Take a look around and chances are you'll see a mobile device. Phones, iPods, laptops, netbooks, iPads, USB drives, and handheld games seem to be everywhere. Combine these ever-present gadgets with educational and productivity uses and you've got mobile learning.

Mobile learning can happen anywhere: in a classroom, at the dinning room table, on a bus, in front of a science exhibit, at the zoo…anywhere! Portability is not as important as the ability of the learner to connect, communicate, collaborate, and create using tools that are readily at hand. Here are some examples:

Continue reading "Mobile Learning: Using Tools at Hand"

As a teacher, you probably have a repertoire of websites you use with students. Primary teachers tend to love Starfall and BrainPop. Middle school teachers might find great uses for Wallwisher and Quizlet. High school teachers might like to send students to Slideshare to view example presentations and Google Docs to create slideshows.

You may ask yourself if there is something better or different to add to your repository of websites. Or, much to your disappointment, a favorite website may begin to charge a fee or go out of business. An amazing tool to find sites like ones you already adore is SimilarSites.com.

Continue reading "Discover New Websites with SimilarSites"

This post is by Jane Nesdell. She is an instructor for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

You seem to find SMART Boards being used in classrooms everywhere. This presentation tool is useful for teachers as it easily engages and involves students in their learning. Adding an interactive component to a child’s education gets their attention, as they enjoy the use of technology tools in their learning. Students are not alone in their desire to use an interactive piece to make the learning more relevant and meaningful. Teachers are finding that their lessons can be more focused and target the specific needs of their students when technology tools are incorporated.

The SMART Board can be a powerful instructional tool when used with good presentation techniques. There are some basic elements of presentations that work well for lessons using a SMART Board. These guides are found in good presentations regardless of the medium used.

Continue reading "SMART Lessons"

This post is by Amanda Hughens. She is an instructor for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

There are only a few drawbacks to being a computer nerd and the biggest issue is that everyone from your boss to your friends to your colleagues has questions about how to add something to their web page or how to submit an online absence request. (It’s like being the only friend with a pickup truck when someone is moving). This is why I have fallen head over hills in love with Screencasting! Screencasting is actually quite simple; it’s a recording of what is happening on your monitor. With most applications today you can jazz it up to create a dynamic video with added audio and other media files.

Continue reading "Screencasting: Share Video of What You See on Your Monitor"

This post is by Jill Felty and Nancy Pratt. They are instructors for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

Digital storytelling involves using technology to share a personal narrative with others. The narrative has a certain point-of-view and is often emotional. The final product combines a passionate voiceover with music and photos. Teachers and students at all grade levels have used a variety of software to create digital stories, including iMovie, Movie Maker, PhotoStory, and GarageBand. Watch the two sample digital stories below to see why digital storytelling is considered an art form.

Continue reading "Digital Storytelling: Everyone Has Something Important to Say"

This post is by Chris Giles. He is an instructor for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

Over the years I have narrowed my favorite all time TV shows down to two, Whose Line is Anyway and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Both shows integrated the use of green screen technology to enhance their shows by putting a spin on older movies and "B" roll. Watch this YouTube clip for an example.

The use of green screen is not limited to TV, Hollywood has produced hundreds of movies that have incorporated the use of green screen in their production. Star Wars, The Matrix, Harry Potter and Spider Man, just to name a few are blockbuster movies that relied on green screens for their special effects.

Continue reading "Green Screens Can Make Films Fantastic"

This post is by Sara Crawford. She is an instructor for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

An interactive whiteboard can increase the level of engagement in a classroom. Just by handing a stylus pen to a student the level of engagement increases two-fold. However, many times this is where the interactivity stops. Using a concept that is familiar to educators, Bloom’s Taxonomy, along with an interactive whiteboard and student response systems, you can intensify the academic rigor of any classroom.

Bloom's taxonomy, originally created by Benjamin Bloom, classifies levels of intellectual learning that are commonly found in a classroom setting. Benjamin Bloom identified six levels that are known as Bloom's taxonomy. These levels from highest to lowest are: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating.

Many educators use these levels to aid in the creation of lesson plans and lesson objectives. They are aware that the higher you travel on Bloom's taxonomy, the more cognitive demand increases. Students who are challenged cognitively are more likely to retain information and develop a deeper understanding of the material presented. This applies to lessons utilizing technology as well.

Continue reading "Take Your Interactive Whiteboard Engagement to a Higher Level"

This post is by Cherie Stafford. She is an instructor for the Arizona K12 Center's Camp Plug & Play 5.0.

Continue reading "New! in Google"

Picture students working together to tackle these questions, issues, and challenges:

• Is it better to buy or lease a car?
• Which element of the Period Table is most important?
• Why has a woman never been U.S. President?
• What makes a good Vice President?
• Is it more important to know the area of perimeter of an object?
• Is Picasso's art worth its price?
• Design a house on the moon.
• What if the world ran out of oil tomorrow?
• Could the British have avoided the American Revolution?
• Is it better to use more adjectives or adverbs in song lyrics?

Continue reading "Introduction to Project Based Learning"

Twenty slides displayed for 20 seconds each for a total time of 6 minutes and 40 seconds. That's the formula for Pecha Kucha. Pecha Kucha was devised as a way to keep presenters focused and to keep an audience's attention. Pecha Kucha presentations have exactly 20 slides and the slides are set to automatically advance every 20 seconds. Sticking with this format allows for a multiple speakers to "take the stage" and keeps their messages concise.

When students, teachers, principals, or anyone who makes presentations use the Pecha Kucha format, their slides tend to have less text. Twenty seconds isn't enough time to dwell on a slide, much less a slide with more than a couple of bullet points. Instead of bullet points, many Pecha Kucha slideshows use photographs as the visual aid.

Continue reading "Pecha Kucha: Streamlined Presentations"

Dealing with email can be time consuming and feel like a second job. I've seen some educators with thousands of messages in their inboxes. You won't find very many emails in my inbox because I take care of my email each day. It isn't easy and I'm not always successful, but my goal is to achieve Inbox Zero. That's right, everyday I try to completely clear all emails from my inbox.

It sounds pie-in-the-sky, but Inbox Zero is indeed possible. If you're like me, you use your inbox like a to do list: each email represents at least one task to complete. The task might be replying to a parent's inquiry, sending information to the school secretary, remembering a meeting, reading an article, etc. Productivity guru David Allen, author of Getting Things Done, says that productivity is Advanced Common Sense. Applying some Advanced Common Sense to how we approach email can help us make our inboxes seem deserted.

Continue reading "Take Control of Your Email"

The Arizona K12 Center is once again hosting sessions at the annual Microcomputers in Education Conference (MEC) at ASU. We are covering some great topics, including Web 2.0, GIMP software, personal productivity, wikis, Twitter, iPhones, and iPod touch. We have a one-page handout for each of the sessions. PDFs of the handouts are available below:

Continue reading "MEC 2010 Handouts"

When you hear the word wiki, you probably think of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia anyone can edit. Wikipedia may be the largest wiki, but educators are creating their own wikis, large and small, to improve learning, communication, and collaboration.

A wiki is a website designed for multiple people to collaborate by adding and editing content. Some say wiki is a acronym for What I Know Is since a wiki as designed for multiple authors. However, the word wiki is actually Hawaiian and means quick. Wikis really are a fast way to make a web page or site. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can use a wiki.

Continue reading "Online Communication & Collaboration with Wikis"

Comedian Don McMillan delivers a short sketch about the misuse and abuse of PowerPoint. As a professional who probably uses Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote regularly, it's a good idea to avoid the mistakes Don outlines in his comic routine. If you have students use slideshows as visual aids in classroom presentations, it's important to teach them about what makes good and bad slideshows. Watch the four-minute video of Dan's comedic take on bad PowerPoint presentations:

Continue reading "Funny Video About PowerPoint Mistakes"

Of course you can find the Arizona K12 Center online here at azk12.org. But like other organizations, you can find the Center on the social networks Facebook and Twitter.

On Facebook, click on over to the Arizona K12 Center page at facebook.com/azk12. Not only can you read updates from the Center itself, but you can connect with more than 500 "fans" who are friends of the Center and education in Arizona. The page's "wall" includes updates about the Center, information about upcoming events, photos, web links, and musings. If you're a Facebook user, be sure to click the Become a Fan button so Arizona K12 Center's posts appear in your personal News Feed. Continue reading "Arizona K12 Center on Facebook & Twitter"