Will Richardson says, “I look at my own kids and I know that technology will be a huge part of their learning lives because a) they want it to be and b) they’ll be expected to be savvy users of the devices of their day to communicate, create and collaborate (among other things.) They’re not going to be able to ‘opt out.’” I experienced that feeling on Christmas morning. He further writes, “We may not [...]

Dr. Scott McLeod says, “As I’ve said many times: If a teacher gets it, a classroom changes. If a principal gets it, the whole building begins to change. If a superintendent gets it, the whole district begins to change. [And, if state or federal policymakers get it, the statewide or nationwide climate begins to change.] Seems obvious, right? So why are so many government / corporation / foundation educational technology reform initiatives (money, time, training, [...]

I am not sure how I stumbled across this resource but it is one worth sharing. The folks at makeuseof.com have created a Guidebook to Internet Searching that is worth reviewing. I am sure that there are things inside with which you are already familiar but I am willing to bet there are a lot of things you didn’t know. It certainly was true for me, and I consider myself fairly competent when conducting Internet [...]

The broadcast premier of this program is tonight at 9 p.m. on PBS. Check your local listings. Here is a brief introduction from the web site: Within a single generation, digital media and the World Wide Web have transformed virtually every aspect of modern culture, from the way we learn and work to the ways in which we socialize and even conduct war. But is the technology moving faster than we can adapt to it? [...]

Want to see some neat things that are happening online with NASA?Then check out these 10 cool applications!

I was browsing through an older issue of Learning & Leading with Technology (September/October 2007) when I found an article titled, Improving Student Research by Catherine Tannahill and Leslie Ricklin. The authors break the research process into four steps, the first being investigation. In this step students should identify the type of information needed and available to them. They recommend that educators teach, model and reinforce basic and advanced Internet search techniques so that students [...]

Each issue of EDTECHMAG.com has a lot of lesson plan resources worth exploring, adapting, and making your own. The latest issue features these two: Digitizing History: Students explore great moments in the past and build web skills along the way. [Elementary] Cellular Superheroes: Students use computers to create comic book characters that bring the parts of the cell alive. [9th Grade Biology] Each lesson plan has a description, a subject area focus, a list of [...]

Do you want to quickly and easily generate vocabulary lists for your students? Well, say no more, VocabGrabber is here! Get your list in three easy steps! Copy text from any document Paste the copied text into the box Grab your vocabulary words! More details from the web site: “VocabGrabber analyzes any text you’re interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just [...]

Have you heard about this? Google Squared is an experimental tool that takes a category (like US presidents, roller coasters, or digital cameras) and attempts to create a starter “square” of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web. You can modify your square by removing rows and columns you don’t like–or by adding new rows and columns and having Google Squared attempt to fetch the relevant facts. Verify and correct the facts [...]

A colleague wanted to create a course survey for students and sought my assistance. I recommended using Google Docs since he wanted to manipulate the survey results and create various charts and graphs for data analysis. After creating his spreadsheet we went through the process of creating a form that feeds the responses right to his document. He was so amazed with the tool, process and results that he wanted to share the survey with [...]