New netbooks…

The following video presents the current model of netbook (or mini) that we are embedding in our classrooms:

“Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009″

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

 

View more documents from Jane Hart.

T+L Conference Denver 2009

This afternoon I travel to Denver with a team of teachers from our school district to attend the T+L Conference in Denver. I look forward to attending some valuable sessions, and I will share much of what I learn here and elsewhere. Check back and see what I have discovered!

How to Make Teaching Come Alive | MIT World

more about "How to Make Teaching Come Alive | MIT…", posted with vodpod

New South Wales 1:1 Initiative…

Skype 4.1, YouTube Downloader, & iSpring Free Tutorials

The following are some quick tutorials I created to help people out with some new features and settings in Skype and how to utilize a neat tool, YouTube Downloader, to download video and convert video too.  I also threw in a tutorial on iSpring Free that allows you to make a flash video of a PowerPoint presentation:

Skype Screen Sharing Feature

Safe Skype Settings

YouTube Downloader the Basics

iSpring Free PowerPoint Plugin

Enjoy!

“Did You Know 4.0?”

“Social Media Revolution”

Resources and such…

The following is a list of sites that have been shared with me over the past several days.  Generally, you will see all kinds of findings in my Delicious links on the top right hand side of this blog.  Enjoy!

What to read?

Library Thing Suggest

What Should I Read Next?

BookLamp

WhichBook?

Math

That Quiz Math Test Activities (Science & Geography too!)

Social Studies/Current Events

Know Thy Congressman

NewsMap

National Geographic Little Kids

Science/Health

NSF Scrub Club

iSpecies

Digital Citizenship

Creative Thinking Home

World Languages

Foreign Internet Radio

Virtual Field Trips (All Subjects)

SimpleK12

“Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology”

“U.S. Department of Education Study Finds that Good Teaching can be Enhanced with New Technology“

“Providing further evidence of the tremendous opportunity to use technology to improve teaching and learning, the U.S. Department of Education today released an analysis of controlled studies comparing online and face-to-face instruction.

A systematic search of the research literature from 1996 through July 2008 identified over 1,000 empirical studies of online learning. Of these, 46 met the high bar for quality that was required for the studies to be included in the analysis. The meta analysis showed that “blended” instruction – combining elements of online and face-to-face instruction – had a larger advantage relative to purely face to face instruction or instruction conducted wholly online. The analysis also showed that the instruction conducted wholly on line was more effective in improving student achievement than the purely face to face instruction. In addition, the report noted that the blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions.

“This new report reinforces that effective teachers need to incorporate digital content into everyday classes and consider open-source learning management systems, which have proven cost effective in school districts and colleges nationwide,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We must take advantage of this historic opportunity to use American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds to bring broadband access and online learning to more communities.

“To avoid being caught short when stimulus money runs out, school officials should use the short-term federal funding to make immediate upgrades to technology to enhance classroom instruction and to improve the tracking of student data,” Duncan added. “Technology presents a huge opportunity that can be leveraged in rural communities and inner-city urban settings, particularly in subjects where there is a shortage of highly qualified teachers. At the same time, good teachers can utilize new technology to accelerate learning and provide extended learning opportunities for students.”

Few rigorous research studies have been published on the effectiveness of online learning for K-12 students. The systematic search found just five experimental or controlled quasi-experimental studies comparing the learning effects of online versus face-to-face instruction for K-12 students. For this reason, caution is required in generalizing the study’s findings to the K-12 population because the results are for the most part based on studies in other settings, such as in medical, career, military training, and higher education.

“Studies of earlier generations of distance and online learning courses have concluded that they are usually as effective as classroom-based instruction,” said Marshall “Mike” Smith, a Senior Counselor to the secretary. “The studies of more recent online instruction included in this meta-analysis found that, on average, online learning, at the post-secondary level, is not just as good as but more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction..”

The study was conducted by the Center for Technology and Learning, SRI International under contract to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Policy and Program Studies Service, which commissioned the study.

The full report can be found at http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html#edtech.”

Instructional Technology Professional

I am an instructional technology professional, a teacher, and this is my first day back on the job since I broke my arm 40 days ago.  I am so thankful for my kind colleagues that have welcomed me back but also pulled for me over the past few weeks.  I am glad to be back, and I’m excited to be preparing for the return of teachers and students in the coming days.  I am thankful that despite my current limitations I am able to be a part of the greatest work:  teaching and learning.  I am tired at the end of this day, but I have missed this kind of tired that comes from being a part of education and the future.  It is a good tired, and I hope you are all “good tired.”

Bob Sprankle I had a dream…

Keeping up…

Information overload has the potential to overwhelm good citizens all over the world, and I am not immune!  With a busy life that begins with five children and all their great adventures, I am often not reading all my RSS feeds, not checking Twitter, nor updating Facebook.  However, I do utilize these tools and many others to organize information that I find useful, and I know that I will eventually get to the pieces of info that are meaningful to me.

I can’t keep up with it all and that is okay.  There are no laws that require us to keep up to date on every piece of information rolling around on the web, and there are laws that warn us not to neglect our children.  Remember that the next time a little one is trying to pull you away from a digital device screen.

By the way, happy anniversary to my dear wife Dianna.  19 years and still going strong!!! 

Professional Development

A few odds and ends keep showing up on my blog as I share examples of how to blog in various professional development workshops that I am facilitating this June.  We are podcasting, blogging, doing digital storytelling, video conferencing, trying out online tools, and experimenting with several tech gadgets including the Wii.  We have also been involved in Quest Atlantis professional development too.  It has been quite rewarding so far, and I myself have learned so much.  Our training resources can be found at one of my wikis:  HIT – Hokanson’s Instructional Technology Wiki. Enjoy!

Welcome New Bloggers!

This is a post to welcome some new bloggers to the blogosphere!  It is an interesting world and fun too!  Students can definitely benefit from teachers that blog, and a classroom blog extends your classroom and shares what is happening with the rest of the world.

A blog is simply a type of website that is easy to put together and maintain (See the video clip below!).  Here is hoping that you enjoy blogging!