Thursday, April 18, 2013

Crapcha

This is priceless...


One of my biggest gripes is getting to the bottom of the page and having to figure out exactly what the letters and numbers are on the cheesy CAPTCHA. I know it's important to foil the internet vandals but I find it incredibly annoying.

Enter the CRAPCHA:




You can read more here...


Saturday, April 6, 2013

TCC 2013 Conference Submission

 Conference Paper and Presentation:

Here are copies of my conference paper and a first draft of my presentation of my Instructional Design study concerning a web-based instructional module to introduce K12 teachers to the uses and capabilities of the Google Apps suite of cloud-based tools for collaboration and productivity.

Coming Next:

I hope to begin to produce content specific instructional modules this summer and deploy them for teachers in the Mililani Complex. The goal is to have a collection of just-in-time professional development tools available for teachers for the 2013-14 school year.

Conference Paper




Presentation






Friday, March 15, 2013

On the Horizon...


2013 Horizon.K12: The Interim Results

The NMC is pleased to announce the interim results of the 2013 Horizon.K12 Project, as presented at the 2013 CoSN Conference in San Diego. The Horizon Project Advisory Board voted for the top 12 emerging technologies as well as the top ten trends and challenges that they believe will have a significant impact on teaching, learning, and creative inquiry in global K-12 education over the next five years. These initial results will be compiled into an interim report, known as the "Short List," and described in further detail.
The "Time-to-Adoption Horizon" indicates how long the Advisory Board feels it will be until a significant number of schools are providing or using each of these technologies or approaches broadly.
Near-Term Horizon: One Year or Less
* BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)
* Cloud Computing
* Mobile Learning
* Online Learning
Mid-Term Horizon: Two to Three Years
* Adaptive Learning and Personal Learning Networks
* Electronic Publishing
* Learning Analytics
* Open Content
Long-Term Horizon: Four to Five Years
* 3D Printing
* Augmented Reality
* Virtual and Remote Laboratories
* Wearable Technology
Top 10 Trends (alphabetical order)
* The abundance of resources and relationships made easily accessible via the Internet is increasingly challenging us to revisit our roles as educators.
* As the cost of technology drops and school districts revise and open up their access policies, it is becoming increasingly common for students to bring their own mobile devices.
* Customized learning is increasingly a goal for schools.
* Education paradigms are shifting to include online learning, hybrid learning, and collaborative models.
* The focus of assessments are shifting from "what you know (can memorize)" to "what you can do (portfolio)."
* Openness — concepts like open content, open data, and open resources, along with notions of transparency and easy access to data and information — is becoming a value.
* People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want.
* Schools are beginning to move away from textbooks to web resources and open source books.
* Social media is changing the way people interact, present ideas and information, and communicate.
* There is a new emphasis in the classroom on more challenge based, active learning.
Top 10 Challenges (alphabetical order)
* The demand for personalized learning is not adequately supported by current technology or practices.
* Divides persist.
* Faculty training still does not acknowledge the fact that digital media literacy continues its rise in importance as a key skill in every discipline and profession.
* Innovating pedagogy is a complex process that requires research into impacts, responsive state of mind to technology changes, and understanding what pedagogical strategies can make innovation in pedagogy possible.
* K-12 must address the increased blending of formal and informal learning.
* Ongoing professional development needs to be valued and integrated into the culture of the schools.
* Many activities related to learning and education take place outside the walls of the classroom and thus are not part of traditional learning metrics.
* New models of education are bringing unprecedented competition to the traditional models of education.
* Too often it is education’s own processes and practices that limit broader uptake of new technologies.
* We are not using digital media for formative assessment the way we could and should.
Watch this space for the announcement of the Short List!
Photo via BigStock.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Tech Integration Research Review

From Edutopia

Technology Integration Research Review

Technology integration can be one of the most challenging topics to find quality research on. The term itself is a broad umbrella for numerous practices that may have little in common with each other. In addition, technology tools change rapidly, and outcomes can vary depending on implementation. Edutopia's tech integration review explores some of the vast body of research out there and helps you navigate useful results. In this series of five articles, learn about three key elements of successful technology integration, discover some of the possible learning outcomes, get our recommendations on specific practices and programs by academic subject and promising tools for additional topics, find tips for avoiding pitfalls when adopting new technologies, and dig into a comprehensive annotated bibliography with links to all the studies and reports cited in these pages.


Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Technology Directors becoming obsolete?

Oh my, Yes!






The role of the typical school district technology director has become obsolete. Speak with your average teacher in many school districts in the U.S., and you’ll find the technology department is better known for getting in the way than for serving the educational needs of both staff and students. Many technology departments, led by obsolete tech directors, are inadvertently inhibiting learning. The mantra of “lock it and block it” no longer works in a 21st century digital learning environment.
Do how can technology directors avoid becoming obsolete?
1. Understand the need for anytime, anywhere learning for students and access for staff. 
2. Stop being the digital police department. 
3. Encourage social media; don’t prohibit it. 
4. Spend time in classrooms. 
5. Talk to your teachers. 
6. Push your school administration to think digitally. 
7. Lead differentiated professional development. 
8. Understand that your district has BYOD in place. 
9. Connect with educators on Twitter.  
10. Be innovative

from SmartBlog on Education - read the entire article


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

It's About Outcomes...


It's not that often that Microsoft representatives and I are in complete agreement but this is one of those times. I don't know how many times I've heard school leaders and school-level educators speak about their plans to purchase a number of this or a "mobile lab" full of that without reference to what they expect this and that to help accomplish with regard to student outcomes.



Devices in education: it's all about improving outcomes

  • Guardian Professional

  • When looking at the use of technology in education, it's important to focus on improving outcomes.
    When reviewing some of the recent projects across the sector, I often see decisions based on a single device, with teaching and learning wrapped around it, rather than first thinking about what actually needs to be done with that device. Sadly, it seems academic outcomes are not always the key objective with these decisions, regardless of how well intended the decision may be.
    Surely outcomes, not necessarily the device, are what is important here? Achieving increased attainment, improved student engagement via personalised learning and immersive engagements, access to content anytime, anywhere and workforce readiness to increase employability, are all key and should help inform which device to embrace and deploy.
    To complement this list of outcomes, factors beyond the device are also important to consider. For example, it's important to ask yourself what support programmes are in place to assist students, faculty and IT professionals to maximise their investments and meet their objectives, regardless of whether it's about saving money or improving academic attainment. (read the entire article)