reposted on DEN Global Blog and Texas DEN blog for Discovery Education On October 19, 2013, Discovery Education again wowed us with their full day of presentations, 23 in all. Since it was impossible to participate in all the events, all presentations have been archived and are available at http://www.discoveryeducation.com/community/den-fall-virtcon-archive.cfm I know many of us […]

Next week is ‘Computer Science Education Week’. Computer Science Education Week is observed each year, in recognition of the birthday of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper who was of the first computer programmers and the COBOL computer language. The Computer Science Education Week website has developed a participation kit for teachers that includes the "Hour of Code" […]

This is a great time of year if you have little ones that are eagerly awaiting Santa’s arrival on Christmas Eve. The following links will enable youngsters to contact Santa Claus online or receive a phone call from him! I am reprising this blog post from the past two years and have added some new ways […]

As I was looking at the winners of the 2013 Edublog Awards, I came across the Virtual Debate site. When I worked with Vicki Davis on the Flat Classroom Project, one of her students and Vicki came up with the concept of virtual debates. They used VoiceThread to record their arguments and positions and posted […]

Until December 31, 2013, you can upgrade your Thinglink account for free! According to their website, the upgrade includes: Upgrade to ThingLinkEDU Premium until December 31st In an effort to support education even better, ThingLink is now offering free EDU Premium Accounts for teachers until December 31st. Sign up and receive a full year of […]

As 2014 is soon approaching, I wanted to reflect upon the hits and misses of technology integration in the classroom for K12 students this past year. This past year has seen an increase in the advancement of technology integration in the classroom. More classrooms are using mobile devices to deliver content to students. Classrooms were […]

Next Thursday, January 30th, 2014, in conjunction with ‘The Learning Liaisons.com’, I will be hosting a webinar on ‘Ways to use the Design Process to Transform Thinking and Learning’ at 7pm EST/6pm CST. Please join us as we discuss what the design thinking process is and strategies for using the design process to assess systems […]

I have several online and offline presentations coming up in the next few months and am having trouble deciding whether to go with AirServer or the Reflector app to mirror an iPad. I haven’t used either one before so this will be a new endeavor for me. I don’t have access or own an Apple […]

Have you ever had to send a large file and your email client won’t allow that large of a file to get to its recipient? I came across an article from Makeuseof.com about a web tool to send large files. The tool is called ‘Filemail‘ and so far it has been a lifesaver. It saves […]

The Discovery Educator Network (DEN) has planned a variety of events to celebrate ‘Digital Learning Day‘ on February 5, 2014. Teachers throughout North America will participate in a variety of events to immerse students in a digitally rich environment with technology devices and activities. The Digital Learning Day has lesson plans and other resources to […]

In the educational technology world, there has been great discussion about ‘flipped classrooms’. Flipped classrooms are described as students completing homework and/or assignments in the classroom and watch the lecture/demonstration/instruction in video format at home. Most schools post to a campus’ YouTube Channel. A large majority of students learn best when things are presented in […]

Saturday, January 25, 2014, will be filled with lots of online webinars and face to face events. First is Educon taking place in Philly. There are some fantastic presenters leading sessions and discussions and as a virtual attendee you get to chat and listen in on the sessions. Students from Chris Lehmann’s school, Science Leadership […]

Have you ever wanted to wish the Olympic athletes good luck or send a congratulatory message after a winning performance? McDonald’s has made this possible. You can send a Twitter message with the hashtag #CheersToSochi and all messages sent with that hashtag via Twitter or the microsite, http://cheerstosochi.com will be displayed in Olympic Village in […]

It is hard to believe but the weekly webinar series, Classroom 2.0 LIVE, turned five this past January 2014. We are having a celebratory smackdown of technology tools on Saturday, February 1st at 12pm EST/11am CST. Everyone is invited and if time, grab your headset or earbuds and share a tool. It isn’t necessary to […]

Everyone is invited to join me for a "Classroom Renovation - Rethinking your Classroom through Technology" webinar on February 3, 2014 at 6pm EST/5pm CST where I will feature an introduction to the design thinking process and showcase ways to transform your teaching by implementing global projects and cell phones/mobile devices. Using this process in […]

If you haven’t used any of the online flashcard sites, I highly recommend "CardKiwi". It is super easy to use Cardkiwi to make a flashcard set and the service is free! You can add vocabulary words, words in English and another language or facts about a historical event. The uses are endless and Cardkiwi is […]

Wednesday, February 5, 2014, I presented this presentation at the Texas Computer Educator Association (TCEA) convention in Austin, Texas. I was so fortunate to have an initial large response due to the fact that my session started at noon when most people head out for lunch. It got loud during the transition time so if […]

Many of know I have begun to assist Dr. Jason Ampel of The Learning Liaisons with his webinar program. He is hosting a SAT Bootcamp the next four Thursdays. If you would like more information you can view the SAT Bootcamp page at TheLearningLiaisons.com. We had one session already with several students attending a fantastic […]

I just finished writing my first book for educators and would like some feedback from those who have already done so. I haven’t decided to try to send it to publishers or to self-publish via one of many avenues like Amazon or Lulu. For those who went the publisher route, I would love your feedback […]

This week is "Virtual Education Connected Educators Week" for the Special Interest Group Virtual Education (SIGVE). There are many fantastic events that you can still participate and I have posted the events below from the email I received announcing this special week’s sessions. Wednesday, March 12 at 9 pm ET #gamemooc tweetchat Collaboration between SIGVE […]

Friday, March 14, 2014, was considered ‘Pi Day’ and teachers celebrated by doing all kinds of learning activities in mathematics classes. Tons of activities were shared on Twitter and blog posts around the Internet. I recently received an email about a ‘sweet’ deal for math teachers. PBS LearningMedia has put together a collection of math […]

PBS has teamed up with the International Paper Foundation to provide resources, lesson plans and information about teaching environmental issues. Students, or EcoInvestigators, will work in teams completing inquiry based learning activities and expand their environmental knowledge by researching, investigating and developing solutions for environmental issues facing society today. Additionally, the first 100 teachers to […]

I am trying to revitalize the things I am doing by reinventing myself, blogging and writing a book (which is being edited/revised at this moment). When you are reading a blog post via email, do you prefer to get the whole blog post or visit the blog to read the post? Do most bloggers have […]

If you haven’t checked out the free FableVision (FV) resources lately I highly encourage you to do so. FV does make some great software and you can download free trials to see how your students engage with the content. Additionally, there is an area of free resources for teachers to download, print and share with […]