WW II Real Time Tweets

A blast from the past and a unique way to use Twitter. Daily tweats with what's happening each day of World War II. Shared by Merry. Go here: twitter.com/realtimewwii

Instant feedback and brainstorming tool. All you need are computers and a url!

willyou.typewith.me is a web-based word processor designed for schools that allows pupils and teachers to work together in real-time. Just create a "pad", share the url and you're off and running brainstorming and collaborating in real time. Too simple, too cool, too effective! Go to willyou.typewith.me

Another awesome resource for iPads in the classroom!

Probably the most extensive iPad for the classroom site I've come across. Go here: https://sites.google.com/site/schrockipad/

Gamification Keynote Speaker, fantastic!

Games are good people. Find out why...

TIES Conference Favorites

Technology in Music Education: How to use iPhones, iPods, iPads, and other technology in music education. Go here: http://techinmusiced.wordpress.com

Weebly is a fantastic website creator. Easier and better than Google Sites. Go here: http://www.weebly.com/

Keynote Speaker Gabe Zichermann spoke on "gamification" and was very persuasive in arguing for including gaming in the learning process. Here he is at TED: http://youtu.be/O2N-5maKZ9Q

Coolest App was WordLens. It allows you to point you iPhone or iPad at another language and it translates it in real time. You have to see it to believe it. You can here: http://youtu.be/h2OfQdYrHRs 

More to come as I sort though my notes!

Even more iPad Resources - fantastic!

Click here for Garrison Sites iPad Resource. It will blow your iPad mind!

Creative ways to use the iPad in the classroom

Here is a link to 68 interesting ways to use iPads in the classroom. Click here.

Brilliant PBS resource to Hamlet and Macbeth. Includes full performances of both.

PBS Arts has a wonderful online exhibit on Shakespeare's Hamlet and Macbeth plays. Watch full productions of Hamlet and Macbeth. Then go behind-the-scenes with interviews with master actor Patrick Stewart and a peek at the making of a stage-to-television production. Fascinating and well done! Click on the following link to see the exhibit: www.pbs.org/arts/exhibit/shakespeare-three-tragedies

Encyclopedia Mythica

Greek, Roman, Norse, Celtic and Native American myth resource you won't believe until you see it!

Check it out here: www.pantheon.org

Move over human! Computer solves Rubik's cube in 5 seconds...

Best 6 minute video on the future I have seen this year! (go full screen)

Search Shakespeare to your bards content!

Click here: shakespeare.yippy.com

23 incredible new technologies you’ll see by 2021

The paralyzed will walk
$100 DNA sequencing
Personal 3D printing
The return of the wooly mammoth
The average PC will have the power of the human brain
Fusion energy
Crash proof cars

And more. Just click here to read about this incredible future.

Brainpickings: A site for the curious...

Brainpickings digs for "nuggets of stuff that inspires, that gives you pause, that makes you connect dots you didn't realize were connectable." Super food for the brain!
Go to www.brainpickings.org

British National Library of Medicine: Original Manuscripts!

"Turning The Pages" allows visitors to touch and turn the pages of virtual books displayed on a touchscreen monitor in an intuitive manner. Takes virtual books to the next level. Check it out by clicking here.

Music: The National Jukebox

An absolutely extraordinary website resource of historical recordings put out by the Library of Congress. The Jukebox includes more than 10,000 recordings made by the Victor Talking Machine Company between 1901 and 1925. Includes classical, ethnic, popular and religious music as well as spoken word recordings. You can add songs to a "playlist" and then sit back, launch the Jukebox Player and enjoy. Click here and enjoy: www.loc.gov/jukebox

Escape your search engine filer bubble now!

Search engines like Google tailor your results based on who you are, your search history, your click history. This is called "living in a filter bubble. Want to break free? Look through this short explanation at http://dontbubble.us and then try a different way of searching...

Future Education Tech Keith heads to The Black Hills!

No, not for an education conference, but to my first marathon ever. I've got to keep in shape if I want this blog to be the best tech-education blog on the planet! With the help of my sponsor AdventureCORPS (organizer of the Furnace Creek 508 bike race and the Badwater Ultramarathon) I'll be tackling the Crazy Horse Marathon. If anyone out there is interested in marathons (or even better) ultra marathons AdventureCORPS is for you. I'll post some photos when I get back! Here's a link to the race: runcrazyhorse.com

Happy Trails!

Reminder that BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that kicks butt! Perfect for Primary Grades.

Best of all we have an account so just email me for username and password!
Here is the link to the website: http://www.brainpop.com

VOCRE: Real-time app for iPhone that translates your speech into 6 languages with the flick of your wrist!

Vocre turns your iPhone into a real-time translator. How awesome is that? Download the app to your iPhone or read more about it by clicking here...

The Future of Print Media?

I don't even know why I put a question mark in the title. This seems to be where we're all going. As eReaders rise and books become "collectibles" we will consume more and more of our media this way. See the future of print media with Sport's Illustrated's new Tablet Magazine App. I'd watch it full screen for full effect...

Turns out Minneapolis is hard to hack!

Turns out people in Minneapolis are pretty computer savvy compared to the rest of the nation. Read about it at City Pages here.

Incredible interative way to read!

A short video on the use of QR Codes and the ways in which you can interact with books in ways you might not know. Shared with me by my colleague Carrie Johnson...

South Korea Schools to be all digital by 2015

Read about how South Korea is going to replace all printed primary (elementary) education material with digital content. Bye bye books and backpacks. Click here for the article...

32 Ways to Use Google Apps in Classrooms and Schools

Check it out by clicking here...

e-books now outselling print books!

The sad (is it?) truth was revealed today when Amazon announced that it is now selling more eBooks than print. You can read the article by clicking here.

Quirky Ways to Teach Skakespeare

Check out the 7 videos that showcase 7 different and "quirky" ways Shakespeare is being taught around the country. Good material for the "bard" in you... Click on this link to see more.

Browse the timeline of conflict and war across the globe - fantastic!

Conflict History goes back to 3000 BC and all the way close to the present and gives you an awesome interactive map interface for conflicts and wars throughout history. Mind boggling level of information. Go to conflicthistory.com

Cybernetics of tomorrow now...

Very unique website promoting "Serif Industries" a future cyber provider. Explore the many possibilities the future has in store for you (very soon)...
Just click here: sarifindustries.com

For you teachers of writing, a great tool!

Classroom Salon is a great collaborative digital environment for writers where annotations and comments about their writing can be seen in a dynamic group setting. Writers can publish and comment on each others writing with feedback showing up in an easy to use and slick online interface. Plus it's hosted by Carnegie Mellon University. Check it out here: classroomsalon.org

The Gigapan Time Machine digital viewer!

The GigaPan Time Machine enables simultaneous exploration of space and time across massive datasets that could not previously be interactively explored at full spatial and temporal resolution. You need to see it to believe it. Note, does not currently work in Firefox

Check it out by clicking this link: timemachine.gigapan.org

If you haven't tried StumbleUpon you haven't even begun to explore the internet!

I featured the StumbleUpon Toolbar a long time ago but it is just too cool not to remind everyone. It allows you to "stumble" across websites based on your interests. It spits out cool suggestions at the speed of the internet. You don't want to miss out so check out my short video tutorial here:
http://www.sophia.org/packets/the-stumbleupon-toolbar-in-all-its-glory

Switching back and forth between multiple Google accounts seemlessly

Want to switch back and forth between multiple Google accounts without having to sign in and out all the time? Check out my video tutorial here at Sophia.

Absolutely wonderful collection of 1000s of video tutorials in many subjects!

Visit it here: http://www.khanacademy.org

Website of the Week

Sam Terfa suggested this interesting site. Born to Learn - How Humans Learn


Interested? Go to http://www.born-to-learn.org

This is what grass looks like

For those who may have forgotten. Don't despair, Spring is just around the corner...

Like that Pink Floyd song

Is there anybody out there?

Hello? Keith here in Nashville, do you copy? Come in?

Minneapolis, we have a problem...

Q Codes: One of my favorite conference additions

Want to know what's going on in a certain room? Just use your Q Code app reader (free) on your smartphone and it will pull up all the relevant information... Love it

Last day at the conference highlights: MOBILE is the hot topic everywhere

I still need time to collect all the information I've been exposed to at the conference. Been so good I haven't really had that much time to post a lot of stuff, but will put together a best of when I get home... Highlights today:

-Data Collection Using Mobile Technology

-Mobile Technology in the Classroom presentation (more and more we're seeing cell phones, iPads, iTouch being used) We really should have some exceptions for using cell phones in classrooms, for one thing it saves us supplying students with another computer. They already have on in their pocket)

-Cyberbullying Symposium

-Using Technology to Impact Student Motivation (duh)

-Popped in for a few minutes on the "Hiring and Teacher Online Certification Programs"

A very awesome demo of Hyperstudio (nothing like the old program)

Looking forward to the closing keynote titled "The Great Economic Reset of 2011: Mobile"

We need to be thinking mobile mobile mobile and all tangents and implications...

Neil Seeley says hi from Nashville!

He was at the conference too... Cool

Concentrated on the Assistive Technology Playgound today...

I went to the "Electronic and Assistive Technology Playground" today. There were several cool programs for kids with learning disabilities. Figured you'd appreciate it Elaine. Kurzweil software was of course one of the big contenders, but there were others. I got the contact info for you :-)

How's this for a conference title?

"Impediments to Technology Integration: Individual Factors, School-Based Factors, and System-Wide Factors Identified by High-Using Technology Teachers"

Ok, thought it might be interesting but I'm figuring out the longer the title the less interesting the presentation. I mean c'mon, look at some of these:

"Launching a Hybrid Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology: Lessons Learned from Faculty Deliberations, Student Experiences, and Technological Challenges"

or

Process vs. Product: Rethinking Assessment in Teacher Education from Self Assessment to Teacher Work Samples, Digital Stories to E-portfolios

I mean what the heck?!

Oh well, not all presentations are bad, just couldn't find one this afternoon, although I am impressed by the quantity and variety of teachers here. People really want to know and learn about technology...

Open source tools and technology certification

I must admit I didn't attend this presentation for the certification aspect but more for the "Open Source Tools" they were advertising. Open source is cool because it is free and the fact that programmers out there are constantly working to support and improve these programs. Some of those tools are Audacity for sound editing, GIMP for photo editing, OpenOffice for word processing and Tux Paint which is a kid friendly graphics program. I also found out about free educational software organizations like OFSET, SourceForge and the Open Source Initiative. These are all valuable programs and resources and I definitely suggest taking the time to check them out.

This website was referenced often: http://educationtechnologies.com
Open Source = Free and Awesome... so what are you waiting for?

Printing a Human Kidney

Yes, you heard that right. A 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. See the TED talk by clicking here.

Integrating a Live Medical Simulation into A High School Anatomy and Physiology Curriculum: CyberSurgeons

I thought I should mention the CyberSurgeon sessions. During a live simulation students connect with a chief medical officer via videoconferencing to diagnose and treat researchers and patients aboard a research ship stationed in a Brazilian rain forest. Way cool...

"To complete the mission, students become part of the fictional CyberSurgeons remote trauma unit on a mercy ship. The simulated ship is equipped with a high-tech hospital and medical research capabilities, state-of-the-art high-end communications systems, and dedicated satellites to relay information.

The mission is conducted through a web/ videoconference hookup from your classroom to the Challenger Learning Center at the Center for Educational Technologies at Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling, WV."

Here is the website for all you science teachers: http://site.cybersurgeons.net

Keynote a smashing success

Yong Zhao gave a very spirited, interesting and funny starting talk to the conference. A very good pick. Much of the talk centered around the prevalence more and more in the US of teaching to take tests and how in Asia (although teaching to the tests was the emphasis) they are actually moving away from testing emphasis. China is increasing its number of hours for electives and PE while we are cutting them out and doing too much standardized testing. My favorite quote "The US is trying to close the testing gap. China is trying to close the thinking gap."

Food for thought... His zhaolearning.com has a plethora of articles and videos and presentation slides from his talks and they are well worth checking out if you are interested in some of his thoughts on current global educational dynamics. And here is a link to what looks to be an excellent book on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Collateral-Damage-High-Stakes-Corrupts-Americas/dp/1891792350

Only at a technology conference...

Would the internet keep going in and out!

Ugh... Doing the best I can. May have to post some updates from my phone...

Whew, made it!

That was too close for comfort! But I'm here... For you!


Waiting on Yong Zhao the keynote speaker. His topic "Students as Global Entrepreneurs: Why, What and How?" Here's a link to his website for now: http://zhaolearning.com

Almost there! Hiding in the bushes...

Running from hillbillies... the things I do to get you guys the latest in technology

Backstage passes

Yeah, these workshops are only for rock stars...

"Today's kids are born digital"

These were the words that the presenter began this afternoon's workshop with. She's right. And we have to adapt. She also pointed out that the most important component to using technology in the classroom is TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT.

All I could say was well "duh"... But how do we find more time to train teachers who are already so busy with lesson plans, curriculum maps, benchmarks and on and on? Yes, how? Tell me? I want to know the secret magic formula...

Well one nice thing is that she put a list of classroom items like these on the screen and asked which of our school's could supply them. I was the only to raise my hand in a room of 100 people:

Ceiling mounted wireless access point
Ceiling mounted projector and data drop
Projection screen/ whiteboard
Teacher workstation
VOiP Phone
Data Drop(s)
Printing/ scanning capability

So I guess Minnehaha Academy rocks hardware-wise, but what about that professional development? Going to put out a survey asking you some big tech questions soon so hit me back... Here are some interesting PowerPoint presentations she spoke on: http://mytechtraining.com/2011_Presentations.html

More Web 2.0 Tools from this workshop

The 21st Century Classroom

Was hoping for The 22nd Century Classroom but I guess this will have to do... Details soon...

Nashville Conference Day One - First Workshop notes...

Today's first workshop titled "The Best FREE Web 2.0 Tools and Suggestions for Use in Classroom Learning" highlighted many of the Web 2.0 tools I was already familiar with and just as importantly suggestions for immediate implementation into classroom learning. I could try and sum it all up but I know you just want the goods so here is a link to the presenters website. Useful in the classroom examples.

https://sites.google.com/a/westliberty.edu/site2011/home

Taking the long road to the conference

Addictive Online Typing Game!

I couldn't stop the first hour I tried this. It's just too cool and fun... My co-worker Jeremy turned me on to it.

Go to http://www.phoboslab.org/ztype

Wolfram has a wonderful site dedicated to science!

I'm sure you're familiar with Wolfram for math and calculations but they also have an awesome science component. Math, Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and even Biography. Go to Wolfram Science by clicking this link.

REAL TIME social learning environment for classrooms

Teachers can safely share ideas and assignments with other students and other teachers in REAL TIME. Edmodo is Social Learning for Classrooms. Absolutely cutting edge social learning site for teachers and students. Watch the "What is Edmodo" video on the home page and you will understand everything... Click here to go to edmodo

Mashup anything on a webpage

I'm not sure how easy this is to use. It took me a little bit to figure it out but it is just too cool not to try. You can add anything to a webpage from video to images to URLs to sound and mash it all together for anyone to see. Mashup the web here!

Storyjumper Online Book Creator - Primary Grades

Find out about it here...

Storyjumper.com

Kidblog is an excellent simple site for creating classes and organizing student blogs. If you want a simple way for students in your class to start blogging and collaborating in a teacher controlled environment, Kidblog is for you...

• No advertising of any kind.
• Simple login menus allow students to select their name from a list of students in the class, eliminating the need to memorize usernames.
• Clutter-free design means your students will spend less time fussing with widgets/options and more time publishing.
• Central blog directory and simple navigation links make it easy for students to find classmates' blogs.

Go to kidblog.org

____________

Coolest Interactive Map Ever - Return on Educational Investment!

They've attempted to evaluate the return on investment (ROI) of almost every major school district in the country. By productivity, they mean how much learning a district produces for every dollar spent, after controlling for factors such as cost of living and students in poverty. This is a wonderful education resource to see the return on all those dollars spent in education... Check it out here: Return on Educational Investment

Cool Basic french Language Site

Just the basics but with the mouse over auto pronunciations it rocks, Many categories... Check it out here: languageguide.org/french

Excellent documentary video source

Lots of documentary videos on | Space | Nature | Technology | History | Environment | Health. Go to documentarydish.com

Primary Grades - cool game sites

I often get requests for more online games for primary grades, especially in Science, Math and Reading. Here are some of my favorite links:

Math:
http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/pre-k/
http://www.coolmath4kids.com/
http://www.teachrkids.com/
http://www.coolmath.com/

Reading:
http://pbskids.org/superwhy/
http://www.starfall.com/
http://pbskids.org/games/reading.html
http://www.earobics.com/gamegoo/gooey.html

Science:
http://www.sciencekids.co.nz/gamesactivities.html
http://funschool.kaboose.com/arcade/science/target=blank"
http://pbskids.org/games/science.html

General:
http://www.funbrain.com/