Teacher Kathy Cassidy has used Skype for years to connect her primary-aged students with the world. So when the company offered free group video to educators, she jumped at the chance. Five classrooms and lots of Lucky Charms to count! Find out what happened and read her “lessons learned.”
When Brisbane, Australia experienced floods in 2011, Kathy Cassidy’s connected grade-one students wondered if their seven year old skyping friends were safe. They tweeted them from Canada to find out. Result: meaningful and authentic writing and reading.
Mobile technology can add fresh layers to just-in-time learning, as teacher Lisa Noble demonstrates in this story about an Ash Wednesday day camp, a mysterious stained glass window in her parish church, and the Bermuda Triangle!
Many educators feel overwhelmed by new technology and may feel apprehensive when it comes to adopting it in the classroom. But I’m here to make the case that learning to use technology and employing it as part of your curriculum is actually easier than ever. Way easier.
It appears that while schools and software companies are gearing up for students to start creating and curating a digital portfolio, the reality is that colleges and their admissions directors are more conservative on the current and future role of this medium. Right now, few colleges and universities will consider additional application materials and do not see this changing in the near future.
It’s Arwen Kuttner’s first year with iPads and her first year as a reading support teacher in second grade. Can the iPads help her struggling readers? When it comes to letters and sounds, she’s not willing to trade her multisensory learning techniques for a digital tablet. But creation-based apps could help deepen reading comprehension. “It’s up to me,” she writes, “to know when to use the iPads and when not to, in order to keep learning effective and meaningful.”
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