Into the Driver's Seat

Cross-posted from onlinecollege.org

"Back in 2009, we wrote a popular post, 100 Ways You Should Be Using Facebook in Your Classroom. Now almost three years later, educators are still finding great ideas for putting Facebook to work on our list. But at the same time, Facebook has changed so much, and the site has even more to offer for the classroom. So we’ve compiled a fresh batch of ways to make Facebook work in your classroom, some tried and true, and others that have evolved with Facebook. Read on, and you’ll find a wealth of resources, assignments, and amazing uses for Facebook in any type of classroom."

By Mariko Nobori

"There is a small town, about 12 miles east of Austin, Texas, where a high school devoted to teaching every subject to every student through project-based learning (PBL) opened five years ago. On its own, this would not have been a noteworthy event. The list of schools across America deepening the learning process through PBL has been growing for quite some time. But few schools have fine-tuned the process like Manor New Technology High School in Manor, Texas, where 98 percent of seniors graduate and 100 percent of the graduates are accepted to college."

Article, video, and additional resource links. -JL

Carolyn Foote live blogs Gary Price's preso at Computers in Libraries conf in DC in March 2012.

Wonderful list of sites of interest, most of which I had not heard of. -JL

A great collection put together by Univesity of Wisconsin-Stout School of Education. Areas covered include Collaboration and Teamwork, Research and Video Projects and ePortfolios, Creating Rubrics, and Rubric Collections. Levels are K-20. -JL

"A paralyzed patient equipped with an implanted brain chip has used a robotic arm to reach for and pick up a bottle of coffee, bring it close enough to her face so she could drink from a straw, and then place the bottle back on the table.

"Cathy Hutchinson has been unable to move her own arms or legs for 15 years. But using the most advanced brain-machine interface ever developed, she can steer a robotic arm towards a bottle, pick it up, and drink her morning coffee. The interface includes a sensor implanted in Cathy's brain, which 'reads' her thoughts, and a decoder, which turns her thoughts into instructions for the robotic arm. In the video below, watch Cathy control the arm and hear from the team behind the pioneering study."

From the website

"Today, we’re proud to launch “Mozilla Webmaker,” a new program to help people everywhere make, "learn and play using the open building blocks of the web. The goal: help millions of people move from using the web to making the web. With new tools to use, projects to create, and events to join, we want to help the world increase their understanding of the web and take greater control of their online lives. And we’d like you to join us."

By Sarah Kessler

Summary by SmartBrief on EdTech

"A new product, Learnist, allows users to take educational content from websites such as YouTube and Wikis and post them to a board -- similar to Pinterest. The format of the site, according to its creators, helps to prevent against misinformation found on websites, such as Wikipedia, and still give users access to the resources they need."

Nice animated video by Carolyn Durley, Graham Johnson, and Paul Janke in which they describe their introductin to and 1-year history with its implementation - with an emphasis on how it has changed their pratice. Inspiring. -JL

26 binders chock full of Google resources for teachers. Sample binder titles include: Power Google, Google's New Assessment Tool, Top 10 Google Settings You Should Know, Creating Sub Gmail Accouonts for Kids, 100 Ways Google Will Make You a Better Educator, Google Tutor's Google Search Manual. -JL

HAPPENING NOW (5/22/12). CLICK ON TITLE ABOVE OR IMAGE TO GO TO LIVE FEED AND AGENDA.

"The Atlantic’s second annual Technologies in Education Forum, a full day program, will focus on the new policies, technologies, and tools available to those working on the front lines to bolster American student learning and achievement, especially in the critically important STEM curricula. The program will explore what public policies are necessary to bring new technologies into classrooms, how educational video games are changing the way students learn, and how new technologies can be used to improve vital intellectual skills and prepare the near future American workforce to compete in an increasingly advanced global economy."