tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34258222009-11-07T02:34:26.002ZNews, Techniques and Theories of Effective Use of Technology in EducationRayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.comBlogger5000125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-16891035290720919912009-11-07T00:40:00.002Z2009-11-07T02:34:26.008Z

The race is on to release the first approved Google Wave iPhone app with two contenders already in the running. One is called WaveBoard, which is already up and running as a Mac Google Wave desktop client. It is awaiting approval from the iPhone App Store.The other potential candidate is an Adobe AIR application called Waver, which has been developed as "your tiny Google Wave client". The desktop

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-41121347867946024372009-11-07T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-07T00:35:00.383Z

Because it's a federated protocol, you could soon run your own Wave server. No pre-packaged distributions that would allow a user or company to set up a Wave server exist at this point, but it's only a matter of time before these will arrive. Hopefully, some of these will also experiment with alternative user interfaces that will extend the functionality of Wave beyond Google's current

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-26823644092510413032009-11-07T00:30:00.001Z2009-11-07T00:30:00.410Z

Although parents, K-12 students, and educators agree that using technology is essential to learning and student success, parents are largely dissatisfied with the technology skills their children are learning in schools, according to a new analysis of survey data released Oct. 29 by the nonprofit Project Tomorrow and Blackboard Inc. According to the survey data, only one-third of parents and 40

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-23725993864345802082009-11-06T00:40:00.001Z2009-11-06T00:40:00.350Z

A government grant is helping 30 unemployed IT professionals in Georgia start new careers as high school computer science teachers. With a $2.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the Georgia Institute of Technology's College of Computing has launched "Operation Reboot." The program pairs a laid-off IT professional with an existing high school teacher for at least one year, "

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-10164292612614369582009-11-06T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-06T00:35:00.315Z

There's a "disconnect" between school administrators and parents. While more than half of America's school principal's said they think they're "doing a good job" preparing students for the 21st century, only a third of parents of middle school and high school students agreed, according to research released by Project Tomorrow and Blackboard. The research also showed that only 40 percent of

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-60343842240279703792009-11-06T00:30:00.001Z2009-11-06T00:30:01.286Z

After searching some public 'waves,' we came across an educational wave. Entitled 'Wave in Class,' this wave was started by Loren Baum (a self-described "collaborative learning enthusiast" and graduate student at Ben Gurion University) and Sam Boland (a Politics student and "Tech Enthusiast" at Occidental College, Los Angeles). As a note-taking tool, Samuel Boland wrote that "there appears to be

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-23688035550368384312009-11-05T00:40:00.001Z2009-11-05T00:40:00.684Z

Google Wave developer Lars Rasmussen has told TechRadar that he would love to see Microsoft, Facebook and Apple all producing their takes on Wave technology. Google's communications meets productivity tool is already causing, ahem, waves, with a massive oversubscription of people wanting to test the pre-beta 'preview' build, which is currently available by invite only.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-17496311878592333252009-11-05T00:34:00.001Z2009-11-05T00:34:00.332Z

Here's all you need to know about Google Wave - it's a shiny, shiny new toy that does newfangled things, like let you talk to people. If you want to know more than that, there's a much more complex - and slightly more useful - explanation. Wave is Google's answer to the question, "What would e-mail look like if it was invented today?"It merges e-mail, instant messaging, documents, file sharing

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-76029461396740437662009-11-05T00:30:00.000Z2009-11-05T00:30:00.560Z

Google has revealed that its just launched communications service Google Wave will have an App Store of its own on the lines of the Apple App Store. The unofficial "announcement" came at the Google Wave User Group Meetup at London that was held on October 27. Apart from the news regarding the arrival of an app store, there is also news about the service getting couple of new functionalities and

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-62348334650278809432009-11-04T00:39:00.001Z2009-11-04T00:39:00.061Z

Mozilla Foundation’s Thunderbird team has reportedly been working on a new software tool that intends to bring various communication channels, including email, Facebook, as well as Twitter, onto a single interface with the built-in capability to sort out the important messages for the users. With the new initiative, Mozilla seems to have emulated the much vaunted Google Wave, the only apparent

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-30161094059314752962009-11-04T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-04T00:35:00.784Z

Web 2.0 is alive and well among the libraries of Yale — if students know where to find it.Over the last decade, the Yale University Library has introduced new tools to keep up with the pace of technology, including Ask!live, cyber reference service, and profiles on the social networking sites Facebook and Twitter. But though Internet-savvy Elis have access to a variety of digital facilities,

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-10105924395756396122009-11-04T00:30:00.001Z2009-11-04T00:30:00.482Z

There are still a lot of primarily small flaws, but it is obvious that programmers are working to both fix little glitches and to add new features. Regardless, the times that it has worked as advertised have offered a tantalizing view of a new way to multi-communicate on the Web. If all that Google has promised comes true, they may have come up with a very interesting multitalented service, one

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-16801618490840863942009-11-03T00:39:00.000Z2009-11-03T00:39:00.358Z

With his tips on tagging Web site bookmarks, shortening URLs and installing browser applications, Tony Vincent may have sounded at times Wednesday like he was talking to a group of Web developers. But Vincent was talking to teachers, and the theme of the workshop was just as much about engaging students as it was technology. Students are engaged in learning when it involves qualities such as

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-2300127007582851932009-11-03T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-03T00:35:00.325Z

Welcome to language arts class at Cape Fear Middle School. Teacher Craig Lawson, a self-declared geek with a yen for fusing technology and literature, is pioneering the use of computer games on hand-held devices in Pender County classrooms. “A lot of times you see negative publicity for video games, that they promote violence and that kind of thing, but that misses their connection to literature,

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-25310633763658917742009-11-03T00:30:00.000Z2009-11-03T00:30:00.308Z

Ever wondered about the symbols used by scientists? You're probably not alone, and this website created by a team at the University of Nottingham demystifies sixty prominent physics symbols via informative video segments. The videos are not necessarily meant to be lessons or lectures on the symbols, "The films are just fun chats with men and women who live their subject and know a lot about it!"

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-47555377601579262902009-11-02T00:40:00.001Z2009-11-02T00:40:54.560Z

This impressive portal (referred to in the shorthand as "BEN"), was created by the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) in order to bring high-quality educational resources to science educators everywhere. The entire project is managed by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and the resources here total over 14,000, and they cover 77 discrete biological sciences

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-60826450294980531742009-11-02T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-02T00:35:54.623Z

The Writing Center at Harvard University The Writing Center at Harvard University is perhaps the oldest formal writing center at an American university, and their complementary website presents a valuable trove of instructional handouts for writers young and old. On this page, visitors will find over a dozen helpful handouts withtitles such as "How to Read an Assignment", "Essay Structure", "

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-5220559173033777482009-11-02T00:30:00.002Z2009-11-02T00:33:20.020Z

The Annenberg Foundation, that giant of media and philanthropy, has a wonderful website that aims to "advance the Foundation's goal of encouraging the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge." Available here are videos, along with companion web and print materials, to improve the teaching methods of K-12 teachers. One of the latest series is"Art through Time: A Global View

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-82388265662328394552009-11-01T00:40:00.000Z2009-11-01T00:40:00.445Z

The University of California, Davis School of Education is taking a novel approach to boosting K-12 teacher effectiveness--distributing grant money to small teams of teachers and letting them decide how they want to spend it. Using funds from a new $1 million grant awarded by the California Postsecondary Education Commission, a team from UC Davis, led by Joanne Bookmyer, director of teacher

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-3012659757047889602009-11-01T00:35:00.001Z2009-11-01T00:35:00.808Z

This month, a class of 8th graders and their teacher will ascend to the summit of New Hampshire's Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeastern United States. Unlike those who live and work there, the class won't have to brave the cold at 6,288 feet above sea level. They'll be experiencing Mount Washington first hand, but with the help of videoconferencing.

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-29075822357581873702009-11-01T00:30:00.001Z2009-11-01T00:30:00.169Z

Increasing numbers of studies are being done that seem to support the notion that blended course delivery or program delivery really captures the best of every possible world and, as such, is an effective way of learning for students. One such study (2008) from the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece concluded, "The integration of an online learning environment and a classroom environment is

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-10587165612423129982009-10-31T00:40:00.001Z2009-10-31T00:40:00.147Z

When high school and middle school science teachers engage in extracurricular research work, their students benefit. That's the result of a new study published in Science last week by researchers at Columbia University. In addition, they found that such extracurricular research work can also bring economic benefits to schools and communities. The research, funded in part by the National Science

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-21589145289020445362009-10-31T00:35:00.002Z2009-10-31T00:35:00.490Z

Fourth-graders' math skills have seen no improvement over the last two years, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released this week. Scores for eighth-graders did improve slightly but not significantly. As a result, United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said that more needs to be done both to close the achievement gap and improve the overall

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-42704001078621929282009-10-31T00:30:00.001Z2009-10-31T00:30:00.433Z

A new study has shown that educational videos and interactive games can have a positive impact on preschooler literacy when incorporated into the curriculum in a classroom setting.According to the study, released today, children from low-income families whose teachers incorporated digital media (videos, games) in the classroom as part of the Ready to Learn program came out more prepared for

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3425822.post-82754670306867833302009-10-30T00:40:00.001Z2009-10-30T00:40:00.147Z

The Obama administration is calling for an overhaul of college programs that prepare new teachers, saying they are cash cows that do a mediocre job of preparing teachers for the classroom. Among the changes proposed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan: overhauling education schools' curricula to ensure that future teachers learn how to use data to improve their instruction, and linking the

Rayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18374064377834061490noreply@blogger.com0