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A conversation with Beth and SabbaWhether you teach K-12 or Higher Ed, iTunesU can be an amazing tool for curating and distributing content as well as collaborating with students in a 1:1 iPad environment. During this hangout,Sabba Quidwai and Beth Holland will walk through the newest features of iTunesU as well as offer tips for kicking off your year with this app. Blog Posts and Examples about iTunesUHow to Use iTunes U in the Classroom – Guest Post from Jodie DeinhammerThis guest post from iPad Summit San Diego Presenter Jodie Deinhammer (@jdeinhammer) first appeared on Daily Genius. When I first…
Whether you are already in school or enjoying the last few days of your summer break, check out these resources from EdTechTeacher instructors and friends to help you make the most of your Back to School season. [View the story “Weekly Resources for the End of August” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Google Forms can be one of the best tools in the classroom for data collection and assessment as well as a great resources for teachers to use in order to get information from parents. In this Back-to-School season, you may need to coordinate times for parent-teacher conferences or the donation of shared classroom school supplies. While Google Forms offers a simple solution, teachers still need to spend time sifting through all the various responses – particularly when parents are trying to select a time or sign up for a single resource.…
Check out this new video from EDUCAUSE with four experts, including EdTechTeacher co-founder and iPad Summit Boston Keynote Speaker, Justin Reich addressing the question, “Why is measuring learning difficult?” On his blog, EdTechResearcher, Justin says this video has “some good reflections on learning analytics, data, MOOCs, testing, pyschometrics, and more with a nice balance of humility and optimism. Learning is much more complex than we can ever really pin down, but that doesn’t mean that we can conduct meaningful assessments that lets students and mentors identify their learning experiences as, as Gardner Campbell says, find new doorways forward.” Justin will be…
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors and Presenters have been experienced classroom teachers as well as dynamic speakers. Not only do they have a wide array of knowledge in their field, but they also possess insights into the future of education. This summer and fall, we want to introduce you to our EdTechTeacher instructors and some of our EdTechTeacher iPad Summit Boston Featured Speakers in a new series called #ETTchat. Kyle Pearce is a secondary school math teacher and Intermediate Level Math Coach with the Greater Essex County District School Board in…
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Recently, I published 10 New Ideas for Creating Literacy Centers. Suzy Brooks (@SimplySuzy) first introduced me to the concept of using technology to create learning centers through her creative use of her SMARTBoard. She designed opportunities for her students to work independently or in small groups at the board to review key skills and complete small activities. In particular, I loved Suzy’s approach to math. Each of her students had an opportunity to interact with math problems at the board, and yet she would differentiate the content to meet their needs by assigning each student…
A conversation with Beth and Sabba Nearpod is a FREE tool that works on any device and allows teachers to guide students through presentations and activities both synchronously as well as asynchronously. Sabba Quidwai and Beth Holland walk through what is possible with Nearpod as well as providing tips for how to incorporate it during back-to-school activities Blog Posts about Nearpod Top 10 Tips for Nearpod – from the iPad Educators This post from Steve Bambury highlights the reasons why he and his colleagues at iPad Educators (EdTechTeacher instructor, Sabba Quidwai, among them) love this app and are “PioNears.” … Create Interactive…
We know many teachers are preparing for the new year and some have already welcomed their new students into their classrooms. This week we bring you new resources for Back to School. [<a href=”//storify.com/EdTechTeacher21/weekly-resources-for-late-august” target=”_blank”>View the story “Weekly Resources for Late August” on Storify</a>]
This post first appeared on eSchoolNews. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never know when you’ve arrived. A defining trait of effective leadership in successful school technology programs is a well-defined vision of technology-aided teaching and learning that is shared with various constituents: administration, faculty, staff, parents, and students. A well-defined vision communicated effectively and consistently provides a common mission for the entire school and a rallying point for change. Yet when I speak to teachers, they often question the purpose of the one-to-one program. From our vantage point, school leaders need to do three things to make…
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors and Presenters have been experienced classroom teachers as well as dynamic speakers. Not only do they have a wide array of knowledge in their field, but they also possess insights into the future of education. This summer and fall, we want to introduce you to our EdTechTeacher instructors and some of our EdTechTeacher iPad Summit Boston Featured Speakers in a new series called #ETTchat. Craig Badura, the Integration Specialist for Aurora Public Schools Schools in Nebraska, has presented on the importance of digital citizenship and…
This guest post from Suzy Brooks first appeared on Daily Genius. As teachers, we have been spending time this summer recharging and refreshing so we can begin another school year with all pistons firing. As you prepare for the start of school, what are some things we can do that we will be thankful for once the last week of school rolls around? Make the investment in the suggestions below, and see how it pays off come year-end!! Get out your camera and bring it with you everywhere you go! Take pictures!!! Whole-group, small group, individual. Kids reading, kids writing,…
A conversation with Avra, Beth, and Brenda Socrative (http://socrative.com) is a FREE student response system that can be used on any device. During this Hangout on Air, Beth Holland, Avra Robinson, and Brenda Doucette will walk through the features of Socrative 3.0 and provide some tips and tricks for using Socrative during those first few weeks of school. Blog Posts about Socrative Beyond Assessment: 3 Other Uses for Socrative – From Beth Holland This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers and featured as a #TechTipTuesday Socrative is a free student response system that works on any device. With its built-in quick…
EdTechTeacher instructors were busy this week working with schools getting ready for the new school year. From Texas to Massachusetts, our staff led workshops for teachers integrating technology to enhance learning. This week we continue to bring you resources for your Back to School preparation! [View the story “Weekly Resources for the middle of August” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. VideoNot.es allows students to take notes while watching videos. This tool is fantastic in a flipped, blended, or online classroom as students can have their typed notes automatically time-stamped to the video. Because VideoNot.es can be tied to a Google Drive account, all notes can also be saved and shared with others. As described in previous posts on this site, VideoNot.es works with YouTube, Vimeo, Coursera, Udacity, Khan Academy, and EdX videos. However, for many schools, these are not sufficient options because of content filtering, and teachers have always asked if…
This post originally appeared on Justin’s EdWeek blog, EdTech Researcher. Last week MIT kicked off a free new massive open online course called 11.133: Implementation and Evaluation of Education Technology. The course is designed to help educators think about how to integrate emerging technologies into schools and classrooms and how to evaluate those efforts. I help kick off the first unit in a section called “Where do you start?” >> Read the transcript on EdTechResearcher. Justin will be the opening Keynote on November 18th at our EdTechTeacher iPad Summit in Boston! Early Bird registration is open until October 1st. Learn more about Justin…
Explain Everything A conversation with Reshan Richards and Greg Kulowiec Learn more about Explain Everything 3.0 when Greg Kulowiec, checks in with educator and co-creator of Explain Everything, Dr. Reshan Richards about the newest updates to our favorite Screencasting app. Blog Posts about Explain Everything Google Drive X Explain Everything = Embedded Video Reflections – from Greg Kulowiec This post first appeared on Greg’s blog – The History 2.0 Classroom If you read this blog, it comes as no surprise that I often use and find Explain Everything to be the most remarkable and powerful application that can be used…
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Several summers ago, I wrote 10 Ideas for Creating Literacy Centers in response to a request from a Summer Workshop participant. Over the past few weeks, this post has been re-circulated on Social Media, so I decided that it needed an update. My original post was inspired by Suzy Brooks’ use of her SMART Board as a learning center. For this update, I would like to credit the fantastic work of Kristen Wideen and Meghan Zigmond. While many of the concepts from the original post are certainly still applicable, here are 10 new…
We hope you are enjoying the last of the long summer days. In case you missed anything this week, check out these resources from EdTechTeacher brought to you via Storify, a curation tool that creates a blog post of social media, web links, videos and more. [View the story “Weekly Resources for the first week of August” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers and featured as a #TechTipTuesday Socrative is a free student response system that works on any device. With its built-in quick questions and quiz options, it is an incredible resource for formative and summative assessments. However, Socrative can be used for more than just quizzes. Socrative as Backchannel A backchannel is a digital conversation that runs concurrently with a face-to-face activity and provides students with an outlet to engage in conversation. Consider using the short answer option within the Quick Questions to give each student an opportunity to share his or her…
This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. As someone who primarily taught math and science when I was a classroom teacher, I associated robots, robotics curriculum, and robot apps as things that were only used in those subjects. However, this past year my school received a robot grant that provided ten robots for us from the company Sphero. Sphero emphasizes the power of play in education and has a variety of lessons that are aligned to the Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards on their website. They also have a number of STEM challenges…
Long summer days are still here and we hope you are relaxing and enjoying them. In case you missed anything this week, we have compiled posts and tips from EdTechTeacher instructors and friends. [View the story “Weekly Resources for the End of July” on Storify]
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors and Presenters are experienced classroom teachers and dynamic speakers. They not only have a vast array of knowledge in their field, but insights into the future of education. This summer and fall, we want to introduce you to some our EdTechTeacher Instructors and iPad Summit Boston Presenters and in a series called #ETTchat. This week we talk with Larry Reiff (@mrreiff), a Humanities teacher at Roslyn High School in Roslyn, NY. As an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Teacher, he understands that 21st-century students absorb and integrate…
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors and Presenters have been experienced classroom teachers and dynamic speakers. They not only have a wide array of knowledge in their field, but insights into the future of education. This summer and fall, we want to introduce you to some our EdTechTeacher Instructors and iPad Summit Boston Presenters and in a series called #ETTchat. This week we talk with Dr. Reshan Richards. Reshan is the Director of Educational Technology at Montclair Kimberley Academy in NJ and the founder of Constructivist Toolkit, LLC. Reshan is one of the creators…
It is hard to believe that we have hosted nearly 400 teachers in 34 workshops in 5 cities this summer! Thank you to all who joined us online and face to face for #ETTSummer! Check out these resources from this last week’s workshops. [View the story “Weekly Resources for the last week of #ETTsummer Workshops” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. I recently returned from the 2015 annual ISTE Conference in Philadelphia. It’s always exciting to learn about the new tools and features that are available to educators and students. One of my favorite tools on the market is Kaizena, a tool that you can use to give audio feedback to students in addition to coordinating your feedback with rubrics and learning tools. You can learn more about the advanced features of Kaizena, here. While at ISTE, I learned that Kaizena launched a new tool that will allow teachers to add voice comments far…
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors and Presenters have been experienced classroom teachers and dynamic speakers. They not only have a wide array of knowledge in their field, but insights into the future of education. This summer and fall, we want to introduce you to some our EdTechTeacher Instructors and iPad Summit Boston Presenters and in a series called #ETTchat. This week we interview Kathy Schrock. Kathy has been a Director of Technology, an instructional technology specialist, and a librarian. She is currently an online adjunct professor at two universities and an…
The Summer road trip continued this week with two workshops in Los Angeles while learning continued in Boston with new and returning favorite sessions. Each workshop has it’s own Google Site filled with resources that we are happy to share with you. [View the story “Weekly Resources from East Coast & West Coast Summer Workshops” on Storify]
This post was originally posted on Free Tech for Teachers Stop Motion was one of the original video creation techniques. By stringing together a series of single images and displaying them quickly in order, film was born. Now on iPad, Stop Motion can be used as a technique for capturing learning as it happens, making drawings, models, science projects, or counting exercises come alive. Consider the power of creating a digital flipbook that could later be viewed as a video. Introduction to KomaKoma KomaKoma is a FREE Stop Motion Animation iPad App that can compile together a series of photos taken in the app and…
This post originally appeared on Patrick’s Ed Week Blog In many ways, today represents an unprecedented opportunity to advance student literacy. With tablets, e-readers, and mobile phones, you can literally carry endless shelves of excellent books in your pocket. In addition, education technology offers breakthrough tools to help teachers raise the literacy bar. Yet numerous factors hamper schools’ abilities to bring these benefits into our classrooms. When it comes to purchasing and utilizing digital books, confusion reigns among educators. Lacking a good understanding of this fast-changing space, I see educators making short-term decisions about the transition to digital books and…
We hope you had a great 4th of July last weekend! This week, we hosted 3 summer workshops in Boston and released our monthly newsletter. We also kicked off a new series on our blog called #ETTChat, where we interview EdTechTeacher instructors and presenters for their insights into edtech. [View the story “Weekly Resources for Early July 2015” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Education Week’s EdTech Researcher blog. In my role as an EdTechTeacher instructor, I often begin workshops by asking what could learning look like? As an initial activity, I encourage participants to examine the concept from the perspective of a school year. They identify the skills, knowledge, and preconceptions that students bring to the first day of school and then project to the last day. In this context, we define learning as growth – the sum of the knowledge and skills acquired over the course of an extended period of time. After that exercise, we break…
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Active reading strategies are just as critical with digital reading as with their paper-based counterpart. However, until recently, it has been a bit cumbersome to highlight, add notes, and draw on documents – particularly in a BYOD environment with Macbooks, Windows laptops, and Chromebooks. However, by using the DocHub Chrome app, this capability is now possible on any device. Students and teachers can login to the DocHub app (or DocHub.com) using their Google account. From there, it is possible to upload any PDF, text document, or Microsoft Office file from Drive,…
Happy 4th of July! (and Happy Canada Day to our friends to the North.) Check out this week’s NEW articles and workshop agendas from EdTechTeacher Instructors. [View the story “Weekly Resources for the 4th of July” on Storify]
Here at EdTechTeacher, we take pride in the fact that all of our Instructors have been classroom teachers, and many of our instructors have come to us because of long relationships that began either at one of our events, online, or during a workshop. This summer, we want to introduce you to some of our EdTechTeacher staff in a new series called #ETTchat. This week we feature Avra Robinson from Sycamore, IL. Avra is the newest member to join the EdTechTeacher staff and just completed her first week leading two Google Summer Workshops in Menlo Park, California. Q: First off, Avra,…
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Until recently, in the world of online collaboration, Microsoft has been decidedly lacking. However, they have made impressive strides in online and cloud computing tools over the past year. For example, you can now easily create, edit, and collaborate on Excel spreadsheets and workbooks. This can be accomplished using the new Office Online or Office 365. It’s important to note that while Office Online is free, Office 365 is a paid resource ($99/year home and $69/year personal annual subscription; K-12 institutions have their own pricing tiers) and will give you greater access to…
This post originally appeared on Physician Assistant Education Association’s blog A great misconception that exists is that just because an individual — especially a young person — owns a device, they are “tech savvy.” As a result, we often assume students are familiar with best practices for using digital tools when, in fact, what happens is they tend to use in a substitution manner instead of a transformative one. In the recent article “The 4Ss of Note-Taking,” Beth Holland, an instructor with EdTechTeacher, presents a transformative approach to digital note-taking: “Before making a blanket statement that one device may be…
This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. This point in the school year is often a time of reflection for teachers, instructional technology coaches, and administrators. Practitioners begin to think about ways to redesign their learning spaces and schools in the upcoming 2015-16 school year to encourage innovative teaching and learning, making this the perfect opportunity to introduce an emergent technology called iBeacons. This technology, which works with iOS7 or iOS8 devices such as cell phones and iPads, allows students to react to pingable content that is presented in the classroom. iBeacons are based upon…
What a week! We hosted 12 Summer Workshops from coast to coast in a variety of topics. Creativity with learning was pouring out of each session. We are happy to share with you what we have learned and shared with our participants. [View the story “Weekly Resources for third week of #ettsummer” on Storify]
This post originally appeared on Edutopia. To keep our students sharp over the summer, we often assign subject-specific reading, math drills, and projects. However, as educators, we also need to hone our own skills, develop new ideas, and reflect on our practice. Here are five ways to kickstart your summer learning. 1. Construct Your Learning Archive When planning curriculum or attending professional development, we collect resources — both physical and digital. However, we need an efficient way to organize what we find valuable. In the past, this has resulted in the accumulation of binders or folders, but now we also…
Atlanta was a great place to kick off our Summer Workshops last week. This week we led 4 more workshops in Chicago exploring the possibilities of iPads, Chromebooks, and beyond. Check out these resources from those workshops and more from the week. All of our Summer Workshop’s agendas and resources are curated using Google Sites, free for you to use and share. Even though we wish you were here, the next best thing is to learn by challenging yourself to hands on activities and check out the tutorials. [View the story “Weekly Resources from Second Week of #ettsummer” on Storify]
This post was originally posted on Patrick’s blog. There has certainly been a lot written in regards to the problems in Los Angeles Unified School District with their iPad deployment. My intention in writing this brief post is not to point fingers at another district for their problems, but while reading a recent post written by Katrina Schwartz on MindShift I couldn’t help thinking about one non-negotiable in setting up 1:1 initiatives for success. The post, How Students Uncovered Lingering Hurt From LAUSD iPad Rollout, highlighted the feelings of students from all of the negative stories about their district regarding the…
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All of our elementary instructors have taught in K-5 classrooms at some point in their careers. For that reason, we’ve put together a great set of workshops specific to elementary classrooms. Technology in the Elementary Classroom: July 20-22 in Boston – with Suzy Brooks iPads in the Elementary Classroom: July 6-8 in Boston -with Beth Holland
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Google Keep is a program that allows users to quickly and easily create, access and organize information such as notes and lists. Before discovering Keep, I’d been using a different note-making app on my Android phone. I made lists, checked items off lists, and colored my notes for easy sorting, but I was so accustomed to the world of sharing! I really wanted a way to share my notes. I wanted a way to share a to-do list with my team teacher and help students create assignment to-do lists. I was thrilled to…
This post first appeared on EdTech Researcher. Never before has there been a time in education where students possessed a device so powerful that it allowed them to be graphic designers, movie makers, editors, directors, authors, developers, music makers and more. Yet in many conversations with educators around the country, the number one question is often how can we allow students to enhance and develop these skills when we have to adhere to the standards. The culture in our educational system, one that does not always permit our teachers or students to take risks, is ironic given the innovative nature…
[View the story “Weekly Resources to Kick Off June” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Infographics are a powerful way to synthesize data and information, making it easy to conceptualize a message with a glance. For this reason, they are becoming a popular medium in marketing and presentations because they are visually engaging and simultaneously informative. This year for the first time, I asked my students to create an Infographic as their culminating project for our study of the Civil Rights movement. I wanted them to give a presentation, but also wanted to move away from the traditional PowerPoints or poster sessions that they have done in the…
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Special thanks goes out to Jonathan Wylie for his professional contributions. Chromebooks are a popular medium in schools for a variety of reasons: price, easy management, quick startup times, robust builds, and ready deployment of Google Apps for Education. However, if you’re a powerhouse Microsoft Word user (or know someone who refuses to give it up), then know that you can easily create, edit, and collaborate on Word documents using the new Office Online or Office 365, even on a Chromebook! In fact, you can even install the Word Online Chrome app. It’s…
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Recently, I stumbled upon Sketch Toy – a web-based drawing tool and Chrome App that allows you to quickly create and share drawings from any browser. What makes Sketch Toy different from other tools is the ability to not only draw, but also automatically convert your drawings into step-by-step animations that can be shared with a link. Additionally, anyone who accesses your drawing can then add on to it and generate a new link to share, allowing students to quickly iterate on each others’ drawings WITHOUT needing an account! Sketch Toy also lets…
[View the story “Weekly Resources to Wrap Up May” on Storify]
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. If you have asked your students to engage in research, then undoubtedly they have returned with a fresh list of results from a Google search. It can be a challenge in this era of search engine algorithms to teach students to engage with more traditional research methods and tools. Google Scholar is a great way to introduce them to this work while simultaneously working in a mode that is more familiar to them. Google Scholar is a Google search engine that allows you to look specifically for academic articles, theses, books,…
[View the story “Weekly Resources for Memorial Day Weekend” on Storify]
This post, co-authored by Tom Daccord and Avra Robinson, first appeared on Daily Genius. One of the biggest benefits of using technology in the classroom is that it can help us reach all learners. The more we understand how students think, the more effective we can be as educators. Technology creates a wide range of opportunities for students to reveal what they are thinking — from recording and presentation tools to interactive note-taking applications. In working with teachers, one of the strategies we use at EdTechTeacher is to find ways of unveiling a students’ critical thinking process. There are an array…
This post first appeared on Daily Genius. Many thanks to Jonathan Wylie for his professional input. Chromebooks have quickly become an incredibly popular tool in schools. However, this has previously limited users to only Google’s productivity tools. One of the most common complaints that I hear about Google Apps for Education tools (Gmail, Docs, Slides, etc), is that they are not as robust as those you find in the Microsoft Office Suite. Now, with the recent upgrades to Office Online and Office 365, it is possible navigate to the full Office suite using a Chromebook – or any other device!…
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. Common Sense Media has released Digital Compass, a new tool to teach students about navigating the digital world. The game is targeted at middle school students, an age when most children are getting cell phones and social media accounts (like Facebook and Instagram). Through playing this digital, “choose your own adventure” game, students explore topics like: cyberbullying & “digital drama,” self-image & identity, internet safety & privacy, creative credit & copyright, as well as relationships & communication. The game is currently available online with iOS, Android, and edmodo apps coming soon.…
This post first appeared on Free Technology for Teachers. A recent app developed by UC Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science, and funded by a National Institutes of Health SEPA Award, serves as a great example for what we can achieve when we use technology in the service of community. This time, the collaboration resulted in educating people about the importance of healthy lifestyles and habits through the creation of Monster Heart Medic. This free, new app for iOS – and soon coming to Android – is a well crafted educational adventure game that explores the cardiovascular system by examining how…
This post first appeared on Education Week’s EdTech Researcher blog. In 2006, my principal called me into her office and asked about rumors that I had been using student phones in class. It was my first year at the school, so I hesitated before acknowledging that I had. Her next reaction surprised me: she gave me free reign to use them as much as possible so long as I shared the results. She felt that we could not hold back the coming tide of technology from our classrooms. As it was just a matter of time before the ban on…
This guest post from Courtney Pepe (@iPadQueen2012) first appeared on Daily Genius. It is that time of year when aspiring school administrator candidates are polishing their resumes and getting job interviews to make the jump from teacher to administrator. Technology is always a topic that comes up on an administrative panel: what do you do with ed tech during the first 30 days on the job, on the first 60 days on the job, on the first 90 days on the job? Since I have recently moved into my first administrative role, I wanted to share some technology implementation tips…
[View the story “Weekly Resources for Teacher Appreciation Week” on Storify]
This a guest post from Christine Boyer (@5Boyer), a 5th grade teacher at Heathcote School in Scarsdale, NY, first appeared on Daily Genius. The saying, “If you build it, they will come” may have been referring to baseball stadiums, but it may also be the favorite mantra of makerspaces across the country. Since creating our school’s makerspace in November 2013, I’ve seen a small revolution start to grow within our elementary school and also across our district. A makerspace is a learning environment where children can tinker, design and create collaboratively using a variety of materials. However, a makerspace is…