What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

An interesting view on what's happening to us... kids AND adults (we are also guilty!)

What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains [Epipheo.TV] - (RunTime - 3:54)

   

Skills teachers need today!

Check out these two lists about what skills teachers need TODAY and into the future:

http://edudemic.com/2013/03/the-10-skills-modern-teachers-must-have/ 

http://edudemic.com/2013/04/27-ways-to-be-a-21st-century-teacher/

Share your thoughts in the COMMENTS below.

Thinking Thursday - Article: Is This Learning?

Is This Learning? (click for article)

Let's discuss the definition of learning

By:

Will Richardson

District Administration, Dec 2012

...These are examples of a growing narrative around what learning should look like in the new, efficient, less costly EduBusiness world that is exploding around us. It’s a vision that uses technology to “personalize” education for each student to meet the outcomes required by the summative assessment, whatever that may be. And it’s a vision that should deeply concern us.

...Two years ago, IBM surveyed 1,500 CEOs from around the country, asking them what the most crucial factor for success is in today’s world. Shockingly, the top answers had nothing to do with mastering content or getting good test scores. Instead, they said that “creativity” and “managing complexity” were the most important traits. Far as I can tell, we can’t deliver those things very easily, nor can we measure them as cleanly either.

...  But we have to seriously ask: “How much more?” and “At what expense?” The new normal is learning it when we need it, not when it comes up in the lesson plan.
For administrators, it comes to two questions. Do you believe the world has changed dramatically when it comes to learning? And if so, how can you begin to change the conversation around learning?

Twitter in Biology Classroom: Organelle Wars!

Below is a great idea from a science teacher (Brad Graba) who posted this on an NSTA listserv (reprinted with permission, additional links added to his references)... 

This creative idea could be adjusted/adapted for other disciplines as well. The idea is to be creative and think of NEW ways to get students interacting, thinking, creating, communicating, and applying content/subject knowledge!

Thanks for sharing, Brad!!!

This year when I did my cell unit, I had the students run a campaign to get one organelle elected president of the cell (thank you to Ms. Chamberlain in California for the idea).  I added a twist, though, in that I asked the students to create a Twitter account in the name of their organelle to campaign for their organelle and smear other organelles. 

A biologist, Dr. Anne Osterrieder in England, researches the Golgi Body, and was looking on Twitter to see if anyone was mentioning Golgi Body in their tweets so she could keep up on current research.  She happened upon my students' Twitter accounts and began tweeting with them.  Soon, scientist friends of hers were tweeting with my students, helping them research their favorite organelles and smear other organelles. 

The campaign was dubbed #organellewars, and it took on a life of its own.  One of the scientists that got involved has his own BBC radio show as Dr. Molecule and talked about us on his radio show, several of the scientists blogged about the project, and our school newspaper made the project front page news for our school paper. 

I've gained a lot of valuable contacts and resources with the scientists who participated with us.  Whenever I have questions I can't answer myself I go to them now.  My students were more engaged in this project than any I've ever run in my classroom, and were getting great help from biologists around the globe in learning about the cell.  It turned out to be the most rewarding project I've ever done in my classroom.

Brad Graba

AP Biology Teacher

Accelerated Freshman Biology Teacher

Science Bowl Sponsor

William Fremd High School

Palatine, IL 

Too Busy for Online Courses?

Life is too short for... (learning things you may not be in the mood for)

Something to consider as more schools (K-12 through university and graduate school) offer online courses. If anyone gets a quote, please leave the amount/description below in comments.

http://www.wetakeyourclass.com/ 

http://www.wetakeyourclass.com/faq.html

Too bad ALL of our students can't say this... "Give us a deadline and we will meet it!"

Quote of the Week: We Don't Blame the Exercise Books

Quote of the week (by José Picardo in England):

"Whenever students achieve poorly in their exercise books, we don't blame the exercise books and decide to stop using them. Instead we tackle whatever problems led to such poor achievement in the first place and even apply sanctions if deemed necessary. The same principles should apply to using tools such as Glogster. The internet is not an excuse for poor teaching."

… "However, students must be taught how to write good comments – years of schools' refusal to engage with pupils using social media has meant that they have not learnt how to interact appropriately online. I believe it's our job to teach them… And we always model the comments, that is to say, we show them what good and bad comments look like so that they know within which parameters to operate. Dedicating some time to teaching students to write good, meaningful comments is essential if we are to establish purposeful learning conversations.

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From Box of Tricks >> ICT in Education POST

Tools for Tues: Livebinders & Infographics

Here are two tools that are visual AND help us organize information, which is an essential skill today and well into the future...

LiveBinders - although not a new "tool", this may be an alternative for teachers or students to save websites, PDFs, videos, images and more to one location... Here are some possible uses:

• bookmark/favorites alternative
• eportfolio
• online presentation resource (alternative to PowerPoint)
• collaborative resources space (share with colleagues and all add to it)

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LiveBinder on Infographics

And take a look at this sample LiveBinder on Infographics -- the FUTURE of presenting/sharing information!

Learn more! Here are some more resources on InfoGraphics...

Visual.ly - a website dedicated to visual expression of data and information... Explore, share, and create here!

10 Tools for Creating Great InfoGraphics

Sample InfoGraphics

Infographics App — An app for finding infographics

Google's Education On Air Conference

Looking for more professional development in ed-tech? How about trying Google's "Education On Air" offering on Wednesday, May 2nd from 12-10pm (ET) via Google+ Hangouts (so get an account/sign up soon!)

More info, including presenters and session topics, are available at: https://sites.google.com/site/eduonair/home 

FREE For Limited Time Educational iPad/iPhone apps-March 20, 2012

Most of these apps are free for a limited time! Check them out ASAP (click on name to see iTunes info)…

 

(TODAY ONLY) - Tapeulator Pro - add, subtract measurements and see your results on a measuring tape in both inches and centimeters

Handwriting - write, draw, doodle, design, practice letters/numbers, etc. on an endless sheet of digital paper (then email it to someone, if email is set up!)

Alpharoids - earn your letters while you have a blast in this action-packed old school arcade (asteroids) style game

Doors Room Escape - a logic and critical thinking game

Paris Walking Tour - Heading overseas soon? You don't even have to with this app! Five separate audio walking tours guiding you though the quintessential Paris neighborhoods of Bastille, Montmartre, Marais, St. Germain, and the Latin Quarter

SimplePhysics - design complex structures for everything from tree houses to ferris wheels and then simulates your design with a sophisticated physics engine

DrawingStar - create "pretty pictures" with paints, stamps, shapes, backgrounds and more!

A+ Spelling Test - spelling lists and quizzes

FREE For Limited Time Educational iPad/iPhone apps-Feb. 23, 2012

Most of these apps are free for a limited time! Check them out SOON (click on name to see iTunes info)…

(ignore the different colors... formatting issues!) ;-)

 

Miss Spider's Bedtime Story (story book/games)

U.S. Citizenship Exam Review 

Beatbox Academy – spice up your presentations (or let students!) 

Happy ABC (even in other languages!) 

Improve Reading Skills 

A+ FlashCards Pro 

Eagle Eye Full - Test and train your attention span with this highly challenging hidden object game 

(450+) Awesome Sounds – need applause when you're finished? Use this app! (and speakers!) 

Addition & Multiplication Number Bubbles

  

Tools 4 Tuesday: Free Books!

Meeting a need for reduced cost and increased digital literacy (literally!), here are two options for free books for schools (and parents, students) to consider... 

And remember, FREE IS GOOD (but it may have limitations)...

 

CK-12: customizable, free, curriculum-aligned content for K-12

Mostly STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), but also includes some SAT prep, history, English composition, even spelling! Review and choose chapters for your own e-Book, which can be downloaded as a PDF, viewed online as HTML with animations and videos, or viewed online as an e-book (with flipping pages). 

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ePubBooks

Free EPUB eBooks, which includes mostly classics and/or public domain titles.

Here are just a few of the MANY available (view online, but download with one of the devices listed below):

• Oliver Twist
• Little Women
• Pinocchio
• Alice in Wonderland 
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• Doctor Dolittle
• Aesop's Fables
• The Prince
• Robinson Crusoe
• Scarlet Letter
• Moby Dick
• David Copperfield
• Wuthering Heights

Read eBooks on your smart phone, iPad, Nook, Sony Reader, and links to get free downloads for Amazon's Kindle (see full list of compatible devices here - http://www.epubbooks.com/ebook-readers )

Fun Friday: Texting Typos Anyone? :-)

As more of us delve further into 21st century communications, we're certain send more texts than ever before. And thanks to the wonderful invention of Auto-Correct, sometimes I'm sure you wish you had proofread before you sent a few of those many texts!

Oh, how we wish we'd apply the simple rules of professionally written language to our informal chatter... or that an Undo or Cancel button would be available to STOP it before it was sent! (really... a 10 second delay is all we would need in most cases!)

If you haven't seen these yet, the Ellen Show has done a few segments on "Clumsy Thumbsy" (each about 2-3 minutes long, with an ad in the beginning)...  Enjoy, but be ready for loud laughter!!! (may want to watch after hours so no one questions you... but see below for the REAL EDUCATIONAL VALUE to all this... AND remember the importance of PROOFREADING before you SEND!)

January 2012 episode

November 2011 episode

This can be a valid lesson for your students! (maybe not shwing them the Ellen clips... careful with appropriateness), but you can simulate your own text messages at iFakeText.com... which could actually have some educational value, for example:

• teach students to communicate appropriately with different audiences
• sentence structure and grammar practice
• simulate text messages between famous historical figures, whether alive at the same time or not! (e.g. - George Washington and John Adams; Steve Jobs and Bill Gates; Adolph Hitler and Napoleon; Margaret Thatcher and Hillary Clinton; etc.)
• foreign language conversations (or vocab review)
• spelling list or vocab list (with or without examples or definitions)
• See more examples at Tammy W's site...

P.S. - There are many other websites with funny text message typos, but many are NOT school appropriate... therefore, not included here.  ;-)


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Thinking Thursday: Computational Thinking

Watch the 4-minute video on Computational Thinking

Highlights:

• Think beyond what IS to what COULD BE...
• Computational Thinking = Critical Thinking + Power of Computing
• It's a Digital Skill for EVERYONE!!!

There are so many problems in the world today that will require good thinkers and talented creatives to find solutions... or better yet, ways to AVOID or PREVENT many of the problems of today!

What could you do with the processing power of ALL human brains on Earth in 2050?

Learn more at ISTE's site: http://www.iste.org/learn/computational-thinking.aspx

Wonder Wednesday: Most Important Critical Thinking Skill(s)

Participate in the poll above... (by Feb. 9)

This month's poll is about Critical Thinking... What is the most important (or CRITICAL) Thinking skill to teach students today? (You can select more than one)

RECAP:
The last Wonder Wednesday poll saw a 3-way tie for the Favorite Teacher-Focused movie... Stand & Deliver, Dead Poets Society, and Pay It Forward all received 5 votes (click the image to see it larger)

Time-Saver Computer Tips (PDF Sheets from MakeUseOf)

One of my favorite "tips & tricks" sites, MakeUseOf has several single-page PDFs of tips you can keep handy and practice. Over time, as you use these daily and eventually learn them, you'll be sure to save many seconds, which adds up to many minutes, and then hours!

Sign up for their email to get the password for downloading them — it's all free and you can unsubscribe at ANY time!

http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/downloads 

The programs for which cheatsheets are available include:

• iPhone
• Gmail
• Twitter
• Google search (GREAT for all teachers & students!)
• Photoshop CS5
• iTunes (for both Windows and Mac)
• Windows
• Mac OSX
• GIMP
• Chat smileys
• Facebook
• VLC Player
• Google Reader
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Internet Explorer
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox (for both Windows and Mac)

Thinking Thursday: Alone Together by Sherry Turkle (webinar)

Image from: http://book.4kindle.us/buy/alone-together-expect-technology-ebook-QjAwNERMMEtXMA!!.html

Note: this post is filed under "Digital Citizenship" and "Information Literacy" to point out that sometimes knowing what we SHOULDN'T do is just as important as what we SHOULD do. Moderation AND true human connections are two keys that should help unlock a promising future.

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From the Wed, Sept 28, 2011 webinar hosted by HSM... 

Sherry Turkle on her book: Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other

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From her session: (either quotes or paraphrasing) 

Main quote (and sums up her book):

“We’re too busy to think and too busy to connect… we’re in continual contact, but we end up alone together” 

...

Many people now have an “I share, therefore I am” mentality, which is “not good for collaboration and not good for innovation.” Meaning… the “Old way was: I have a feeling, I now want to share it; the New way is I want to have a feeling; therefore, I need to send a text” (or post something online, etc — to get feedback, validation, etc.) 

...

In other words, “we need ‘them’ to make ourselves real.”

...

“Social media is a performance."

...

"(Their device) is the place for hope in their life... where something new will come to them, the place where loneliness can be defeated." 

...

“We’ve moved from conversation to communication."

 ...

 Hyper connection is NOT collaboration!

...

“Even the happiest/most satisfied users of these technologies are paying a price” (somewhere).

...

“We’ve moved from multitasking to multi-lifing”... (where people have on-screen lives and/or realities, sometimes several). 

...

 (Technologies today) “make it easy to hide” - we can choose who to reply to or contact. 

...

When you text, you have time to think about what you’re writing... (which is a pro); but people become phobic about real-time interaction due to a fear of showing our (real) selves (con).

...

“Younger people don’t know how to apologize face to face.” 

...

“We are less willing to give each other our full attention.” 

...

Ironically, in our more complex world, there is "decreased time available to us to sit and think uninterrupted"... and due to the shear amount of (emails), we "begin to expect or even demand fast answers, and in order to get them, we are asking each other simpler and simpler questions. So we're dumbing down our questions to get the simpler answers, even on the most important matters. We’ve (essentially) "put ourselves on cable news," which is "not a good climate for innovation."

 

“People of all ages admit they would rather send a text than talk.” (which is sometimes a good, thing, but not always) 

On Solitude – “If we don’t learn (how) to be alone, we will only know how to be lonely... Loneliness is failed solitude, just as connection is failed conversation.” 

Benefits & Costs - “There are MANY bounties of our ‘always on’ culture.”To make it better, Our “always on” culture -- we must face it’s costs — knowing how to be alone; solitude is needed to energize and restore, which can lead to innovation and even collaboration. 

We should avoid the notion or analogy of these technology behaviors as an addiction, since that implies the solution is to completely rid it (technology) from our lives, which is not possible. Now is a time of opportunity to develop practices that help us use technology effectively... for connections and collaboration, which lead to innovation. 

...

Favorite sentence in book - "Just because we grew up w/ the internet, we assume the internet is all grown up" (that it won’t change in the future). It can and will, as will how we work with it. But the time to make corrections is NOW! 

...

People are in "performance mode on the network" where so many put a false self online or only share good news – people don’t want to leave a digital trace online of those types of things. 

...

Schools and businesses should be teaching uni-tasking! 

In workplace, try the email reply “I’m thinking” -- and "model an approach to business life" to create that time to think (rather than react right away).

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How can you help teach or model appropriate tech behaviors for your students (and/or your peers!)?

TOOLS for Tuesday: Microsoft Lesson Plans

Microsoft in Education Lesson Plans

Have you ever used one of the activities from this website before? You can search by topic, subject, time constraints, program/application, and more! Lots of detail in each to support the process of technology integration.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/plans/Pages/index.aspx

STUDENTS TODAY: Campaigning 2.0

One of our JH social studies teachers shared this story with me recently... It shows great application of technology knowledge and skills and how those (along with knowing about her peers’ propensity for multitasking and connecting with others) can be very practical and efficient when running for political office! 

“I just wanted to share with you my daughter's 21st century campaign for student government. She is running for vice-president of her university's student government. On "free wings" night at the local Buffalo Wild Wings, she handed out her campaign flier to students waiting in line for their free wings. On her flier she included her picture, what she was running for, and..... a QR code that takes you directly to her campaign Facebook page! She said many students scanned the code on their smartphones while waiting in line! So much for campaign buttons and making posters!”

Maybe the QR campaign t-shirt is next?!?!?! (see sample image above!) 

UPDATE: By the way... she won!

MANIC Monday: Email Time Saver Tips

• Ever miss important emails?
• Do you skim over emails instead of reading them... even though they might have important information you need?
• Feel like you don’t have enough time for email?

Here are 5 Tips that actually will SAVE you and/or your recipients time.

1) Set aside time for email... Turn OFF the notification (sound, bouncing icon in dock, alert box, etc.) Set aside 10 to 30 minutes 2-4 times per day to focus on emails (Such as: before work, lunch, prep time, after work, or ONCE in evening at home), rather than checking it or reading messages whenever they come in. (If you prefer to read email as it comes in, you’re basically becoming addicted to “technology-enhanced instant gratification” (or TEIG), which is a condition that most of our students also have! Don’t get the “TEIG disease”... Just say no to TEIG! (Obviously, if you’re expecting an important message, that’s different! Just remember that ALL email is not “important email”!)

2) Include a subject — for EVERY email –this helps the recipient quickly scan for messages that need to be handled quickly or to find the email to follow up later. Use a specific subject — for example, “How many students needed?” rather than “Question” or “Fire Alarm today” rather than “Important” or “Just saying HI” instead of “Hey”. Emails with no subjects are more likely to be missed, skipped, or deleted!

3) Organization: Are you a Sorter-Filer, Deleter, or Hoarder-Searcher? Depending on your quantity of email, your personality, and your technology skills, some of these require more time in the long run.

• Sorter-Filer – must put every email into a folder (including the trash)... Great organization, but this takes time and many seconds adds up to hours in a year!
  
• Deleter — deletes anything that doesn’t look important or seems not important, but sometimes goes too far. This person is usually the one who asks, “Can you resend that email about ____” or when you say, “I sent that information in an email last week” and they blatantly say, “I deleted it, can you send it to me again?” (Note: Senders do not like “Deleters” since they often take up more of their time)
  
• Hoarder/Searcher — leaves all/most messages in their In Box, deleting few or none, but finds things by sorting by category headings or by using the search or advanced search. This works great if you’re a good searcher and have unlimited or very high email storage on your computer and/or the email server, which most do now due to cheap storage solutions.
  

4) Remove yourself from lists/emails you don’t need. Every second counts in the email world! If you open, skim, and delete 35 emails in a week (5 per day) that you didn’t really need to see or think about, taking about 2-5 seconds each, that works out to about 1 to 2.5 hours in a year... that you can’t get back! If you think that just leaving them in your In Box is OK, remember that you spend time skimming those every time you look through your In Box, which adds up as well! Look for the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email and do it – spend time now to save time later!!!  

5) Recognize and focus on the emails that are IMPORTANT (for your professional practice or reputation, well-being, and/or livelihood) and skim/ignore the others (or see #2). This skill takes a while to develop and is mostly related to focusing your attention on email messages (see #1) rather than quickly “getting through” emails. Respect the time of the message sender as well as your own time! 

For MORE tips, view these resources:

• http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/e-text/email/ (with examples of good/bad versions)
  
• http://www.ragan.com/InternalCommunications/Articles/15_tips_to_refine_your_email_etiquette__43257.aspx  
  
• http://www.emailreplies.com/ (good tips, but contains ads)

Thinking Thursday: Protect Yourself, Stop H*Commerce

Have you been hacked? Personal or financial information compromised either with or without your knowledge? Would you even know? Sadly, sometimes we don’t!

Although sponsored by McAfee, this 6-part video documentary still provides an effective warning and wake-up call for ALL ages. Check it out at: http://stophcommerce.com

Life is all about risks and benefits... Spend about 45 minutes (or watch one 6-8 minute clip per day for 6 days) to increase your online benefits and minimize your risks! Learn a little more about how to develop a “healthy technological paranoia” and then consider sharing this site with your loved ones... And your “liked ones,” too!

If we all shared this information with of our children, students, colleagues, friends, parents, grandparents (all relatives), it would make the hackers’ lives a little more difficult. In addition, having the right type and level of security on your computer(s) is the next layer of protection. Contact your computer expert(s) to get some suggestions — anywhere from free to pay-for services/software.