More Vermont Classrooms are embracing technology
By Stephanie M. Peters, reposted from the Rutland Herald

Peter Evans was meeting with a parent recently when the conversation turned to technology - specifically cell phones - in the classroom.

Just for fun, enjoy a push out of the "box" with this archived talk at a LIFT conference. Sugata Mitra discusses his experiment of leaving an untended computer available to children in some of the poorest areas of India.

This week we had our first full week of school as a one-to-one tablet school. We had high expectations for the week and knew we had several things that we needed to accomplish. 

Five more tips on how to write an effective grant application.

An Arkansas task force told state legislators that classrooms in the 21st century won't have lecterns or rows of desks, but instead students grouped together working with computers and other technology as teachers mill about.

This is technology tip number 1 for 2008-2009. I’m hoping this is a weekly tip or mini-lesson to help us become better at creating curriculum that hastens student acquisition of 21^st century skills.

Jeremy Thiel, a math and science teacher at Kannapolis Intermediate School, is looking forward to "an overwhelming amount of possibilities" in his classroom.

Last week was an exciting, extremely busy simultaneous culmination and beginning. We have prepared for the launch of a one-to-one tablet program for the last 1-3 years depending on how you define the start date which for some is when we renewed the discussion and for some is when the board said yes.

Middle school students in Aurora, Colorado acquired technical skills and personal insight from a summer program for digital storytelling.

A two-year battle between school officials of Grand Blanc, Michigan and cell phones has ended with the triumph of teens and technology.

Integrating 21^st century skills into the Social Studies curriculum just got a boost with a new resource. The Partnership for 21^st Skills and the National Council for the Social Studies have created a map designed to provide educators with concrete examples of 21st century skills in classroom practices and highlights of the critical connections between social studies and 21st century skills.

John Long, technology program specialist at Florida's Palm Beach County School District, has trained many educators over the years and today focuses on digital storytelling.

Call it virtual, distance, or online education. For today's curricula, it's no longer a question of whether or not to try but when to start. Our survey of educators who already use these technologies can help the uninitiated.

Four tips on how to write an effective grant application.

Very few teachers or administrators have had any formal training in grant writing. To that end, the GrantSuccess system, an efficient, four- stage, team-based approach to writing a successful grant application, was developed. Here, we start with tips from the first stage.

Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching has been a cornerstone of my school's Teaching and Learning Committee. We've read her book and attended a workshop given by Danielson herself. It is only natural that we should try to reconcile our 1-to-1 initiative with Danielson's Domains.

Recently our institution has been spending a considerable amount of time exploring Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching which is best explained directly on the her website: "The Framework for Teaching is a research-based set of components of instruction, aligned to the INTASC standards, and grounded in a constructivist view of learning and teaching."

Teachers are beginning to realize the potential of podcasting. At Fort Sumner High School in rural New Mexico, for example, students use time on the bus to reinforce lessons with Zune music players donated by Microsoft.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have documented the educational benefits of social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

Other than district and state funds used to purchase computers and a $ 150- per-year stipend for supplies, there are no funds for technology. So Vickie Elswick gets creative.

 

 

Students will choose an issue that impacts them personally, the school, or their community to document in a short movie. Students will interview individuals on both sides of the issue, integrate video clips, create the documentary, and write a reflection detailing the learning process.

Never before has the pressure been so high to find ways to support successful teaching and learning through effective professional development. With the U.S.

"Increasing students' understanding of world religions and beliefs will help students build critical thinking skills and increase their global awareness--two essential skills necessary for the 21st century economy."

How do we take measure of Technology integration or implementation? It's not something we can score on a scale of 1 to 10 or measure as achieving with excellence or just passing. The benchmarks for every school and every classroom are different.