iPad for education

As many of you know I just purchased the new iPad and I am loving its potential for use in education. The iPad is a very affordable product that can bring the power of computing and the internet directly to a student's desk. I can see it as a tool that can help bridge the gap that is growing with the level 2 digital divide.

There are many affordable tools for the iPad that can help foster higher-order thinking. For instance, the online reference tool Wolfram Alpha: http://www.wolframalpha.com/ which is a great reference for computable information. Students can easily use this tool to quickly check their computational work with many mathematical and scientific equations which will allow students time for analyzing the meaning of the results.

I'm also very excited about the many mobile computing possibilities apps that are being developed. Have you seen what blackboard has developed--Mobile Learn?

The touch screen technology is now very affordable allowing note taking very much like the expensive tablet laptops. This tool has great potential. I'm intrigued with what the future holds with the iPad technology....

Education Glogster

This is my new favorite Web 2.0 tool for students. It is an educational version of glogster: http://edu.glogster.com/ . It is a multimedia postering tool. The old tri-fold science fair posters have gone online and multimedia. Check out the cool student projects.

Ken Robinson on schools and creativity | Video on TED.com

This is one of my favorite talks by Ken Robinson on the importance of creativity. What do you think? What can be done to nurture creativity in children?

Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity | Video on TED.com

With the many Web 2.0 tools that are available teachers have more options for nurturing creativity in students.

Please also check out the following keynote speech from Punya Mishra and Matt Kohler's, from the TPACK fame....and their speech on "Thinking Creatively Teachers of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content." Let me know what you think.

http://punya.educ.msu.edu/2008/03/18/site-2008-keynote/

Digital Storytelling

Digital Storytelling is one of my favorite educational applications of Web 2.0 technologies. Students can easily bring life to their own writing (stories, reports, etc..) with different multimedia technologies such as Microsoft's Photo Story and Mac's iMovie.

Below are some of my favorite sites that have examples of Digital Storytelling.

• University of Houston's, College of Education, Digital Storytelling site: http://digitalstorytelling.coe.uh.edu/
• Scott County School District in Kentucky, Digital Storytelling site: http://www.dtc.scott.k12.ky.us/technology/digitalstorytelling/ds.html
  

This PBS page provides a nice lesson plan for incorporating digital storytelling into instruction.

• http://www.pbs.org/americanfamily/teacher3.html

Links to common tools that are used in schools.

• Photo Story: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/PhotoStory/default.mspx
  
• iMovie: http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
  

Digital Stories can used in the classroom by having students work alone or in groups. They can be used in almost any classroom. How can it be used in your classroom?

Welcome

Welcome to my blog. I'm happy to have you here. This blog is dedicated to sharing ideas, comments, resources, etc.. that are related to using technology in the classroom. Please feel free to share. --Dr. Julie