While it might look like a piece of software is broken, the truth is the Internet (or the Google Drive) upon which that software depends is down. But, how can a teacher know if the Internet (or the Google Drive) is up or down in his/her classroom at that moment in time? In this week’s blog post, we describe two free Chrome extensions — the Internet Traffic Signal and the Google Drive Traffic Signal — that tell a teacher, at a glance, if the Internet (or the Google Drive) is up or down.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 10/16/18
"1-to-1, blended learning is the future of educational technology." Never hath a truer statement been spoken! 1-to-1, blended learning enables student inquiry, which is at the core of personalized learning. And personalized learning is the hottest item in K-12 today. Walk with us through a blended learning lesson in this week’s blog post.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 10/01/18
The Venn Diagram has been a powerful tool for visualization. Now, CollabrifyVenn, a device-independent, browser-based, drag-and-drop, "text-editor" for Venn Diagrams, makes it easy for learners to change their Venn Diagrams and thus enables learners to engage in the iterative process of Venn Diagramming.
- By Cathie Norris, Elliot Soloway
- 09/11/18
Social media can pose risks to students' privacy, but these risks can be managed with informed, intentional use. There's also a huge upside: Teachers can use social media to share best practices, provide an authentic audience for students' work, cultivate and model digital citizenship among their students and build more connected school communities.
- By Common Sense Education
- 09/10/18
Some schools invest in technology but never find the right way to teach with it. Here, a school library specialist shares how she turned teachers and students from skeptics into evangelists.
- By Susan Sclafani
- 08/27/18
The teacher-absence policy at my school was clear: The teacher isn't coming to school? No technology for the class. The rationale is that it's just not worth it. Devices are too valuable to be trusted with kids when they don't have experienced supervision. Only the classroom teacher can manage classroom tech.
- By Jamie Knowles
- 08/14/18
Over the last few years, I've watched from afar as Pittsburgh's Remake Learning initiative has blossomed into a resource-rich network. Its 533-member organizations are striving to inspire and equip the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers and critical thinkers through hands-on, relevant learning.
Whether your school or district has officially adopted social media or not, conversations are happening in and around your school on everything from Facebook to Snapchat. Schools must reckon with this reality and commit to supporting thoughtful and critical social media use among students, teachers and administrators. If not, schools and classrooms risk everything from digital distraction to privacy violations.
- By Tanner Higgin
- 08/09/18
Five steps to finding, implementing, and rolling out a technology platform in a pinch.
- By Melissa Tebbenkamp
- 08/07/18
If we need students to be learning coding now, yet the schools are not ready for it on many levels, where does that leave us?