Have you ever wondered what it really means to transform your district, school, or classroom to a 1:1 environment? It is a term we hear a lot about, but not all can see it or experience it. With the takeoff of the iPad and its successor, the iPad 2, the education world is abuzz with the idea of moving towards a 1:1 environment. But is it practical? For some, it is a dream, a wish; for others, it is slowly becoming a reality. So what does a 1:1 environment look like? How will the students and teachers react? Is it the right direction to go?

Click here to read more at Edutopia.org

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02/16/11

Cornwall-Lebanon School District in Lebanon, PA, had been using a media presentation capture system for three years before making the move into lecture capture in 2010. "We were using CourseCast district-wide for everything but lecture capture," said Jason Murray, technology coordinator for the district, referring to Panopto's media capture solution.

What Is Lecture Capture?
Lecture capture is a fairly vibrant topic in education right now, though mainly in colleges and universities at the moment. In K-12, adoption has been somewhat slower, but it's growing as teachers and education leaders have begun looking for solutions to help reinforce what students are being taught in the classroom. (An informal poll by THE Journal in November showed that half of K-12 schools are not equipped at all for lecture capture. Of the remainder of the respondents, more than half indicated that just 1 percent to 25 percent of their classrooms have some kind of lecture capture capability.)

Visit THE Journal to continue reading

By Betty Ray

Editor's Note: Today's guest blogger is Audrey Watters, is a technology journalist specializing in education technology news. She has read all 100+ pages of the National Education Technology Plan released by the U. S. Department of Education last November, and she has summarized it below.

If you have any questions about the plan, please ask them in the comments section below. Or use the "thumbs up" to vote for another's question. Karen Cator, the director of education technology at the DOE, has agreed to answer the top five questions here, so be sure to vote!

An Internet-enabled device for every teacher and student in the country. Universal broadband access for homes and schools. Those, along with an embrace of cloud computing, openly-licensed educational materials and open source technologies are part of the new education technology recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

To continue reading, visit Edutopia.org

By D.C. Denison

Last fall, Rebecca Allen distributed brand-new Apple iPad tablet computers instead of books to her fourth-grade class at the Rich Acres Elementary School in Martinsville, Va. The students went wild. “It was like Christmas in October,’’ the teacher said.

“It was fun watching the kids jump right in,’’ Allen added. “They are so used to technology, they took to them right away.’’

This week is National Computer Education Week, aimed at recognizing the crucial role of computing in today's world and at supporting efforts to boost computer science education at all levels. The event purposefully coincides with Grace Hopper's birthday tomorrow. But it also happens to come the same week that the Program for International Student Assessment has released its data about student performance and finds that, compared to others worldwide, U.S. students get a C for math and science.

According to ACM and CSTA, two organizations that address computer science education, very few states recognize computer science as a core graduation requirement, and states' curriculum standards focus on computing skills rather than computing concepts. (You can see an interactive map of how the different states compare).

Click here to continue reading at Read Write Web

In recent weeks, Rosemount High School social studies teacher Tom Scott has crisscrossed the Galapagos Islands in a tiny motor boat. He's dived among sea turtles and reef sharks, and walked the bustling streets of the city of Puerto Ayora.

Meanwhile, his students back in Minnesota followed his every move and tackled tough questions about politics and environment.

Welcoming Mobile Technology

By Bridget McCrea

During a nine-week period last school year, teachers and administrators at Port Clinton High School reported more than 600 discipline issues related to technology and the use of cell phones on campus. "That's a huge number, considering that our total enrollment is only 590," said Ralph Moore, principal at the Port Clinton, OH, school. "And that number doesn't even include the students that we didn't catch."

Moore, who in previous administrative positions may have taken measures to ban the devices that were causing many of the issues, took a different stance this time. Working with the school's tech-savvy assistant principal, he sat down and tried to come up with a solution that would allow technology on campus while also reducing the high number of violations that students were racking up.

Teachers got involved with the problem-solving exercise, said Moore, who turned to the instructors for their input on how to integrate technology without disrupting classroom and learning time. Administrators also gathered input from the student body, which was given the heads up about a new wireless system on campus and the rules and policies that its users would be required to follow.

Visit THE Journal to read more about the surprising results of lifting the ban on electronic devices.

By Sarah Kessler

The possibilities for social media tools in the classroom are vast. In the hands of the right teacher, they can be used to engage students in creative ways, encourage collaboration and inspire discussion among even soft-spoken students. But we’ve already made our case for why teachers should consider using social media in their classrooms. What about the how?

Even when people say they want to incorporate social media, they don’t always know the best ways to do so. It’s especially daunting when those efforts can affect the education of your students.

To help, we’ve collected seven of the the best classroom tools for incorporating social media into your lesson plans.

Continue reading at Mashable

For Principal Eric C. Sheninger, the micro-blogging tool Twitter has become his mainstay for professional development as well as school promotion. Through Twitter contacts, he formed a partnership with a company that donated technology equipment and training to the school, and he linked up with CBS News, which brought national exposure to the high school’s programs.

“I used to be the administrator that blocked every social-media site, and now I’m the biggest champion,” Sheninger says. “I’m just someone who is passionate about engaging students and growing professionally, and I’m using these free tools to do it.”

Just a few years ago, social networking meant little more to educators than the headache of determining whether to penalize students for inappropriate activities captured on Facebook or MySpace. Now, teachers and students have a vast array of social-networking sites and tools—from Ning to VoiceThread and Second Life—to draw on for such serious uses as professional development and project collaboration. Educators who support using social networking for education say it has become so ubiquitous for students—who start using sites like Webkinz and Club Penguin when they are in elementary school—that it just makes sense to engage them this way.

Continue reading at www.edweek.org.

Continue reading at www.peninsuladailynews.com.

"There have been other efforts (before)," said Bob Currie, director of the Digital Academy. "But it wasn't statewide. This is really the first statewide program."

The idea of a digital or online academy has been batted around for years in Montana as a way to spread educational opportunities across the state for a variety of reasons. Currie said rural school districts with students who want to take an elective course have often been hindered from doing so because their district doesn't have the money to pay for a teacher for that subject.

Continue reading at www.greatfallstribune.com.

For the first time at Moton, Juretta Carr's science students took advantage of special equipment and a distance learning network, with assistance from Hernando School District instructional technology specialist Roger Cousins, to bring Talley, the Digital Learning Network coordinator at NASA, to the classroom.

The children were enthralled as Talley talked directly with them, illustrated the tendencies of solids and liquids, and showed them things they had never seen before on equipment that most elementary schools don't have.

Continue reading at www.tampabay.com.

The backdrop for this discussion is a new initiative we have launched at the Lippman Kanfer Institute aimed at creating broad-scale change in Jewish education that builds on the many changes already taking place – but largely unconnected to one another – within specific educational arenas – like those we explored this year in our previous FutureTense discussions.  We believe that a number of principles have emerged in recent years, such as learner empowerment, the role of relationships in achieving educational impact, and the centrality of meaning and purpose as educational goals, that are beginning to define a powerful vision of what Jewish education can and should be.  However, in our still siloed educational world, putting these principles into action consistently will require that we forge new coalitions among “changemakers” in various settings and arenas.

To kick off this initiative, the Institute is holding a series of conversations among educators and learners to explore their visions for Jewish education.  We held the first of these last week in San Francisco with fascinating results.  So, we thought we would take the opportunity of our scheduled session on June 10 to invite you to be part of a similar conversation here.

If you are able and interested in joining us, here are the two questions to think about in advance:

1.                What are you seeing in Jewish education today – programs, people, trends, ideas, etc. – that excites and energizes you?

2.                What do you imagine Jewish education could look like in ten years if we do things “right”?

The conversation will happen Thursday, June 10th 5:00 PM at the JESNA Office in NYC.

If you are interested in being part of the conversation, please let Becca Leshin know at rleshin@jesna.org.

Toolbox for Teachers and Mentors: Moving Madrichim to Mentor Teachers and Beyond

What is in the Toolbox?

• What is a teacher?
• What should I be teaching?
• How do I plan lessons?
• What are teacher-directed models of teaching?
• What are student-engaged models of teaching?
• How do I reach all students?
• How do I manage student behavior?
• What are the interpersonal, reflection, and observational skills required of a mentor teacher?
• What is the core knowledge base a mentor needs to have about how one learns to teach?

About the Author

Having collectively spent over seventy years teaching students and training teachers in the public school arena, Dr. Richard and Elaine Solomon are now focused on improving Jewish education. They have created a seven-stage career development ladder from madrichim to mentor and expert teacher that can transform how Jewish educators are recruited, developed, and supported.

Visit the blog at http://richarddsolomonsblog.blogspot.com.

Feel free to contact the team.

Visit IT4All HERE.