Today the Round Up begins at Ed Tech Magazine, with "The 2013 Honor Roll: EdTech's Must Read K-12 IT Blogs" proudly featuring... The Ed Tech Round Up! A special thanks to Mr. Ricky Ribeiro for including this site on the list. Aside from the Round Up, there is an excellent collection of sites and blogs from teachers, administrators, writers, technologists, and students.
Inside Higher Ed has new post which asks, "Are We Guilty of EdTech Hype?" The article is in response to ed tech consultant Randy Riddle's recent comments that "The big failure of the instructional technology field...is that it's often used by institutions or individual faculty as a tool to get publicity for being 'on the cutting edge,' rather than opening meaningful dialogue about teaching and learning."
The article goes on to discuss some of the problems and shortcoming with educational technology, and the tendency for educators to use technology in an effort to "appease administrators" rather than using technology for truly educational purposes. Riddle raises some excellent questions that get to the heart of why we integrate technology into education.
The article goes on to discuss some of the problems and shortcoming with educational technology, and the tendency for educators to use technology in an effort to "appease administrators" rather than using technology for truly educational purposes. Riddle raises some excellent questions that get to the heart of why we integrate technology into education.
Jamie Forshey at EduTech for Teachers has just posted her monthly, "Geeky Girl's Greatest Hits: Volume V." She's used ThingLink to create an interactive image (embedded below) of her most useful tips and tools from May. If you haven't checked out ThingLink yet, it's a great way to make interactive images (like the one below) and if you haven't checked out Ms. Forshey's site yet, it's got an enormous wealth of helpful resources, lessons, and ideas.
Educational Technology opens the day with a post on how to "Easily Create Classroom Wikis Using Wikispaces Classroom." Last month, Wikispaces announced the new service which is geared towards helping students and teachers create classroom wikis where classes can easily share information and resources. Check out the post for an overview of the service.
The site also has a write-up on "What Teachers Need to Know about Using Hashtags in Google Plus." For those who have never used the now ubiquitous hashtag (#) it's basically a tool to categorize whatever you are writing or posting about. For example, if you searched #edtech, your search engine would bring up all discussions that had been tagged the same way. And now, Google Plus is supporting the use of hashtags, and this new post has also the basics you need to know.
The site also has a write-up on "What Teachers Need to Know about Using Hashtags in Google Plus." For those who have never used the now ubiquitous hashtag (#) it's basically a tool to categorize whatever you are writing or posting about. For example, if you searched #edtech, your search engine would bring up all discussions that had been tagged the same way. And now, Google Plus is supporting the use of hashtags, and this new post has also the basics you need to know.
Free Technology for Teachers has a new post introducing us to "ULearniversity - Online Math Lessons and Practice Activities." Students can use this free site to watch math tutorials and answer practice questions which provide instant feedback. The site is a great resource (along with sites like Khan Academy) for helping math teachers to "Flip" their classroom and get students engaged in learning content outside of class.
The site also covers the free web app,"GeoSettr - Create a Street View Geography Game." An excellent resource for the social studies classroom, teachers can use GeoGuessr (paired with GeoSettr) to create an enjoyable, interactive tour of historical places and landmarks.
Finally, for those familiar with RSS readers (programs used to compile and read "feeds" from blogs and sites you like), Google Reader is shutting down next month and Free Tech has posted a review of "Feedspot - A Simple Google Reader Replacement." Another alternative reader that I'm a big fan of is Flipboard, it's a great way to get all your facebook, twitter, RSS, and news feeds in the same place.
The site also covers the free web app,"GeoSettr - Create a Street View Geography Game." An excellent resource for the social studies classroom, teachers can use GeoGuessr (paired with GeoSettr) to create an enjoyable, interactive tour of historical places and landmarks.
Finally, for those familiar with RSS readers (programs used to compile and read "feeds" from blogs and sites you like), Google Reader is shutting down next month and Free Tech has posted a review of "Feedspot - A Simple Google Reader Replacement." Another alternative reader that I'm a big fan of is Flipboard, it's a great way to get all your facebook, twitter, RSS, and news feeds in the same place.
Edudemic opens with an article on the "10 EdTech Venture Capitalists Worth Following on Twitter." These days, it seems like there's a new edtech startup every other day, and Edudemic helps out by creating a more manageable list of the ten best. The list includes the Gates Foundation and Learn Capital.
And, as part of their month of exploring global education, Edudemic has three new posts on global education and comparisons between countries:
Getting Smart starts off with a post about "Going Digital with Online Occupational Therapy." The article discusses how many distracts are having to do "more with less" these days, which can cause especially large problems in special education departments. To fill that need, companies like Presence Learning have developed online occupational and speech therapy programs that can virtually help students in need.
Getting Smart also takes a look at the importance of bilungual education in an article entitled, "Can Sexy Accents Save Us?" The post discusses the often neglected benefits of offering bilungual classes in school, especially given the ever-increasing rate of global connectedness our society is experiencing.
Getting Smart also takes a look at the importance of bilungual education in an article entitled, "Can Sexy Accents Save Us?" The post discusses the often neglected benefits of offering bilungual classes in school, especially given the ever-increasing rate of global connectedness our society is experiencing.
Teach Thought has a new a guide on "11 Sample Education BYOT Policies to Help You Create Your Own." For any school district considering implementing a BYOT or 1:1 tablet initiative, this is an excellent place to start. The post has copies of policies from 11 different schools which districts are free to use and change as they see fit.
Teach Thought has also reposted an article from October by Psychologist John Jensen which discusses "Critical Thinking From the Ground Up." If you have 30 minutes today, this is a great article to read and it provides an incredibly interesting and detailed analysis of how educators can help foster critical thinking skills within their classrooms.
Teach Thought has also reposted an article from October by Psychologist John Jensen which discusses "Critical Thinking From the Ground Up." If you have 30 minutes today, this is a great article to read and it provides an incredibly interesting and detailed analysis of how educators can help foster critical thinking skills within their classrooms.
Thanks for tuning in today and thanks again to Ed Tech Magazine for listing in the Top 50 Ed Tech blogs!
Today, we'll end with an infographic from Getting Smart on How Digital Learning Contributes to Deeper Learning. See you tomorrow!
Today, we'll end with an infographic from Getting Smart on How Digital Learning Contributes to Deeper Learning. See you tomorrow!
Courtesy of: Getting Smart
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