FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, January 18, 2011
CONTACT: Marlene Nesary, mnesary@iste.org, 1.541.302.3789
ISTE RELEASES 2011 U.S. EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY PRIORITIES
Ongoing School Improvement Efforts Demand Ed Tech Be Central to
Current Policy, Funding, Implementation Efforts
WASHINGTON, DC (January 18, 2011) – With both the White House and the U.S. Congress identifying education as a top policy priority for 2011, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) today released its “Ed Tech Trio for 2011,” identifying the top three education issues central to strengthening schools, instruction, and U.S. competitiveness.
An Ed Tech Trio for 2011: ISTE’s U.S. Education Technology Priorities includes:
Continued federal technology investment in existing ed tech programs such as Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) and the Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners Act (PTDAL);
Recognition that education technology is central to successful school improvement efforts, including teacher and principal quality and school turnaround, and must be included as part of federal policy and funding priorities; and Closing the digital divide by following through on efforts to provide all students with access to broadband as well as Internet access to educational materials outside of school hours.
“We need to do more than tinker around the edges of school reform,” said ISTE CEO, Don Knezek. “If we’re really serious about strengthening U.S. schools and helping our students to compete in a global economy, we must make a serious commitment to education technology. Countries around the world recognize the essential role ed tech plays in school improvement and student success. It’s time for U.S. policy to catch up.
“Let’s invest in proven ed tech programs like EETT and PTDAL,” said Knezek, who began his career as a math teacher and school administrator, “and require ed tech as a component in all ongoing school improvement efforts. Opportunities expand in digital environments. Let’s leverage that in policy and in the classroom through authentic projects, problems that matter, and the tools, resources and strategies used by contemporary professionals in the disciplines.”
You can learn more about ISTE’s policy and advocacy activities in this video.
ISTE represents more than 100,000 educators worldwide, providing a voice for classroom teachers and education leaders committed to the innovative and effective uses of technology. ISTE’s Top 10 in ’10 list of priorities served as a primer for ideas subsequently built into U.S. broadband and education technology plans.
Larry Ferlazzo has a great post about the 10 best videos for educators in 2010. hanks Larry for putting this list together.
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano of Langwitches Blog has an amazing post about teaching kids to post comments on a blog.
Preparing Students for Commenting with Wall Blogging
http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/11/26/preparing-students-for-commenting-with-wall-blogging/
All of our classroom teachers are working hard on their classroom blogs. They
are using the blog as a platform to allow parents to have a peek into the
classroom. It is a communication tool between school and home. It has been a
steep learning curve for some to write, post, embed and upload in [...]
This is so impressive, every teacher in Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano school has a classroom blog/website. Silvia outlines the entire process of teaching kids to comment on a blog. The process is not technical and doesn’t even use the technology at first, in fact, they are learning the process the old fashion way, pen and paper and a bulletin board. Now that the kids understand the process and have had practice, they will try it with the technology. I encourage you to read the whole store and of course, Silvia has some great photos to show you each step of the process. CLICK HERE
The issue of school systems controlling access to the Internet—and teachers complaining about it—is not new. Firewalls and content filters have irritated tech-savvy educators since the early days of blogs, wikis and streaming video. And those same virtual barriers have been defended by safety-sensitive IT directors and ever-cautious school attorneys since the first MySpace page pranked a teacher or revealed far too much about a student.
But two factors seem to be ratcheting up teachers’ long-standing pleas to ease restrictions on internet use in classrooms and computer labs: (1) increasingly, business and higher education leaders are asking why students aren’t better prepared to create and collaborate using online tools; and (2) more schools and districts are beginning to loosen internet restrictions, prompting other educators to ask: “If they can do it, why can’t we?”
Hoping to move the debate along, members of the Teacher Leaders Network recently had a very frank discussion of the topic in our 24/7/365 private chat room. Here’s a sample of what we had to say. (To honor our TLN confidentiality agreement, I’ve only used first names here.)
A free Plagiarism Checker can be very useful. PlagiarismChecker.com uses Google Search. It is very simple, all you do is as paste your text into the box and it searchs for similar wording on Google. The site has a special section for teachers to help use the software with student work. But you do need to be aware of the fact that it is only doing an Internet search. Not a perfec t solution and won’t help if the kids have actually used books from the library. But pretty good for the Internet stuff. And let’s face it, that what kids and probably most of us use. It is also possible to insert a web page URL and check it for plagiarism, I am not sure how well this part works, it seems to be a new feature in Beta test. They even have handouts to help you with PlagiarismChecker.com. And there is a section for authors to report plagiarism.
If you really need to find cheaters sign up for a ,Google Alert. You will receive an email from Google whenever the text appears somewhere on the Internet. Click on the preferences to setup an email account for the Google Alerts.
For a free tool, pretty good and quite easy to use. http://plagiarismchecker.com/
Additional Plagiarism tools you might wnat to check out……
Thanks to the American TESOL Institute, there will be conducting 6 free 30 minute online workshops on the Adobe Connect platform every Friday at 4pm EST (New York Time), 9pm London Time, 8pm GMT:
- Digital Storytelling with Young Learners, Oct. 22nd
- Here are the digital storytelling wiki resources that accompany this presentation!
- Mobile Motivation: Getting Your Students to Learn English Using their Smart Phones, Oct. 29th
- Check out this post, Mobile Motivation: 17 Digital Storytelling and Literacy Apps and Resources for Kids
- Check out this post, Texting and Teachers Experimenting with Technology
- Using Wikis to Integrate Effective Online Tasks for Learners, Nov. 5th
- Here are the wiki resources that accompany this presentation!
- Cooperative Learning to Motivate & Effectively Manage Young Learners, Nov. 12th
- Check out this post, Cooperative Learning vs. Competition
- Enriching the Young Learner Classroom with Drama Tasks, Nov. 17th
- Using Graphic Organizers to Enrich Discussion, Nov. 26th
Check your time zone here! This is the Adobe Room to join at 4pm EST http://americantesol.adobeconnect.com/terrell/. I will be updating this page with the wiki and blog resources I prepare for each presentation so bookmark and visit this website every Saturday for the latest updates.
One Tennessee elementary-school class received a $25,000 technology upgrade this summer after winning a contest. Students in teacher Jordan Haney’s fifth-grade classroom are using new iPads, MacBooks, Flip video cameras and other devices in many parts of classroom learning, such as choosing novels, taking quizzes and creating blogs. “There’s deeper learning, instead of just rhetorical, repetitious learning, which only lasts a month,” Haney said.
To read the full story: Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tenn.)
Third-graders were given new Apple Macbook laptops through a school program at Mill School and Technology Academy in Whittier on Friday, Sept. 10, 2010. Mill is the first school in Whittier to initiate the program. (SGVN/Staff photo by Bethania Palma/SWCity)
An elementary school in Whittier, Calif., is distributing Apple MacBook laptops to its 79 third-grade students as part of the school’s new “1 on 1″ computer program. Students’ families will pay for the $1,256 computers on a lease-to-own basis. Educators will focus on incorporating technology into student learning and will allow for more project-based learning.
Read the full story: San Gabriel Valley Tribune (San Gabriel, Calif.)
Rural schools serviced by small independent telephone companies are eligible for grants to improve technology resources. Grants of up to $10,000 will be given to increase technology use in the classroom. Equipment, curriculum, and training are appropriate uses of grant funds.
Six specific evaluation criteria will be used to score applications, and priority will be given to applications, which show strong collaboration between the school, community, and telephone company.
- Grant Organization: Rural Telephone Finance Cooperative
- Contact URL: http://www.fred.org/tech.html…
- Eligibility: Any public K-12 school located in the service area of an OPASTCO telephone company
- Grant Deadline: Friday September 17th, 2010
- Grant Value: Multiple awards of $1,000 to $10,000
I have been thinking about this for some time now and at ISTE Conference in Denver in late June I pre-ordered the new book RETOOL Your School; The Educators Essentail Guide to Google’s Free Power Apps.” It arrive a week or so ago, as usual, I flipped through it, got excited, then was off to something else that needed doing. Today, I really sat down and took a good look at the book. I was enthralled with Chapter 1, How Google Transformed a School. OK, so I am hooked now. Actually, I think Hook, Line and Sinker would be more accurate. 
http://www.isteconnects.org/2010/08/08/retool-your-school-with-free-google-apps/
Collaborative means that students work together, view each others’ work, and/or are included in all class conversations. There are so many ways to share information and enable collaboration these days, it only makes sense to include them in my pre-service technology class. Remember, my students are all going to classrooms teachers very soon.
I have not done a ton with collaborative projects and such in my class because the minute I bring up collaborative projects, the whining begins and I usually buckle under pressure. Well not this semester! I have been researching ways to collaborate and here are a few ideas.
Do you have suggestions or ideas for collaboration and collaborative type projects I might try with these soon to be teachers.
- Google Docs: (http://docs.google.com) I have used it off and on for this or that, but haven’t really gotten invested in Google Docs. I think the new shared folder feature in Google Docs could be quite useful. I am really swamped with email and worry I might miss something important from a student, I am thinking I could create a shared folder for each class and it might keep me more organized. It is even possible add folders within a shared folder. I plan to use Google Docs for creating online forms/surveys, maybe even a way to take attendance. I am in a 1:1 laptop situation, so that might work. We do a peer review of their portfolio website, I think this might make that task much easier. Just need to figure out exactly how to set it up!!
- WallWisher: (http://www.wallwisher.com) I been seeing lots and lots of teachers using WallWisher lately, I think I could use it for discussing key concepts and ideas, then I will embed the “wall” my the course page for that week of my website. Looks easy and is a great way to share thoughts and view them in an interactive environment. I think my students might just really get into this.
- Twitter: (http://twitter.com/cyndidannerkuhn) I have been using Twitter for quite a long while now and I love it. For me, Twitter is my professional development every day when it is convenient for me. But I have discovered that convincing my pre-service teachers that Twitter is useful has been a huge struggle, so, I am looking for ideas of how I can “turn on” these education majors to the power of Twitter. Yesterday in day one of class, I mentioned Twitter and there was a huge growl from the class, and it was clear they were not excited and dreading it. HELP, ideas please……
- Delicious: (http://delicious.com/cyndidannerkuhn) I have been using delicious for years and couldn’t get along without it. But my personal delicious site is a bit of a mess these days. I do lots of professional development workshops and am constantly demonstrating how to use it. I just created one especially for my Honors section of my tech class that will be using iPads http://www.delicious.com/coeksuipad. I told my students to tag anything relevant to our iPad experiment in our class. I think maybe I need to make a delicious feed for my regular sections of DED 318 that is not iPad specific and have all of them (160+ students) tagging sites to it? In the past I have had each student create their own delicious account, which I may still do toward the end, but maybe a collaborative one would be more effective in the long run. It might do a better job of getting the point across.
- Google Reader: (http://reader.google.com) I have a Google reader account and it is useful, but I just read about Google Reader “bundles”.” They can subscribe to just one feed with all the blogs I suggest or even that they suggest. I have to think about this one some more and do a little more research before I jump in neck deep. I tend to jump before I look, get me in hot water sometimes.
- My Blog: Technology Bites, Bytes & Nibbles: (http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/) If I can get them to subscribe, I really hate to require it, it needs to be a choice. But if they do subscribe or I include it in the Google Reader Bundle, they will receive daily (well I miss a day now & then) with resources and new technology stuff I find. This is another way for students to stay informed.
- Podcast: I think it is time I have a podcast. We just got a server with Podcast Producer and I am so excited. Not that I could not have created podcasts before, but now, I am more motivated, everything I have learned about Podcast Producer just makes the entire process seem so much easier.
So for now, those are a few of my goals for my Technology for Teaching and Learning class of soon to be teachers this fall. I guess time will tell how many of them are successful. I would appreciate any advice or suggestions you might have.
by Michael Zimmer , The Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness
I tried to abbreviate this post and send you to right off to Michael’s blog, but for the life of me, I could not do it justice. So, here it is in full with a link at the end to Michael’s site where you can comment. I hate to copy completely, but…..so my apologies to Michael…….and Thank you for some excellent ideas.
1. Standard Homework Assignment: Create a poster board over a book/person/event.
Technology Alternative: Create a Glog using Glogster for Education
2. Standard Homework Assignment: Find an article about a certain topic (Current Event maybe) and bring into class with a write up discussing the content
Technology Alternative: Have students find that article online and post a link to it on a blog or wallwisher wall discussing the content. Share the blog/wall in class the following day.
3. Standard Homework Assignment: Complete the questions from a certain section or chapter review in your textbook.
Technology Alternative: Create a Back Channel Chat using a site like TitanPad and discuss the questions from the book at a certain time that night.
4. Standard Homework Assignment (Math): Do a certain number of problems from your book and bring them in to check for correctness
Technology Alternative: Use a site like Twiddla and provide a whiteboard area for students to collaboratively work together on the problems.
5. Standard Homework Assignment: Complete a worksheet and turn in to the teacher the following day
Technology Alternative: Create the worksheet and make it available to students online (Use a Word to PDF converter or on a Mac>Print>PDF). Have students search the Internet for the answers and provide a link to the source for where they found the answer.
6. Standard Homework Assignment: Read a poem/story/section of a book and be prepared to discuss in class the next day
Technology Alternative: Read a poem/story/section of a book and create a blog or Twitter account for students to discuss the night they read it. Then share the comments on the blog with students to facilitate the discussion in class the next day. It also provides a way to grade them for participating in the reading. If they do a blog response, they get a grade, if not, they don’t.
7. Standard Homework Assignment: Write a Poem.
Technology Alternative: Use a site like PicLits and write the poem using an image as inspiration. Email the completed poem to the teacher. Share in class.
What Technology Alternatives do you have for the Standard Homework Assignment? Feel free to comment on Michael Zimmers Blog, Click Here
Last week Richard Byrne of Free Technology for Teachers posted a survey asking his readers about new things they were trying in their classrooms this fall. He is has put together a great presentation with 140 items. Wow, just packed full of good ideas. Check out his presentation at:
BY KEVIN JARRETT, ON AUGUST 10TH, 2010
What does exemplary technology infused Math instruction look like? (Middle & High School) http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=5850
What does exemplary technology infused Language Arts instruction look like? (Middle & High School) http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=5839
I was an early adopter of the Macintosh, in fact, I bought one in the fall of 1984, it was a 128k machine. Imagine that and now 360 gig hard drive with 4 gigs of RAM is not big enough…….All the software was used from floppy disks, MacWrite & MacPaint, yup that was all I had, MacWrite and MacPaint. Remember them? MacWrite was a basic word processor by today’s terms, but MacPaint had a huge impact on my interest in using the computer as a creative and artistic tool. My journalism staff completely produced the sshool newspaper and yearbook using them that school year. And, I went on to get an MFA in Graphic Design and have no doubt the Macintosh and MacPaint were an early influence in that process.
It was the predecessor to pretty much all the imaging software we use now, MacPaint introduced the lasso tool and the paint bucket which I still use all the time. The marching ants selection is used in most Adobe software and began with MacPaint.
Apple’s drawing software was the first to let us create images rather than using code to make them. If I had to use code, I would be up a creek without a paddle. I am not a code person, and I don’t want to be! Apple has always understood what regular people (like me) needed in computers, even if at that point most people didn’t even realize they needed a computer. It didn’t take me very long to get hooked. I have have one version or another of Macintosh since 1984. I have never spend my own personal hard earned money on any computer but a Macintosh and still would not purchase anything but a Mac. How about you? Sorry, Windows folks, but in my opinion, Mac is just easier and more stable ant JUST WORKS!!
Recently, Apple donated the original source code for MacPaint to the Computer History Museum (http://www.computerhistory.org/). Apple realized the historical as well as the technical significance of MacPaint. The Computer History Museum has it available for downloaded. They say it is 5,822 lines of Apple Pascal and 3,583 lines of 68000 assembly, which means absolutely nothing to me, but, I am sure all those numbers and lines of code mean something to programmers. I can just accept the MAGIC that it just makes it work!!
If you are interested in the history of MacPaint CLICK HERE to access the Computer History Museum page about MacPaint. To my surprise, it is pretty interesting.
Steve Dembo has a great post on his blog today, Teach 42. If Presenting with your iPad is important, you might want to read Steve’s article, he has some great resources and information. I would basically put this in my Thank you Steve for doing the research for me pile!!
One of the first things I thought to use my iPad for was presenting and live demos. After all, it’s such a sleek, elegant device, why on Earth would I want to lug my laptop around at all? So I started researching ways to present from it.
First choice seemed to be obvious: Use Keynote. There are a few problems though. I’m not going to get into it, as it has been well documented in other places, but suffice to say there were enough issues that I decided it wasn’t the right solution to me. Amongst other things, I didn’t want to have to convert 5 years worth of presentations over.
by Vicki Davis, Cool Cat Teacher Blog
Sorry my PC was a slow boot and the ISTE wifi won’t connect to my laptop, so it took a moment to take notes. This session is with Mike Muir, Cyndi Danner-Kuhn, and Sam Farsali. Moderated by Alice Owen.
Mike – “Do not do workshops around hardware and software training. The research is clear if you train teachers how to do spreadsheets — if you teach them how to analyze data – they go back and teach kids how to analyze data and do spreadsheets.”
Cyndi – “Get rid of the network nazi’s — people who are IT people with no background in curriculum or education have no business making curriculum decisions.” (Those who have heard me speak know I agree with this.)
Mike- Leadership is everything – 4 characteristics of places where successful things are happen
To Read the full post, CLICK HERE
I want to thank Vicki Davis for taking such great notes and for the compliments. I am feeling so stupid that we did not record the session. Mike and Sam really had some great info.
WHERE ARE YOU IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF TECHNOLOGY IN THE CLASSROOM?
Are tech tools improving your teaching or just a distraction? The quiz below will rank you on our technology integration scale and provide you with smart tips to extend your tech comfort zone. Get started! – Take the 10 question Quiz and see where you rank! It takes about 3 minutes to take.
Ok, I just took it and I am an All-Star Advanced, Yippy Skippy!!!!!!!!!!!
All-Star (Advanced)
You are a wired wonder, comfortable adding a technological dimension to your teaching, learning, and life. The challenge is now to keep up with the pace of innovation and your student’s accelerated mastery of digital tools. Plus, how do you bring your school colleagues along with you? How do you bring like-minded folks into your school community? Click these links and get pro-active:
- Share your wisdom and help spread the word in one of Edutopia’s groups:
Multimedia Literacy
Online Learning
Technology Integration (Elementary)
Technology Integration (High School) - Explore how technology integration can give students a more personalized learning experience.
- Try using screen-capture software to explain a difficult concept and post the video on YouTube so your students can review at their own speed.
(See this example math video.) - Check in with other Twitter-savvy teachers for new ideas. And tune into the weekly #edchats, held every Tuesday at 12 p.m. EST/5 p.m. GMT and 7 p.m. EST/12 p.m. GMT.
- Don’t let the budget stop you. Learn how to find and write grants so you can get the funding to support important technology initiatives at your school.
- Help students make constructive use of social networking.
- Go the way of the wiki and build online creativity and cooperation in your classroom.
- Use online simulations and games as teaching tools:
- Explore the world of Wii
- Find real-world games on environmental sustainability
- Save the world with games that tackle social issues like solving world peace
- Discover how avatars teach teens about self-image
- Get some inspiring lesson plan and new media ideas from other Edutopia students and teachers.
- Join a professional organization, such as the International Society for Technology in Education, that guides and supports what you’re trying to accomplish with technology in the classroom.
About 18,000 educators (including me) attended the annual meeting of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in Denver, where some are predicting that the future of classroom technology will be hand-held devices and computer games. Teachers are attending training workshops on using an iPad in the classroom and integrating student cell phones into lessons. The Denver Post (6/29)
I have to admit, I was amazed at the number of iPads I saw, they were everywhere. I don’t know the statistics, but, I bet (just guessing based on numbers using in sessions I was in) it was close to 50% of the attendees were using an iPad.
I was totally blown away by the number of vendors and such with apps to use in the classroom for the iPads. The iPad is so darn new, that I really didn’t expect to see much development yet, but, boy was I wrong. I do believe it is going to be game changer for education! Search my iPad category, I have lots of posts with resources already.
Jerry Blumengarten or Cybraryman1 has created a an amazing website dedicated to new teachers. Check it out here. But, for any teacher, new or experienced who is ready to begin learning about how to harness technology as a teaching and learning tool should also check out his new e-book, The Beginner’s Guide to 21st Century Teaching and Learning.
“The Beginner’s Guide to 21st Century Teaching and Learning, designed for the digital immigrant, will answer these and many more of your questions, hesitations and fears surrounding integrating the internet and technology into your curriculum. It serves as a technology handbook for teachers ready to harness technology as a teaching and learning tool.
Web-based instructional activities have an enormous potential to enhance and entice learning. However, integrating the internet into your curriculum in a way that has a positive impact on students’ learning can seem like a daunting process. This e-book is meant to serve as a starting point for 21st century teaching and learning. It, like 21st century teaching and learning, will continue to evolve. Check back regularly for updates and new volumes.”
Written by Jonathan D. Becker, J.D., Ph.D. Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University, with Cherise A. Hodge, M.Ed. and Mary W. Sepelyak, M.Ed. Dr. Becker is an expert researcher in achievement and equity effects of educational technology and curriculum development.
Special thanks to Sylvia Martinez for sharing this on her GenerationYES Blog.
Assessing Technology Literacy: The Case for an Authentic, Project-Based Learning Approach (PDF)
This whitepaper takes a comprehensive look at the research, policies, and practices of technology literacy in K-12 settings in the United States. It builds a research-based case for the central importance of “doing” as part of technology literacy, meaning more than just being able to answer canned questions on a test. It also explores the current approaches to develop meaningful assessment of student technology literacy at a national, state, and local level.
Where “doing” is central to students gaining technological literacy, traditional assessments will not work; technological literacy must be assessed in ways that are more authentic.
Building on this definition, the whitepaper connects project-based learning and constructivism, which both hold “doing” as central to learning, as the only authentic way to assess technology literacy.
True project-based assessment is the only way to properly assess technological literacy.
Finally, it examines our TechYES Student Technology Literacy Certification program in this light.
A review of existing technology literacy models and assessment shows that the TechYES technology certification program, developed and implemented by the Generation YES Corporation using research-based practices, is designed to provide educators a way to allow students to participate in authentic, project-based learning activities that reflect essential digital literacies. The TechYES program includes an excellent, authentic, project-based method for assessing student technology literacy and helps state and local education agencies satisfy the Title II, Part D expectations for technology literacy by the eighth grade.
This whitepaper can be linked to from our Generation YES Free Resources page, or downloaded as a PDF from this link.
Sylvia
