (e.g., boss battles). But this style of learning can and should be done in many different ways. We need to build settings in which kids learn lots of content, but through using that content as tools for problem solving and as a body of knowledge to which they can contribute. Such learning should also stress learning to collaborate, learning to pool knowledge with others, learning to innovate and preparation for future learning and for being a expert life-long learner.

Current tests do not really test problem solving or innovation. But note this: good games are designed so that a player cannot finish them without having mastered them. This is how good learning in algebra should be designed, as well. The course should be so well designed that finishing it guarantees the student has mastered it. If we did this right, there would be a massive cost savings. We could put the entire testing industry out of business.

Q. Many people believe that electronic media (television, computers, and video games) can intensify anxiety and make kids hyper. Is this something that is being watched or monitored with the children at this school? — Amber Mussman

A.
Electronic media can have lots of effects. Games like Flower and Flow (downloadable games for the PlayStation 3) are quite soothing. In any case, Quest to Learn is not based around games that make kids hyper (like fighting games), but around games that are digital and nondigital, and in virtual worlds and in the real world. The game activities at Quest to Learn require reflection, problem solving, thought, and sometimes collaboration. For example, students may have to solve a secret code that requires mathematics or linguistic knowledge or work out principles of how chemical elements combine based on patterns and interactions they have seen in a game space. Such games do not make kids hyper, though they can bore them if they are not well designed.

Continue on to full article for Part I

Excerpt for Part II Question/Answer Section:

Q. It seems to me that presenting all intellectual activity as fun and exciting game play might be helpful if we set our sights low enough, but is ultimately damaging if we want to produce flexible, diligent and persistent thinkers. What will happen to children who spend 12 years being “entertained” into working when the video game sound effects stop? — Matt Brenner

A.
Games that simply sugarcoat traditional skill-and-drill education — and these are popular today, given the nature of our schools — are not what I am calling for. They just do what school already does to no better purpose. I am advocating games and other ways of learning that break the paradigm of current schooling, games that involve students with solving deep problems, help them master lots of knowledge in order to solve them, get them to explicate what they have learned to teach others, teach them to innovate and help them to design and redesign some of the curriculum for themselves. You are right that life is full of things that are not “fun,” but something has to keep the learner “in the box,” persisting past failure and not giving up. Games do this well by rewarding effort and teaching that failure can be a path to success if we learn from it. Demon’s Soul is a great example of this. After you have played for hours and leveled up, the second-to-last boss lowers your level, mitigating hours of play, if you do not engage him with mastery. Luck alone or inept success will not be rewarded here. By this point you are either a master or you go back and work more, no matter how long you have played and how many “points” you have earned. Sounds a lot like life to me.


Q.
Have there been any studies on the educational benefits of video games across different genres? — Drew

A.
This is a crucial issue. Different types of games are good for different things. Good designers have to know how to match the content to be taught with the right problems, decisions, actions and game mechanics to make a good game for learning. But research on the specific properties of different types of games is just getting under way. It will be a fruitful and important area of research.

Continue on to full article for Part II

Five Alternatives to Traditional Book Reports

1. Create book trailers. In short, a book trailer is a short video created by students to highlight the key points of a book. When creating their book trailers students should be trying to "sell" viewers on a book. To create their videos your students could use Animoto for Education, JayCut, or PhotoPeach.


2. Create animated or stop-motion videos about a book's plot. To make an animated video try Memoov which is a free service that your students can use to create an animated video book review. Memoov allows users to create animated videos up to five minutes in length. Creating an animated video with Memoov can be as simple as selecting a setting image(s), selecting a character or characters, and adding dialogue.

If stop-motion videos are more your speed, Kevin Hodgson's Making Stopmotion Movies is a fantastic resource for directions and advice on making stop-motion movies.


3. Create literature maps. Using Google Maps or Google Earth students can map out the travels of character in a story.Google Lit Trips has many examples of teachers and students using Google Earth in literature courses.


4. Create 3D augmented reality book reviews. ZooBurst is an amazing service that allows you to create a short story complete with 3D augmented reality pop-ups. Students could use ZooBurst to create short summaries of books that really jump off the screen.


5. Create multimedia collages about books. Glogster allows users to create one page multimedia collages. Students could create a collage containing videos, audio files, text, and images about books they've read. For example, a Glog about Into the Wild could contain images of Chris McCandless, chunks of text about the book, and this video featuring a song from the movie based on the book.

Source: www.freetech4teachers.com