Category: Educational Technology

Suggested Reading for 03/03/2008

I’ve found the following to be interesting reading material. I’d like to write a full post regarding each but I just don’t have the time. Instead, I’ll just mention them and suggest that you take a look at them.

Happy birthday, Dr. Seuss.

Designing Interactions

Top 10 Ed-Tech Stories Still Resonate in 2008 – from eSchool News

Taking the One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop to the Preschool Classroom – Anne provides several strategies that she has used with preschool children.

Carl Dickerson gives the gift of literacy to low-income children – We need more people like this.

What I’d Teach the Teachers – An interesting perspective on effective teaching.

Is Plagiarism a Problem for eLearning?

Take a free course from MIT.

What Do They Need to Know?

Interactive Periodic Table

Does Testing Crush Creativity?

Teacher Dropouts: Why?

NETS-S: First or Second Edition?

Edmodo

I’m going to be keeping an eye on this endeavor. I look forward to the possible contributions it can make to education. Here’s a blurb from their About page.

Edmodo is a brand new company creating free online tools for the education community. The first tool we are building is a communications tool for Schools, Teachers, Students, and parents for use in the classroom.

7 Engineering Wonders of the Modern World

Wow! I’ve seen these engineering feats many times but I still find them impressive. Each has set world records in size, engineering, etc. “From Venice to Boston, Egypt to England, here are seven amazing engineering wonders of the modern world.”

How do you think students would respond to these images, stories, video, and information?

Cell Phones as Learning Tools

Have you ever seen cell phones used in the classroom? Have you ever considered using cell phones in the classroom? If you keep an open mind you’ll find that there are some potential benefits in integrating cell phones with teaching and learning. “This video highlights the work of Carla Dolman and Gord Taylor and the grade 8 and 9 students of Craik School.”

Certainly there are things that must be considered when using cell phones in the classroom, but the effective use of math manipulatives also takes careful consideration and preparation. I’m just throwing the idea out there for discussion.

Teaching, Learning, Technology and the Future

Let’s discuss the following quote in regards to teaching, learning, technology and the future.

The future is already here – it is just unevenly distributed. — William Gibson (Attributed)

Free Concept/Semantic Mapping Software

The following free software programs are good alternatives for concept/ semantic mapping technologies like Inspiration and OpenMind. These are helpful in the development of concept/ semantic maps, flow charts, diagrams, timelines, and more.

Review of Frontline’s “Growing up Online”

I watched the program last night. (PBS has made the full version of the program available online, along with extended clips, discussion boards, and a chat room.) Given all the chatter before the airing I found the program to be more balanced than I was expecting, but it was not without bias. Here are some of my random thoughts related to the program.

  • It cautioned that kids may be smarter and safer about online socializing than we think. Are they learning this from themselves, school, parents, media, or …?
  • The program dedicated more time to the use of technology for socializing rather than for educational purposes. I’d like to see a follow-up program deal with that topic.
  • I’m not sure that everything in the program is generalizable to the larger population. While the episode never overtly made any such claim it’s important that viewers not make that assumption.
  • There are excellent teachers that do not make any use of technology in the classrooms. The use of technology does not necessarily make one educational experience better than another.
  • The issue of parents’/ schools’ safety concerns and children’s privacy is one that deserves a great deal more consideration.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline

FRONTLINE: growing up online | PBS via kwout

Here’s what others are saying:

  1. Comments to my (Clif’s) initial post
  2. Infinitude: Part I, Part II
  3. Jennifer Maddrell
  4. Weblogg-ed: Post 1, Post 2
  5. Geeky Mom
  6. Nick Pernisco
  7. The Official Growing up Online Discussion Board

Tools I’m Currently Using

Several have asked me to share the technologies that I’m frequently using these days. Here’s a short list of tools that I’m using on a regular basis. You can access my accounts for most of these tools using the Navigation menu.

Firefox – There are a variety of technical and security reasons to quit using Internet Explorer. Firefox is the browser of choice these days.

WordPress – It’s clearly the content management system/ blogging platform of choice these days.

Trillian – Use and access all your different IM accounts through one platform.

Del.icio.us – Social bookmarking made simple and efficient.

Twitter – Twitter is a service that “puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.” I use the Twitbin extension so that I can use the Twitter service even more easily.

YouTube, TeacherTube, and BlipTV – Using free accounts I setup channels allowing me to organize and share video with students and those with common interests.

SlideShare – A great way to share slide presentations. Be sure to checkout how easy it is to turn your presentation into a slidecast, too.

Feedburner – The “leading provider of media distribution and audience engagement services for blogs and RSS feeds.”

Zoho and Google Apps – These are free online office/ productivity tools. I’ve recently become more a fan of Zoho than Google because Zoho offers many more tools. Zoho’s Creator makes it possible and super easy to create your own online forms and databases without having your own server.

The following resources are also useful in helping you get your message out there and get connected: Digg, Social Poster, and Twitter

Here are other tools that I’m still trying: Flock (Combine your social tools into this Firefox-based browser), Second Life (I’m out of my comfort zone with this one), flickr (Good for work uses, but doesn’t meet our family’s needs) and facebook (It works well enough, but I don’t see the need for it).

When I finally migrate from a wordpress.com blog to a wordpress.org blog I’m going to start using Share This and Jiglu.

Go 2 Web 2.0 – Claims to be the complete directory of all the Web 2.0 technologies out there.

You can also take a look at other related posts I’ve written by clicking on the Free Educational Software link in the Navigation menu.

“Growing up Online” on PBS’ Frontline

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XyipM9STyY

UPDATE: The program has aired and you can read my review.