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One-to-One is a learning initiative, not a technology program. It's not about shiny objects; it's about how the technology is used, and giving all students ubiquitous access to use it. Task predicts performance Students can use the same cool tool for lower-level thinking and higher-level thinking. Externally, the product may look the same (such as a presentation made with Prezi), but the learning outcomes would be quite different when they use it for higher-level thinking . If the student task predicts their learning outcomes and academic performance, then creating a learning task at Webb's Depth of Knowledge Levels 3 or 4 is the goal. How do you want students to use technology in the classroom? 9 Wrong And 8 Right Ways Students Should Use Technology on Edudemic focuses on technology, a tool, being used for learning outcomes. Some rights reserved   CC by William M Ferriter -- via Edudemic via George Couros Strong ways for students to use technology...

Living in an age with information at our fingertips can be challenging when there's so much of it. That is why it's important to prioritize and focus on the content I want. One tool that helps with that focus is Feedly , a RSS tool. RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. However, when I see "RSS" I think of it as "Read So Simply," because that's what it does -- it takes the blogs and news articles I want to keep an eye on, and collects it for me in one organized place to let me know when it's been updated. The importance of RSS RSS is important for several reasons. It saves time on the information highway because the resources I want to learn from come straight to me. While I could ask for it to be emailed to me, let's be honest, I don't want all those emails! With RSS, I can pick and choose when to go visit those resources. As a member of the blogosphere , reading other people's blogs is an important part of the blogging proce...

One goal at ISTE13 was to learn more about the hidden world of Google -- the scripts, extensions, and apps. I honestly wasn't aware of them until I read Linda Yollis' post after she went to the Google Teacher Academy... which led me to a post by Amy Mayer at friEDTechnology , with her video explanation/tutorial: After watching the above video, I decided I needed to learn more about what Google offers. At ISTE13, I attended several sessions which added to this quest, including Cool Google Tools for the BYOD Classroom by Tammy Worcester , and Real World Math Lessons with Google Earth by Thomas Petra . Google tips learned from Tammy Worcester: Locations and Google Forms : In a Google Form, collect a location and some interesting facts, then place the data in batchgeo to create a map with pins noting the interesting facts (which can be embedded in a blog post or web site to share with others). For example, pick a dream vacation spot and share why; research state land...

Close reading is a strategy for reading complex text . In Part 1 , the focus is how to do a close reading. The focus in Part 2 is how to annotate with iPads. The focal points of this post are the teacher steps in close reading; how to create text dependent questions for informational text in 6th-12th grades; annotating in Diigo; and creating writing activities to go with close reading. Click here to download as PDF Below are the teacher's steps for creating a close reading lesson. However, the student steps are in the poster shown on the right: Teacher Step 1 : Choose the text Choose a short and difficult text to do a close reading on. It should be at the frustration reading level . Some examples to choose from for informational text are short speeches (or excerpts from a speech); research; paragraphs or chapters from biographies, memoirs, or historical accounts to name a few. Teacher Step 2: Planning Plan and do what you expect your students to do. Decide ...

21st century learning and technology integration are part of the Common Core design. 21st century skills include: CC by 3.0 Tracy Watanabe c ommunication and c ollaboration c reative thinking and innovation c uration : research and informational fluency c ritical thinking, problem solving, and decision making digital c itizenship c omputing skills: using technology to learn, communicate, consume, c ontribute, design, and produce In the introduction of the Common Core , those skills are referenced, and specifically outlined as a key design consideration , and placed in a portrait of a student who is college and career ready. They are also interwoven in the anchor standards , which can be viewed by specific grade levels . Academic conversations Academic conversations are part of 21st century learning and the Common Core Standards. Constructivism in learning, building meaning based on prior understanding, occurs in academic conversations (speaking and listenin...

In Close Read Complex Text, and Annotate with Tech--Part 1 , the focus was how to do a close reading . In Part 2, the focus is how to annotate with iPads , and insights gained from a lesson done with students in first through third grades. iPad apps for annotating Many apps can be used for annotating. I'm listing a few apps that can be used for close reading, and will go into detail on the one I've used the most with students. App Tutorial Links Learnability Cost PaperPort Notes PaperPort Notes Tutorial Tips listed below Easy Free Educreations Educreations Tutorial Tips listed below Easy Free Notability Notability YouTube Tutorial Medium $1.99 Skitch with Evernote Skitch for iPad tutorial by the Edublogger Medium Free Lessons learned through annotating in Educreations On the first day of close reading, it was easy to use Educreations to annotate. For each new page, we'd add a new page to the presentation. We took screen shots to keep a ...

Digital storytelling is an art form conveying a message. It uses images and voice narration to convey emotion with the message, and to ignite empathy from the audience. It incorporates storyboarding and writing a script. It is created with digital tools and published on the Internet. I often think of digital storytelling as something done in first person because it creates that personal connection. Whereas, I think of a digital story as an anecdote or story typed or narrated in third person. Overview Click here to view the cube above on RVLIO. The art of digital storytelling I recently participated in an outstanding webinar by ISTE's Special Interest Group for Digital Storytelling , where Bernajean Porter shared about the " Art and Soul of Digital Storytelling ." After being inspired by the webinar, I created the following page summarizing some of my key take-aways: Click here to download PDF Explanations, prompts, and examples Click here to op...