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Posts Tagged ‘information’

Thankful 4 Conferences

Posted by Kathy Adkins on November 16th, 2012 No Comments

Now is a great time to tell educators in your personal learning network how thankful you are for all they do to engage learners and make learning meaningful. Teachers as well as students are contributing to learning everyday and get very few kudos for all they do. Many of these educators and students are sharing incredible resources and knowledge at four November educational technology conferences. K12 Online, Georgia Educational Technology Conference, Global Education Conference and the upcoming Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators online presence provides resources for educators for anytime, anywhere learning. How will we show our thanks? Visit, learn and share with your PLN.

Four for Friday – Online Conferences Resources

K12 10 Day Conference shares so many resources from innovative educators and students. Click directly on 2012 Schedule for overview and check out the links under the Schedule to view awesome presentations. From the Visioning New Curriculum to Students Voices presentation, Authentic Voices, the wealth of information can be discovered via the iPod videos, mp3 audios and supporting documents.

GaETC 2012 resources share presentations by name. You may want to first visit the concurrent session pages listed for Wednesday to Friday and then select presenters name on the resource page. GaETC offered a very helpful app for attendees.

The Global Education Conference culminates today but recordings of sessions can be viewed here. It is incredible to learn from global innovators.

LACUE, Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educators, will take place November 25-27. Currently there is a resource page and you will be able to follow on twitter using #lacue.

Image above created with Frame Magic - Frame Magic Lite

Tags: conferences, encouragement, information, Inspire, learn, learners, professional development

Ask…”What Can You Do For Your Wiki?”

Posted by Kathy Adkins on November 2nd, 2012 No Comments

Choice and usage of multiple digital learning tools is growing in our district by all learners, educators and students. In a recent workshop on four of these tools, participants had the opportunity to select two sessions and grasp the potential of the tools for instructional design. Edmodo, Edublogs, Voicethread and Wikispaces were the tools for collaborative learning and choice was key in personal learning for the day. At the wiki session, many asked the question, what is the difference between wikis and blogs and when should each be used? Blogs vs. Wikis, a fictional debate between JFK and Nixon shared on you tube, is a great video to open discussion and provide answers. During this electoral time, what will you vote for, wikis or blogs? It is your personal choice to which tool addresses the instructional design needed for learning and sharing. Today’s vote is to be a warrior with wikispaces. As JFK stated in the video, “Ask not what your wiki can do for you, but what can you do for your wiki?”

Four for Friday – Wikispaces Resources

Wikispaces Videos and Tours, is a collection of over 30 how to videos on you tube on various topics

Wikispaces Blog has incredible information on what you can do for your wiki. Check out Class Case Study: Room 14 Goes Mobile in Auckland and how students own and call their pages ebooks. Also note Wikispaces for iPad, which shares how to better view wikis on iPads since currently there is not an app.

Educational Wikis is another place of learning how to use wikis in education. Be sure to view the examples page.

Getting Tricky With Wikis provides advance directions using code to create text effects, layouts, to inserting a print-friendly feature and creating rollovers. Lenva Shearing, the curated for this wiki also created Cool Tools for Schools and Cool Apps for School.

Tags: apps, blogs, encouragement, information, learn, tools, wikis, wikispaces

Ramp Up Learning with Walk Throughs

Posted by Kathy Adkins on September 14th, 2012 No Comments

Building walk throughs have become a vital piece in our district’s support of 21st century learning. Walk throughs in years past have primarily been administrators’ role as part of teacher evaluations. Recent walk throughs have become more learning walks involving teams of media specialists, instructional technology specialist and even small groups of teachers from other schools. Teams rotate and spend five minutes in classrooms to observe and provide confidential feedback via Google docs. What is more powerful than the observation is the learning of the observer. On a recent learning walk educators observed students in a science class sharing images, videos, data and strategies posted in their group motion and force wikispaces project. Students in several classrooms were reading literature selections and back channeling in TodaysMeet. Edmodo was used to share Socrative links and various instructional activities. Students were working in the hallway to pair and share Spanish fluency recordings. All of these activities were possible, not because of textbooks, but because students were using their own devices. I should mention textbooks did physically support part of the science motion and forces lesson. When will you conduct a walk through and ramp up learning?

A Few for Friday – Let Learning Drive the Tools

Socrative can be used to drive learning in so many ways as shared by The Landscape – 13 Ways to Use Socrative. Be sure to check out Socrative’s Blog – Socrative Garden to see how to share quizzes and harvest many other ideas.

TodaysMeet is a great platform for discussion and back channeling. Learn it in 5 shares a how to video and here is a two page pdf guide. Have you seen this great lesson from Read Write Think- Seuss and Silverstein: Posing Questions, Presenting Points. Could TodaysMeet be a part of this lesson and give shy students their voice?

How are you using Edmodo? Check out this Edmodo Resources Livebinder with lesson ideas or view a few videos from Edmodocon 2012. Mr G Online shares Literature Circles -co-starring Edmodo. This passionate educator’s blog is worth following.

Tags: BYOT, edmodo, information, learn, professional development, socrative, twitter, walk throughs

Push Like and Move Forward

Posted by Kathy Adkins on August 24th, 2012 No Comments

During the opening days of the new school year we are thankful for educational leaders and colleagues that share many items of educational importance via social media channels. The beginning of school can be hectic but we still need to embrace our visions and engage learners from the start. Two great articles, How to Turn Your Classroom into an Idea Factory, a recent post from Mind/Shift and 12 Most Important Things Children Want From Their Teacher, from Angela Mairs, were recently shared via a facebook page. We are thankful for many facets of social media and collaborative channels that remind us of what is most important during this busy time, our students. Remember to like educators and organizations on your facebook feed and follow in Twitter. It will push and move you forward.

A Few for Friday – Like and Follow

Edutopia - This site has shared great inspiration for years. Their team of bloggers provide a wealth of information. Follow on Twitter @edutopia.

Tech4Learning – Since 1999, this company has created tools to support learning and provided many resources to support instruction using these tools. Follow on Twitter @Tech4Learning.

Mind/Shift – This site has been a leader in covering trends and moving forward to the future. Follow on Twitter @MindShiftKQED.

Tags: encouragement, facebook, information, learners, professional development, twitter

Digital Footprint Refresher

Posted by Kathy Adkins on August 17th, 2012 No Comments

Every school year begins with the review of acceptable use policies and online security. With the presence of mobile devices in classrooms and the vast amount of online tools for sharing personal expression and creativity, all learners have to be refreshed on securing their digital footprint. Scott Hibberson recently shared Getting Learners to Check Their Digital Footprint with Taxedo. This was a creative way to to use a word cloud as an ice breaker to get to know one another and introduce digital footprint. Whether you use a word cloud creator or other creative tool, learners should be aware of their digital footprint now and throughout the year. A photo or poster of a footprint would be a great decoration for your media spaces. How will you share your digital footprint refresher with your community of learners?

Five for Friday – Digital Footprint Resources

Lesson Plan – Trillion Dollar Footprint (6-8) – This is an excellent resource from Common Sense Media that includes video and handouts. Common Sense Media is a great site to use throughout the year with resources provided for different grade level sections. You will need to register to download the materials.

Six Reasons Why Kids Should Know How to Blog – Mind/Shift shares the importance of a positive digital footprint as more students are blogging. This is a must read as students begin blogging this school year.

Teaching Kids About Their Digital Footprint: the who, the what and the how – This is an excellent post to share with your learning community.

Digital Footprints – What are Digital Footprints? – Kidsmart provides lots of information for younger learners and shares a digital footprint template.

Cybersmart -Digital Footprint – This site also provides content for the younger learner as well as more resources for online security.

Tags: BYOT, digital footprint, information, learners, resources, word clouds

Keep the List Short

Posted by Kathy Adkins on August 10th, 2012 No Comments

The web is packed with many educational resources sharing numerous lists for teaching and learning. Tom Barrrett’s Interesting Ways Series such as 32 Interesting Ways to Use an iPod Touch in the Classroom provides great suggestions. 100 Ways to Use Voicethread is a voicethread with lots of great ideas but is it too large? As educators digest these resources, we have to be cognizant of the amount of ideas and tools we provide. What is the magical number for lists? Would you opt for a few or many? The type of information we share and the time frame for delivery will often determine how many items should be on the list. It is important to keep the list short to maximize retention. What will be your magical number to list items to share?

Five for Friday – Trending with 5′s

Five Tips for Teachers to Become Connected Educators – Lisa Dabbs, founder of #ntchat on twitter, shares a timely post at Edutopia to support new educators. The department of education has declared August as Connected Educator Month and Dabbs offer some great tips to begin connecting.

Five Characteristics of Learner Centered Teaching – Faculty Focus publishes articles for the college classroom, but many topics shared relate to all classrooms.

Five Daily Questions for Technology Leaders – Steven W. Anderson shares questions that will help you focus on your vision and goals as the technology leaders in your building.

Five Ways to Use Pinterest in the Classroom – Edudemic post’s title says 3 Ways to Share Pinterest but actually five are listed! This is very pinteresting!

Five Reasons to Allow Students to Use Cell Phones in the Classroom – The Innovative Educator shares a guest post from Michael Soskil, a fifth grade teacher, and five key reasons to support BYOT.

Tags: information, learners, resources

Appsolutely Blooming Year

Posted by Kathy Adkins on May 11th, 2012 No Comments

It has been an incredibly beautiful spring in the south with floral blossoms abundant with many varieties extremely prolific and showing splendid color. This abundance could be attributed to the milder winter we have experienced. On the education front, this year has been anything but mild. We have experienced the growth of BYOT in schools and explosion of new applications for learning on mobiles devices. It has been an appsolutely blooming year of the app. Fortunately an abundance of app resources have been shared by educators that are tied to Blooms Taxonomy. It is up to us to harvest and pick the applications that will best fit the learning objectives of our students. It is appsolutely a great time to choose new ways to incorporate these tools seamlessly into the curriculum. What colorful apps will you share with learners to help them grow and bloom?

A Few For Friday – Blooms Taxonomy Apps

Bloomin’ Apps curated by well known educator, Kathy Schrock, provides Google apps, iPad apps as well as Android apps correlated to Blooms Taxonomy.

Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano, at Langwitches’s Blog, shares two beautiful posters from Learning Today along with her list of apps adapted from Kathy Schrock’s and Kelly Tenkley’s web sites. Her detailed list of apps had to meet certain criteria to be included and several overlap the different level in the taxonomy.

Kelly Tenkley curated Blooms Taxonomy of Apps and creatively shared using the publication site Issuu. Tenkley also shares a wealth of information in her Livebinder, Digital Blooms Taxonomy.

Photo courtesy of irewired and Quirco

Tags: apps, BYOT, create, design, evaluate, information, Inspire, remember, understand, web 2.0

Very Pinteresting

Posted by Kathy Adkins on January 27th, 2012 No Comments

Pinterest has caught the watchful eyes of educators across the globe and they are pinning away. What is Pinterest and pinning? As described by USA Today, it is a visual bulletin board for the web that share images which are grouped and categorized on a user’s page to inspire ideas. From recipes, places to travel, photography, geeky stuff and gardening just to name a few categories, there is a wealth of information that is shared freely for consumption. In that respect, Pinterest has created a new space for educators to connect and bookmark ideas of similar interests. Once you sign up and begin pinning, there are a few things to remember as pointed out by Kathryn Rose, a business consultant, in her posting, “To Pin or Not to Pint: An In-Depth Look at Pinterest.”

Beware there are only a few privacy settings so you must take care not to post private pictures.
Beware of copyright infringement. Take a look at Pin Etiquette and use good judgement. It is always best to give credit to the photographer or the person’s work you are pinning.
Beware of comments on pins as you pin. Be on the guard for spammers since this is an open-follow me platform.

The interest in Pinterest will continue to grow and consume your time. Beware of time online and use it wisely and creatively. Mashable has a quick guide to get you started so what are you waiting for? Curate and share with your community.

A Few for Friday – Searching for Educational Boards

15+ Pinterest Boards Teachers Should be Following shares boards for all grade levels shared by educators via #edchat. Save time and choose boards for your interests.

Select the small arrow to the right of Everything on the navigation bar at Pinterest’s Home and select Education to see what’s pinning in the world of learning.

At Pinterest Home conduct a keyword search on a topic of study or instructional strategy. Be sure to select boards, not pins, to see individual boards on a particular topic. Check out the Graphic Organizers board search. Free Technology for Teachers recently shared Cool Infographics for 2011. Try doing your own keyword search for infographics and view boards shared.

Photo Courtesy Naomi King - http://www.flickr.com/photos/revnaomi/6759965449/

Tags: information, pinterest, professional development, resources, web 2.0

A Penny For Your Thoughts – Socrative

Posted by Kathy Adkins on January 13th, 2012 No Comments

At a recent session with our newest Instructional Technology Staff, each selected a penny from a cup for two purposes. One was to buy a penny for their thoughts to share mid year reflections and the other as a simple raffle ticket for small prizes. Everyone loves to be a winner. To gather their thoughts, Socrative, was used to engage responses using their mobile devices that included iPads and iPhones. Socrative is a free student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. In this case it was used as an icebreaker to gather information from colleagues. The five short answer questions were simple with a twist of fun.

What color are you today and pair your color with an adjective?
If you woke up in the morning as an animal, what would you be?
What is rocking your work world today?
What’s one work related skill you would like to develop?
If an alien landed tomorrow and gave you a superpower, what would it be?

As an icebreaker for the session, the quiz opened the door for more reflective conversation and collaboration. Socrative, is a great response system and used by many educators in our district. Learn more about Socrative and ideas for classroom integration at Socrative Garden as well as follow on Twitter @socrative. Register instantly as an educator at t.socrative.com and see how easily you can gather information for assessment or reflection. Will you gather a penny for their thoughts and seek mid year reflections from your learners?

A Few For Friday – Ice Breakers for Anytime

Ice Breaker Questions for Kids is a great list of questions for quick response or as writing prompts.

Ice Breakers for Small Groups is packed with lots of ideas and activities. How could these be used to engage learning?

40 Ice Breakers and Other Warm -Ups provides a variety of ways to build community and impact learning.

Photo Courtesy of morgueFile - A Public Image Archive

Tags: BYOT, collaborate, information, mobile, share, web 2.0

Gift of Curiosity – QR Codes

Posted by Kathy Adkins on December 9th, 2011 1 Comment

How we communicate with our staff and students is ever changing with mobile devices and social media. In 2006, the far left tree was created so students could easily select an ornament (button) and visit a site for fun and little bit learning. This past week Jackie Aurisch, one of our district’s Instructional Technology Specialists, created the tree on the right to share her monthly Techie News with her staff using QR Codes. Aurisch sparked curiosity with her staff with the pdf file via an email and explained, “I decided to introduce you to something cool that is wonderful idea for those of you who are interested in BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) but not sure what kinds of things you can do or think it’s too much work.” She guided her staff with directions in her email and shared a QR code reader with a photo to show how to capture the codes. WOW, what an excellent way to inspire curiosity and introduce a new way to engaged learning. Thank you Jackie Aurisch for sharing your gift of curiosity - December Techie Times! What gift will you give your staff this holiday season to spark curiosity and impact learning?

Five For Friday – QR Codes in Education

QR Treasure Hunt Generator from Classtools.net can be a great starting point. Give it a try and see what kind of scavenger hunt you can create. Check out the QR Challenge – The Twelve Days of Christmas. This site creates the teacher page as well as one to print codes or use online with your students as shown with The Twelve Days of Christmas. You can find answers to the quiz by scanning the 12 Days QR code below. QR Challenge – The Events of the Civil War is another example.

40 Interesting Ways to Use QR Codes in the Classroom is another site from Tom Barrett that is generated from educators everywhere! Barrett also shares QR Codes Improve Web Access and taking the code to the reader.

Ten QR Codes in Ten Weeks are 10 excellent posts from Allanah King, a New Zealand primary school teacher, teaching at a small rural school. These resources and ideas were shared this week at the K12 Online Conference and feature QR Creation sites, Pick-a Path Stories, Geocaching and other ways to link QR codes. You can view Sandpit QR Code Presentation as well as other great presentations at the K12 Online Conference 2011.

The Best of QRCode Scoop.it! curated by Miss Noor shares so many great ideas.

QR Codes in Education is a LiveBinder from Steven Anderson that shares a wealth of information under the tabs.

Happy QR Coding!

2006 Tree

Techie Times

12 Days

Holiday Reading

Above Image Courtesy of:
Jackie Aurisch – December Tech Times
Kathy Adkins – 2006 Tree

Tags: BYOT, challenge, information, Inspire, learn, QR Codes, students