Blog Archives - The EdTech Roundup

The Daily Roundup - Halloween Edition!

10/31/2013

Welcome back! We've got an abbreviated Roundup today, in honor of Halloween, and if you missed our podcast yesterday, you can check it out here! We'll start with Lisa Nielsen and an excellent article entitled, "Stop Trying to Figure Out if Screentime is Good for Students." This post is in response to the NYTimes' "No Child Left Untableted" article and it is a great read!

Next up, Katrina Schwartz at Mind/Shift has a great report, "Let the Games Begin: Students and Teachers Dive into SimCityEDU." Designed by the non-profit GlassLab, SimCity EDU is built around a similar structure as the traditional SimCity games. The difference is, players must accomplish a variety of environment science missions that are based on the Common Core Standards.

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

Holly Clark at Edudemic has a new post discussing "How to Use Crowdsourcing in the Classroom." If you're not familiar with crowdsourcing, it's basically using personal learning networks (i.e. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to get ideas and share thoughts. In the article, Clark discusses how the principles of crowdsourcing can be applied in the classroom.

Educational Technology has five new posts from today:

Anna Adam and Helen Mowers (from the Tech Chicks Podcast) at Edutopia have a new article which asks, "Should Coding be the 'New Foreign Language' Requirement?" In the post, they discuss the benefits that students can gain from learning coding and some great resources to help support coding instruction. It's an excellent article and definitely worth considering.

Finally, Teach Thought has five new posts to check out:

And that's all for our Halloween edition! Enjoy your tricks, enjoy your treats, and have a great night! We'll be back on... Tuesday, because it's a three-day weekend here in Colombia. Thanks for reading!

The Daily Roundup - October 28th, 2013

10/28/2013

Welcome back! I hope everyone's week is off to a great start. Today we begin at Edudemic with a new post on "Why You Should (And Shouldn't) Use Digital Textbooks." The article covers the pros and cons of digital texts in the classroom and also gets into the general benefits of the completely digital educational environment.

Next up, EdTech Magazine discusses "How Districts Are Feeding the Mobile App Beast." Every day, dozens of new educational apps are released and finding the right ones for the classroom can be an immense challenge. This post from Jennifer Zaino covers some of the ways districts are meeting the challenge. Zaino closes with some great tips to help districts with the process.

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts from today:

In case you missed digital citizenship week last week, fear not! Jamie Forshey at EduTech for Teachers has an excellent new post to share her, "Digital Citizenship Survival Kit." As Forshey says, "With the plethora of resources available for teachers, there's no reason we have to stop promoting the importance of behaving safely!" I couldn't agree more, and Forshey's ThingLink survival kit is a great place to start.

Educational Technology has five new posts from today:

Up next, Tom Raymond at Emerging EdTech has a review of the flipped learning tool, Metta (Here's our review of the service as well). The review, "Create Digital Learning Content by Easily Combining Parts of One or More Videos with Images, Text, and Audio" outlines the basic process of using the site and provides some classroom tips as well.

Morgan Sims at Getting Smart has compiled an excellent collection of "Great Apps and Tech Tools for Education." Sims covers a huge variety of subjects, devices, and operating systems and offers tips and summaries for each item. Plus, Tom Vander Ark has also collected "10 Strategies and Apps to Manage the iPad Classroom." It's a great list of suggestions and apps to try out!

Finally, the EdReach Network has five new podcasts:

The Lightning Round...

Getting Smart gives us 50 Hashtags for Connected Educators
EdTech Magazine has a new guide for E-Rate Applications
Edutopia shares 11 Virtual Tools for the Math Classroom
Edudemic discusses 3 Simple Ways to Start Using Smartphones in the Classroom
Edudemic also has a new graphic on Digital Learning Literacy
Teach Thought presents 13 Tools to Make Your Classroom More Fun From edshelf
Finally, the Ed Tech Review describes the Best Ways to Connect with Teachers Globally

And that's it for tonight! If you're on Twitter, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is moderating the #EdTechChat tonight, which is starting right about... 10 minutes ago! Get over there! Thanks for reading and we'll see you tomorrow (hopefully) or on Wednesday night with a brand new podcast!

The Daily Roundup - October 24th, 2013

10/24/2013

Welcome back! And, as always, happy Friday-eve! In case you missed our podcast last night, you can check it out here. Our guest was Marcie Dunham and she raised some wonderful points on EdTech in ESOL education. Today, we start at Teach Thought with a new post on "Making Twitter a Mainstream Tool for School Improvement." If you're a big fan of Twitter in education (like me), give it a read!

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

Next up, the always excellent Lisa Nielsen at The Innovative Educator shares some "Ideas for Supporting #TeacherEffectiveness with #EdTech - Domain 3." The article is part three of her four part series on incorporating teacher evaluations based on the Danielson Framework. I've included her Prezi below:

Josh Ward at Emerging EdTech has a new post entitled, "A Further Look at the Emergence of Virtual High School." In the article, Ward discusses the growing variety of virtual high school options, how they work, and the audience they are best suited for. Ward also discusses several specific virtual schools across the states.

Educational Technology has five new posts up:

And, since no Roundup would be complete without at least mentioning the Common Core Standards at least once, we've got a new post from EdTech Magazine,"Common Core Readiness Check: What Schools Have Done or Are Doing." One of the big focuses of schools preparing for the Common Core? Having enough computers to test their students. For more, check out the article!

The EdReach Network has five new podcasts to hit up:

The Lightning Round...

Edutopia shares 6 Things We Know for Sure with iPads in School
Edudemic has a new graphic on Effective Apps and Web Tools for BYOD Classrooms
Getting Smart reviews LightSide Essay Scoring Engine
Edudemic covers 4 Apps and Web Tools Perfect for Digital Art Class

And there you have it, another day in EdTech! Thanks for reading! We'll end with a great presentation fromShelly Terrell (via Edudemic) entitled Survival Tips for Integrating Technology in Classes. Have a great weekend and we'll be back on Monday!

-Mike

Survival Tips for Integrating Technology in Classes from Shelly Terrell

The Daily Roundup - October 22nd, 2013

10/22/2013

Welcome back! I hope everyone's week is off to a great start. Just a quick reminder, tomorrow night we'll have our weekly podcast so there won't be a Roundup. Our special guest will be Ms. Marcie Dunham, an educator who currently teaches abroad in the Philippines! Today, we begin with EdTech Magazine asking "Will Google Glass Usher Augmented Reality into the Classroom?" You'll have to read the post to find out!

Next up, the always wonderful Dr. Jackie Gerstein has a new article which asks, "Is It Project-Based Learning, Maker Education or Just Projects?" The post discusses the difference between "hands-on" and "minds-on" learning in regards to PBL lessons and maker education. Just because students are creating a project, does not mean they are actively engaged in the learning process. It's an excellent read!

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

There's been a growing push over the past year to get students excited about coding, and it's been exciting to see. To that end, Emerging EdTech has a new post entitled,"Industry Players Collaborate to Take Teaching & Learning About Programming to the Next Level." The article outlines Code.org's effort to get students interested in coding with their brand new "Hour of Code" program.

Next up, EdTech powerhouses Getting Smart, EdReach, and Tom Vander Ark have launched a brand new podcast! The weekly cast, entitled EduPreners, will be centered around Vander Ark interviewing different EdTech startup "edupreneurs" and talking about new education platforms and tools. For the first episode, Vander Ark interview Trenton Goble, the co-founder of MasteryConnect.

Educational Tech has five new resources to peruse:

Over at iLearn Technology with Kelly Tenkely, there's a new review of "Book Writer: Create Books on the iPad." Tenkely discusses howBook Writer can be used to help students easily create ebooks with photos, video, audio, and links. If you've got access to iPads, it's an excellent app and definitely worth checking out.

Finally, Jason Orbaugh at EdSurge has a new article entitled, "Lessons from the Downfall of Interactive Whiteboards." In the post, Orbaugh discusses how the interactive whiteboard (IWB), while appearing to be doing well in most education markets, might actually be on its way to losing its place in the classroom. It's an interesting read and Orbaugh raises some thought-provoking ideas about edtech in general.

The Lightning Round...

Getting Smart shares 25 Smart #SocialMedia Tips for #EdLeaders
The Ed Tech Review has a new review of KnowRe, the Online Math Learning Platform
Teach Thought has a new infographic on Establishing a Twitter Routine in Your Classroom

And that's all for the Roundup today! Thanks for reading! If you'd like to watch our podcast live tomorrow night, we'll be broadcasting around 6:00PM Central via my Google Hangouts account. We'll end today with a new infographic on the benefits of coding from Kodable and Avatar Generation...

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Courtesy of: Kodable

The Daily Roundup - October 21st, 2013

10/21/2013

And we're back! After successfully battling both the flu and sketchy internet connections, I'm happy to be back in the saddle and roundin' up some tech news. Today marks the beginning of Digital Citizenship week and to celebrate, Jamie Forshey at EduTech for Teachers has an excellent post with ideas and resources for getting students involved. Regardless of your subject, why not spend a little time this week talking about the importance of digital citizenship!

Next up, we've spent a lot of time here at the Roundup discussing the gamification of education and to that end, Edudemic has a new post entitled, "How to Gamify Your Classroom." The article offers some great ideas on how to incorporate the components that make gaming so enjoyable into your classroom.

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

Over at Edutopia Beth Holland has a new post on "Creating a 'Least Restrictive Environment' with Mobile Devices." Holland discusses how, for some students, analog technology like papers and pencils can be limiting factors. By offering these students mobile devices and new technology tools, we can begin to improve learning and lifting those restrictions. It's an excellent article and definitely worth a read.

Educational Technology has five new posts from today:

Next up, Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart has a new review of "Killer App: MasteryConnect Reinvents the Report Card." MasteryConnect is a new service that "uses simple visualizations to summarize what students know subject by subject." It's a great way to get parents and students more involved in grades and assessment and it is currently being used in more than half of American school districts.

EdReach has five new podcasts to give a listen to:

Over at Two Guys and Some iPads Drew Minock has an excellent new post, "Why Use Augmented Reality." If you have access to mobile devices of any kind at your school (or if your students can use them outside of the classroom) Minock has some wonderful ideas on how to incorporate augmented reality into your curriculum.

Got some news from Ed Resources (creators of the LearnPad tablet) as well. First up, TeachThought has a great article comparing the LearnPad to the iPad. And they've also just launched a student ready bundle and an elementary bundle to make it even easier to roll out their tablet in the classroom!

Finally, for any EdTech startup companies who are looking for funding, you should check out the 2013 New England Venture Summit from YoungStartup. They've added an EdTech track to this years summit and if you register before October 30th, you'll get 50% off the cost of the summit.

The Lightning Round...

EdTech Magazine Shares 5 Reasons Chromebooks Make Sense for Schools
Teach Thought covers 10 Tools Students Can Use to Design Apps & Video Games
Edudemic has 10 Educational Web Resources Teachers Should See
They've also got 10 Time-Saving Videos All About iPads in the Classroom

And that's all we've got for today! Thanks for reading and, presuming this internet connection holds up for longer than a day this time around, we'll be back tomorrow with a new Roundup. Also, we've got three new reviews up from the weekend, check them out if you're looking for some great new tech tools. See you tomorrow!

The Daily Roundup - October 17th

10/17/2013

Due to technical difficulties and some major internet frustration with this Colombian internet, the regularly scheduled Roundup will not be happening tonight. My apologies. We'll hopefully be back up over the weekend!

In the meantime, here's our new podcast from last night!

The Daily Roundup - October 15th, 2013

10/15/2013

Well, hello! After a bit of a hiatus, I'm happy to announce the Roundup is back! What was supposed to be a short fall break, turned into a 5-day bought with the Colombian flu, of which I have finally recovered! My apologies for the lack of rounding and upping over the past few days, but let's get back into it! But before we start, just a quick reminder that our podcast will also be back tomorrow night! We'll have Taylor Dopuch as our guest, a high school English teacher who works with me at Colegio Parrish. He'll be talking about some of the tech activities he's tried out in his English class. And now... time for some roundupping!

First up, the always enjoyable Dom Norrish has a great new article entitled, "Democratising Da Vinci (or Why Technology in Schools is a No-Brainer for the World)." Norrish discusses one of the major benefits that technology provides education which is to allow the intersection of student opportunity and talent to occur more often. It's an excellent post!

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

Next up, Susan Oxnevad at Getting Smart has a great new post on "Using Avatars to Teach Digital Citizenship." The post discusses four different tools that teachers can use to help students virtually explore the ideas of internet safety and digital citizenship. There are some excellent ideas here for computer teachers or any teacher that wants to emphasize the importance of digital citizenship. Getting Smart also has a new collection of EdTech articles from October.

Educational Technology has five new posts to check out:

Kaitlin Louie at Emerging EdTech has a new post on "Interactive Textbooks Revolutionizing the Classroom Text." The articles discusses how the interactive capabilities iBooks are beginning to change the way students interact with their texts. With videos, hyperlinks, 3-D animations, and various other types of media, these new ebooks have some serious educational potential.

EdReach has five new podcasts to peruse:

Finally, we've spoken about Edgenuity a few times before on the Roundup (the "leading provider of online and blended learning solutions") and right now they've got they're Second Annual Video Contest going on. Edgenuity is asking secondary teachers to submit video stories on how they use online and blended learning to improve academic outcomes. The winning prize? A $5000 technology grant! Pretty great!

The Lightning Round...

Edutopia shares 7 Apps for Teaching Children Coding Skills
Teach Thought covers 36 Core Teacher Apps for Inquiry Learning with iPads
Teach Thought also gives us 10 Steps to a Successful School iPad Program
Lisa Nielsen discusses 5 Ways to Open Up Learning & Engage Students
Edudemic has 7 Signs Your School Needs a Technology Makeover
They also cover 6 Reasons to Try Mobile Devices in the Classroom
Finally, Edudemic has a great post on 7 Ways to Sabotage Your Device Initiative

And there you have it, another day, another roundup! Thanks for reading and we'll see you tomorrow night for a brand new podcast!

The Daily Roundup - October 8th, 2013

10/8/2013

Welcome back! Tomorrow night we'll have our weekly podcast, so there won't be a regular Roundup. Then I'm off for 4 days on fall break so there won't be any new posts until next Tuesday... In the meantime, let's start today with Teach Thought and an excellent and thought-provoking article, "13 Likely Realities for the Future of Learning." The write-up covers technology, school-design, and a whole lot more.

Next up, in case you're worried you missed any EdTech stories this summer, EdTech Magazine has you covered. Their new post, "5 EdTech Stories you Might Have Missed This Summer," is a collection of their biggest educational technology articles from the summer. Topics include expanding BYOD policies, bringing real-world experiences to the classroom using technology, reimagining classrooms with personalized instruction, and more!

Free Tech for Teachers has five new resources from today:

Holly Clark at Edudemic has a great new post on how to "Help Students with Comprehension Through Collaborative Reading." Clark discusses using technology to help students while reading to organize their notes and highlights, get easy access to definitions, find help with pronunciation, use visual cues for comprehension, and a ton of other excellent ideas.

Educational Technology has four new articles to check out:

Over at the Ed Tech Review, they raise the question, "Using Technology in Education: Does it Improve Anything?" The article provides a short background on technology in education and goes on to outline some of the major tools, uses, and benefits that teachers are discovering for edtech. The post covers flipping classes, digital teacher collaboration, online learning, and more!

Finally, EdReach has three new podcasts from today:

And that's all the the Roundup today! We'll end with a special offer from Learnpad (a classroom iPad alternative, it's a tablet designed specifically for classrooms). If you request information from their site you'll be entered to win for a classroom starter set. Pretty great deal. We'll be back tomorrow with the Mid-Coast Tech Fest podcast, until then, thanks for reading and have a great evening!

The Daily Roundup - October 7th, 2013

10/7/2013

Welcome back! And hopefully everyone had a great weekend! Up first, Grant Wiggins at Teach Thought has an excellent article / reminder that "Curriculum is More Important Than Learning Technology." As much as I love edtech, and the potential it has to help improve learning, there is nothing that can beat a well-crafted lesson in the hands of a master teacher. It's a wonderful article and worth taking a few minutes to read!

And in the same vein, Dom Norrish has a new post entitled, "Why Technology Will Never Replace Teachers." As Norrish puts in "Great technology can help put learners in the position to achieve... but without the input of others... technology is an echoing void." Edtech can help, but without a great classroom leader, what's the point?

Free Tech for Teachers has five new posts to explore:

Jamie Forshey at EduTech for Teachers has her monthly "Geeky Girl's Greatest Hits Volume VIII." In the post, she outlines her favorite apps, websites, and digital tools from the past month. She talks about graphic organizers, Scholastic's Story Starters, new posters for digital citizenship and a whole lot more. And, if you're not familiar with Thinglink, it's a great tool and what Forshey uses to build her monthly list.

Next up, Beth Holland at Edutopia has a new post on some great ways to do "Note-Taking with iPads." Holland discusses uses the iPad's camera, microphone, typing, and drawing to take digital notes. She also discusses using apps like Evernote, AudioNote and SoundNote to support the note-taking process. And if you're interested in visual note-taking on the iPad, here's another great presentation that's worth checking out!

Visual Note-taking on the iPad from Rachel Smith

Educational Technology has five posts to check out:

And the EdReach Network has some great new podcasts:

The Lightning Round...

Getting Smart shares 5 Great Apps for Future Scientists
Edudemic covers 5 Battery Saving Tips for your Mobile Device
Edudemic also gives us 10 Web Resources for Digital Field Trips to Museums
Finally, a new infographic from Early Childhood Ed Degrees on What Tech Kids Should Know

And.... done! Thanks for joining us today! The Roundup will be back tomorrow with a normal post and then a brand new podcast on Wednesday. For the rest of the week, I've got a 4-day weekend for fall break (where were all these breaks when I was back in school?) so after Wednesday, I'll be on a short leave. We'll end today with a new infographic on What Teachers Really Think about EdTech from Edudemic and We Are Teachers. See you tomorrow!

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Courtesy of: We Are Teachers

The Ed Tech Roundup - October 3rd

10/3/2013

Welcome back! In case you missed Wednesday night's podcast on using technology in the math classroom, you can check it out here! In the news for today, Arne Duncan has declared that October be named Connected Educator Month in an effort to get teachers online and sharing. Lisa Nielsen at the Innovate Educator has a new post in support of this idea in which she outlines 6 reasons to connect!

Emma Kucelj at the Australian blog 2and2, has a new post entitled, "Engaging the Disengaged: Gamified Learning at its Best." The post begins by discussing a new app for Chinese Language Education (CanUHanyu) and goes on to cover the overall benefits of game-based learning, especially for students along the autism spectrum. It's an excellent article and if you're interested in game-based learning, especially for special needs students, check it out!

Free Tech for Teachers have 5 new posts to enjoy:

Audrey Waters (of Hack Education) has a great new article in the Atlantic, "Students are 'Hacking' Their School-Issued iPads: Good for Them." Waters discusses the recent actions of students in Indiana and California who, almost immediately, began bypassing and disabling iPad security limitations put in place by the school. Waters argues there are incredibly educational benefits to behaviors like this that are often overlooked and frowned upon by school culture.

If you're not familiar with Leap Motion, it's a pretty wonderful piece of new technology that allows for easy motion-based controls to be integrated into Windows and Mac computers. Edudemic has a new post on "How to Use Leap Motion In The Classroom." The product costs around $80 and has some pretty incredible potential in the classroom.

Educational Technology have five new posts to hit up:

Next up, Tom Vander Ark at Getting Smart has an excellent article on "Plugging Into Professional Learning Communities." If you're not familiar with the term, PLCs are usually initiatives created by teachers to provide learning opportunities and professional development to other educators. There are a ton of ways to get involved with PLCs and Vander Ark outlines 5 great ideas in the post. It's time to get connected!

In other news from Getting Smart, there are a few new edtech STEM products and programs that are about to be released from Change the Equation, a "nonprofit, nonpartisan, CEO-led initiative working to mobilze the business community to improve the quality of STEM learning." Check out the full release!

EdReach has five new podcasts to treat your ears to:

Finally, if you're a fan of supporting developers and new educational technology, check out this new KickStarter from Alok Ahuja entitled, "ReMarkable." The app in development is being designed to streamline the process of grading/marking papers. It has some great potential, and features that aren't available in any current grading apps.
Here's the home site for more information!

The Lightning Round...

Mind/Shift has an excellent new guide for Teachers and Twitter
Getting Smart covers 6 Tools for Connected Educators
Edudemic offers 3 Quick Tips for Building Digital Citizenship
Plus, they share 5 Free EdTech Webinars for those looking to get connected!
Finally, here are 10 Web Resources to Help Teach about Primary Sources

And there you have it! Consider yourself officially rounded-up! We'll be back over the weekend with some new reviews and post. Have a great Friday everyone and see you soon!

-Mike