Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/25/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Learning about Learning: Research and Edreform News and Views 01/25/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

  • IQ Drops When You’re In a Group | Psych Central News

    IQ is linked to social context. Does this mean mainstreaming is wrong? Right? Depending on who you are? ". Provocative new research discovers small-group dynamics can lower the expression of IQ in some susceptible people. In the study, researchers determined IQ is significantly linked to social context."
    IQ depends upon social context? If this research is proven to be true it could change how we measure and understand IQ. "“This study tells us the idea that IQ is something we can reliably measure in isolation without considering how it interacts with social context is essentially flawed,” said coauthor Steven Quartz, Ph.D. “Furthermore, this suggests that the idea of a division between social and cognitive processing in the brain is really pretty artificial. The two deeply interact with each other.” .

    tags: education learning iq research

  • News | New research shows stress can make you pile on the pounds

    Are all of your teachers gaining weight? maybe it is a sign of deeper problems or a toxic work environment. I have seen it happen and believe it. Of course, are you stressed because you are heavy or are you heavy because you are stressed? " Research has found the answer. Apparently stress is the biggest cause of overeating for more than half of the country’s adults."

    tags: learning research health

  • Sloan-C’s Definition of 'Online Course' May Be Out of Sync with Reality ~ Stephen's Web

    How do you determine what an online course is? I love Stephen Downes' tongue in cheek thought on how this is being defined. great points.

    tags: education news elearning

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/25/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

  • Vim - Applidium

    This app is interesting not onky because it is a very simple free text editor bit it is open source "charityware." I cannt recall hearning the term charityware but they have a suggested charity they would like you to donate to if you like the app. That is a great idea.

    tags: education news

  • Research Blog

    Google is open sourcing Google Sky Map for Android. ".Today, we are delighted to announce that we are going to share Sky Map in a different way: we are donating Sky Map to the community. We are collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University in an exciting partnership that will see further development of Sky Map as a series of student projects. Sky Map’s development will now be driven by the students, with Google engineers remaining closely involved as advisors. Additionally, we have open-sourced the app so that other astronomy enthusiasts can take the code and augment it as they wish."

    tags: education news Google

  • Gadgetbox - Apple vs. the textbook: Can education go paperless?

    Apple's move into textbooks. Perhaps bumpy at first but with lots of potential. I have seen a lot of favorable thoughts with the Apple announcement. Here is a note from MSNBC I thought expressed a concern of many. Great article about the announcement that is balanced and not just fanboy worship that we get from many sites. ". Can Apple control quality and manage the educational boards? As soon as the iBooks Author tool was introduced, many Apple watchers who had previously witnessed the garbaging up of the iTunes App Store — with useless or redundant fart or flashlight apps — let out a collective sigh. How long until the shiny new corner of the iBookstore, where the textbooks will reside, is filled with hastily made, low-quality products, or worse yet, works of high quality that nevertheless contain misleading or unsubstantiated information."

    tags: apple. education news texbooks ibook ebook

  • Japan Reviews Disaster Plan Amid New Quake Concerns - WSJ.com

    Japan has work to do. This is heartbreaking indeed. From the Wall Street Journal. ".Underscoring the risks facing Japan, a new research institute investigation has determined there is a 70% chance of a magnitude-7 earthquake striking the Tokyo metropolitan area within the next four years, and 98% over 30 years. The March 2011 earthquake was a magnitude-9."

    tags: news japan

  • Finnish Miracles & American Myths : 2¢ Worth

    David Warlick's reflection on the miracle of Finland's flourishing education system is a great read.

    tags: education news finland bestpractices

  • Sloan-C’s Definition of 'Online Course' May Be Out of Sync with Reality ~ Stephen's Web

    How do you determine what an online course is? I love Stephen Downes' tongue in cheek thought on how this is being defined. great points.

    tags: education news elearning

  • North Sanpete School District In Utah Sued Over Student's Suicide

    Sad, but this is happening. I do have to wonder that if it was that bad should the parents have moved him? The parents are suing the school for notbprotectingz their child from bulkying and false accusations. I was bullied. Simple answers dont exist.

    tags: education bullying news

  • Google tracks consumers’ online activities across products, and users can’t opt out - The Washington Post

    Expect the FTC to take a closer look at Google who will be tracking your activity across all their products as of March 1st with no choice to ot out. what are they doing with google apps for ed?

    tags: education news google

  • Apple's First Quarter Earnings: The Unbelievable Numbers

    Apples envious numbers have everyone talking. ".Big test looming? Grockit is a social study tool that’s customizable and connects you with friends on Facebook. Study guides are available for middle school, high school, college and graduate students — from the SAT to GRE. The program has some hefty research behind it, too. Experts in curriculum design who’ve worked for Apple and Houghton Mifflin helped create some of the lesson plans on the app. Study solo or connect with study partners on Grockit. Let your Facebook friends know you’re studying on Grockit and boast about the latest badges you’ve earned on the site."

    tags: education news apple

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Teach This! Teaching with lesson plans and ideas that rock #teaching 01/24/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

  • 4 Sites for Free Vintage Photographs — Life Scoop

    Four great sites to find vintage photographs. For presentations, activities, and authentic learning. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.

    tags: teaching photographs lesson plans

  • Drive to Life | Scholastic

    A contest that you'll want to consider entering with your students.
    "




    Dear Lori,




    Distracted driving—from texting behind the wheel to turning around to chat with friends in the backseat—can lead to deadly consequences, particularly for teens. Now your students can save lives and change attitudes by entering our Drive2Life Contest.




    Challenge your students in grades 6–12 to create an exciting, innovative storyboard or script for a memorable Public Service Announcement that educates others about distracted driving. The grand–prize winner receives $1,000 and will embark on a trip to New York City, where a professional film crew will transform the student’s vision into a 30–second commercial! Four runners–up each will receive $500.




    On our Drive2Life site, you’ll also find lifesaving and skill-building resources tied to National Standards, including:




    A distracted driving checklist/poll
    Role-playing and discussion activities
    A reproducible worksheet for creating a compelling storyboard"

    tags: education teaching lessonplans contest lessonplan distracted driving cellphone safety.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Edu app news: apps, ebooks, and sites for your classroom #mlearning 01/24/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read more »

The Sweet Smell of Success Starts at Home (part 3)

Posted by ultralitemp3

Student success starts at home, but it can be tough navigating the waters of learning. In the first post in this series, I shared the facts about how success starts at home, in the last post we covered the first three items in my list of 10 tips for starting student success at home. This is a series I wrote for the Lifetime Channel that I'm also posting here on my blog.

10 Tips for Starting Student Success at Home (4-6)

4 - Success in the classroom is not just mastery of the subject matter but mastery of a child’s relationship with his/her teacher.
We all have to get along with people they don't like for the rest of their life and classroom is life. Children will have bad bosses one day and they may have a bad teacher today.

I am preparing them for how to deal with a bad boss when I teach them how to deal with a bad teacher. Sometimes my child can learn more from a bad teacher than a good one if they learn to be strong, do the right thing, and work hard. I cannot always insulate my child from such experiences but can help give them perspective.

I do believe that most teachers are good teachers and there are some great teachers. Realize also that a great teacher can become a mediocre teacher quickly if administrators or budgets have put too many children in a classroom.

5 - I will create an area that sets them up for success at home.
The following YouTube video shares is our "study center."  I know that a well-equipped study center at home shows that I expect them to bring work home. (Note to readers:  Every circumstance is different- customize this to your child.)



6 - I will read with my younger children and let them see me read.
Reading is part of life and being a lifelong learner. It has a revered place in our home as something that we all do. I will read a variety of things and let them see me do it. Sometimes they learn more about who I am when they catch me reading my bible at 6 am or reading Consumer Reports before buying a washing machine or reading Educational Journals cover to cover.

We work hard to find books that our children like to read. My youngest has dyslexia and it has been a challenge but we’ve read and read. My favorite trick is to find a book he loves (the Chronicles of Narnia is his favorite now) and I’ll read a chapter and then yawn and say,

“OK, I’m really tired, I’ll let you stay up for another 15 minutes and read the next chapter if you want to.”

He does and now I hear him giggling at funny things or groaning and upsetting things as he reads. With my older two, I would read aloud to them in the car as we drove. Although we could do a book on tape, hearing my voice is important, I think. They know I think reading is important.

In my post, Time to Get Angry About Reading, I shared some research about how one third of high school graduates never read another book in their lives and over 40% of college graduates don’t read another book after college.

If you don’t like reading then your child won’t like it either. Success in reading definitely starts at home.

See the next post in this series for items 7-10 in this list. Remember, Moms (and Dads) matter.


Note: I will be concluding this series on my blog this week but if you want to go ahead and read part 4 and part 5 of this series, you can on my Lifetime Channel blog.

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Daily Education and Technology News for Schools 01/24/2012

Posted by ultralitemp3

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Read more »

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