Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/27/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:31:08 PST

5 Ways Teachers Can Raise Standardized Test Scores | Education Is My Life

This teacher reflects on the practices he feels have raised test scores in his classroom. Test scores are a fact and until it is changed at the top, teachers in the classroom have to work within that environment.

tags: teaching testing

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/27/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 02:32:04 PST

The Press Association: Brown wants global education fund

Move to global education fund but funding is hard to come by. This article implies it is easier to raise money for diseases than to educate people. That is sad. "All 193 United Nations member states are signed up to a Global Millennium Goal for primary school education to be accessed by every child by 2015, agreed at the New York Millennium Summit in 2000. In the current funding set-up, countries with the biggest out-of-school populations, such as Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, are not eligible for grants from the World Bank's Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Despite being the leading worldwide education fund, the GPE recently failed to raise a pledges target of 2.5 billion US dollars (£1.6 billion) over three years and has been criticised for a lack of flexibility in allocating grants.".

tags: education news
Anonymous Goes After World Governments in Wake of Anti-SOPA Protests | Threat Level | Wired.com

Conversation has moved from SOPA to ACTA, an international treaty supposedly supported by the enetertainment industry. Hackers are targeting governments and businesses in opposition to SOPA and now are targeting those in support of this new treaty which does not require legislative approval in most countries.

tags: education news copyright ip intellectualproperty
British Council and Microsoft launch joint digital partnership in Sub-Saharan Africa | British Council Africa

Expanding ICT in sub-Saharan Africa is a great thing. How far will $1million go when the Internet is so expensive in many parts of Africa. But it is a start for this joint partnership announced at Microsoft's partners in learning conference in DC this past November.

tags: education news
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Enhances its Social Studies Online Content with SpeechStream Literacy Support from Texthelp Systems | EON: Enhanced Online News

Integrating text to speech is great but it should be in every e textbook for every student. At least this is a start. ".HMH is proud to be the first to offer text-to-speech functionality with every online social studies student edition for grades 6-12,” to said Melissa Counihan, Vice President, K-12 Literacy and Social Studies Segment Management, HMH"

tags: education news ebook
India Shining - Bharat Drowning | GroundReport

India is upset over a recent international test that put their 15 year olds second from the bottom in test scores. ".Comparing scores, it’s estimated that an Indian eighth grader is at the level of a South Korean third grader in math abilities or a second-year student from Shanghai when it comes to reading skills."

tags: education news
MPAA chairman Chris Dodd expresses regret over pro-SOPA strategy, calls for compromise | The Verge

Understand one of the leaders behind SOPA and you'll know that this is not going away any time soon.

"Dodd blames the bills' reduced support on a slow timeline that allowed opposition to mobilize, but also on a strategy that ended up making the anti-piracy effort seem specifically about helping Hollywood. His own efforts were also limited by a law that prevents him from lobbying Congress directly within two years of leaving office."

tags: sopa news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/25/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:31:08 PST

Circus Physics | Classroom | Circus | PBS

Circus physics videos from PBS. (Hat tip to Richard Byrne for this great set of videos.) There are 8 short videos that use circus performers to teach physics concepts.

tags: education lesson lessonplans teaching physics stem science_teacher

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/25/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:31:26 PST

PowerSchool Parent - Pearson School Systems

We will enable this next year at our school but PowerSchool parent is an app with many downloads. This is the link to the itunes store.

tags: edapp eduapp
(Good) Free App of the Day! LEGO App 4+ - Educational Apps For Kids

My son loves everything Lego including this cute (free) app.

tags: eduapp. edapp lego
Pocket Schedule - Classes, Exams & Assignments - BlueTags

This app is a top paid app in the iTunes store. It is a new one to bit the charts.

tags: eduapp edapp ios planning
Audiobooks.com Launches a Spotify for Books

Awesome! "For $24.95 a month, the service will give users unlimited access to its library of 11,000 audio books through its website and an HTML5 mobile app. Though Amazon-owned competitor Audible has a monthly membership, it relies on a credit system that gives users access to a certain number of books per month depending on the fee. Audiobooks is the first service we can find that is streaming books using a monthly model. "

tags: edapp eduapp audiobook

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/25/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:30:46 PST

IQ Drops When You’re In a Group | Psych Central News

IQ is linked to social context. Does this mean mainstreaming is wrong? Right? Depending on who you are? ". Provocative new research discovers small-group dynamics can lower the expression of IQ in some susceptible people. In the study, researchers determined IQ is significantly linked to social context."
IQ depends upon social context? If this research is proven to be true it could change how we measure and understand IQ. "“This study tells us the idea that IQ is something we can reliably measure in isolation without considering how it interacts with social context is essentially flawed,” said coauthor Steven Quartz, Ph.D. “Furthermore, this suggests that the idea of a division between social and cognitive processing in the brain is really pretty artificial. The two deeply interact with each other.” .

tags: education learning iq research
News | New research shows stress can make you pile on the pounds

Are all of your teachers gaining weight? maybe it is a sign of deeper problems or a toxic work environment. I have seen it happen and believe it. Of course, are you stressed because you are heavy or are you heavy because you are stressed? " Research has found the answer. Apparently stress is the biggest cause of overeating for more than half of the country’s adults."

tags: learning research health
Sloan-C’s Definition of 'Online Course' May Be Out of Sync with Reality ~ Stephen's Web

How do you determine what an online course is? I love Stephen Downes' tongue in cheek thought on how this is being defined. great points.

tags: education news elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/25/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 02:31:44 PST

Vim - Applidium

This app is interesting not onky because it is a very simple free text editor bit it is open source "charityware." I cannt recall hearning the term charityware but they have a suggested charity they would like you to donate to if you like the app. That is a great idea.

tags: education news
Research Blog

Google is open sourcing Google Sky Map for Android. ".Today, we are delighted to announce that we are going to share Sky Map in a different way: we are donating Sky Map to the community. We are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University in an exciting partnership that will see further development of Sky Map as a series of student projects. Sky Map’s development will now be driven by the students, with Google engineers remaining closely involved as advisors. Additionally, we have open-sourced the app so that other astronomy enthusiasts can take the code and augment it as they wish."

tags: education news Google
Gadgetbox - Apple vs. the textbook: Can education go paperless?

Apple's move into textbooks. Perhaps bumpy at first but with lots of potential. I have seen a lot of favorable thoughts with the Apple announcement. Here is a note from MSNBC I thought expressed a concern of many. Great article about the announcement that is balanced and not just fanboy worship that we get from many sites. ". Can Apple control quality and manage the educational boards? As soon as the iBooks Author tool was introduced, many Apple watchers who had previously witnessed the garbaging up of the iTunes App Store — with useless or redundant fart or flashlight apps — let out a collective sigh. How long until the shiny new corner of the iBookstore, where the textbooks will reside, is filled with hastily made, low-quality products, or worse yet, works of high quality that nevertheless contain misleading or unsubstantiated information."

tags: apple. education news texbooks ibook ebook
Japan Reviews Disaster Plan Amid New Quake Concerns - WSJ.com

Japan has work to do. This is heartbreaking indeed. From the Wall Street Journal. ".Underscoring the risks facing Japan, a new research institute investigation has determined there is a 70% chance of a magnitude-7 earthquake striking the Tokyo metropolitan area within the next four years, and 98% over 30 years. The March 2011 earthquake was a magnitude-9."

tags: news japan
Finnish Miracles & American Myths : 2¢ Worth

David Warlick's reflection on the miracle of Finland's flourishing education system is a great read.

tags: education news finland bestpractices
Sloan-C’s Definition of 'Online Course' May Be Out of Sync with Reality ~ Stephen's Web

How do you determine what an online course is? I love Stephen Downes' tongue in cheek thought on how this is being defined. great points.

tags: education news elearning
North Sanpete School District In Utah Sued Over Student's Suicide

Sad, but this is happening. I do have to wonder that if it was that bad should the parents have moved him? The parents are suing the school for notbprotectingz their child from bulkying and false accusations. I was bullied. Simple answers dont exist.

tags: education bullying news
Google tracks consumers’ online activities across products, and users can’t opt out - The Washington Post

Expect the FTC to take a closer look at Google who will be tracking your activity across all their products as of March 1st with no choice to ot out. what are they doing with google apps for ed?

tags: education news google
Apple's First Quarter Earnings: The Unbelievable Numbers

Apples envious numbers have everyone talking. ".Big test looming? Grockit is a social study tool that’s customizable and connects you with friends on Facebook. Study guides are available for middle school, high school, college and graduate students — from the SAT to GRE. The program has some hefty research behind it, too. Experts in curriculum design who’ve worked for Apple and Houghton Mifflin helped create some of the lesson plans on the app. Study solo or connect with study partners on Grockit. Let your Facebook friends know you’re studying on Grockit and boast about the latest badges you’ve earned on the site."

tags: education news apple

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/24/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:30:52 PST

4 Sites for Free Vintage Photographs — Life Scoop

Four great sites to find vintage photographs. For presentations, activities, and authentic learning. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

tags: teaching photographs lesson plans
Drive to Life | Scholastic

A contest that you'll want to consider entering with your students.
"

Dear Lori,

Distracted driving—from texting behind the wheel to turning around to chat with friends in the backseat—can lead to deadly consequences, particularly for teens. Now your students can save lives and change attitudes by entering our Drive2Life Contest.

Challenge your students in grades 6–12 to create an exciting, innovative storyboard or script for a memorable Public Service Announcement that educates others about distracted driving. The grand–prize winner receives $1,000 and will embark on a trip to New York City, where a professional film crew will transform the student’s vision into a 30–second commercial! Four runners–up each will receive $500.

On our Drive2Life site, you’ll also find lifesaving and skill-building resources tied to National Standards, including:

A distracted driving checklist/poll
Role-playing and discussion activities
A reproducible worksheet for creating a compelling storyboard"

tags: education teaching lessonplans contest lessonplan distracted driving cellphone safety.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/24/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:31:40 PST

How to Add Goodreads to Your Facebook Timeline - GalleyCat

I love Goodreads and now have a reason to go back more often. Here is how you can integrate it into your Facebook with the new Open graph service. This may become the book review mechanism of the future, linking with our friends.

tags: Education edapp eduapp
Free Technology for Teachers: LiveBinders Comes to the iPad

Livebinders has an ipad app now. Livebinders rock!

tags: eduapp edapp

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

The Sweet Smell of Success Starts at Home (part 3)

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:35:00 PST

Student success starts at home, but it can be tough navigating the waters of learning. In the first post in this series, I shared the facts about how success starts at home, in the last post we covered the first three items in my list of 10 tips for starting student success at home. This is a series I wrote for the Lifetime Channel that I'm also posting here on my blog.

10 Tips for Starting Student Success at Home (4-6)

4 - Success in the classroom is not just mastery of the subject matter but mastery of a child’s relationship with his/her teacher.
We all have to get along with people they don't like for the rest of their life and classroom is life. Children will have bad bosses one day and they may have a bad teacher today.

I am preparing them for how to deal with a bad boss when I teach them how to deal with a bad teacher. Sometimes my child can learn more from a bad teacher than a good one if they learn to be strong, do the right thing, and work hard. I cannot always insulate my child from such experiences but can help give them perspective.

I do believe that most teachers are good teachers and there are some great teachers. Realize also that a great teacher can become a mediocre teacher quickly if administrators or budgets have put too many children in a classroom.

5 - I will create an area that sets them up for success at home.
The following YouTube video shares is our "study center." I know that a well-equipped study center at home shows that I expect them to bring work home. (Note to readers: Every circumstance is different- customize this to your child.)

6 - I will read with my younger children and let them see me read.
Reading is part of life and being a lifelong learner. It has a revered place in our home as something that we all do. I will read a variety of things and let them see me do it. Sometimes they learn more about who I am when they catch me reading my bible at 6 am or reading Consumer Reports before buying a washing machine or reading Educational Journals cover to cover.

We work hard to find books that our children like to read. My youngest has dyslexia and it has been a challenge but we’ve read and read. My favorite trick is to find a book he loves (the Chronicles of Narnia is his favorite now) and I’ll read a chapter and then yawn and say,

“OK, I’m really tired, I’ll let you stay up for another 15 minutes and read the next chapter if you want to.”

He does and now I hear him giggling at funny things or groaning and upsetting things as he reads. With my older two, I would read aloud to them in the car as we drove. Although we could do a book on tape, hearing my voice is important, I think. They know I think reading is important.

In my post, Time to Get Angry About Reading, I shared some research about how one third of high school graduates never read another book in their lives and over 40% of college graduates don’t read another book after college.

If you don’t like reading then your child won’t like it either. Success in reading definitely starts at home.

See the next post in this series for items 7-10 in this list. Remember, Moms (and Dads) matter.

Note: I will be concluding this series on my blog this week but if you want to go ahead and read part 4 and part 5 of this series, you can on my Lifetime Channel blog.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/24/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 02:32:37 PST

Facebook Announces Tight Integration of 60 Apps to Timeline, More on the Way

The full list of the 60 apps in Open Graph. Time to start testing (and unblocking Facebook.)

tags: education Faceboik news
Grockit

The social study hall linking you with your friends as you study. ".Big test looming? Grockit is a social study tool that’s customizable and connects you with friends on Facebook. Study guides are available for middle school, high school, college and graduate students — from the SAT to GRE. The program has some hefty research behind it, too. Experts in curriculum design who’ve worked for Apple and Houghton Mifflin helped create some of the lesson plans on the app. Study solo or connect with study partners on Grockit. Let your Facebook friends know you’re studying on Grockit and boast about the latest badges you’ve earned on the site."

tags: education news socialmedia
Apple Will Own Your Work With iBooks Author

Use iBooks author and Apple effectively owns all distribution rights to your work. This is a terms of service to run by your lawyer if you are, have or plan to publish in the future.

tags: education news ibooks publishing
Reflecting on two years of 1:1 [guest post] | Dangerously Irrelevant

Principal Charlie Roy reflects on his schools's first 2 years of 1:1 with a guest post over at Dangerously Irrelevant.

tags: education news 1:1
Top 6 Music Streaming Services — Life Scoop

For you audiophiles, the top 6 music streaming services.

tags: news education
Crowdsourcing the State of the Union | The Mozilla Blog

Pay attention. US politics is changing again. "Tuesday’s State of the Union Address from U.S. President Barack Obama will include something special: crowdsourced captions and subtitles provided by everyday citizens around the world. Using new web tools from the Participatory Culture Foundation, supported by Mozilla, participants will transcribe and translate the President’s speech into dozens of languages in a matter of hours, making it more accessible to those with disabilities and in other countries across the globe. Launching “Open Election 2012″ The event marks the launch of “Open Election 2012,” a new partnership between Mozilla, PBS NEWSHOUR, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and Participatory Culture Foundation."

tags: education news government open social media
Effective library budgeting - Home - Doug Johnson's Blue Skunk Blog

Doug Johnson shares about how to effectively budget for your library.

tags: librarian news
iBooks Author: An ebook publisher looks at Apple's textbook creation app | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

A detailed view of Apple's iBook Author for the Mac. It is supposed to be great for textbooks but you may want to look elsewhere for more multi platform compatibility for your non textbook ebooks.

tags: education news
Apple Saw 350,000 Textbook Downloads in 3 Days

With only 7 titles, Apple still had 350,000 textbook downloads. eBooks are in demand, no doubt. Whether these books are in demand or if curious stakeholders downloaded them is unclear. If this number gagues interest, ebooks are hot topics.

tags: news ibook apple
Phone hacking: News of the World journalists lied to Milly Dowler police | Media | The Guardian

Phone hacking scandal in UK has findings released. They found, "Rather than tell her family and police of this important information, it appears they concentrated on getting a scoop." This is sad.

tags: education news hacking
Evi arrives in town to go toe-to-toe with Siri

" Evi is a new iPhone (iTunes link) and Android app in Beta (link) which might just give Apple’s Siri a run for her money" Ftom True Knowledge, this app is said to be much better for those outside the US where Siri really doesn't have the answers, literally. Have the virtual assistant app wars begun?

tags: Education news Siri ai artificialintelligence
Carol Allen (caroljallen) on Twitter

Carol Allen is another UK special education educator who runs an autistic center. She will also be presenting at the special ed Teach meet this Saturday. #tmscn12

tags: education spedchat specialed specialneeds_teacher news
Ceri Williams (cerirwilliams) on Twitter

Ceri is from the UK and is going to live demo a program he's written for Kinect (that he plans to give away for free) that emulates the program Soundbeam. This program lets you move parts of your body and plays music and is going to be an incredible thing to use for special ed students with the Kinect. This is his twitter handle. Follow him to Keep up with what he's doing.

tags: education spedchat specialneeds_teacher kinect news
jazrob86's Channel - YouTube

One of my favorite youtube channels for teachers and educators is from Jarrod Robinson "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" from down under. He is helpful, loves kids, and has a unique understanding of engaging bodily kinesthetic learners in all subjects and a passion for mobile learning.

tags: education qrcodes news edtech mlearning bestpractices

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/23/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 11:31:16 PST

CDWG | Win a Wireless Lab - Home

IF you want to register to win a free wireless lab. CDW-G and Discovery have a contest going now.

tags: education teaching contest all_teachers
Cross-curricular resources: 200 years since the birth of Charles Dickens - resources - TES

Can you believe that Charles Dickens was born 200 years a go this February? Here are some ideas for introducing this classic author to your classroom. I also think it is important to share his writings about how children were mistreated in his time. It would make for a good cross curricular discussion.

tags: education literature teaching lessonplans
Search for australia teaching resources - TES

Some very well organized lesson plans and activities to use for Australia day this Thursday. (Have you considered putting these on your calendar for each year?)

tags: education australia lessonplans teaching
Australia

Another website with a lot of resources about Australia including several webquests.

tags: education australia lessonplans teaching
ESL Holiday Lessons.com: Australia Day

Here is a nice description of Australia day with several activities you can use with it.

tags: education teaching lessonplans australia
Australia

Australia day is Thursday, January 26, it would be a great time to celebration and learn about Australia in your classroom on that day. This website from jcheek at Kennesaw State University gives a lot of resources and information that you can use in your classroom. Global competency is important and celebrations are a great way to learn.

tags: education teaching lessonplans
Search for winston churchill teaching resources - TES

On January 24, 1965, the world lost a great leader, Winston Churchill. Here are some excellent resources that you can use to teach your class about Winston Churchill by grade level.

tags: teaching history lessonplans

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/23/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:31:38 PST

jazrob86's Channel - YouTube

One of my favorite youtube channels for teachers and educators is from Jarrod Robinson "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" from down under. He is helpful, loves kids, and has a unique understanding of engaging bodily kinesthetic learners in all subjects and a passion for mobile learning.

tags: education qrcodes news edtech mlearning bestpractices

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Easy Assessment App (I'm giving away 4 copies) made by @mrrobbo #mlearning

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 07:05:00 PST

The Easy Assessment App was created by Jarrod Robinson, "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" a self proclaimed "mobile fanatic" and creator of one of my favorite Youtube Channels for teachers. (See his blog post on this app.)

Demo of Easy Assessment

He's designed this for teacher and coaches to do a quick assessment on the spot. It is $1.99 in the iTunes store but I have 4 copies

How to be selected to receive a free copy
I'm giving away these codes to four lucky people (and am going to ask Jarrod to help me.) I'll pick the winners on Friday. All you have to do is to leave a comment or tweet a link to this post about mobile assessment and your tips and ideas for how you do it or why you think it is important. (Just link back to this post so I can find you.)

Because Jarrod is a helpful person (see below) I'd like to give these 4 promo codes to people who are helpful just like him. So, help people understand mobile assessment through the medium of your choice. Thank you for sharing.

A note about this post
I love my "friends." The people who help out when there is nothing in it "for them." If you blog for a while you'll start getting press releases from companies saying things like:

"I'm now a big fan of your blog." or
"I just started following your blog and am a fan." or
"I am so impressed with you and respect your blog"

And I think to myself,

"Yeah right. You just want me to write about your product. You don't care about me. IN fact, you hired a PR firm and don't even have a real person who is using your product talking to me about your product. I'm a real person and I work with real people."

But when someone I know who loves kids and has always been there for me does something, I know it and want to share it.

Jarrod Robinson, "Mr. Robbo the PE Geek" not only has a great blog, but way back when I was learning about QR codes for ISTE a few years back, I came across his skeleton QR code project (one every PE teacher should check out) and contacted him. I saw what QR codes were but didn't really understand how to explain them. He recorded a quick video for me (complete with kangaroos jumping in the background) for me to show in my cell phone workshop at ISTE.

QR Code Skeleton Project

Then, a few months back, our fifth graders were trying to skype with Govinda Panthy in Nepal and the rain was causing connectivity problems in Nepal. So, all of the students had come in at 7:30 am in the morning to Skype-- ALL OF THEM. (And it was optional.) So, I didn't want them to be disappointed and put out a call on Twitter. Jarrod had just finished watching a sporting event on TV and the family was in bed but he took the time to Skype with the kids and talk about Australia.

That is the kind of person Jarrod is. When you're this kind of person, like Jarrod, the world is your oyster because normal, average educators who now make up the powerful edu-social web will figure out who you are and be a fan and follower.

I don't know about you, but I like real teachers who "get it." There is something different about people who love children - even if they aren't teaching any more. You can feel it. So, he let me know that he has created an easy assessment app. Above is the review. I didn't want my story to eclipse what he's doing.

Related Posts

Easy Assessment App via Mr. Robbo the PE Geek
Learning the Skeleton with QR Codes via Mr. Robbo the PE Geek
Making the Case for Cell Phones in Schools
Simple Augmented Reality
QR Code Implementation Guide

Don't let bad behavior take the cake

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:18:00 PST

Written January 19, 2012. What a day! I've spent two days explaining SOPA. I think schools across the country are now awake to the fact of just how much their students use Wikipedia! After running home to study with my fourth grader and then going to the dentist (yuck) - I jumped in the car to go to a basketball game. But to get the full story, let's back up till 10 am this morning.

Photo Credit: Big Stock

At 10am I was worn out. Tired. Maybe it was the 2.2 miles I ran Tuesday or the fact I was asleep last night by 9pm or the nailbiting game we lost in overtime by 1 point Tuesday night but by this morning I didn't know how I could teach.

Do you ever have those moments you don't know how you're going to make it?
How are you going to keep teaching? This morning was one of those moments. so, as I pondered at break how I was going to motivate myself, I heard myself and what I say to my ninth graders to help them set goals,

"You are the greatest motivational speaker ever born to motivate yourself. What you say to yourself, your mind, body, and soul works to fulfill."

It is true. So, I looked at my nutty day and said,

"What can I give myself to look forward to?"

And it was this. The girls game starts at 6:30 pm but my son doesn't play until 7:30 (probably.) The game is an hour away and I go through Albany. So, I decided to go to the only Starbucks between Macon and Tallahassee and YOU became my "prize" to look forward to.

It has been a hard week to write blog posts. I've written 6 recommendations for a very talented class of seniors and have four more to do tomorrow. But I really love to blog. I've been using Mr. Reader (my favorite iPad RSS Reader) on my ipad to keep up with the news and keep you posted on what is happening. I was in the dentist chair waiting and reading about the iBook 2 announcement. Without my glasses on, it took a really big squint at a news article to figure out that the iBooks Creator program couldn't be downloaded onto my iPad because it is a Mac App.

But between getting my teeth cleaned, and this ballgame, I knew if I could run by Starbucks for a skinny-whatever kind of coffee hit my mood that I'd have a boost.

Coffee and an Unexpected Conversation Overhead
When I walked in, I heard them negotiating. At first, I thought it was a woman negotiating for some sort of cake selling business online. That was until the large, older man leaned forward and said:

"3 dollars a slice! I want to see a $3 slice of cake."

Then I knew, they were negotiating for their daughter's wedding cake. This must be their first or only one because they were clueless. The cake maker sat back in her chair with her color coded book and listened and answered questions with a small grin on her face. She knew how this would end.

The daughter knew what she wanted but didn't want to ask for it because she didn't want to spend her parent's money. Her parents wanted her to be happy. Her daddy was sorry that he said that about the $3 cake and there is no price he can put on his baby, you could see it in his glistening eyes. They love each other. Money can't buy that, but sometimes, there are times we confuse money for love. This was one of those times... it is for lots of daddys the world over.

He says,

"If money were no object, what cake would you want."

She says,

"The strawberry, Daddy, I want the strawberry."

(Yes, she did say strawberry, I thought that odd too but I was trying my best to look like a disinterested person sipping her latte and ignoring the conversation that had me enthralled. I love families and I love daddies and mommies and babies and people. I love them. It was beautiful and priceless and I almost cry even now that they've left 15 minutes a go and I'm writing this blog post.)

Daddy turned to the cake lady with his mind on the prize and asked about the deposit. He said,

"If I pay it all now, will I get a discount?"
"No."
"well, I'm going to pay for the whole thing because then my daughter won't change her mind and she'll know this is OK. I want her to have this cake."

The dad sat there and wrote a thousand some odd dollar check to the cake lady. From the looks of his cufflinks and shined shoes, he could pay for it, although he altogether looked like a man who had worked his way up and worked long and hard. There was no arrogance on this daddy's shoes or his face, just spectacles on the end of his nose, and wrinkles where wrinkles go on a person who looks at financial statements closely and doesn't write checks without thinking about it.

Perhaps he wrote the check because he knew he might change his mind but I saw his wife. I saw her move her foot with her toe just gently resting on his shoe and I saw her look at him with that loving look like he's the greatest man on the planet. And at this moment he is.

I wanted to go over there and tell him myself,

"You are a great daddy."

But I didn't. I think I did a pretty good job of not letting them know just how moved I was.

Who is listening?

So, let me mention something to you. If a stranger in a Starbucks listens in -- how much more are your children listening to you. How much more are your students hearing conversations between staff members? If people-loving people observers like me notice, you bet your three dollar cake the kids are watching everything.

There is no replacement for treating others with respect.

Want to know why so many kids love home schooling? No one is sure, but is it because so many schools have let themselves become a toxic maelstrom of unkindness and fussing. Yes, we have to improve education but if we do it by yelling, screaming, and tangling and have power struggles happening our students are going to know it. They know everything.

Think about the impression you're making.

I think the greatest teachers teach not only with their classroom content but with their social skills, their demeanor, their kindness.

I wrote a recommendation for a young lady today who I love very much. There are Lamborghini students and there are sedans. She's a dependable sedan. She may not get there the fastest but she will get there and she won't wreck. She'll take care of business. Her gentle spirit, unflappable demeaner, and kindness to everyone even when under stress makes me jealous. I want to be like her.

I want to be like that Daddy. He didn't let a misstep set the tone for the entire evening. He backed up and went the right direction.

Sometimes how we do things is more important than what we do anyway.

Think about this when you work towards reforming and improving your school. Don't let your bad behavior take the cake.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/23/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:32:11 PST

ClassroomWindow - Where The Best Solutions Win

One of the biggest complaints many of us have about products and services used in education is that we don't really have apps and products that are rated by a neutral 3rd party. Is there such a thing? Well, for me, knowing what a teacher thinks is important. I've been talking with Kirby from Classroom Window about what they are doing and am very impressed. It is launching public beta today and there is a sweepstakes for joining and rating products. I think that initially the launch will be simple but there is a lot of possibility for a social-media style rating system for software and classroom tools by teachers on a neutral site. I love the idea.

tags: education news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/21/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 02:31:45 PST

Cool Cat Teacher Blog: iBooks 2 and iTunes U: A Quick Review from a Teacher #edapp

My review on iBooks 2 and some initial thoughts on iTunes U.

tags: education edapp news
Apple - iTunes U - Learn anything, anywhere, anytime.

Apples overview of iTunes U with links and videos on how you can now build a course in iTunes U.

tags: education edapp news

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

iBooks 2 and iTunes U: A Quick Review from a Teacher #edapp

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:42:09 PST

Chris Lehmann at the Guggenheim at yesterday's
announcement from Apple

The world is buzzing with the Apple announcements about their move into eTextbooks. As I listened to Leo LaPorte and Sarah Lane's podcast about the announcement in the car coming home from the basketball game last night, my son said,

"Mom, don't just listen to what people are saying, but try it out yourself."

Of course, he's right. I haven't had a lot of time but let's rundown the facts as I know them today and as I played with these tools.

Just remember, that there are some great things but there is also a whole lot of commercialism in these new apps and ebooks for education.

iBooks 2

This is an upgrade to the iBooks you already have. Update the app. Here is my live blog of my first experience with an interactive iBook, maybe it will save you some time.

I downloaded the Beatle's Yellow Submarine Interactive book and it took 7 minutes to download. Expect interactive books to take more bandwidth and more time to download.

The iBooks I looked at are designed to be shown in portrait mode and do not resize when moving to landscape (I'd like to see a table of contents on the left of some kind appear when I switch orientation.) it isn't usually a problem because it looks like that some are designing the right side of the left page to be included in the other side and vice versa.

A Rocky Start

I expected to be able to click on things that moved in the Yellow Submarine book and interact with it. I know it isn't a great example, but I figured that a demo would show off the features of this technology. This is not a game but somehow I expect it to be.
You click on a page and then sometimes music will play or it will play just as you flip. It is hard to understand what you're supposed to do at the beginning of the book. I have to wonder if somehow the credits and forward pages may move to the end because you spend the first couple of pages being clueless. It wouldn't hurt to have a "how to use this book" at the beginning of a book.
You have to touch the bolded words to hear noise. This pepperland book is supposed to be read by "Dean Lennox Kelly" but I can't figure out how to get Dean to read it to me no matter what I do.
About 2 minutes later, I finally figure out that if text is black and bold that when I touch it that it does something. Still can't figure out how to get Dean to read it to me.
After 5 minutes, and after looking at the buttons, I've found that there is a button I hadn't noticed before. It looks like a speaker and shown in the following two screenshots. It can read it to me and I can ask to turn the pages manually or automatically. I give it a try.

Now We're Talking... or Reading

Now, this is something I can be excited about. As shown in the video below, it is reading to me and highlighting the words as it reads. This is dual-coding or multisensory learning in practice. We know that seeing and hearing helps improve learning. This one thing is going to have me with my dyslexic son using this to help his reading. Awesome!

Oh, so, now I get to a page with not one but three videos on it. Oh dear, I have to figure out how to stop the book and I do, it is in the same place in the top right hand corner.

The video is very simple. I thought that the videos would be triggered when I clicked the text, however, the text plays clips of Beatles songs. You have to click the videos to watch them.

Just after you click, there is a small button beside the pause button that will take the videos full screen. It takes a moment to figure that out. You can take the full video smaller by clicking the two arrows pointing at each other, or end it and go back to the book by clicking Done.

Then, I come upon a page and accidentally click a little bird in the corner and it inhales the creatures on the page. I want to film it and can't figure out how to reset the page, but finally see that if I go back to a previous two page set and then return to this page that it is reset and I can play it again. Hmmm. How many of these little hidden things have I missed?

I need to run to school, so I forward to the end of the book and find on the last page what I suspected, a full link to the Yellow Submarine Album with links to buy the content from iTunes for the songs. (You wouldn't expect this to be done for just goodness.)

This is the same thing I'm finding in current iTunes U courses and collections, each collection tends to have a lot of apps and items embedded that cost money (even if a free alternative exists or is already installed.)

Quite a few Common Sense Media courses are in there. I have several PDF annotaters
installed but it doesn't mention those. Without these, the PDF's that are free
just open into Safari but I want them in my PDF reader. I would like the ability to
link to my preferred PDF reader on my iPad.

The last note on today's journey before I dash off to school is that I did attempt to sign up for iTunes U for my school. K12 institutions can now apply (the Flat Classroom project can't which is a shame b/c we could rock the house with some free content there.)

The problem with the application is that when I attempted to fill it out on my iPad using Safari, the form got stuck after I entered my zip code, which makes me wonder if Apple's own developers are in the habit of testing their forms on the iPad.

You can build a course on iTunes using their web interface. This means that not only will universities and schools be able to have courses online but the "free" courses can come packaged with pay-for textbooks, apps, and other items. There are many layers to this and free doesn't always mean free.

Overall, we know that ePaper is here. It is going to part of student's lives. There is still a place for "real" paper but we need to determine and learn which is appropriate for which activities. Enjoy, play and share so we can learn together.

I hope you'll share with me in the comments so I can learn what you've experienced. I'd especially like a really good iBook Textbook to review and understand.

Don't forget that iBooks Author has been released for the Mac so you can make these textbooks yourself for free (if you own a Mac.)

Important Links:

iTunes U sign up Form - If you want your school to distribute content.
iBooks Author

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/20/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 02:31:57 PST

SOPA blackout: Bills lose three co-sponsors amid protests - latimes.com

How the tide turns. Just take away wikipedia and blackout google and this is what happens. This was the topic of conversation at school yesterday. Major websites may have just realized the power of those eyeballs on their site.

"Three co-sponsors of the SOPA and PIPA antipiracy bills have publicly withdrawn their support as Wikipedia and thousands of other websites blacked out their pages Wednesday to protest the legislation.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) said they were pulling their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Opponents of the legislation, led by large Internet companies, say its broad definitions could lead to censorship of online content and force some websites to shut down.

tags: Education news SOPA
Apple says iBooks 2 app reinvents textbooks - latimes.com

Ah, epaper. Digital books. They started as barely a blip but now have become the battleground for the next all out war between tech giants.

"The app update -- which Apple is calling iBooks 2 and is already released to the iOS App Store -- will allow for textbooks to be sold through the popular app, which in the past sold novels, nonfiction and poetry, but not textbooks.

All textbooks sold through the free app, which is available only to Apple's i-devices, will be priced at $14.99 or less -- a stark contrast to the high-priced paper books that fill college bookstores.

But the main allure might not be the price as much as the interactive features iBooks textbooks can offer.

Apple, which announced the iBooks update at a press event in New York at the Guggenheim Museum, said the iBooks textbook exceeds paper texts in terms of engagement, calling it a durable, quickly searchable book that offers easy highlighting and note-taking as well as interactive photo galleries, videos, and 3-D models and diagrams.

tags: Education news ebook
A First Look at Apple's iBooks Author - The Next Web

iBooks Author is a Mac only app that lets you create interactive textbooks for iBook 2. Here is the first review I have seen by someone who has actually used it.

tags: Education newsm apple

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/19/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:31:00 PST

Mr Robbo - The P.E Geek top apps for pe teachers part 8

If you are a pe or health teacher, you should read Mr. Robbo the PE Geek, Jarrod Robinson. Here are his favorite apps for PE teachers. yes, this is part 8 in his series!

tags: eduapp eduapps health pe edapp

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Going Global: Getting Back in the Game by @engagined

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 04:20:38 PST

So many of us try to go global and then get frustrated. Things fizzle out. They don't get started. This is common but doesn't have to be. Ben's enthusiasm and hard work this past summer when he jumped in to help virtually when I had to miss ISTE because of my daughter's back injury impressed me and he is one of the leaders of our global book club we announced Tuesday. Part of why we wrote our book is to help share a pedagogy and connections methods that work and create sustainable ongoing projects like Flat Classroom (which has been going for over 5 years now!)

The following is a guest post by teacher and consultant Ben Curran from Detroit, Michigan, USA. He blogs about his classroom at http://mrcurran.blogspot.com and http://20kindsofawesome.blogspot.com, and about education and 21st century learning at http://engagingeducators.com/blog. You can also follow him on twitter @engaginged.

Nearly half a school year has passed and I haven't run a collaborative project with another classroom yet. It's time to get back in the game. I've got a new project in mind that I'll reveal in a moment. But first, a little background...
My First Global Project
I got the idea a couple of years ago to try to create an "Online Book Club." The premise is simple--the classes involved all read the same book and then "discuss" the book online and create little book projects together.

So I tried to drum up some interest through a couple of online networks (I think Classroom 2.0 and the Global Education Collaborative) and I was excited to get some responses. I set up a wiki and started reading the book with my class and was totally into it and...it pretty much fizzled. Participation was pretty low by the other participants...there were never any group projects or discussions. Fizzled. Bummer.
Back to the Drawing Board
The thing is, I knew I had a good idea. I love reading. I love books. Kids love discussing books. What better topic to center an upper elementary global project around?

So I decided that I'd give it another try. Attending a conference presentation by the amazing duo of Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay (founders of the Flat Classroom projects) at the ISTE conference helped a lot. I realized that I needed to have a better plan...more structure, more communication, and better communication. I also learned that practice makes perfect...things like this don't always work perfectly the first time around. Their story was inspiring and their tips were incredibly useful. I was pumped up to give it another try.

So I chose a book and reworked the wiki page by including teachers’ guides and an explicit chapter by chapter schedule for teachers to follow. I also realized that we needed a bulletin board-type of site for students and teachers to discuss the book. I decided to use Edmodo, which is free and super-easy. In addition, I realized that I needed to get people involved that were genuinely interested in and committed to a long term project. So I contacted teachers participating in a similar project, The Global Read Aloud (created by the fantastic Pernille Ripp), and got some good response.

Our "21st Century Book Club" ended up reading 3 books together. Kids created several projects, including some pretty awesome Glogs about Benjamin Franklin and some poetry inspired by the novel Love That Dog. My class also got to Skype with a class in Georgia and a class in Alabama, which they absolutely loved. AND the author of one of the novels we read, Kate Klise, through a bit of magical serendipity, even joined our wiki and emailed our classes to tell us how awesome our online book club was. Definitely a successful venture. Since then, I've been blogging and presenting about Global Collaboration (check out my Library 2.011 presentation here) every chance I get. I've involved my students in other projects with schools in Taiwan, Russia, and Turkey. But there's more we can do, I know it.
What Now?
So I'm itching to get "back in the game." But, of course, I am also itching to take it to the next level. The online book club is a project I believe in, and my kids love it, but it's missing some depth. I want this year's version to feature more critical thinking and more collaboration. I want students doing some deep analysis of the books, rather than just talk about their favorite characters an making predictions. I want them creating things TOGETHER instead of separately. I've seen it happen in projects like The Flat Classroom, and I want to make it happen now, too.

So I've picked a book, the intricately awesome A Wrinkle in Time. (I'd like to read When You Reach Me for the second book, too.) And we've got some early commitments from teachers in Philadelphia and Canada. I'm still hammering out some of the details, but I know I'd love to schedule meetings between small groups of students via Skype for in-depth discussions of the book. I really want to dig deep and foster critical thinking skills by looking at the big ideas of the novel: Friendship, Family, Good vs. Evil, Identity, and Technology. I'd also love to find a way for them to work collaboratively on book projects. Maybe podcast or video or wiki or Google Doc. Or all! But I want projects that they create TOGETHER, not just with each student separately adding a part and calling it a "group project."

Are you interested in joining in? I think we can take this online book club idea to the next level, and we'd love to have you work with us. Please contact me or check out the Online Wrinkle in Time Book Club wiki to learn more. You can also subscribe to our blog and follow @engaginged on twitter for more information about this and other projects, as well as other posts on Global Collaboration, engaging students in meaningful learning and useful resources for educators everywhere.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/19/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:32:28 PST

Two New Imagine Cup Challenges for 2012 - Computer Science Teacher - Thoughts and Information from Alfred Thompson - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

If you have a technology classroom, you should read Alfred Thompson's blog (honestly, his is the only Microsoft blog I read every day) there are 2 new imagine cup challenges. These are great and worth a look.

tags: news computerscience

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/18/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 11:30:36 PST

100 Years in 10 Minutes (1911 - 2011 in 10 Minutes) - YouTube

Dare we do such a thing? 100 years in 10 minutes. Yes. It is on YouTube. This video is going viral. If you had to compile your last 20 years in 2 minutes or your 80 year life span in 8 - what would make it? This is one to watch and share. It is a bit upsetting as you see the war and devastation but I have to wonder if those are the things we remember.

tags: education teaching history history_teacher all_teachers
Dickens 2012 – Celebrating the 200th birthday of Charles Dickens - Resources - TES

Upload your Charles Dickens lessons and resources in this competition to submit the best resources. This is a UK competition, but perhaps some others may want to enter as well.

I also wanted to include this because of the great list of Charles Dickens resources here. If you teach Great Expectations or any other Dickens classic, you'll want to download these free lesson plans and resources.

To be eligible for the Charles Dickens / Literary Heritage competition, all lesson plans & teaching resources shared must only cater for texts by authors found in the literary heritage section of the Secondary English National Curriculum, or from current GCSE & A Level awarding body specifications for English.

Your can submit resources for poetry, prose or drama texts (or all three!) across the relevant key stage. At GCSE and A Level, resources can be submitted to support teaching and learning of controlled assessment and / or examination units.

When you upload resources for entry to the competition, please take care to tag and classify your resources accurately in the relevant key stage, topic and sub topic areas. For example:

tags: education teaching lessonplans literature
TES collection Chinese New Year - Resources - TES

Chinese New Year Collection with many different lessons at all age levels along with downloadables to use. If you are expecting your students to have global literacy, you cannot afford to ignore China. This is a fun time to teach about it - kids love dragons and fireworks!

tags: education teaching lessonplans china all_teachers bestpractices digitalcitizenship
inside a painting - Resources - TES

How should students analyze a painting? This middle/ high school project gives a writing structure for analyzing painting in this cross disciplinary unit.

tags: education lessonplan teaching literature art_teacher literature_teacher

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/18/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 09:30:46 PST

Flamebrain Technologies » Version 2.1.3 Released

Nice little timer that you can use to set a lot of different types of timers. Watchme lets you do the 18 minute method that many of us are following (with a reminder every hour to make sure you're focusing.) You can set as many timers as you wish. Cool app.

tags: education eduapp timer

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/18/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 08:30:46 PST

Babies Learn To Talk By Reading Lips, New Research Suggests

Babies learn to talk by reading lips. So, get close to that baby because you love him/her and because you want to help him/her communicate.

tags: education research learning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/18/2012

coolcatteacher@gmail.com (Victoria A Davis, Cool Cat Teacher) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 02:32:10 PST

Skype exec confirms that Windows Phone product is 'coming soon' - Engadget

Skype Windows Phone product coming soon (no surprise since Microsoft owns Skype) - what will be interesting is the effect on wifi and cellular networks and the friendliness of cellular carriers to this new direction.

tags: education news
The Archive | The Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change

Wow. to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, the King Center has shared 200,000 papers belonging to him. Such research is a powerful tool for scholars and teachers. Do you realize that your students are able to do authentic research and discover things not seen if they are able to navigate such resources?

tags: education news martinlutherking history
ICT - Games based learning - Resources - TES

Games based learning resources. Here is some information on games and articles on how they are being used.

tags: education news
Amazon to Launch Cloud Search Service, Possibly Tomorrow | PandoDaily

Amazon cloud search may hit tomorrow in a week where every company seems set to one up the other.

"Amazon’s cloud search is different. It allows startups to pass their data through it and get any results they want. And since many startups are already hosting their databases on Amazon, that link is even more direct. Companies can run any query and get immediate, easy results. It’s possible that the guts of this product are from the old A9 search product, according to sources. Amazon spent time getting the design right, and the people we’ve spoken to think it’ll be a game changer."

tags: education amazon news
Facebook Open Graph Actions Are Coming This Wednesday - Liz Gannes - Social - AllThingsD

We're going to be able to syncronously watch and stream with our friends. This would be fascinating. We could, for example, with Flat Classroom, feasibly link up through FAcebook and live stream the winning videos for our projects.

"Facebook will on Wednesday launch the Open Graph applications it first debuted last September, sources told AllThingsD. These are the apps, made by outside developers, that “frictionlessly” and continuously share users’ actions back to Facebook after a user has given permission once.
The new apps behave similarly to the “read,” “listen” and “watch” Open Graph applications that have already rolled out in the past few months, which include the Washington Post, Spotify and Hulu. So every time your friends read an article or listen to a song, you might now learn about it on Facebook, and possibly even join them in reading or listening at the same time."

tags: education facebook news
Apple to announce tools, platform to "digitally destroy" textbook publishing

The announcement from Apple this week concerning textbooks is coming where they say they will announce a "Garage Band" for textbooks app on their platform. If you want to know more, this arstechnica article is the one that seems to be getting the most attention.

tags: education news apple textbooks technology edu_news
Google will protest SOPA using popular home page | Media Maverick - CNET News

Wikipedia, Reddit and Google are protesting SOPA in a big way. Look for home pages and websites to go dark or have a dramatic attention-getting method in the next few days.

tags: education sopa news
Cool Cat Teacher Blog: Join the Flat Classroom Global Book Club! #flatclass

It is finally here. Here are the details on our Flat Classroom global book club. (click the link for more)

Every week for 10 weeks we will meet at an alternating time - 12 hours apart. (For the East Coast USA it is Sundays at 6 pm Eastern or Monday mornings at 6 am eastern)

Visit our Book club calendar to convert these times to your Time Zone. Subscribe to this calendar via Google calendar to keep up with events.This is Sunday evenings at 22:00GMT alternating with Monday mornings at 10:00GMT in our Blackboard Collaborate room https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.065891D192F8072208BF5756999CE0 .

The book club is free and everyone is welcome.

#flatclass Book Club Meeting Times
Week and Date Time Topic of Conversation
Week 1: Sunday March 11 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 1 - Flattening Classrooms through Global Collaboration (p 1-17)

Chapter 2 - Impact on Learning: Research in the Global Collaborative Classroom (p18-30)
Week 2: Monday, March 19 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 3 - Step 1: Connection (p 31-61)
Week 3: Sunday, March 25 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 4 - Step 2: Communication (p 62-96)
Week 4: Monday, April 2 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 5 - Step 3: Citizenship (p 97-125)
Take a break.
Week 5: Sunday, April 15 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 6 - Step 4: Contribution and Collaboration (p 126-157)
Week 6: Monday, April 23 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 7 - Step 5: Choice (p 158-196)
Week 7: Sunday, April 29 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 8 - Step 6: Creation (p197-214)
Week 8: Monday, May 7 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 9 - Step 7: Celebration (p 215-234)
Week 9: Sunday, May 13 22:00 GMT (6 pm EDT) Chapter 10 - Designing and Managing a Global Collaborative Project (p 235-267)
Week 10: Monday, May 21 10:00 GMT (6 am EDT) Chapter 11 - Challenge-Based Professional Development (p 268-293)

Chapter 12: Rock the World (p 293 - 304)

We’re also inviting the educators featured in each chapter to be with us for the conversations about “their” chapter. You’ll meet people from all over the world just like you who are doing wonderful, amazing things. This is a global story that transcends just one project, although we’re mighty proud of ours.

While you are welcome to just “drop in” you can register with the Book club mailing list and we’ll remind you each week about the session, let you know who is coming, and we’ll mention any special events that we’ll be having as part of the launch. If you run your own book club, you’re welcome to come by the club anytime for ideas and discussion points.

The hashtag for our conversations is #flatclass and the book club is, of course, free. Anyone can join us. There’s no homework - just conversation and learning. We’ll all be there to discuss the future of education with each other. We hope global collaborators from around the world will join us and share their stories too. Conversations will hinge around our new book, Flattening Classrooms, Engaging Minds. The book will be available in ebook format, although we’re not sure yet which ebook formats.

tags: education flatclass globaled flatclassroom edu_news digitalcitizenship bestpractices

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/27/2012

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/27/2012

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/25/2012

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/25/2012

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/25/2012

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/25/2012

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/24/2012

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/24/2012

The Sweet Smell of Success Starts at Home (part 3)

Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/24/2012

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/23/2012

Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/23/2012

Easy Assessment App (I'm giving away 4 copies) made by @mrrobbo #mlearning

Don't let bad behavior take the cake

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iBooks 2 and iTunes U: A Quick Review from a Teacher #edapp

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What Now?

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