Jason Rhode, Ph.D.

Blogging in the Classroom

2013-06-20T05:46:00.000-05:00

Blogging is about writing and reading, not the technology platform. This infographic identifies 4 steps for getting started blogging in the classroom.

Click to enlarge

Source: Langwitches

The Importance of Teacher Bloggers

2013-06-19T05:45:00.000-05:00

Why should you continue to blog as an educator? Check out this article discussing the importance of teacher bloggers and offering blogging suggestions for teachers.

http://www.teachhub.com/importance-teacher-bloggers

More Students Embrace Online Learning

2013-06-18T05:44:00.000-05:00

By Diette Courrégé, Post and Courier

Debra Sewell sat alongside her 6-year-old son in his classroom, a bedroom of their North Charleston home. It’s home schooling with a twist — Malachi is enrolled in a public online school. The first-grader connects to his lessons, classmates and teacher through his computer, receiving a public education minus the traditional brick-and-mortar school. Sewell said her son’s enrollment in an online charter school allows him to work at his own pace and addresses concerns about his severe food allergies. Virtual learning is a relatively new concept to the Palmetto State, but interest in it is intense. Online charter schools launched in South Carolina last year, and enrollment grew 40 percent to 7,492 students this year.

read article

Digital Nation: Distracted by Everything

2013-06-17T05:39:00.000-05:00

A while back PBS aired a Frontline episode called "Digital Nation," about how technology is transforming our country and our global culture.... and completely distracting us. The fourth section is particularly interesting for schoolteachers.

Click here to view the show online.

Have you personally found that as your use of technology has increased, you are more easily distracted? These are certainly timely issues to consider, especially as technology isn't going away.

Preparing Students for Commenting with Wall Blogging

2013-06-15T05:41:00.000-05:00

For those considering having your students blog, here are some great suggestions for teaching students how to post appropriate comments:

http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/11/26/preparing-students-for-commenting-with-wall-blogging/

Top 100 Technology Blogs for Teachers

2013-06-14T05:40:00.000-05:00

As you continue to look to build your own personal learning network, here's a great collection of technology blogs specifically geared toward education that you might find of interest:

http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers

~ Dr. J

Online communities are transforming professional development for teachers

2013-06-13T05:43:00.000-05:00

From blogging and Twitter to online networks, Fearghal Kelly charts the evolution of professional development and interactions for teachers in the social media age.

Read the article here

How to Use Facebook for Social Learning

2013-06-12T05:38:00.000-05:00

This Guide looks at how to use Facebook for Social Learning - that is to build a community, communicate, collaborate with others, as well as share information and resources. In addition it looks at how it can be used for more specific formal, social learning events and programs.

http://c4lpt.co.uk/140Learning/facebook.html

Online Learning Partnerships for Elementary Success

2013-06-11T05:36:00.000-05:00

Becoming an online elementary teacher was a steep learning curve, even for Joyce Voelker, a former principal and veteran teacher, “it took an entirely different skill set.” She was skeptical of an online elementary school, but after one year of teaching online, she is a wholehearted advocate after seeing the benefit to a wide span of families. “For every student, there is a different reason — behavior issues, health conditions, or students that are just a little different — but they come alive in this program and it is a godsend for these families.”

Read the article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-vander-ark/online-partnerships-for-e_b_776285.html

Bill Gates on Online Learning

2013-06-10T05:35:00.000-05:00

Bill Gates offers his thoughts on innovation in education and helping students learn through technology. Online lectures, interactive teaching, and customized learning approaches are pointing the way to improved schools.

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning

2013-06-06T05:34:00.000-05:00

Online learning at the K-12 level has grown so much in recent years that the main issue in most states is no longer whether or not online learning is occurring, but rather how it is being implemented. Most states have significant supplemental online learning programs, or significant full-time programs, or both. Of the states that do not have either of these options, several have begun planning for online learning development. In addition to the spread of online learning programs to most states across the country, the majority of existing online programs show considerable growth in the number of students they are serving.

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: An Annual Review of Policy and Practice (2011) is the latest in a series of annual reports that began in 2004 that examine the status of K-12 online education across the country, providing a research-based overview of the latest policies, practices and trends affecting online learning programs across all 50 states.

You can download your copy here.

The Connected Student

2013-06-05T05:33:00.000-05:00

Closely related to the idea concept of personal learning networks is connectivism. Connectivism is a learning theory advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, among others, which emphasises the importance and role of networks and connections between people (and things?) as preminent (central) to the learning process (via Wikiversity).

So how might connectivism be realized in a K-12 classroom setting? Why as educators should we understand the value of personal learning networks and seek to create learning opportunities for our students to develop their own personal learning networks?

Here is a wonderful video by Wendy Drexler titled “The Networked Student” that shows how online networking can enhance students’ 21st century skills. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy's high school students.

As Kate Klingensmith points out,

When you have a large group of people combing through vast amounts of information and collectively identifying the most useful, entertaining, or valuable parts, it only makes sense to tap into this collective knowledge!

How might you personally and professionally become more connected? How might you encourage your students to develop their own personal learning networks? A few more ideas for you to consider!

Changing Education Paradigms

2013-06-04T05:31:00.000-05:00

Watch this animate adapted from a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert on the need for a change in the paradigm of education today.

What point do you agree, or disagree with, most? What role could learning communities play in changing the current paradigm of education? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

~ Dr. J

Personal Learning Networks

2013-06-03T05:29:00.000-05:00

As we explore the use of technology to build learning communities, one important form or learning communities that must be considered is that of personal learning networks. While a quick search on the web will yield numerous definitions of what a personal learning network (PLN) is, at the core a PLN is simply an personalized network of resources and collaborations that an individual both contributes to and learns from.

Will Richardson, veteran educator and author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is one of the individuals who is part of my personal learning network. He shares in this short video a few of his thoughts regarding the importance of personal learning networks in education today.

What does your own personal learning network consist of?

Screen Capture Software

2013-06-02T05:27:00.000-05:00

One of the powerful illustrative features of web-based communications is the ability to easily add various types of media to illustrate, explain, or describe. For your final project, you may want to include screen captures of a mock-up of the technology that you plan to incorporate into your learning community.

So, what are some easy ways to add screen shots to either online communications (like a blog post) or to other documents? There are many, MANY different ways in which to take screen shots. I'll share my favorites here, but I'd love to hear from others what are your favorites.

On my Windows machine, I personally use the free Howies' Quick Screen Capture software available as a free download from howiesfunware.com. Below I've included a screen shot I took of the software open on my PC desktop, along with the available preferences available.

So why do I use "Howie's" screen capture tool? A few reasons...

It's FREE
I can specify a bunch of preferences, such as shortcut "grab" key to press when I want to take a screen shot, file format, quality, location to save the file to, etc.
I can choose to either take a screen shot of my entire screen or just the active window

On my computer, I create a "Captures" folder and then have Howie's set to save all my screen shots to this folder so it doesn't clutter my desktop. Then, when I'm ready to add the images to either a blog post or some other online communication, I have all the images at my fingertips!

On my Mac, which is my preferred computer system, there are several, even easier ways to take screen captures. Mac OS X has a built-in keystroke shortcuts to take a screenshot of the entire screen (Command+Shift+3) or (Command+Shift+4) to have cross-hairs to select a specific location on the screen to capture. Here's a short video description of how to capture screen images using Mac OS X.

Once you have a screen shot captured, whether you do it on a Windows or Mac computer, you can then easily upload the image(s) to your blog and embed them in your blog posting.

If you're a Mac user and you're interested in going to the next level in you screen capture capabilities without spending $ for software, I'd recommend giving Skitch a try. Skitch is free Mac software bundled with a is a webservice that provides 1-click uploading of images for fast and fun image sharing. Here's a 3 minute video introduction to Skitch.

So there you have it...hopefully, you have a few more ideas regarding adding media to your blog posts. If you are already using screen capture software, what software tool(s) are you using and why? If you have questions about screen capture or posting different types of media to your blog, make sure to bring those questions to an upcoming synchronous class session.

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

2013-06-02T05:26:00.000-05:00

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.
Read the NY Times article at http://nyti.ms/ctxxwk

The Changing Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century

2013-06-01T05:24:00.000-05:00

Here's a thought-provoking article I thought you'd enjoy on the changing role of the teacher in the 21st century:

http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/dr-brad-johnson-tammy-maxson-mcelroy/changing-role-of-the-teacher/

Do you agree with the points the authors make?

~ Dr. J

Why Twitter is a Teacher's Best Tool

2013-05-31T05:22:00.000-05:00

The author of this blog post, Liz Dwyer, argues,

Twitter has simply become one of the best places for teachers to collaborate, share solutions to common classroom problems, and discuss education policy. In fact, it might just be the best forum teachers have ever had.

Do you agree with Liz's claim after having experienced Twitter for yourself first-hand?

Groups vs. Networks

2013-05-30T05:21:00.000-05:00

Stephen Downes, one of the foremost elearning scholars today, was among the first to draw a distinction between groups and networks in online learning environments. He developed this diagram at a conference he was participating in to initially brainstorm his ideas and illustrate the contrasts between groups and networks in online learning environments.

Click here to view an enlarged version of the diagram.

Click here to view original diagram and comments.

Here's a short video explanation (8 min. 24 secs.) of the diagram.

As we consider learning communities and the use of technology to build learning communities, do you disagree with any of the categorizations of groups or networks that Downes has identified? Are there additional characteristics that you can think of that further distinguish groups from networks today that were omitted from the diagram and explanation? In what ways would a learning community in the form of a network be superior to the learning community in the form of a group? And, what advantages might groups have over networks?

Leave a comment with your thoughts!

A guide to Twitter hashtags in education (infographic)

2013-05-28T08:23:00.000-05:00

Courtesy EdTech Times

To Tweet or Not to Tweet

2013-05-28T05:34:00.002-05:00

A lot of people use Twitter, but how is micro-blogging interesting for a teacher or education personnel in general? In this 5 minutes-or-so video (the end credits take a couple of minutes at the end), Marc-André Lalande explains some of the advantages of using Twitter in such a context.

A Visual Guide to Twitter for Beginners

2013-05-28T05:19:00.000-05:00

Navigating Twitter Tutorial: The Basics by @busynessgirl

2013-05-28T05:16:00.000-05:00

This is a short 6-min tutorial to help new and existing Twitter users learn a bit more about navigating in the Twitter web application. Do you know where to find the code to embed a tweet? How about where to make a new list or follow a list? How do you view a tweetstream as a conversation? Learn it here.

Helpful Twitter Videos

2013-05-27T05:11:00.000-05:00

As we look forward to exploring the online community building possibilities of Twitter, here are links to a few helpful intro videos that my colleagues and I have recorded as part of a recent online webinar, "Using Twitter for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development in Higher Education." Please go ahead and watch these prior to our class meeting this week. If everyone does so, we can spend more time in class discussing best practices and some advanced uses of Twitter rather than on the basics that are covered in these videos:

Edmodo Mobile App

2013-05-27T05:10:00.000-05:00

Edmodo for iPhone or Android makes it easy for teachers and students to stay connected and share information. Use your smart phone to send notes, post replies, and check messages and upcoming events while away from the classroom. (We'll be exploring Edmodo in depth at our second online class session).

Teachers can post last-minute alerts to their students and keep tabs on recent assignment submissions. Students can check their latest grades and what assignments they still need to turn in.

Download it today from the iOS App Store or Android Google Play Store.

Check out the mobile web app at http://m.edmodo.com