The key to making the shift to active learning (and why technology is not enough)

Some public schools (by design) foster passive learners, discourage productivity, and fail to teach self-discipline. The culture of “school” works against what research shows to be in the best interest of next generation learners. Access the article at: http://plpnetwork.com/2015/03/10/shift-active-learning-technology-answer/  After reading the article are you convinced that things have to change? Do you think we are shifting to an educational culture of active learning? Explain why or why not and what you think has to happen to achieve this goal.

TeacherCast: a place for Teachers to Help Other Teachers

TeacherCast.net is a growing dynamic Educational Media Network offering great opportunities for educators, app developers and businesses to work together to improve the quality of education for our students.

TeacherCast offers educators several great avenues for professional development:

• The TeacherCast Podcasting Network
• The TeacherCast Educational Newspaper/Magazine
• The TeacherCast Professional App
• A Career Center to search and post jobs
• TeacherCast University
• TeacherCast TV

Their mission is to create an environment for educators to have access to resources for Professional Development. You can find the site at: http://www.teachercast.net/  Explore some of the content listed above on the TeacherCast website. Which features would you use and how would you use them for your professional development?

iPad Lessons/Technology

Take a look at this Pintrest board: http://www.pinterest.com/schildhauers/ipad-lessonstechnology/ 
Choose one pin that interests you. Explore it and write about how you might use the same app, idea or procedure in your classroom in the future.

2014 Horizon Report Higher Education Edition

The NMC Horizon Report > 2014 Higher Education Edition is a collaborative effort between the NMC and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI), an EDUCAUSE Program. This eleventh edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in education. Six key trends, six significant challenges, and six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides in-depth insight into how the trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership and practice. View the  report at http://cdn.nmc.org/media/2014-nmc-horizon-report-he-EN-SC.pdf  

Look through the report, read about the trends, challenges, and emerging technologies. Which trends and emerging technologies do you think has the most merit? Which do you think you might be using in the near future? Which challenge do you think will be hardest to overcome?

Caitlin Tucker's Blended Learning in the Classroom Blog

Click on the link to view this blog:
http://catlintucker.com/
Find a post that interests you and describe it in a paragraph and tell us how it might change what you do or how you do it.

Rethinking Teacher Roles in a New Networked World

Read the article "Rethinking Teacher Roles in a New Networked World." In this article author-educator Marc Prensky's newest buzzword is "futurecation," which he says involves preparing students to do things "we could never do before." He believed that rather than continuing with a content focus—math, English, science, and social studies (or "MESS" as he calls it)—he said, "I think we need a new core: effective thinking, effective action, effective relationships, and effective accomplishment. Thinking, acting, relating, and accomplishing ought to be what primary and secondary school is about." Do you agree or disagree with his approach? How do you feel this approach would affect the way you teach now or will affect the way you teach in the future?

Interactive Sites for Education

This site has interactive content that can be used by K-5 educators. Select a subject area and then focus on a topic to explore. Identify the topic you have chosen and the grade level you intend to use the activity with. Then describe the type of activities you found and how you can integrate it into your teaching practice. Click on the link to get started: http://interactivesites.weebly.com/index.html