A colleague recently said to me, “I aim to learn at least one new thing each day from my Twitter connections”. That pretty much sums up why I became hooked on Twitter – the network of people I’ve connected with provide me each day with thoughtful comments and links to sites that are a continual source of new ideas and stimulation. Here are just a few that I’ve been looking at over the Easter weekend (apologies for not referencing the people from whose ‘tweets’ I linked to these – it only occurred to me afterwards to blog this, and I was simply looking at a row of open tabs.)
Shakespeare on Blogging – a very clever and humorous interpretation of the advice that Shakespeare may have provided for those looking at becoming proficient in communicating through blogging.
Ways of teaching thinking – I’m very interested in the development of thinking as a part of what we teach in schools. It’s identified as one of the key competencies in the curriculum, but how well do we understand how to develop it in our students? This link highlights four thinking-centered approaches for infusing high-level thinking instruction into your regular curriculum
Using the video game model in the classroom – a brief but thoughtful post from Mary Beth Hertz in Edutopia that identifies three key features of video games that can be incorporated into what we do in the classroom.
Can gaming change education? – still on the gaming theme, Meris Stanbury from eSchoolNews discusses a recent report from MIT titled “Moving Learning Games Forward: Obstacles, Opportunities, and Openness,” by Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen of the Education Arcade. this quote sums it up: “[We] believe that the demonstrated potential of digital media wisely guided by caring adults could become a ‘game changer’ in advancing children’s prospects in the decade ahead.”
The evolution of classroom technology – as someone who taught Education Technology classes for 11 years I’m always interested in this sort of post which provides a useful historical overview, complete with images, of the technologies that have been used over time.
Top ten sites for note taking – note taking at my computer is becoming increasingly common (as opposed to the usual paper format) and this list provides links to ten very useful note taking applications. Provided by David Kapuler at TechLearning.
Using Evernote – I’ve begun using Evernote on my laptop and my mobile devices recently – still getting the hang of it all. This tutorial provides some excellent tips on how to use it well. Evernote is a great, free resource that allows you to easily capture information using whatever device or operating system you use. It then makes this information accessible and searchable from anywhere
