The Grey Wardens

Embedit.in is a free web tool that allows you to upload...

Sun, 06 May 2012 19:23:11 -0400

Embedit.in is a free web tool that allows you to upload documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and others), images, code, webpages, vector graphics, and text into your website. You can write the documents, adding corrections or pointing out certain things, and have different privacy settings for the documents, and it has built in analytic tool so you can understand how your viewers are using your documents. - Emily R.

Emily R. - A Win for the Robo-Readers

Sun, 06 May 2012 18:27:00 -0400

Can software accurately grade a students essay? According to this article from Inside Higher Ed, yes and no. A large study done at the University of Akron found that grades given by human readers and the software’s ratings were usually very similar. More than 22,000 essays written by students were used in the study.

From the article: ” “The results demonstrated that over all, automated essay scoring was capable of producing scores similar to human scores for extended-response writing items,” the Akron researchers write, “with equal performance for both source-based and traditional writing genre.” “

Les Perelman, director of a writing program at M.I.T., found that the software could be easily fooled. A better score could be obtained by using bigger, more complicated words; longer essays got better scores; and when sentences included words such as “however” and “moreover,” scores were likely to be better as well. The software also can’t fact-check, and can’t score you on creativity.

Click the title to read the whole article, or check out this New York Times article, Face a Robo-Grader? Just Keep Obfuscating Mellifluously.

Emily R. - Harvard and M.I.T. Team Up to Offer Free Online Courses

Sun, 06 May 2012 18:05:00 -0400

According to a New York Times article, Harvard and M.I.T. Team up to Offer Free Online Courses, these two educational giants have announced edX, a nonprofit partnership that offers free courses from both schools. Completing the courses earns you a grade and certificate, but you don’t get any credits. 120,000 people already enrolled in a Circuits and Electronics course in March, and 10,000 passed the midterm. Other schools are planning to offer free online courses as well, such as Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, and Princeton.

The article said of the venture, “M.I.T. and Harvard officials said they would use the new online platform not just to build a global community of online learners, but also to research teaching methods and technologies.”

TimeMaps is a site that helps history teachers create lesson...

Sun, 06 May 2012 18:04:00 -0400

TimeMaps is a site that helps history teachers create lesson plans by letting them click on places on a map and giving them information about the places they clicked. It also recommends them to let their students come to the website in an attempt to perhaps inspire the student to do research in their free time. - Jay S.

The Scale of the Universe is a program that allows the user to...

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:59:00 -0400

The Scale of the Universe is a program that allows the user to inspect everything from atoms to planets. You use a slide to decide how zoomed in or out you are and then you click on an object and the website will tell you about that object. It is a very fun and informative tool. - Jay S.

Technology Teacher

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:51:00 -0400

Technology Teacher:

This is a very user friendly blog. It will give step by step instructions about how to use different online tools that would be helpful in a class. It is discribed so well that I think that even elementary level students would be able to understand and complete the steps described on this site. - Jay S.

iLearn Technology

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:46:00 -0400

iLearn Technology:

This blog is devoted to finding ways for teachers to integrate technology into classrooms. It has very in depth articles about a variety of different technologies. It discusses a variety of websites and tools I’ve never heard of. Professor Strange would probably really enjoy this blog. - Jay S.

Ask a Tech Teacher

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:40:00 -0400

Ask a Tech Teacher:

Ask a Tech Teacher is run by Jacqui Murray, a Southern California elementary teacher who teaches her students about typing on keyboards, Photoshop, and other technology. Her blog is a veritable treasure trove of information for teachers looking for ideas to use technology in their classroom. Her blog has even won web awards for best educational technology blog. She covers a wide range of topics in her blog, from photoshop, keyboarding, Google Earth, Web 2.0 tools, Kidpix, and a ton of other things. She also answers questions from her blog’s readers and gives out tips. She updates very regularly, and is a great addition to anyone’s PLN. - Emily R.

This video was made to be presented the the board of trustees...

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:38:00 -0400

This video was made to be presented the the board of trustees at Westerly School of Long Beach. This video discusses the changes in our culture and how technology has become a major part of that. It is a list of different interesting facts. One that I found surprising was the first one listed that the most indemand jobs at their school hadn’t existed six years before. This is an interesting video that will supply you with thinks that you probably didn’t know. - Jay S.

This is The Last Lecture given by Randy Pausch. He gave it while...

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:31:00 -0400

This is The Last Lecture given by Randy Pausch. He gave it while at Carnegie Mellon University. This is the most interesting video I have ever watched for any class I’ve taken. It is wonderfully done, and Mr. Pausch was able to remain extremely amusing while discussing everything he thought was wrong with the education system. Any person who wants to become a teacher should watch this lecture. - Jay S.

Jay S. - Assistive Technology for Children with Autism

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:26:00 -0400

Jay S. - Assistive Technology for Children with Autism:

This is an article by Susan Stokes. It covers many of the ways she thinks that Autistic students could be aided with the use of technology. She thinks that Autistic students could be aided in the areas of overall understanding of their environment, expressive communication skills, social interaction skills, attention skills, motivation skills, organization skills, academic skills, self help skills, and overall independent daily functioning skills. It is a very interesting article even if it is a little old.

The Alliance for Technology Access has a mission to increase the...

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:18:00 -0400

The Alliance for Technology Access has a mission to increase the use of technology by children and adults with disabilities and functional limitations. They have a very extensive amount of information on how to use technology to aid in teaching people. I have found this website to be very comprehensive and useful. - Jay S.

Jay S. - FamilyVillage

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:13:00 -0400

Jay S. - FamilyVillage:

This is probably the best website that I’ve found about using technology for students with disabilities. It has links to many other websites about using technology to aid disabled students. It also has links to lome of the best articles on the use of tech that I’ve found in my searches.

Jay S. - Technology Helping Disabled Students

Sun, 06 May 2012 17:06:00 -0400

Jay S. - Technology Helping Disabled Students:

This is a short article about different ways that technology can be used to help teach students with disabilities. It also talks about how these same advances in technology can be used to help develop the social development of these injured students. This website has many useful articles like this.

Nik's Learning Technology Blog

Sun, 06 May 2012 14:42:00 -0400

Nik's Learning Technology Blog:

Nik Peachey is a learning technology consultant and teacher trainer who runs several blogs, gives lectures, and runs workshops on media and technology for teachers. Nik’s Learning Technology Blog is full of ways to use technology in the classroom. He takes a seemingly arbitrary apps and turns it into an augmented reality info scavenger hunt for students. He uses Cruxbot, a tool which summarizes web pages and articles, as a study tool for students. He writes about many innovative ideas for technology to be used in the classroom on all his blogs, which are linked to in the sidebars of each of his blogs as well, so check it out. - Emily R.

This is another one of my favorite videos from our EDM 310...

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:17:00 -0400

This is another one of my favorite videos from our EDM 310 class. It is a very humorous video about a man who falls asleep and awakens in a world field with technology. He walks all around this new frightening place and notices how everything is unfamiliar. Everything except one particular place, the classroom. It’s called Mr. Winkle Wakes. - Rodney P.

This is a video we had to watch earlier in the semester that...

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:13:00 -0400

This is a video we had to watch earlier in the semester that really caught my attention. I knew that it had to be shared. It’s called A Vision of Students Today.

Rodney P.

Teacher Resources

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:08:00 -0400

Teacher Resources:

This is a website I found that is filled with teaching resources and other things. There are student activities, teaching strategies, teaching ideas, and even more. Definitely a plus for anyone planning to go into the teaching field. - Rodney P.

Kubbu

Sun, 06 May 2012 13:03:00 -0400

Kubbu:

This is a site I found that I personally thought would be helpful to educators. Here you can create activities, manage your students accounts on the site, track how students are progressing, and even share assignments with other teachers. - Rodney P.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

Sun, 06 May 2012 12:35:00 -0400

Cool Cat Teacher Blog:

This is the blog of Vicki Davis, another educator whose blog we visited frequently. She also has a lot of great posts and has a lot of advice to give future educators.

Rodney P.