4OOPS Tech Tricks

Online Learning is such a fun way to learn! Anytime! Anyplace! Jammies or Sweats!

According to the 9th annual survey conducted jointly by the Babson Survey Research Group and the College Board, “Over 6.1 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students over
the previous year.” What’s more, an additional 31% of higher education students are now taking at least one class/course over the internet, with 65% of higher education institutions thinking of making online distance education their long-term strategy.

Anticipated growth rate for online education is an impressive 21% compared to a 2% growth rate in overall higher education, according to the article The 10 Biggest Trends In Online Education Right Now

Click here to read all ten: http://edudemic.com/2012/05/the-10-biggest-trends-in-online-education-right-now/

Teachers Bring Text Messaging to the Classroom

In a move that heightened competition in online education and brought more prestige to the still-fledgling field, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are partnering to offer the public mainly free Internet classes.

Harvard and MIT are each donating $30 million to create a nonprofit organization, to be called “edX” that will develop an Internet platform for the classes and design new ways to teach and learn with technology, according to the two Cambridge, Mass., schools.

Click here to read more http://ow.ly/1jBEyy

The Education Arcade at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) has announced the Lure of the Labyrinth
Challenge, a free online math challenge for grades 6-8.

While playing Lure of the Labyrinth, students use mathematical thinking skills to progress through a compelling graphic-novel story.  Students and educators have many chances to win prizes such as Lenovo ThinkPad Tablets, books, and
technology tools like subscriptions to BrainPop just for playing.

There is no cost involved to participate in the challenge, which runs through June 15, 2012.  Since the game is web-based, students can play at home or at school, in the classroom, computer lab, library, or after-school program. Teachers have the
option of integrating corresponding lessons into their classroom activities but it is not required. Students can play as little or as much as they want-and best of all, they will have continued access to the game over the summer to help avoid that inevitable “brain drain.”

Visit http://lureofthelabyrinth.net to sign-up for the Challenge!

To learn more, join the Lure of the Labyrinth Community on edWeb.net.

Have you ever had a teacher who inspired you, challenged you, or even changed the course of your life? Today is the day to show your appreciation for all the remarkable individuals who have dedicated their lives to teaching. Send a free Teacher Day eCardto express your thanks and appreciation!

In 1944, an Arkansas teacher named Mattye Whyte Woodridge began a campaign to establish a national day that would honor teachers. Woodridge wrote letters to politicians, education leaders, and eventually the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. In 1953, Mrs. Roosevelt convinced Congress to proclaim the first National Teacher Day.

Remember your teachers everyday! Thank one today!

Common Core State Standards:
Building on the excellent foundation of standards states have laid, the
Common Core State Standards are the first step in providing our young people
with a high-quality education. It should be clear to every student, parent, and
teacher what the standards of success are in every school.

See Other Resources from the OOPS: Our Overnight Planning System webpage

“We don’t need to memorize things any more.” Jennifer Medbery begins an article on Reinventing Education To Teach Creativity And Entrepreneurship with this idea.

While I am not sure that I agree with this supposition, I do find the rest of her article to be timely and informative. I come from a family of six generations of entrepreneurs and I tend to smile at any program that seeks out the creative and enterprising spirit in our students (students of all ages!)

If you agree with Dan Meyer, quoted in Medbery’s article describing today’s curriculum as “paint-by-numbers classwork,
robbing kids of a skill more important than solving problems: formulating them” then give a click over to Reinventing Education To Teach Creativity And Entrepreneurship .

Saw this on Nic Peachey’s Pinterest Board

Very interesting graphic from the New York Times on digital
reading skills. Some researchers are noting new skills in reading online text.

Picture Source:

Since April 15th is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of
the Titanic, I thought I would include a couple of resources that
students from Grades 3-12 have enjoyed. These two resources have
across-the-curriculum appeal.

Titanic with Len Goodman:
In the first program of the series, Len Goodman (one of the judges from
Dancing with the Stars)  discovers how Titanic claimed the lives of
eight men in Belfast before she even touched the water. He tries his
hand at riveting, experiencing first-hand the blood and sweat that went
into building a ship a century ago. Len also explores the story of the
Titanic band. It’s one of the best known stories from the ship, but few
will have heard how the death of one of the musicians tore his family
apart for one hundred years.  Link for Partial video: http://youtu.be/fy29p47muWE

What the Moon Looked Like on the Night the Iceberg Hit Titanic: a perfect lesson in inference.
Link: http://www.briancasey.org/artifacts/astro/moon.cgi          Type in April 14, 1912

Healthy Recipes for Kids
http://kidshealth.org/kid/recipes/index.html

“If you’re hungry, grab your apron and get cooking! Making food yourself – with a
little help from a parent – is a great way to learn about food and meal preparation.
And we have plenty of recipes for you to try – from pizza to pancakes!”

Did you know if you sign up for Children Inspire Design’s Newsletter you get a gorgeous & FREE art print on the 1st of every month?
What a great idea!

Children Inspire Design is a product line of modern, eco-friendly and culturally diverse wall art, wall cards and posters, full of whimsy, and designed to help children learn compassion for our earth and all who inhabit it.  Artist, mother and social entrepreneur, Rebecca Peragine, has combined her passion for global design with her desire to inspire children to celebrate eco-consciousness and the beauty of different world cultures. They are also have a page on Facebook.

If you have not heard of Pinterest it is picture curation social hub that has everything you never knew you always wanted to know about anything! It’s kinda like fantasy football for me! You “pin” pictures from the web or from your computer and organize them in segments called boards. It is still invite only, so email me if you would like a faster track to the invitation process.

A few of my Pinterest Boards

Unfortunately, I must confess that during the holidays I became addicted to Pinterest. I think the official term is that I became a Pinterestible Pinner! My favorite idea is to create a board with pictures to use for writing prompts. I used to lug around portfolios full of writing prompt pictures —this is so much easier on my backpack. Here is a good board with ideas for writing prompts, scroll down for one interesting pin on inference: http://pinterest.com/selsmith479/writing-picture-prompts/

8 great ideas on using Pinterest that I have not seen in any articles:

1. Make sure that the board link you find at home will work on your school/classroom machine. School filters can be tricky.
2. If students will be using/accessing a board in independent work, just Bookmark/Favorite just the board link on their machines, not the entire Pinner’s gallery. And please remember to have a Plan B/Backup plan as Pinterest access sometimes is hiccuppy.
3. For easier access, create a separate Folder to hold your Pin resources on your computer and/or lab computers
4. If you use the embed code provided for individual pins, be sure to check the picture sizing first. And for Moodle users, be sure to add the close page element < /p > at the end of the coding so your whole Moodle page doesn’t go all wonkified.
5. Also for Moodle users, the original pinners’ board is embedded into the coding so please check the origins of the board in case of inappropriate content. Pinterest says that they monitor inappropriate content but a click of prevention…     Another option is to create your own boards and then the link code will reflect your content. (Again, if you would like to speed up the invite process, email me.)
6. When setting up your account, remember that some school email accounts will block messages from third parties such as Pinterest. You may want to set up a specific email account specifically to use for online adventures. And, set up a separate folder for your Pinterest correspondence in your email account. This will help enormously with organization.
7. If you have a website or blog, include it in your Profile to share your other non-Pinterest ideas
8. If you are open to idea contributions for your board, add the email address you created in #6 to  the description line of your boards. Something along the lines of “Email me at _____ if you would like to contribute a pin. Please include ____________(pin board name) in your subject line.”

Share the Love….if you see a board/pin that you like, leave a comment for the teacher curator. Compliments are as rare these days as dollar-a-gallon gasoline…

Happy Pinning!

Check out these links for Further Review:

Copyright Considerations for Pinterest

5 Power Pinners You Should Follow

and

30 Inspiring Pins for Teachers

So appreciate this article by Walter McKenzie:

We are in education. We aren’t in the happiness business or the customer service business or the product development business. We’re in the human potential business. We are so NOT one-size-fits-all, standardized assembly-line, profit-driven bottom line, nine-to-five clock punchers. ~Walter McKenzie

Check out
Walter’s blog archive: http://surfaquarium.com/blog.htm
Mirror site: http://surfaquarium.blogspot.com/

Teacher Discounts at these stores…click here

Created by Helen Teague via Picnik

Ok, I have put on my big girl smile and adjusted to the announcement that April is the end of Picnik. Thanks to Ann Voskamp for providing these alternatives to Picnik

From an online discussion by Louise Friel

My son (P7) has just completed a great project entitled, “The Person I Most Admire”.
The children put alot of thought and effort into this, gathering information, pictures and images, which culminated in a short Powerpoint presentation, which they shared with the rest of the class.

Sound familiar? So what else could they have done?
Using MovieMaker or StoryBoard, (free video and audio software) the children could have developed a much more media rich presentation, incorporating video and audio, which they could then have shared with the whole school, parents, family and worldwide, if uploaded and broadcast though the internet.

Have a quick look at www.schoolpodcast.org to see what some of the schools in Northern Ireland have been busy working on. This forum allows the children (and teachers) to showcase their work in a secure, structured environment, so we can all appreciate their hard work.

So, why are all schools not looking beyond Powerpoint? I believe that this is, in part, due to teachers lack of awareness of what else is out there. Instead of embracing the wealth of multimedia tools that current and emerging technology has to offer, they are stuck in the Powerpoint rut!

Do you agree? If so, how do we get schools to look beyond last centurys tools and start adopting the wonderful range of educational, engaging, and FUN tools out there?

What are some of these tools?