• There are methods and models for implementing blended learning (3) -- from the flipped classroom, to the flex model. All of them are on the continuum of just how much time is spent online and in the online classroom. Blended Learning can provide a unique way of not only engaging students in collaborative work and projects, but also personalizing and individualizing instruction for students.
• However, there is still one piece that is missing from a great blended learning environment: engagement!
• #1 Leverage Virtual Class Meetings with Collaborative Work
• #2 Create the Need to Know
• #3 Reflect and Set Goals
• #4 Differentiate Instruction Through Online Work
• #5 Use Tools for Mobile Learning
• Successful blended learning educators and schools are focusing on engagement as they work towards student achievement. We have the unique opportunity to not replicate a system that has not served all students. Instead, we need to look at flexible time and place to innovate through blended learning

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• The digital-technology revolution was slow to infiltrate the ranks of America's public high schools and slower still to trickle down to the ranks of our elementary institutions. But the good news is that high-tech teaching is finally providing a potent shot in the arm to the elementary learning process. Exhibit A is Forest Lake Elementary School, in Columbia, South Carolina. Its classrooms hum with energy as the young students tap out blog posts, operate interactive whiteboards, and take part in other tech-enabled lessons.
• Use technology only when it enhances your content
• Put the tools in kids' hands.
• Maintain the same rigor as in pen-and-paper projects.
• Connect with peers far away.
• Gradually give kids more independence.
• Curate students' online destinations.
• Give kids a real audience.
• Have a backup plan. Don't get caught lesson-less in the event of a technological meltdown. (There's nothing wrong with an occasional nostalgic trip back to the world of the printed page.) As Williams says, "Technology is still a fickle little thing." Oh, and keep some spare batteries on hand.

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• Considering the fact that classroom management is one of the biggest challenges teachers face, we are always searching for something that will work.
• This year I started using ClassDojo (1), a classroom management system that has consistently helped me with the behaviors in my classroom. It's very easy to set up whether you're using an Apple or Android device -- there's an app available for both. With this tool, I was able to accomplish the following three goals.
• 1. Improving Behavior
• I found that positive points motivate my students and have a greater impact on their behavior.
• 2. Sharing Data
• 3. Saving Time

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• Our world is changing and changing rapidly.  But while we often see digital natives on the covers of contemporary magazines, we have students in our classrooms from both sides of the divide.  A 21st century classroom must engage and energize both natives and non-natives, preparing all students to be active participants in our exciting global community.
• Many look at this divide and cry out for a renewed focus on the 3 R’s - reading, writing, and arithmetic. But in order to fully participate in today’s global community, students must also master the 4 C’s – creativity, critical thinking, communication, and collaboration.
• When we think about bringing the 4 C’s into our classroom, we don’t need to “add” a thing. The best way to help students master these skills is to change HOW we teach and learn in our classrooms. It is the process of learning, not the content of learning, that addresses the 4 C’s
• Technology is a perfect vehicle for facilitating this. But this isn’t about learning how to use technology or even teaching with technology tools, it is about students creating and constructing with technology.

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• Now a single laptop can hold in its memory what the whole school library has of books and documents. Free writing and drawing software are availabe on every gadget and with just the use of ones finger , students can draw intuitively and share their productions in real time. This educational revolution has transformed the old traditional ways of teaching and learning and before we know it there emerged a second revolution that started with the introduction of web 2.0 tools in 2004. Now we started talking about social computing and social learning.
• Social networking presents a huge opportunity for schools, universties and other educational organisations to reach out and connect with students and prospective students. But how can schools and universities go about using social media in a pedagogical way and what are its benefits on both students and teachers ?
• Reasons why we should embrace social networking in education.
• 1- Social Media is not going away
   2- When Kids are engaged they learn better
   3- Safe Social Media Tools are Available and for free
   4- Replace Online procrastination with social education
   5- Social Media encourages collaboration instead of cliques
• Benefits of social networking on students
• students who are already engaging in social networking could benefit from incorporating it into curriculum.
• Benefits of social networking on Teachers
• 
  

   

   Social networking benefits not only students but also provides new opportunities for communication amongst teachers and educators

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• In the first six months after moving to blended learning by integrating Khan Academy tools, Peter McIntosh and former Oakland Unity principal David Castillo noted a dramatic shift in student test scores, along with students taking more responsibility for their own math education.

• Study: Emerging Technology Has Positive Impact in Classroom
• To meet the needs of her students, Roshan made radical changes to her lesson plans. Using Camtasia Studio, a screen recording and video editing program, Roshan uploaded her lectures to iTunes and assigned them as homework. "We've kind of reversed the whole dynamic of the class," she says. "Instead of lecturing in class, I lecture to them when they're at home, and we work problems together [in the classroom]. I liken it to an English classroom where the kids go home and do the reading and then they come into class and have this lively, engaging discussion."

• Technology Integration Research Review
• At the heart of effective technology integration practices, digital technologies offer learners greater opportunities to be more actively involved in the learning experience.
• Successful technology integration for learning generally goes hand in hand with changes in teacher training, curricula, and assessment practices (Zucker and Light, 2009 (17); Bebell and O'Dwyer, 2010 (18); Innovative Teaching and Learning Research, 2011 (19)).

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• While these issues continue to be critical to the mission of equity and excellence for all children, many classroom teachers, and sometimes even building principals, do not have the resources nor the training to provide technology access to diverse student populations.
• The focus of this article will be on classroom-level technology in the teaching and learning process. We can call this the instructional core of practice. Furthermore, this article provides benchmarks and key indicators for teachers and campus instructional leaders to assess and improve technology integration in diverse classrooms.
• Technology is an umbrella word that encompasses any electronic or digital process or apparatus associated with improving or enhancing a task or service. In schools, technology is used for information management (grades, payroll), communication (e-mail) and instruction (word processing).
• Educational technology can include videos or CDs teachers use to help students understand content and/or become proficient in some technological skills.
• Instructional technology refers to student learning that is directly facilitated by technology. Distance learning, whether satellite or web-based, is an example of instructional technology because students receive all their instruction via electronic conduits.
• Assistive or adaptive technology includes devices that magnify print for the sight-impaired, for instance, or amplify sound for the hearing impaired.

• Finally, connectivity typically refers to computer access to an internal network for file sharing and connection to the Internet, including the World Wide Web.
• Historically, students who under-perform on conventional measures of achievement, largely minority students, have been given remedial instruction consisting of rote memory skills and lifeless curriculum (Darder, 1997). Those students deemed to be gifted or high-ability are often given more interesting and engaging learning opportunities, rich in exploration and discovery.
• This article framed a context for dialogue and suggested core dimensions – the learning event, the teacher, the learner and the task – and indicators to gauge levels of equitable technology integration. As teams become more adept and informed about the uses of technology, they may want to adapt their own. By mapping teachers' and students' use of technology in the learning process, principals and campus teams have a solid beginning toward creating a campus-customized plan for professional development for teachers (Fuller, 2000)

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•    

     

         

    

    

   
  • Digital Tools Teaching Strategies
   

    

  How Games Can Influence Learning
• IT’S ABOUT INTERACTION, NOT ISOLATION
• “At the end of the day, a game is successful only if each individual gamer has an interaction with it that makes him or her want to come back for more,” says Nt Etuk, CEO of Dimension U, an educational games company.
• GAMES CAN HELP STRUGGLING STUDENTS.  “[Games] don’t cause behavior problems but eliminate them,” Ananth Pai says
• IT’S HIGHLY PERSONALIZED. With the best games, the player is challenged at exactly the right level and in the right way to keep the player playing.
• “Perhaps applying games to classes is hard because they work on a different educational philosophy than our current education system. Classes are designed to get the lowest common denominator engaged, while games are an interactive, ‘lean-forward’ medium in which players can progress at their own pace while trying and failing in a safe environment. A well-designed game offers an intricate balance of challenges and rewards that continually pushes players to, and then beyond, the limits of their knowledge and skill.”
• We use the word ‘game-like’ a lot instead of ‘game.’”
• GOOD EDUCATIONAL GAMES ARE DIFFICULT TO DEVELOP. “The fact is, many of the games out there suck,” said Ralph Vacca, a doctoral student at New York University’s Educational Communications and Technology Program. “They don’t tackle genuine learning needs as teachers see them, they don’t address practical limitations, as teachers see them, and they don’t live up to the hype around them, as teachers see them.” Those who design games need to recognize the “logistical, organizational, and cultural obstacles teachers have to deal with that underlie lots of perceived ‘resistance’ to innovations in the classroom.” For busy teachers, spending days or weeks prepping to use a game in just one or two classes is not the best use of time, he said.

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• iPod, iListen, iRead
• In 2006, the iREAD (I Record Educational Audio Digitally) project started as a pilot program in Escondido, with six teachers of English language learners working with low-performing readers, content experts, and IT staff.
• ks and so
• "Voice recording using the iPod provides that instant feedback loop, as students can easily record their fluency practice and listen immediately to the voice recording. It's difficult, especially for struggling readers, to 'step outside themselves' during the moment of reading. They are concentrating so hard at the act of reading that they have no idea what they really sound like. The iPod does something that even the teacher cannot do, provide a means for the student to receive feedback by listening to their own recordings. The iPod is very much like a mirror for students."
• In a Canby fourth-grade classroom of sixteen students, from the fall to mid-year assessment of reading fluency, when average increase in word count per minute (WCPM) is 12, the average in the iPod classroom was close to 20.
• A group of 12 fifth-graders in Escondido using iPod Touches averaged 1.8 years of reading progress in six months, compared with a matched group of students at the same school who averaged .25, a quarter of a year's increase.
• : "There's less of me talking and more of them doing."

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• Particularly, students who come from

  lower economic families will use computers less for reflective activities than those who come

  from higher economic families (Solhaug, 2009)
• Likewise, study findings reveal th

  at games can be

  very useful in the classroom, helping to stimulate student active participation in the learning

  process (Gareau & Guo, 2009)
• The use of clickers during a presentation

  enhanced students’ experience in the clas

  sroom by facilitating a sense of comfort, encouraging

  participation, and motivating students to answer questions correctly (Filer, 2010)
• Likewise, computers provide unlimited

  access to information as well as interactive communication, which has proven to provide student

  empowerment over their own education (Solhaug, 2009)
• INCREASING MOTIVATION AND ENGAGEMENT IN ELEMENTARY AND

  MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS THROUGH

  TECHNOLOGY

  -

  SUPPORTED LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS
• Making Connections to Real

  -

  World Experiences
• Challenge, fantasy, and

  curiosity are the three most important elements

  to engagement of students (Gareau & Guo,

  2009)
• Principals nee

  d to take on the role of the school’s instructional leader in order to make a

  technical program a success in their building (Barker, 1990)
• Markedly, using technology as a teacher tool and as a

  tool to use in teaching

  is an advantage allowing us to draw on the expertise of the instructor who can seamlessly

  demonstrate effective technology use (Donovan et al

  .

  , 2011)
• We invest in technology

  for education, yet it is not being

  put to use in a way that promotes effective learning (Donovan, Green, & Hansen, 2011)

  .
• After analyzing the data, the most notable results concluded that students felt teachers provided

  activities related to their interests and students were more likely to engage in clas

  sroom activities

  when technology was used

  .
• The technology

  -

  supported learning environme

  nt improved student motivation and

  engagement by 9% after the intervention period
• In order to increase student motivation and engagement, teacher researchers implemented a

  technology

  -

  supported learning enviro

  nment

  .

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• 7 Ways To Bring Tech Into The Classroom
• 1. Have your students blog.
• 2. Create a social network.
• 3. Podcas
• 4. Use wikis for big projects.
• 
  5. Try social bookmarking.
• 6. Post video
• 
  7. Explore with google maps

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  Innovation

    <!--ISYSINDEXINGON-->  <!--ISYSINDEXINGOFF--> <!--ISYSINDEXINGON-->  

  Evolution of educational technology (infographic)

• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
• The Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission
• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
•   

  Study Shows What Teachers and Parents Really Think About Education Technology
• The Leading Education by Advancing Digital (LEAD) Commission
• 96 percent of teachers and 92 percent of parents believe that schools’ integration of technology in teaching and learning is important to the education of American students today
•  
  • 82 percent of teachers and 71 percent of parents believe a greater use of technology would be helpful in connecting learning inside and outside of the classroom
• textbooks
• 89 percent of teachers and 76 percent of parents would choose to spend $200 per student for an Internet-connected device over $200 per student for new science textbooks
• 82 percent of teachers believe that they are not receiving the necessary training to use technology to its fullest potential in the classroom
• 95 percent of teachers and 90 percent of parents believe that home access to high-speed Internet gives students a big or moderate advantage when it comes to classroom performance
• performance

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