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Sunday, April 8, 2012


Posted: 03 Apr 2012 07:45 AM PDT
What if your school got about $60,000 to spend on technology, training, and implementation? What would you do? That's the question 380 schools in Poland are now answering.

Posted: 03 Apr 2012 07:00 AM PDT
I love these thought-provoking questions. During my time as a student, I always enjoyed when a teacher would ask a question that did not have a clear answer. It got the gears spinning and usually flushed out some mental cobwebs.

Posted: 03 Apr 2012 06:19 AM PDT
Faced with exploding costs of processing ever increasing admissions paperwork, Boston College adopted a novel, Cloud-based approach. The school teamed up with a Boston-based SaaS provider, FolderWave to replace its manual, paper-based admissions system with an electronic folder-in-the-cloud solution. The results underscore the importance of delivering early success, and staying focused on business outcomes.

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Flipped Learning Webinar Follow-up

PREMIER FLIPPED CLASS SOCIAL NETWORKING
If you’re interested in becoming a member of the Ning social networking site with over 3,500 other educators involved with flipping their classrooms for all grade level and subject areas click here.
Visit our Flipped Classroom EduVision Video Portal for more than 1,000 flipped classroom lessons created by teachers and students. Click here.
It’s free and we welcome you to join today if you haven’t already!

3rd Annual FLIPPED LEARNING CONFERENCE
Join the nation’s leading and most experienced flipped learning teachers this summer. You are invited to register for the Flipped Conference in Chicago at the Tribeca Flashpoint Academy on June 18-20. For more information or to register click here.
Hurry, we are keeping this conference small for maximum benefit to the participants. On a budget?? Register for live streaming sessions, click here.

REGISTER FOR FREE WEBINAR, PART II The Art of a Flipped Classroom – Turning Learning on its Head
Thursday, May 3, 2012 Time: 3:00pm ET / 12:00 noon PT Duration: 1 hour Sponsors: TechSmith & EduVision by JDL Horizons
Cost: $0.00
Register today by clicking here!

PUBLISH YOUR VIDEO WITH EDUVISION
To learn more about safe and secure video publishing and why leading schools, Districts, ESAs, and Associations use EduVision, or to start your own portal and free trial, please click here. To contact JDL Horizons for assistance or to schedule a demonstration to help you get started creating or publishing your flipped video call: 952-697-0555 or email at: sales@jdlhorizons.com.
New discounted pricing is now available for Flippers!

Free Trial

Create Engaging eLearning Content with the Help of TechSmith
Educators who implement Flipped Learning often create videos to watch as homework. But how do they create these videos? With TechSmith. We have the tools to help everyone create visual content and screencasts.
TechSmith offers an exclusive education offer of 25% off Snagit and an invitation to an exclusive webinar on “How do I get started on my flipped class project?” Enter FLIPPED2012 here to redeem.
To learn more about TechSmith and our role in the Flipped Model, click here

More Help and Information
Pre-order the book "Flip Your Classroom" by Jonathan Bergmann and Aaron Sams from the ISTE store, Click Here
Interested in Training for your School, District or Organization? Have questions or need clarification?
Please contact Kari Arfstrom at: kari@flippedclass.com


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TeachHub: April Lessons & Tips to Use Movies to Increase Student Learning

Today's Top Teacher Resource Picks
Find the TOP teacher-recommended books, websites, teaching tools & resources EVERYDAY!

Don't forget to post your picks using the sticky notes! You can even sort by specific grade level and subjects.
 
 
By: Meghan Mathis
 
Movies to Teach

In past English classrooms, students often looked forward to the end of literature units. Once the final test was over, they knew the teacher would bring in the video version of the book – giving students a two day break to sleep, pass notes to friends, finish homework for other classes, or maybe (just maybe) compare and contrast the movie with the novel.

I have found film versions of novels to be incredibly useful in teaching literature units. By using films in a different way than we might have used them in the past, we can change their status from “fun reward with little meaning” to “incredibly beneficial tool with many uses.”

Here are my classroom movie strategies to increase student learning:

Use Movies To Enhance Comprehension
One problem inherent with literature units is how to assess student comprehension throughout the unit.
  • Do you use assessments like chapter quizzes or reading logs?
  • What do you do with the students who fail a quiz or whose reading logs show that they are missing crucial understanding?
Assessments are important for letting us know who isn’t keeping up, but they are useless for helping us catch up the students who are falling behind.

A video version of the novel offers a quick-and-easy solution to this dilemma. Instead of waiting until the end of a unit, show 5-10 minutes of the film after every few chapters.

With the novel still fresh in their minds, the students who have strong comprehension skills will enjoy seeing how the film compares to their mental picture of what they have read. The students who struggle with comprehension will be able to see what they misunderstood and catch up with their classmates.

Use Movies To Encourage Unmotivated Readers
In any class, you are going to encounter students who don’t like reading novels or who don’t like reading this particular novel. Use a film versions of the novels you are reading to excite those students who are struggling to become or stay interested.

Show the film versions of one or several of the most exciting, funny, or interesting moments in the novel as an activating strategy before you begin reading. You can also use book trailers to get students excited about their upcoming reads. (Also a great post-reading project).

Ask your students to write down their predictions about the novel based on what they saw. By doing so, you’re asking each student to become invested in the novel before they have even begun to read it. Even your unmotivated students will be interested in discovering whether or not their predictions were correct.

Use Movies To Develop Extended Thinking Strategies
Extended thinking strategies are some of the most important skills we can give our students, but they can also be some of the most difficult to fit into our lessons. In our rush to cover essential vocabulary, comprehension, and other important skills – like comparing and contrasting, analyzing perspective, constructing support, or error analysis – can be challenging, if not impossible to fit into your curriculum.

Film versions of the novels for literature units can help us with this as well. Have students work with in groups to complete a Venn diagram (or even just list) the differences and similarities between the first three chapters of the novel and the first 10 minutes of the film.

As a class, discuss what they added after watching the film. How did it change their perspective? Hold a class debate over which version is better – the novel or the film – and ask each student to construct support for their position.

Require students to work in groups to come up with lists of the differences between the novel and the film. Display the posters in the room and have students add to them as you watch a bit more of the film each week. By the end of the literature unit, you will have had tons of chances to increase your students extended thinking skills by using 10 minutes of video only once or twice a week.

Drawing Comparisons with Character Letters
To spice up the comparison, ask students to pretend to be a character in the novel. With a colored pencil, have them write a letter to another character in the novel talking about a specific event that you read recently. Watch the film version of the event and then ask the students to add to their letter in a different color.

Where To Find Film Versions or Clips
It isn’t always easy to find film versions of the novels you are using in class. In fact, you might not even be aware that a film version of the novel you’ve taught for years exists!

Library Resources
But it is easier now than ever before for teachers to find what we need. Check first with your school librarian – often they can find movies through your school and/or community libraries.

If the librarian doesn’t usually check with local libraries in your community – try there next.

Streaming Movies
If you are tech savvy, Netflix, Amazon, and several other companies allow you to stream movies directly to computers and if you have a computer and a projector you can have access to numerous films when you need them for a fee.

Book Trailers
As referenced above, Digital Books Talk and other websites share movie-style previews of books.

YouTube & Online Video Sites
Finally, I have been amazed at how helpful YouTube has been for finding snippets of films (or full versions broken into manageable chunks), or even student-made versions of films that are excellent for short compare-contrast activities.

When teaching a unit utilizing Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, for example, I stumbled across a short version of the novel made into a series of short, 10-minute video chapters on YouTube made by a group of students.

Showing them the video that corresponded with the chapters we had read during the week piqued my students’ interest and got them talking about the novel more than they had before.

What Movies Are Out There?
Here is a link to some of the most popular young adult novels that have film versions available. Check it out – maybe it will inspire you to investigate a new literature unit for your class!
List of Children's Books Made Into Feature Films

Sometimes, even teachers love the idea of a relaxing reward at the end of a long unit. But all good teachers know that we need to make the most of every moment we have with our students in the classroom.

Using movie versions of the novels in short chunks and showing at the most appropriate times can bump up the learning potential in our literature units while increasing student interest and participation.

I hope you will consider looking into ways to incorporate this useful and fun tool in some of your upcoming lessons!

How do you use movies/films in your classroom? Share in the comments section!

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Case Studies and Methodologies: Summer Stcsm 2012

***************
Workshop, Invited Session(s), and Conversational Session: Call for Participation

***************
Extended abstracts (600-1200 words) can be sent to jireps@mail.iiis2012.org before or by April 25th, 2012. Full draft papers and extended abstract (as well as invited session organization proposals) can also be submitted via web page as described in http://www.2012iiisconferences.org/stcsm
***************
Non exclusionary topics
***************
• Case Methods and Methodologies
• Case Studies and Integration of Academic Activities
• Case Studies Research
• Case Studies in Education
• Case Studies in STEM Education
• Consulting Case Studies
• Business Case Studies
• Case Studies in Management
• Information Systems Case Studies
• Software Engineering Case Studies
• Engineering Case Studies
• Medical and Health Care Case Studies
• Case Studies in Science
• Ethical Case Studies
***************
Workshop
***************
CASE STUDIES AND METHODOLOGIES AND INTEGRATION OF ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES: This workshop will introduce participants to Case Studies and Method by showing the possibilities they generate for the Integration of Academic Activities.

A mix of presentation, exercises and discussion, the topics to be covered will include:

• What is the case method?
• Different types of case study and how they are used
• Steps in developing authentic case studies: from recruiting sites to publication
• Facilitating case discussions in the classroom
• Measuring case method learning outcomes
• Publishing case studies
• Opportunities for funding case method projects
• Broader impacts of case method on the individual and institution

***************
If you submit your extended abstract with a short CV of yours, you might be selected as a keynote speaker of your breakout session, in which case you would have more time to present your article, and/or be selected as an invited speaker, in which case 1) your presentation and paper will be differentiated as a invited one, and 2) you might be invited to present an additional paper with no additional charge.
***************
A More detailed Call For Participation can be found at http://www.2012iiisconferences.org/stcsm
***************

Thank you for your time.

Special Track Co-organizers
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EduDemic: April 6, 2012


Posted: 05 Apr 2012 12:01 PM PDT
Google is a big part of the classroom experience and it would not surprise me to see students wearing Google Glasses so they could have a seamlessly integrated experience where education and technology blend together like never before. But first, what exactly are Google Glasses? We discussed it in the April issue of the Edudemic Magazine.

Posted: 05 Apr 2012 07:45 AM PDT
Google Docs is such an incredible tool for college students, offering collaboration, portability, ease of use, and widespread acceptance. But there are so many options, both hidden and obvious, that there’s a good chance you’re not using Google Docs to its fullest capability.

Posted: 05 Apr 2012 06:34 AM PDT
Is your classroom filled with high stakes, last-minute projects, and rabid fans (parents)? If so, you may want to start considering your classroom to be a whole lot like a professional football stadium.

Posted: 05 Apr 2012 05:30 AM PDT
Today, postsecondary educators hold 1.7 million jobs in America. With postsecondary teaching jobs expected to grow by 15 percent by 2018, you might be surprised about who is teaching in college classrooms.

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eClassroom News: Conference to explore best practices in flipped learning

April 06 , 2012

e Top News Stories
http://www.eclassroomnews.com/

Conference to explore best practices in flipped learning

Conference to explore best practices in flipped learning This summer, educators will have the chance to delve into some of the finer points of one of the largest and most popular trends to hit classrooms in decades: flipped learning. The 2012 Flipped Class Conference will be ... [Read More]

Parents, educators want more from assessment

Parents, educators want more from assessment Thanks to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, K-12 educators are spending more time than ever before on testing their students’ skills—but is all this testing doing any good? The results from a new national survey reveal ... [Read More]

‘The Daily Show’ ridicules ban on Mexican American Studies program

‘The Daily Show’ ridicules ban on Mexican American Studies program It’s frightening how uninformed some of the people who are responsible for making education policy in the U.S. appear to be. Take Tucson Unified School District Governing Board member Michael Hicks, who faces criticism following his appearance on ... [Read More]

Google Art Project expands, with 32,000 works of art now online

Google Art Project expands, with 32,000 works of art now online Imagine pulling up a stool next to the lonely diners of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” or dipping your fingers in the basin of “The Child’s Bath” by Mary Cassatt. These familiar images, along with the sunbathers of George Seurat’s ... [Read More]

Tennessee governor ‘probably’ will sign evolution bill

Tennessee governor ‘probably’ will sign evolution bill Tennessee, where the nation’s first big legal battle over evolution was fought nearly 90 years ago, is close to enacting a law that critics deride as the “monkey bill” for once again attacking the scientific theory. The measure ... [Read More]

National leaders brainstorm for digital learning

National leaders brainstorm for digital learning In a move that could be considered encouraging for advocates of digital learning, leaders from the Education Department (ED), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the textbook and broadband industry met March 29 on Capitol Hill to discuss ... [Read More]

‘Hunger Games’ becomes part of school curricula

‘Hunger Games’ becomes part of school curricula For some school kids around the country, the odds have been in their favor as they've scored the ultimate field trip—an outing to “The Hunger Games.” Field trips to see the blockbuster movie have dovetailed with the introduction ... [Read More]

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Professional development content from ASCD now available on iTunes U The educational leadership organization ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) has made a variety of free professional development content available on Apple’s newly revamped iTunes U service. “We are excited to use this technology to ... [Read More]

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News from ELI: March/April 2012

advancing learning through IT innovation MARCH / APRIL 2012


Welcome to ELI NEWS, a bimonthly newsletter for ELI members and others interested in advancing learning through IT innovation.
Proceedings Now Available: ELI 2012 Annual Meeting
Review the resources and proceedings of ELI’s annual meeting, where more than 700 members of the teaching and learning community convened online and face-to-face to learn more about innovations in teaching and learning.
View the full collection of resources, including presentation slides and recordings from all sessions, as well as photos from the event and much more.

Still Time to Register for ELI Online Spring Focus Session, April 11–12
There is still time to register for next week's focus session on Learning Analytics. Virtual seats are filling quickly, so register today. Full program details are now available.
The focus session is sponsored by LoudCloud Systems.







News at a Glance

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Diverse Issues in Higher Education: Obama Plan to Raise Dropout Age Draws Mixed Reviews

Diverse Issues in Higher Education
March 12, 2012

Obama Plan to Raise Dropout Age Draws Mixed Reviews
by Charles Dervarics
President Obama’s call to keep high school students in school until graduation or age 18 may support his college completion goals but is not, by itself, a cure-all to the high school dropout problem, analysts say.
“It’s a proposal that already intrigues many states,” said Jennifer Dounay Zinth, senior policy analyst for the Education Commission of the States. “But it will have a marginal effect on its own,” she told Diverse, adding that it may succeed only if states and schools can “make school more meaningful for students.”
In his annual State of the Union address, the president said no state should allow students to leave school at age 16 or 17, prior to high school graduation. More than half of the states permit students to leave school before age 18, before they would earn a diploma.
“When students are not allowed to drop out, they do better,” Obama said. “We also know that, when students don’t walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma.”
The dropout issue is particularly acute for students of color, based on data from the National Council of State Legislatures. Among all U.S. youth in 2008, 18 percent of Hispanics, 15 percent of American Indians and 10 percent of African-Americans were not attending high school and did not have a high school credential, the council says. The corresponding rate for White and Asian youths was less than 5 percent.
But even in states with age 18 compulsory attendance laws, it is difficult to enforce the policy, according to Zinth. “It’s not a silver bullet, though it could have some impact,” she said.
Yet states can take other steps to stem the tide of dropouts, she said. In at least three states, districts with low high school graduation rates must submit to state intervention and a collaborative process to develop effective strategies to keep students in school.
However, only 21 states formally require students to stay in school until age 18 or high school graduation, she said.
While it is unlikely the president would ask Congress to require states to raise the age of compulsory school attendance, some analysts said Obama is using the presidential “bully pulpit” to seek changes at a time when bipartisan consensus is elusive on K-12 policy at the national level.
For example, Obama’s plan comes as the White House and Congress have been unable to agree on changes to the No Child Left Behind Act, said Antonio Flores, president of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. He noted that the age-18 proposal is one way for the president to lobby for changes that don’t require congressional approval.
“It’s critical that we look at K-12 more closely,” Flores told Diverse. “But I don’t know that there is the political will in Washington to do that.”
Requiring students to stay in high school until age 18 also may improve their job prospects, since high school dropouts are less likely to have skills desired by employers, he said. “It can help the economy in general,” he added, and the plan fits with administration commitments to focus on careers and job training. In his address, the president also called for a more streamlined job training system to help move the unemployed into stable jobs.
Even if more states prevent more 16- and 17-year-olds from dropping out of school, other K-12 challenges remain—including inequity in resources between low-income and more affluent schools, Flores noted.
Nonetheless, the White House proposal fits with the administration’s stated goals to increase the number of young Americans with college degrees, said Laura Bornfreund, senior education policy analyst at the New America Foundation.
“The administration has been focusing on the number of students going on to some type of higher education,” she said, and stemming the tide of dropouts promotes that goal.
Nonetheless, it’s not clear whether the administration would—or could—take action to force states to raise the compulsory attendance age. Despite the high-profile comments in the State of the Union address, the president “hasn’t announced anything the federal government would be doing” to support that goal, Bornfreund said.
“One of the easiest things to do is to call on states to increase the time that students need to stay in school,” she told Diverse. Yet just drawing national attention to the issue may bring new thinking. Since the speech, lawmakers in several states have introduced legislation to prevent students under age 18 from dropping out, Zinth said.
The New Jersey state Senate just approved a bill to raise the age of compulsory attendance, and states as diverse as Minnesota, Massachusetts and Kentucky are discussing it. “It seems to be a path that a lot of states are going down,” she added.
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Upcoming FREE Webinar: Make Clickers Work for You: Pedagogy for Student Engagement

2011 Free Webinar Series Make Clickers Work for You: Pedagogy for Student Engagement
Date: Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Time: 4:00pm ET / 1:00pm PT
Duration: One hour
Attend this webinar
Clickers can increase student engagement by going beyond simple quizzes. Learn to write good questions, promote student discussion, and see research results on best practices. In this interactive webinar, we'll explore tips and ideas for incorporating clickers into your particular class. Clickers offer a powerful way to increasing student engagement and improve learning. At my high school, I have transformed my classrooms by using clickers to promote peer instruction and personally written many of the questions I use. I'll show research results on the most effective use of clickers, and discuss common challenges. In particular, I'll focus on the attributes of “great” clicker questions, discuss example questions, and share ideas on facilitating effective wrap-up discussions once all the votes are in.
During the webinar, we will:
  • articulate several (3-5) reasons why clicker technology can aid in student engagement
  • articulate the 6 steps of using clickers effectively: Writing learning goals, writing and asking a clicker question, encouraging peer discussion, requiring students to vote, facilitating whole class discussion, and using the information from this formative assessment to improve teaching.
  • explain that clickers, when used with peer instruction, promote interactive engagement, which has been shown by several studies to improve student learning.
  • articulate at least three practices that differentiate poor use of clickers from better use of clickers
  • articulate at least three “best practices” in each of the following areas: writing effective clicker questions, facilitating peer discussion, and facilitating whole class discussion
Free Webinar...Register Now!
Space is limited!


Webinar Speaker

Patricia Loeblein K-12 Specialist/Team Member PhET Interactive Simulations CU-Boulder


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