JeopardyLabs is a free online tool that allows you to create your own Jeopardy game or browse through the pre-made templates. This would be a great tool to use with SMART Notebook software to make an interactive review game.

Imagine students spending the school day immersed in projects, and then during “homework time” at home settling in at their computer, iPod or other device to watch or listen to on-demand podcasts from their teacher and other experts presenting content.

In an inverted classroom, passive activities such as listening to lectures and content presentations occur outside the school day.  During the school day, in the presence of their teacher, students engage in deeper learning through hands-on learning activities.  A result of the inverted classroom model is more quality time with the teacher, as opposed to the teacher often in front of the students delivering instruction.

The inverted classroom model is ideal for the university setting, where the in-class experience is currently more lecture oriented, but what could be the implications at the elementary setting?  Certainly something worth pondering…

One thing for certain is that there is an expectation that higher education students have off site access to wired technology.  But, this can’t be assumed for the elementary or even secondary student.  The question arises, “is digital access a right?”  Ease of access is critical to a discussion of inverting our classrooms.

Think outside the box...how can you use Twitter in Education?

Twitter in Education is a course that IT4Educators will be offering starting spring.  This course focuses on two driving questions…1)  How can you use Twitter with students? 2)  How can you use the social networking aspects of Twitter to create a dynamic Personal Learning Network (PLN) in an effort to create a learning environment that supports personal professional development.

Twitter is no longer “What are you doing”, but “What can I share with others”?  Educators can share and learn about many great resources and strategies with and from other educators.

*Check out this resource for some classroom uses of Twitter*

I’ve been working the past couple of weekends creating a new course that I am really excited about.  I’m developing Blogging for Teaching and Learning as a 3-credit online course that will help the learner discover how to access blogs for professional development and collaboration, how to create and manage a blog, and how to integrate blogs and blogging into teaching and learning in the classroom.  Look for this new addition to our course listings in April or May.

Here is the first draft of the course description: Explore the educational potential of blogs and blogging.  Freely available and easy to use web-based tools make blogging a means for teachers to communicate with students and families and to build a network of colleagues and collaborators to support best practice.  Blogging is also an authentic, engaging and interactive classroom activity for students that provides a vehicle to share ideas, develop writing, and reflect on work.  In this course you will learn how to find blogs that are relevant and meaningful to you professionally; how to create your own blog; and, how to set up blogging as an experiential learning tool in your classroom.

Project Explorer (Go Global)- Travel the world virtually with amazing video clips, photos and narration on many popular curricular topics (Shakespeare’s England, South Africa,  Jordan, etc.)  Use the link above to search by curricular topic.

Kid’s Magnetic Poetry - Add the Kid’s Magnetic Poetry website and a wireless mouse or Interactive Whiteboard pen to a literacy lesson and viola…. you have an engaging, student centered activity.