Exploring ways to enhance education with technology and innovation
Washington, DC is swarming with educators and technology lovers as the NECC 2009 conference begins. Today’s crowds should swell even more as attendees arrive in town for the official kickoff of the national conference this afternoon, capped by the opening keynote speaker, Malcom Gladwell, author of Outliers (2008), Blink (2005), and The Tipping Point (2000). [...]
Posted on June 28th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Consider the climate created in blogs and twitter when users blast each other’s ideas and put writers down with sneering, sarcastic snips. Negative comments and sniping tweets fuel a competitive duel of intellectual one-upmanship. It isn’t pretty.
It’s toxic.
I’m immersed in social media — facebook, twitter, plurk — and the exchange of ideas often generates lively [...]
Posted on June 13th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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If you haven’t used VoiceThread before, you’ll see that is a creative way to collaborate on a slideshow.
(Click here if you want to open the viewer in a larger size)
Below are some other examples of VoiceThreads to demonstrate more uses for the application.
VoiceThread is a free Web 2.0 application, but you can subscribe for higher [...]
Posted on May 30th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Imagine slicking up a Twister mat with baby oil, spinning around in fast circles with your eyes closed for three minutes, and then trying to play the convoluted balancing game without sliding or falling. If you’re an educator trying to figure out how to navigate copyright laws as they pertain to school projects, lessons, and [...]
Posted on May 3rd, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Education is a noble and honorable enterprise — well-meaning, respectable, geared toward progress and success. For all its lofty intentions, though, we have a few glaring problems in education here in America. One of the most pernicious is the dark truth that the profession currently includes too many ineffective, lame, or even neglectful and abusive [...]
Posted on April 19th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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I learned a new word this week: sciolism. It’s my new favorite word. Learning about it slapped me in the forehead with a V8 moment, reminding me not to settle for shallow busywork or entertaining (but brainless) activities in my lesson plans.
It reminds me to get to the point.
Don’t ramble. If there is an [...]
Posted on March 24th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Misconceptions about teaching keep on thumbing their noses at us. As educators, we’re branded by stereotypes that shrug us off and insult us until we splat onto on the continuum of professionalism somewhere between babysitter and beach bum. As Rodney Dangerfield quipped about his constant plight of being dismissed, we just can’t get any respect.
How many times have I [...]
Posted on March 18th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Imagine a farmer giving up his John Deere tractor to go back to the hand plow. It’s much cheaper, and he knows how to use it (it’s been used for generations) and it gets the job done. At quick glance, the farm looks like it runs just fine. But watch the comparison with [...]
Posted on March 7th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Are you an educator who sometimes feels overwhelmed?
Ever grumble about the way things ought to be?
Ask most teachers what they would like to see changed about education, and the answers will differ, depending on where they are when asked. What teachers might say behind closed doors in the faculty workroom probably is not what [...]
Posted on March 1st, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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Google is a monster search engine with enormous capacity. I’m still learning fun tricks about refining my searches to isolate the exact results I need, and it remains my favorite research buddy… but simple searching aside, the variety of other applications developed (and acquired) by Google is staggering. The more I delve into the collection [...]
Posted on February 14th, 2009 by Sharon Elin
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