The IT4Educators instructors joined more than 2,400 educators, administrators and technology specialists and over 100 vendors at the TIES 2010 Education Technology Conference in early December at the Hyatt Regency in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We attended the conference as both participants and contributors.

Andi Bodeau presented Using Moodle as an Assessment Tool. During the session, she modeled and showed examples of the various Moodle activities that can be used to assess student learning. Participants also learned how mobile devices can be used as assessment tools in Moodle. Rojanne Brown presented a session called Google Search Discovered. Participants gained ideas on how to integrate Google tools such as Google Custom Search and Google Search Story into teaching and learning.

Amy Kretsch demonstrated BrightLink, Epson’s new interactive whiteboard solution – a short throw projector with interactive capabilities that does not require an interactive whiteboard.  Ryan Semans, presented a session on using SMART Response Systems to promote higher-order thinking skills, investigating how student response systems can support teacher and student learning with respect to assessment strategies, lesson intentionality, vision for extension activities and higher-order thinking skills integration.

Some of us from IT4Educators are heading to Denver this weekend for the 2010 ISTE Conference.  We are looking forward to increasing our knowledge regarding cutting edge educational technology.  You’ll hear more about our conference adventures in future posts.

Differentiated Instruction is an instructional philosophy that increases learning for ALL students.  The concept of differentiated instruction is based on the fact that students come to school with a wide range of experiences and prior knowledge, variances in academic ability, learning styles, and interests.  When teachers differentiate instruction, they use a variety of practices and strategies to match learners’ needs with appropriate materials.

IT4Educators‘ courses offer instruction tools and strategies that fit right in with the differentiated instruction model.  Also, there is a myriad of Web 2.0 tools available for the educational setting that embraces differentiated instruction.  This wiki from Kent ISD is one terrific resource: Technology Tools for Differentiation

Course creation is tremendously rewarding and actually quite fun.  Courses we create at IT4Educators always have the characteristics of being professionally engaging to us and relevant to best practice in teaching and learning.

The course I am working on right now is a Google Search course.  Ryan already offers a Google Integration course which is a terrific survey course  allowing exploration of a myriad of Google tools.  My new course will be specifically related to all (or most) of the Google search tools.

I’m not talking about your grandmother’s Google.  I’m talking about cool, relevant tools specifically designed for classroom use.

When I was in Boulder last summer at the Google Teacher Academy, I was overwhelmed with new learning regarding all that is Google.  What really hit home for me was Google Custom Search, a solution I’ve been longing for.  Google Custom Search is a great tool for directed, intentional, safe web searches for students.

With Google Custom Search you can give your students authentic search experiences in a safe environment.  You determine the sites that students are searching, and you can also scaffold student learning by adding key word suggestions to the search page.

Google Custom Search is one of many Google search tools you will integrate into teaching and learning with the new course.

Watch for it to appear in our IT4Educators course listings in May or June.  Also coming soon, is a Google Docs course developed by Ryan.

Today, I held an iPad in my hands. I realize for some people this may be old news. But for me, this was a BIG deal. I was awed by the beauty and simplicity of the iPad.

With my library media background, I was drawn to the iBook app. After I downloaded a book I was able to turn the pages, put in a bookmark, highlight text, and look at the pictures. Just like having the real book in my hands! In my mesmerized state, I thought this was the greatest thing ever! That is, until a colleague asked a similar question the editors of the New York Time have been asking, “Does the iPad offer users a new medium or is it merely an iPod Touch on steroids?”

What will be the impact of the iPad on education?

This is what I believe…

One, I found the iPad is highly engaging, motivating, and fun! Students would also.

Two, this is just the beginning. Apple will keep improving the iPad to include more and more features (eg. Flash, camera, etc).

Only time will tell and I cannot wait to see.

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.