Languages, ICT, education

Inspiration and best practices merge into fun, effective learning as one teacher describes what she and her students discovered during their school's first 1:1 year with iPads.

Providing timely and effective feedback on student work is a critical component to any classroom. As students increasingly operate and create in a digital environment, emerging tools provide unique new opportunities for teachers to provide feedback on both written work and video projects.   Feedback on Written Work With the increased adoption of Google Apps …

8 Frequent Mistakes Made with iPads in School

Tijekom prva dva tjedna nastave moji učenici su koristili tablete za učenje. S  I. razredima sam radila mulitple inteligencije najprije na satu bez tableta. Napravili smo kratku anketu kako bi utvr...

Why Integrate Tech?
What Is Tech Integration?

How to integrate Technology?
Resources for Tech Integration

Integrating technology into classroom instruction means more than teaching basic computer skills and software programs. Effective tech integration must happen across the curriculum in ways that research shows deepen and enhance the learning process. In particular, it must support four key components of learning: active engagement, participation in groups, frequent interaction and feedback, and connection to real-world experts. Effective technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine and transparent and when technology supports curricular goals.

Now that we are well into summer, thoughts turn towards the next school year. For many teachers, fall may bring a classroom full of new devices. While this is an exciting prospect, it could also be a paralyzing endeavor, particularly with the question: "Where do I begin?"

A backchannel -- a digital conversation that runs concurrently with a face-to-face activity -- provides students with an outlet to engage in conversation. Every time I think about this tool, I remember my student, Charlie (not his real name). Given his learning challenges, he struggled to keep up during class discussions. Long after his classmates grasped a concept, he would light up in acknowledgement and then become crestfallen as he had no way to share his revelation. Charlie needed an alternative means to participate, and a backchannel would have provided him with that outlet.

6.30 am: Woken by the dulcet tones of Lana Del Rey and a new 'Wake up Light'. Contemplate staying in bed then notice the email icon flashing with a number of new messages - check twitter.

7.00 am: ...

Na našoj prvoj CFC (Croatian Future Classroom) radionici sudjelovalo je 18 profesora. Svi oni, zajedno sa Sonjom i sa mnom,  pilotirat će upotrebu novih tehnologija i uspoređivati ishode učenja. Ta...

"... To get the most out of educational technology, teachers must combine those traditional classroom skills with new ones. And their repertoires will have to expand as the tablet’s powers grow. This fall, mastery might mean giving a quick quiz, then breaking up the students on the fly into groups based on their answers and sending each group a different exercise from the teacher’s tablet. In not too many years, it might mean using sophisticated pattern-recognizing algorithms to analyze data from homework, games, leisure reading, social media and biometric indicators to determine that one student should be guided to an interactive simulation of coral-reef ecology, another to an essay exercise built around a customized set of coral-reef-related vocabulary words and concepts, and others to something else. ..."

The best device a school can roll out is a teacher who can adapt to new and emerging technologies, does not always require formal training for learning and staying current, and is not tethered to a product in order to teach.

7.00 am: Woken by fancy chime and skyscraper illumination on iPad. Switch off and go back to sleep. 7.15 am: Woken by beeping Angry Bird effect and grudgingly get up for school. Head down to breakf...