Blog Archives - The EdTech Roundup

The Daily Roundup - September 30th, 2013

9/30/2013

Welcome back! Hopefully everyone's week is starting off well! Tomorrow night will be our weekly podcast, so there won't be a regular Roundup. You can watch it live at 7:30 Central on my Google+ page. Today we'll begin at Ed Surge with a new post from Katrina Stevens entitled, "A Call to Educators & EdTech - Get Connected." The article is all about the best ways to get educators and edtech builders to start connecting and sharing ideas!

Next up, Matt Levinson at Mind/Shift has some excellent advice for schools with new iPads, "For Schools Implementing iPads, the Importance of Being Patience." As teacher in a school that just rolled out iPads for faculty, I found this article incredibly helpful (as did my colleagues . Levinson offers 10 great tips to help get teachers and students off on the write foot with their new tech tools.

Free Tech for Teachers has five new resources to share:

Katie Lepi at Edudemic has a new post on how to "Unlock a New Level of Critical Thinking with Citelighter's New 'Cognitive Prints.'" Citelighter, a great web-app for handling web citations, just launched a new platform that is designed to help "teachers hone in on the cognitive processes of their students." It's a pretty exciting tool and worth checking out.

Vera Reed over at Emerging Ed Tech has a new article on "The Many Benefits of Using iBooks in Education." If you're fortunate enough to have iPads available in your schools, iBooks is absolutely worth exploring (as is iAuthor). In the article, Reed discusses the numerous features that iBooks can offer in the classroom.

Educational Technology has five new posts from today:

Teach Thought has a post on "How the iPad Can Promote the Development of Non-Cognitive Skills." And wow, we've been a little iPad heavy today, but that seems to be the trend these days! The article focuses on how the iPad can be used to help students build academic self-efficacy and resilience and goes on to cover several applications that are beneficial for working on these skills.

Finally, EdReach has four new podcasts up:

The Lightning Round...

Teach Thought covers 10 Geography Games for Learning
Edudemic gives us 6 Innovative Ways Students are Using Technology
And, If you missed the Education Bammy awards, here's a great Photo Gallery from the Event!

And there you have it! Thanks for tuning in! We'll be back tomorrow for the podcast with special guest... Allison Dehaan, a middle school math teacher who works in an international school in Colombia, South America. See you then!

The Daily Roundup - September 26th, 2013

9/26/2013

Welcome back! I hope everyone's week is winding down well! Today we start with Marisa Kaplan at EdSurge and a new post on the Maker Faire NYC. If you're not familiar with the Maker Movement, it's basically a grass-roots collection of innovators, teachers, hobbyists, students, and curious people who like building, tinkering and creating. The "group" held it's annual Faire in NYC last weekend and it looks like it was a pretty amazing place to be!

Next up, Education Week has a new post entitled, "Consumer Demand for Digital Learning Games, Simulations Growing Worldwide: But Level of Interest in K-12 Lags Behind." The article discusses the growing market for game-based education and learning outside of the classroom as well as some of the companies that are behind the games. The post also covers where K-12 education fits in with current market trends.

Free Tech for Teachers has three new resources up:

Next up, for all you science teachers out there, the site Bird Brain Science has just announced that they are out of beta testing and going public with their resources. Bird Brain science provides common core aligned, accessible reading texts that are adjusted to students' reading levels. They also give quizzes after readings to determine the level of future readings. It's definitely an awesome resource for differentiating instruction. And if you sign up now you can pilot the program for free!

Bryan Kitch at Edutopia has a new post on "HACKtivate ED: A Model for Collaborative Problem Solving." The post covers the recent 24-hour Activate-Ed educational hackathon. The event brought together "educational luminaries from the San Francisco Bay Area with tech sector developers to tackle key issues affecting K-12 students." The group looked at 9 specific problems over the 24-hour period and some awesome results were achieved!

Educational Technology has four new posts to check out:

Finally, if you're in need an excellent tool for converting and downloading videos, Wondershare in in the middle of a three day giveaway of their Video Converter Pro. All you have to do is share the giveaway on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn and the free copy is yours. Plus, you'll get 50% off the Video Converter Ultimate if you really want to take your converting up a notch. Check it out!

And that's all we've got for today! Tomorrow I'm off to celebrate my 30th birthday (wild!) and then we'll be back on Monday. And, in case you missed our podcast this week, you can check it out here. Have a wonderful weekend and see you next week!

-Mike

The Daily Roundup - September 25th

9/25/2013

Welcome back! In case you missed our podcast last night, you can check it out here! We covered Biblionasium, Zaption, and a bunch of other edtech goodness. Today, I want to start with an awesome new edtech digital magazine and site I found:Avatar Generation. They have a wonderful magazine you can download for the iPad (it's $4.99) and a great website full of excellent ideas and content. Definitely worth a look!

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts to check out:

The folks over at QuizBean have a new blog post entitled, "Is There Room for Pen and Paper in an Edtech World?" The article discusses the everlasting necessity of these common classroom tools, despite the growing influence of edtech in the classroom. And, if you haven't checked out QuizBeans quiz maker, it's a great resource [ Here's our review of the site ]

Holly Clark at Edudemic has a great new post on "How To Redefine Your Classroom By Connecting Students." Clark discusses using blogs, thinking outside your classroom, bringing in guests via Skype, collaborating with other schools and a ton of other awesome ideas. And for you music teachers, Edudemic has a new post on EdTech in Music.

Educational Technology has five new posts to check out:

Adam Renfro at Getting Smart has an excellent post on "Teching Out the Novice Writers." In the article, he discusses some awesome apps that teachers can use with novice writers in the classroom. Renfro covers tools for brainstorming and organizing ideas, researching and analyzing, stripping away the clutter, and checking content. If you teach English or any kind of writing, you'll want to check out these tools!

EdReach has five new podcasts for your listening pleasure:

Finally, we've talked about Edgenuity quite a few times on the Roundup, but essentially they are a digital provider of online blended learning content for K-12 classrooms. Today they had a new press release about their holistic approach to providing blended learning. If you're a user of their services, not only do you get their online content, but the help of a team of teachers and coaches to ensure your district, administrators, teachers and students have everything the need to be successful.

The Lightning Round...

Edudemic shares 10 Powerful Screencasting Apps for Mobile Devices
Edudemic also covers 5 Free Online Courses Designed for Teachers
Teach Thought gives us 10 Apps for Multimedia Remixing from edshelf
Teach Thought also shares 12 Roles for Google Drive in the Classroom

And there you have it! Thanks for reading and I hope everyone has a great end to their week. We'll be back tomorrow and let's end with a new infographic from Getting Smart and Digital Learning Now on "How to Implement Blended Learning Version 2.0" See you tomorrow!

tech

Courtesy of: Digital Learning Now

The Daily Roundup - September 23rd, 2013

9/23/2013

Welcome back to the Ed Tech Roundup! I hope everyone had an excellent weekend. In case you missed it, on Saturday I posted a new monthly series that offers advice to teachers who are uncomfortable with, or new to using classroom technology. This month's post focuses on presentation tools and I'll have a new guide out in the middle of every month. In other news, the Mid-Coast Tech Fest podcast will be on Tuesday (tomorrow) this week instead of Wednesday. So, tomorrow there won't be a regular Roundup, just the podcast (and we'll be having some very special guests!)

And speaking of guides for teachers who are new to technology, Dawn Casey-Rowe at Edudemic has a great post entitled, "New to Technology? Check Out This Handy Guide." In the article, Casey-Rowe outlines a few basic tech questions that all teachers should ask and provides some wonderful resources to help you get started in the classroom.

Edudemic also shares a great summary and video on"What to Know About 21st Century Literacies:"

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts to check out:

Jamie Forshey at EduTech for Teachers has a new post on how to "Create Fun Fiction with Scholastic's Story Starters." In the article, Forshey reviews Scholastic's new "Willy Wonka type machine that randomly generates writing prompts" The site covers a ton of different genres and writing formats (notebooks, letters, postcards, etc.) When students finish, they can print, email, or save their writing. It's a great resource and you can check out the post for more info!

John Hardison at Getting Smart (and blended learning specialist) has an excellent article on using Google Drive and voice recordings to improve student feedback. The post, "36 Codes, an OWL, a Pitch Counter, and a Headset: Nontraditional Tools for Nontraditional Feedback" chronicles Haridon's journey to finding feedback methods that would truly be a learning experience for students. It's a great post and worth checking out!

Educational Technology has five new posts to check out:

Learning Technologist, Dom Norrish has an excellent new post which answers, "What does iOS7 Mean for Schools Using iPads?" If your school happens to have iPads available either through a BYOD, 1:1, or iPad cart program, this post is definitely worth reading (and the iOS7 update is definitely worth downloading!)

The EdReach network has four new podcasts posted:

Finally, India's Ed Tech Review has a new post entitled, "EdTech Insight: Real Innovation in Educational Technology." The post, by Harry Keller, discusses the design process that should take place for educational technology projects to truly be innovative. Keller walks us through the thought process of creating edtech with a purpose.

The Lightning Round...

Getting Smart shares their5 Teacher Take-Aways from the Maker Faire
Teach Thought covers The 50 Best Education Apps for Android
Edudemic discusses 4 Ways Podcasts are Valuable Learning Tools
Emerging Ed Tech gives usThe 10 Most Important Emerging Educational Technologies

And that's the Roundup! Thanks for reading! And if you want to catch our podcast live tomorrow night, tune in to my Google+ page at 7:30 central. Last week we had 1 live viewer, this week, let's try to double it! We'll end today with a new infographic from Edudemic and Online Schools on"Virtual Classrooms." See you tomorrow!

tech

Courtesy of: Online Schools

New to Technology? Check Out Our New Monthly Guides on Where to Begin.

9/21/2013

For any teachers who are new to classroom technology, uncomfortable with tech in their classroom, or just don't have the time to sort through all the tech that's out there, I've started a monthly guide that will offer practical tips and suggestions for integrating technology into your classroom. The first one is officially up and it discusses presentation tools!

The Daily Roundup - September 19th, 2013

9/19/2013

Welcome back! And of course, happy Friday-eve! Except for those readers in Korea, the Philippines, etc. in which case, Happy Friday morning! In case you missed our podcast last night, you can check it out here. We covered digital yearbooks, programming with Scratch, and a whole lot more! Today's Roundup begins at EdTech Magazine with a new post from Ricky Ribeiro entitled "Collaboration Can Transform Education. We Just Need to Commit To it." It's a great post about getting teachers connected and sharing ideas!

Free Tech for Teachers has 5 new posts to check out:

Edudemic has a nice post over "A Refreshingly Simple Guide to Twitter for Teachers." The post features an infographic (which was also featured in our recent post/tutorial on Twitter for new teachers) and discusses some of the benefits of Twitter for Teachers. If you're a teacher, and haven't joined Twitter, I highly encourage considering the possibility.

Educational Technology has 5 new posts to check out:

Alison Anderson at Getting Smart (and the co-host of the wonderful Techlandia podcast) has a new review on "Pathbrite: Provide E-Portfolios for All Learners." In th post, Anderson discusses the benefits of using digital portfolios for assessment in the modern classroom. She also covers how the web-app Pathbrite can help K-12 students build and curate digital portfolios throughout their elementary and secondary school years.

We've talked a lot about EduClipper here at the Roundup (The "Pinterest" of education) and it's an absolutely wonderful web-app (here's our recent review of the service). On that note, Lisa Nielsen has a new article on how to "Increase Teacher Effectiveness with eduClipper." Nielsen posts an excellent breakdown of specific standards and components that EduClipper can help teachers address.

EdReach has 4 new podcasts to give a listen to:

Finally, we've mentioned Educational Resources and LearnPad a few times on the Roundup (the cost-effective tablet-alternative) and if you're using LearnPad in your school, you'll be happy to hear they've got some great upcoming professional development opportunities!

The Lightning Round...

Emerging Ed Tech discusses their favorite Educational Technology Books
iLearn Technology has new Free Twitter Posters for the Classroom
Getting Smart shares a new infographic on Adventures in Online Learning
Edudemic covers 11 Cutting-Edge Free Online Course Worth Taking this Fall
Edutopia discusses 10 Tips for Creating Compelling Video Content
Mind/Shift gives us 10 Essential Tips for Meeting Tech Needs of Low-Income Schools
Finally, Teach Thought has20 Important Questions Parents Should Ask Teachers

In closing, if you're a big fan of creation/invention/DIY projects, for one day only you can get a free digital copy of Sylvia Libow Martinez's awesome book Invent to Learn. Just click this link to find out more! We'll end with a new infographic from Edudemic andCommon Sense Media on Why Teachers Should Use Education Technology. Thanks for reading and we'll be back on Monday! Have a wonderful weekend!

tech

Courtesy of: Edudemic

The Daily Roundup - September 17th, 2013

9/17/2013

Welcome back! I hope everyone's week is off to a great start! Tomorrow, we'll have our weekly podcast, so there won't be a new Roundup. You can tune in to my Google+ channel at 7:30 central to watch the cast live, or catch it on Thursday! We begin today at Teach Thought with a new post on"How Automated Tutoring Can Transition to the Common Core." The article discusses how tech and self-directed learning can help prepare students for CCSS assessments.

Next up, the Ed Tech Review has a new article entitled, "Social Media and Language Learning: Why Classrooms Move Online." The post focuses on how teachers can use online tools to begin moving components of their classroom to the web. They cover Facebook and language learning communities and discuss the general benefits of offering material online.

Educational Technology has four new posts to check out:

Neil Goldman at Emerging Ed Tech has a new post on Rewordify entitled "This Free Website Provides an Alternative Pathway to Vocabulary Development." You may have caught iLearn Technology's recent post on Rewordify, but if not, it's an excellent app and Goldman provides a great review of the service which helps students with complex English.

If you're a fan of Class Tech Tips, the excellent edtech site run by Monica Burns, you'll be happy to hear she is now offering a class on Udemy. The course, "Teach with Your iPad: Instruct, Assess & Manage Your Class with a Single iPad" is designed for teachers with an iPad that are looking to better utilize it within their classroom.

EdReach has four new podcasts to check out:

Educational Resources, the makers of the "ready out-of-the-box tablet for education, LearnPad" have just announced a new student bundle. For $340 you get their tablet, a Bluetooth keyboard and a case. If you haven't checked out LearnPad, it's a great (and cheaper) alternative to iPads and other tablets in the classroom.

Finally, the always excellent Annie Murphy Paul has a new post on Mind/Shift which asks "How Can We Make Homework Worthwhile?" I know, it's not really edtech related, but it is an excellent post and something worth considering regardless of subject and grade level. I'd definitely recommend taking the next 15 minutes to check it out.

The Lightning Round...

Getting Smart discusses 4 New Ways to Use a Google Docs Form with Students
Getting Smart also shares4 Video Apps to Create a Parent/Classroom Connection
Teach Thought covers the 4 Stages of Integration of Technology in Learning
Edudemic gives us 12 Effective Ways to Use Google Drive in Education
Edudemic also discusses 4 Ways to Make Digital Portfolios with Students

And that's a Roundup! Thanks for reading! We'll be back tomorrow night with the podcast and the regular Roundup will return on Thursday. We'll end today with a bit of a downer, but incredibly important information nonetheless, on the current state of teachers in higher education. From Online-PhD-Programs comes a new infographic on the plight of adjunct professors.

Un-Hired Ed: The Growing Adjunct Crisis

Source: Online-PhD-Programs.org

The Daily Roundup - September 16th, 2013

9/16/2013

Welcome back! I hope everyone had an excellent weekend and that your week is off to a great start! Today we begin with Eric Patnoudes at Edudemic with a post entitled,"How Technology Changes Student-Teacher Interaction." In the article, Patnoudes discuses the changing role of the teacher in technology-rich classrooms.

Next up, if you've spent any time over atGetting Smart before, you're probably familiar with Tom Vander Ark. He's an absolutely impressive educator, author, and tech-enthusiast. On October 1st, he will be hosting a webinar to "help administrators understand how to deploy blended learning in Special Education." The event will be co-hosted by PresenceLearning (an online speech therapy service) and will no doubt be incredibly informative. You can register here.

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts to check out:

Australian Education blog 2and2 and two posts from the past week or so. First up, Leon Young writes about "Tablets for Education." Young discusses the growing trend of using tablets in education as well as tablet deployment in Thailand, China and Japan. The second post delves into the idea of using game-based learning for skills that, whether we like it or not, require some amount of repetition to be acquired. Young closes with some nice questions to consider.

If you've been reading the Roundup for a while, you might be familiar with Educade. I've talked about it a few times, and we have a review of the service as well. Basically, it's an awesome site to find, share, and rate lessons for all subjects and grade levels. The news today, is that Educade just partnered with Storybots, another excellent site that aims to bring tech-rich learning tools to pre-K and elementary students. They're partnering up to bring even more great digital content to schools. Both sites are worth checking out!

Katrina Schwartz atMind/Shift has a thought-provoking new post about a new computer school in Paris entitled,"A School with No Teachers, Where Students Teach Themselves." Around 4,000 applicants will live at the school for a month and be "challenged with computers problems for 15 hours a day." Out of those 4,000 around 800 will earn a place in the school.

Educational Technology has five new posts to check out:

EdReach has four new podcasts up from today:

The Lightning Round...

Teach Thought covers 25 Question Stems Framed Around Bloom's Taxonomy
They also share 12 Tools for Making Classroom Posters from EdShelf
iLearn Technology gives us 78 Resources for Digital Literacy Internet Safety
Edudemic has 23 Sources for Free Educaitonal VIdeos Online
Edudmic also has a new infographic on How Tech is Being Used in Special Ed

And that's it for the Roundup! Thanks for reading and we'll be back tomorrow. In case you missed it over the weekend, we posted two new reviews. The first was for LucidChart, an excellent (and free) mind mapping and graphic organizer tool for the web and iOS. The second was for LearnBIG, a new web resource that helps you find great technology resources. We'll end with a new infographic from Edudemic and HostGator onHow 3 Different Generations Use the Internet. See you tomorrow!

tech

Courtesy of: Edudemic

The Daily Roundup - September 12th, 2013

9/12/2013

Welcome back and happy Friday-eve! If you missed our podcast last night, you can check it out here. If you already watched it, thanks for tuning in! Today we start with a new post from Adam Renfro atGetting Smart on "Going Hollywood in the Classroom." In the post, Renfro discusses how the "Hollywood" Model (i.e. collaborative and project-based) can be implemented in the classroom and what the possible benefits would be.

Next up, Katie Lepi at Edudemic covers some"Must-Have Facebook Guidelines for Educators." As the post mentions, there are tons of awesome ways to utilize Facebook in the classroom and if you are using the site (or are considering it) Lepi has some excellent guidelines that are worth thinking about before you virtually connect with your students.

Free Tech for Teachers has three new posts to check out:

Marisa Kaplan at Edsurge (and the creator of EdGeeks) has a new post entitled, "A Teacher Walks Into a Demo Day." In the article, Kaplan reflects on her recent trip to the Kaplan, Inc. Demo Day where she got to check out tons of new ed tech tools that are on their way from Kaplan. If you're interested in what's on the edtech horizon, check it out!

Having been a pianist for the better part of the last 30 years, any post/tool that focuses on getting music instruction out to more people is a wonderful thing in my mind. Emerging Ed Tech has a great post today on "Four Resources that can Enable Suzuki Method Instrument Instruction Online." If that's up your alley, there are some great ideas!

Educational Technology has five new resources up:

TheEd Tech Review has a new collection of "Tips for Teachers Who Wish to Use Twitter in Their Elementary Classrooms." The post opens by discussing some of the benefits Twitter can offer in the Elementary classroom and goes on to offer some suggestions to keep things organized and safe for students.

Finally, EdReach has four new podcasts to check out:

The Lightning Round...

Lisa Nielsen covers 5 Ideas Essential to #1to1 Tech Learning Success
Getting Smart shares 25 Great YouTube Channels for Blended Learning
Edudemic gives us 5 Cool STEM Activities Students Should Try this Year
And finally, Edudemic has 6 Questions to Ask Before Doing BYOD

And that's all we've got for today! Thanks for reading! We'll be back on Monday with the news from the weekend and, speaking of which, I hope everyone has a wonderful one! (what a poorly phrased sentence, eh?) We'll end today with a new post from SigNix which asks Who Can You Trust in a Digital World?

digital signatures

The Daily Roundup - September 10th, 2013

9/10/2013

Welcome back! And don't forgot, tomorrow night we'll have our weekly podcast! Today we begin with a post from Carmel Deamicis on... Robot teachers! The article, "When Your Teacher is a Robot" discusses the growing influence of computer-based learning in the classroom and the seemingly inevitable rise of robot teachers. It's a great post and offers a lot to consider.

Next up, Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart has a new article on "EduClipper's Presentation Portfolios." If you're not familiar with EduClipper, it's essentially the Pinterest of education. It's a wonderful resource and you can read our review of the service here. Vander Ark's post discusses the new Presentation Portfolios feature which will allow teachers and students to easily organize their clipboards into presentations.

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts to check out:

Edudemic has a new article on "Why Teachers Should be Preparing for a Multi-Screen Classroom." The post discusses how most people use a variety of screens/devices in their daily life and that the classroom (especially with BYOD policies becoming more and more popular) is heading that way as well, so teachers need to be ready.

Educational Technology has four new posts from today:

Emerging Ed Tech has a new post on "The Necessity of the Connected Text - Why Just Switching to E-reading Isn't Enough." The article discusses how the free app Subtext can be used as an e-reader that also links the text to outside resources like Google and Wikipedia. It's a great app and for the full review, check out the post.

Finally, EdReach has four new podcasts up from today:

The Lightning Round...

Edudemic has a new interview on How Ed Tech is Being Used in China Right Now
They also have a Beginner's Guide to the iPad and iOS 7
Getting Smart covers Powerful Apps to Empower Powerful Writing
They also discuss 5 Ways Twitter Can Help in Education
TeachThought shares 30 Innovative Ways to Use Google in Education

And that's all for tonight's Roundup! If you want to watch the Mid-Coast Tech Fest podcast live tomorrow night, tune in at 7:30 Central to my Google+ channel and (barring an unforeseen difficulties) we'll have the live feed going! Thanks for reading and see you tomorrow!