It's elementary, my dear Watson: edtech resources

Showing posts with label edtech resources. Show all posts

Sunday, March 6, 2016

Too Much Ed Tech Too Frequently?

The following is an RSS Feed Reader snip from the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning (http://www.educatorstechnology.com/) site encompassing but the past six days.

Your school just might be well enough funded to have implemented 1 to 1 classrooms or maybe just a legacy computer lab or two, or maybe tablet carts or four or five static tablets assigned to each classroom. Many might still be saddled with ancient slow and cumbersome desktops. (Aside note: I remember a time [the late 80's] when I lugged my "portable" 30-pound computer with two 5-1/4" floppy disk drives back and forth to work daily using a luggage carrier.) Surely whatever devices on campus, all have access to the Internet and every faculty member has a laptop, notebook or tablet device. No? Whatever the case someone or someones has the explicit, or worse, the implicit task of vetting new educational apps, websites, browser add-ons, templates, ed tech tools, hardware, and all stuff ed tech. Considering that these 60 some educational technology "things" above are from only one website, we can be assured that every six days produces many, many more, probably thousands. Who vets, recommends, budgets and buys ed tech stuff at your institution? Is it the administrators, the teachers, the IT guys, the education-technology integrator/coordinator, the cleaning crew? Who or what group would ever even have the time to visit each website and blog then look up and read a summary about each new thing. Does anyone even care that new and fabulous ed tech stuff, eminently capable of propelling students forward by at least two grades, goes on the market every day? What criteria is used? Do the teacher-users and student-user have input to decisions?ed tech tools, hardware, and all stuff ed tech. Considering that these 60 some educational technology "things" above are from only one website, we can be assured that every six days produces many, many more, probably thousands. Who vets, recommends, budgets and buys ed tech stuff at your institution? Is it the administrators, the teachers, the IT guys, the education-technology integrator/coordinator, the cleaning crew? Who or what group would ever even have the time to visit each website and blog then look up and read a summary about each new thing. Does anyone even care that new and fabulous ed tech stuff, eminently capable of propelling students forward by at least two grades, goes on the market every day? What criteria is used? Do the teacher-users and student-user have input to decisions?

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Don't Neglect Windows 10 Store for Education Apps

Microsoft fell far behind Google and Apple in the app race, especially in the education area. Things are changing for the better for education. The store is improving in organization and app quality. Check out the offerings. ~~Many~~ Most are free. Review carefully; many Microsoft apps were previously disappointing, even scams.

Education

Books & reference

Early learning

Instructional tools

Language

Study guides

I've previously discussed how difficult it is for an individual teacher, no matter the platform, to select appropriate apps for integration. The process needs be a grade and content subject collaborative effort aligned with applicable standards. And educators should be quick to discard and replace while widely advertising their reviews, at least within their PLCs, which btw, should also be composed of like grade and content educators. Again, and this can't be emphasized enough, each teacher must select the apps that complement their individual pedagogy and peculiar student mix. Departments, schools, districts, and states would be badly remiss to dictate standard educational apps. Economies of scale don't come into play when the purchase price is free.

138 Practical Ed Tech Tip Videos

Originally posted at Free Sources for Everything That's Education:

Free Technology for Teachers organized a cumulative list of 138 fabulous, easy to follow videos aimed “at tools for flipping your classroom, videos on managing workflow, social media tips, search strategies, and media production.” But one does not have to be a teacher to find some of these quite useful.

Many of the tools or videos are aimed at assisting anyone using Google docs or apps. 3 Helpful Google Drive Settings is just one of those videos.

This is a definite resource for everyone to bookmark!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries?list=PLtx-qUNKJwDwazAWE7UaLATKaV0gcpNYv&hl=en_US]