Teacher Shelley Wright is on leave from her classroom, working with teachers in a half-dozen high schools to promote inquiry and connected learning. I think the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy is wrong. Hear me out. I know this statement sounds heretical in the realms of education, but I think this is something we should rethink, especially since it is so widely taught to pre-service teachers.  I agree that the taxonomy accurately classifies various types of cognitive thinking skills. It certainly ide...  show all text

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Some say fashion is pain, and in the case of Dave Hurban, it actually is. Hurban recently implanted magnets in his wrist himself — all for the ability to wear his trusty iPod Nano like a watch without having to sport a wristband. What motivated him to do it? “I just thought it would be cool,” Hurban said in an interview with Digital Trends. To turn himself into a human iPod dock, Hurban had to make four incisions on his wrist, where he inserted small magnets. After a little bit of blood and so...  show all text

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Google has launched Story of Send, a new website that explains how an email travels from your PC, tablet or smartphone to its destination. The site is an interactive, animated story, showing not only the journey of your emails, but also explaining Google’s efforts to keep viruses and spam out of your inbox. Google also shows how it saves energy and keeps its data centers up to high environmental standards. “Our data centers are some of the most efficient in the world, using 50% less energy than...  show all text

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This article was originally posted on the Getting Smart blog. From the first week of school, the six year olds in my classroom begin to create an online presence in the form of a digital portfolio.  We use a blogging platform to do this, and include artifacts that show their progress in writing, reading, math, social studies and science. I am frequently asked why I do this.  Even more frequently, I can see in a colleague’s eyes that they are thinking “why”, even if they don’t verbalize their q...  show all text

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I think collaboration and reflection are 2 of the biggest skills that kids need but aren't really getting enough of. Having the opportunity to work together in meaningful ways and to reflect on their work and the work of their peers is key to being a learner. There are lots of tools that you can use to help kids collaborate and reflect. Blogs are a great example. Podcasts are another. However, each can be daunting to set up and actually do. That's why I love Voicethread. What is Voicethread y...  show all text

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Earlier this month, the education startup incubator ImagineK12 held its second Demo Day, where its latest cohort of startups made their pitches to investors. I pointed to the write-up of Inigral’s Michael Staton in my weekly roundup of ed-tech news, but I realized this past week that I’ve done a particularly lousy job reviewing these latest startups here. I’ve covered Hapara and Instagrok (here and here), but that’s just two out of nine. So I’m resolved to try to cover a few more of these star...  show all text

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Some of the Internet’s best resources dedicated exclusively to educational uses of the iPad. The popularity of the iPad in our schools continues to grow, and with it, the proliferation of... [Please click on the post title to continue reading the full post. Thanks (and thanks for subscribing)!]

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Birchbox Birchbox is a monthly subscription that delivers beauty and lifestyle samples to your door. It's a great way for any mom to discover the latest releases and find tips from industry leaders. Click here to view this gallery. Whether or not they’ll admit it, all moms aspire to be hip. In 2012, that means being digitally savvy. What better gift can you give your mom this Mother’s Day than introducing her to a handful of sites to keep her up to speed on the latest lifestyle, organization  show all text

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Gerrit Hall is the CEO and co-founder of RezScore, a free web application that reads, analyzes and grades resumes instantly. Connect with Gerrit and RezScore on Facebook and Twitter. Many people think their LinkedIn profiles and their resumes are interchangeable, but you should not send your entire LinkedIn profile into a potential employer and expect to land an interview. While there is the LinkedIn Resume Builder, all that does is reformat your existing profile into a resume — it’s not tailor...  show all text

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By cutting the number of lunch duties and other obligations outside the classroom, teachers at one school are spending more time pursuing ideas they can apply to their teaching and learning.

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turntable connects you and your friends in a real time music listening experience. Play music together for free on the internet or your iPhone.

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When we talk about using cell phones in class, we’re not just talking about using cell phones in class. The idea of mobile learning touches on just about every subject that any technology addresses: social media, digital citizenship, content-knowledge versus skill-building, Internet filtering and safety laws, teaching techniques, bring-your-own-device policies, school budgets. At its core, … Continue reading →

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I've seen plenty of presentations that try to incorporate social media, polling, and other interactive tools. It's all an effort to engage the audience and keep the conversation going. But usually these presentations don't do it right.

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Blogger and elementary principal Joe Mazza suggests (at least) 12 reasons why it's essential for school districts to open a Twitter account and start tweeting

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Get the seven steps (and a roundup of valuable resources) you need to help bring social media in your classroom.

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One of our main goals at Powerful Learning Practice is to turn educators into 21st Century educators. That is, teach them how to use social media and other powerful Web 2.0 tools to transform their classrooms into learning environments that are ready for today’s iGeneration students. One of the most common questions we get is, “But where do we find the time to use all this new technology?” To answer that question, we developed this infographic – A Day in the Life of a Connected Educator to show...  show all text

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As another school year begins to come to a close, I have recently had some of our administrators (mostly elementary) contact me with ideas for making administrative tasks more paperless and create a more efficient workflow not only for themselves but for their teachers.  Some of these have been regular “end of year” tasks and others are being put into motion in preparation for next year.  Given my known affinity for Google Apps for Education, and being we are a Google Apps for Education distric...  show all text

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Ego tracking and Social Media Monitoring for twitter, facebook, YouTube, MySpace, bit.ly and Google Analytics. Free for individuals.

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College students today are more tech savvy than ever before. Just how important is technology to their academic lives? More than 90% use email to communicate with professors and 73% say they cannot study without technology. Seven in 10 take notes on keyboards instead of paper, virtually all students who own an ereader and most use digital tools when preparing a presentation. All that tech has caused something of a dependency too — 38% of students can’t go more than 10 minutes without checking t...  show all text

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Here are five great slides that I found recently in the Great Quotes About Learning and Change Flickr pool. Which one’s your favorite? The Illusion of Lecture Master Learners Halcyon Days Good vs Good Enough The REAL Pedagogical Problem Related posts: Technology will free learning from the dead hand of the past Video – Learning to change Two great quotes from Richard Elmore

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Windows users now have a way to wirelessly mirror iPad and iPhone to their computers with AirSever. Similar to Reflection for Mac, AirServer is software installed on a desktop or laptop that turns that the computer into an AirPlay receiver with no Apple TV required. There's absolutely no software to install on iPad or iPhone because AirPlay mirroring is built into iOS (but currently only on iPad 2, iPad 3rd generation, and iPhone 4S).  AirServer offer a 7 day trial period, though you will have ...  show all text

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Mashable won a Webby Award for our business coverage, so how on earth could you let yourself miss our latest digital media resources? Just kidding — for whatever reason you couldn’t keep up this week, check out our features roundup for the best social media, business and tech resources. This week, we’ve covered mobile trends that your company needs to watch out for, rules for responding to customers online and specs on the forthcoming BlackBerry 10 that are pretty cool. We also have a ton of co...  show all text

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When used effectively, technology plays an important role in enhancing the learning process. Teachers can use digital devices to present supplemental material for lessons or to encourage students to take a more hands-on role in their education.

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Google has launched a new site called Search Education aimed at educators who want to teach online search strategies. The site includes lesson plans geared at different levels of expertise — beginner, intermediate and advanced– as well as training videos that walk through different strategies for subjects like using Creative Commons and Google maps. The … Continue reading →

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Working out may be a time to unwind and clear your head, but more consumers are turning to smartphones to stay connected while exercising, according to a new study. A new infographic from market research firm Lab42 found that 51% of consumers are using smartphones during their workouts, whether for checking email (33%) or tracking their pace (43%). Listening to music is the most popular way to incorporate mobile devices into a workout (91%). The study was conducted among 500 social media users ...  show all text

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Be aware of the insidious and unspoken lessons you learned as a child. To thrive in the world outside the classroom, you’re going to have to unlearn them. Dangerous things you were taught in school:             1. The people in charge have all the answers. That’s why they are so wealthy and happy and [...]

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The transition to the more extensive use of technology in classrooms across the West has resulted in the integration of bring your own device (BYOD) schemes, equipping students with netbooks and tablet computers, and lessons that use social media & online services. Gesture-based technology is on the rise; according to the latest NMC Horizon Report, gesture-based technological models will become more readily integrated as a method of learning within the next few years. The iPhone, iPad, Nintendo...  show all text

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