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Teachers in diverse areas are learning how to promote programming
If you want a wider range of kids learning how to code, it's not enough to encourage the students; you have to train the teachers, too. Accordingly, Code.org is launching a training campaign to help teachers promote programming in 60 high-diversity public school districts. The goal is to expose pupils from different cultural backgrounds to coding and make them comfortable with pursuing an education in computer science. It'll take years before it's clear how well the initiative works, but it won't be surprising if tech companies eventually have an easier time recruiting candidates from minorities that typically go underrepresented. [Image credit: Kevin Jarrett, Flickr]
Microsoft makes it easier for students to get Office 365 at no cost
Back when it launched the Student Advantage program, Microsoft made it possible for 35,000 educational institutions across the globe to receive free access to Office 365. As part of that, students and teachers alike could get a subscription to the productivity software at no cost to them, so long as their school had enrolled in the initiative. Problem is, since then, each student depended on the school to be the one to create an Office 365 account they could use -- until today. Microsoft's now simplified the process, opening up a self-serve service for students to get the license without the need to check with the school's IT department first. Those who qualify will need a valid .edu email address to receive the free subscription, from a school that's currently participating in the Student Advantage program, and that's about it. The only caveat is that this is limited to US students at the moment, but Microsoft says it plans to bring the sign-up feature worldwide later this year.
iTunes U on iPad will let teachers create courses and take your questions
Right now, iTunes U on the iPad isn't a complete educational tool. You can read textbooks, but not much else -- you still need to use old-fashioned email to ask the teacher a question, for example. It's going to be much more useful on July 8th, when Apple releases a major overhaul to the app. The new iTunes U lets teachers create and manage courses entirely from the iPad, plucking source material from other apps and even the device's camera. Students, meanwhile, get some much-needed interaction -- you can now ask questions from the app, or join in class discussions.
Google Classroom helps teachers easily organize assignments, offer feedback
In doing its part to celebrate Teacher Appreciation Day, Google has announced a preview of Classroom: a simple system for course work organization. The free software is nestled inside Google Apps for Education and serves up a quick and easy way to create/organize assignments, give feedback and communicate in real time with students. As you might expect, Classroom leverages Google Docs, Drive and Gmail in order to complete the aforementioned tasks, automatically creating folders in the cloud-based repository for each student when there's a new assignment. "Classroom is based on the principle that educational tools should be simple and easy to use, and is designed to give teachers more time to teach and students more time to learn," writes product manager Zach Yeskel. If you're an educator that's interested if giving it a shot, you can apply to be part of a limited preview. Google plans to release Classroom to any school using is education-minded apps program in September -- just in time for the fall semester.
Apps teachers use to tame the classroom and teach their students
It's the start of a new school year, which means you've probably got a stack of new books on your desk, a drawer full of new pencils and an iPad that desperately needs some new apps. TUAW is here to help you build a new app list, and we did so with the help of some friends. We consulted with students, teachers and some of the top tech and educational bloggers to generate this list. In this article, we highlight the teachers who lead the classroom. Here are the apps that they use: Kelly Tenkely of Anastasis Academy in Centennial, CO. What makes Anastasis unique is our approach to learning. We are an inquiry based school that believes students must be involved in their own learning. We have a 1:1 iPad program that is a BYOD (bring your own device), and the iPad is the only supply on our supply list. I chose the iPad as our common learning device because it is so incredibly intuitive. Preschool through ninth grade can pick it up and immediately put it to use for a wide variety of learning activities without being taught how to use it first. We are paperless in that all student work gets digitized. Even building projects get captured digitally. We purchase the educational apps that the students need as a school. Below is a list of our favorite titles. Meraki This is Cisco's free device management platform. We use it to manage devices (including restrictions) while students are on campus. Meraki lets us purchase apps through the Volume Purchase Program and push them to student devices as needed. There is also a virtual backpack that lets us share files and documents with teachers and students. Fantastic tool and free cannot be beat! Evernote We use Evernote as a complete ePortfolio solution. All student work is documented in Evernote. Evernote is a great ePortfolio because parents can access it easily, it is easily searched, and students can record learning that is both natively digital as well as not. If students create a physical model or project in our prototype lab, they can easily take a picture directly in Evernote. We also love the sheer number of apps that integrate seamlessly in Evernote. If students complete a project in iMovie, Keynote, Pages, etc. that does not seamlessly integrate, students create a note with the title of the project and list where the project can be found on their device. This makes it easy to keep track of all learning. Teachers and students have shared notebooks to share work. Camera This is an obvious app but one not to be overlooked! This is probably our most used app. Students are constantly documenting their learning with the camera. Whether it is field work on a field trip, a project that they are documenting steps of, or a presentation they are giving, our students have a HUGE collection of evidence collected with the camera. iMotion HD This has become one of our students absolute FAVORITE ways to document learning or progress. Students use iMotion HD to reflect on learning, tell a story, document scientific process, and as a creative outlet. Kids of all ages really love this app! http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=4257 Koostik Because we use the camera so often, our students discovered that they need a way to prop their iPad up for recording. While many cases have this ability built in, they leave a lot to be desired. One of the great field trips we took was to the Koostik headquarters where our students saw how iPad and iPhone sound could be amplified without power. While we were there, our students commented on how cool it would be to have a Koostik that they could use for recording. Koostik created special stands for our students that are perfect for keeping the iPad propped and stable during recording (we used to use stacks of books!) (Technically, this isn't an app, but it's used with an app, so it's cool!) Voice2Note Lets students turn their Evernote voice notes into text. This is a fantastic app for students who struggle to get their ideas out in writing (often a problem with Dysgraphia). Also wonderful for emerging writers who have a great vocabulary but struggle with spelling and limit their writing as a result. Postach.io This is an app that works with Evernote to turn notes into blog posts. This is the way that students "publish" their finished work to share with others publicly. We use the #comments4kids hashtag on Twitter to help our students get feedback from other educators and students. Our kids love getting comments on their hard work from around the world. Dragon Box This is the most amazing math app I've ever seen. It is the perfect complement to our program because it lets students (as young as 5) play with and discover algebra without knowing that they are actually doing it! It is a little bit of a virtual card game that helps students recognize patterns and rules found in Algebra. Brilliant! Number Pieces- This is another math app that helps students develop a deeper understanding of place value. We love the hands on discover approach that it offers! SketchNation Lets students create their own app. They can use Sketch Nation to prototype ideas or creatively reflect on learning by creating a game. Weebly Lets students easily create their own website. Our students created http://LSGWfoundation.weebly.com to raise awareness about social justice issues during one of our inquiry blocks. Paper A beautiful way to sketch out/share ideas. Students use this app for ideation when they are working on design thinking. Skitch Skitch is another ideation app we love...integrates seamlessly with Evernote! Composer Pro students can create their own interactive ebooks without knowing a lot of coding. Tapose Students can do research and take notes side by side in this app. Very useful for new learning! FactorSamurai a fun way to practice math facts :) Explain Everything a recordable whiteboard where students can record their thought process. This helps them break down learning and allows teachers to go back through their thinking one step at a time. Rover Let's students access flash content from their iPads. We only wish it was a little more reliable! Other common Apps that we use regularly: Pages, Keynote, iMovie, iBooks, Kindle, MobiCip (filtered web browser), Dropbox. Glen & Monique Storey, husband and wife teachers from New Zealand Glen & Monique Storey are teachers in New Zealand. They're lucky enough that each child in their classroom has a MacBook and access to iPads. They're passionate about using apps that engage and motivate learners in the classroom. As developers they bring their experience as teachers and their love of technology to create great apps such as Silent Light and BookBot. OS X Apps Skitch (OS X) A free, easy way to annotate and modify pictures, pdfs and websites. Wunderlist (OS X) A really easy and simple way to be organised. Great design and support. Mindnode (OS X) A really simple and elegant way to create and manage thinking. Pixelmator A great way to edit and create more complex pieces of art. And, of course, the obvious OS X apps that everyone probably knows about: iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand. iOS Apps Explain Everything If I was only allowed to have one app on my classroom iPads, it would be Explain Everything. An absolutely fantastic way to create and share evidence of learning. We use this every day, with every student in our math program and it shows real evidence in developing student learning. (We have examples of kids' work if you need them). Puppet Pals 2 A really fun and creative way to create narratives or share writing. Kids love Puppet Pals and can quickly and easily create great content. Silent Light We have a large, open-plan classroom, and Silent Light is one of our essential tools at helping kids manage their own learning and noise level. 100s Board, Rubber Chicken Apps Although a simple app, 100s board is a fantastic tool to use with kids when teaching them about numbers, addition or place value. Type Drawing A fantastic way to merge writing and art in a creative and unique way. (We have examples of kids' work if you need them). Poplet The best brainstorming tool that we've ever come across. Simple and adaptable to whatever you might need. Brainstorms can be emailed, saved to camera roll etc. Math Slide (a series of apps) Great motivational and multiplayer apps to help kids learn their basic facts. Action Movie Action Movie is great at providing a bit of incentive when writing as a class, especially for boys.
Teachers on Pinterest initiative could make lesson planning halfway enjoyable
Oh, education. So necessary, but so grueling. Particularly for oodles of grade-school instructors who are forced to swallow their fresh-out-of-college ambitions and fall into the system if they ever hope to level up in academia. We've seen glimmers of hope here and there, with certain schools getting outside of their comfort zones long enough to try new methodologies, and Pinterest's latest project certainly holds a lot of promise. Teachers on Pinterest is a hub that showcases a variety of lesson plans and teaching tools, and through a partnership with Edutopia, it's hoping to build out a full-bodied community for instructors. Hit up the source link below for a closer look, and remember: teachers rule.
Silent Light helps teachers control the noise in their classrooms
Silent Light - Classroom Timer and Decibel Meter is a new app from the folks at Top Storey Apps. It was written by a pair of teachers for teachers to use in the classroom or homeschool environment. The premise behind the app is simple -- it uses the microphone on the iOS device to detect background noise and rewards children when they are quiet for a set amount of time. The Silent Light app lets you select a target noise level that is compatible with a range of activities. When it is test-taking time, you can set the app to the lowest "hear a pin-drop" level of quietness. If you are holding small group discussions, you can raise the noise level to allow quiet talking, but not loud outbursts. The app rewards children with points for being quiet and you can configure the time, from 1 to 15 minutes, it takes for a child to earn a point. The app can be used on an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch that is placed on a student's desk. If you are using one device per classroom, you can also output the display to an HDTV using an Apple TV or a compatible digital AV adapter. Silent Light uses a very familiar traffic light graphic to visually represent the noise level in the clasroom. Red is too loud, orange is getting loud and green is within the level of quiet needed for an activity. A timing meter counts off the minutes and changes color to give kids real-time, feedback about their level of noise. A rewards counter keeps track of the points that awarded for times of quiet activity. When you are done with your quiet time, you can start over by changing the activity title and resetting both the timer and the rewards counter. I tested Silent Light in my own home and found that the app works exactly as described. It picked up ambient noise and reported it as loud based on the noise level that I selected. When I selected the ultra-quiet pindrop level, even quiet whispering between two or three children triggered an orange warning light. When I turned the level up to group discussion, my children were allowed to talk, but not laugh or yell without the app warning them they needed to quiet down. Warnings are visual only -- the timing meter turns red and the traffic light turns orange or red. There is no alert or other audible cue that the noise level is too loud. (According to the developer, there is a xylophone ding that should chime when the noise gets too loud). The only audible in the app is a cash register noise that chimes when a new point is added to the coffer. This noise can be turned off by lowering the volume on the phone. Silent Light - Classroom Timer and Decibel Meter is an effective visual tool for classroom or homeschool teachers who want to reward children for their quietness during activities. The Silent Light app is available from the iOS App Store for US$3.99.
Teacher's iPhone app scores tests, shares data quickly
Our colleagues at TechCrunch have an interesting story about Quick Key, an iPhone app that could be extremely helpful for teachers everywhere. Walter O. Duncan IV is a veteran teacher and the mind behind Quick Key, which is designed to score simple scantron tests (the old tests you complete by filling in circles with a pencil) with the iPhone's camera and a QR code. The video promoting the app is pretty slick, though those scantron sheets look way different than the tests I remember (with the tiny bubbles, about 300 or so to a page). The app is currently in beta as Duncan collects feedback from teachers who are testing it out. Duncan has raised almost US$100,000 for future development, and hopes that his company, Design by Educators, will deliver Quick Key to teachers all over the world. It's inspiring to see the iPhone improve upon older technology in such a significant way. These are powerful computers we're carrying around in our pockets, and it's always cool to see them put to important use.
TED-Ed website launches in beta, lets teachers customize video lessons
Last month, TED announced its new education initiative -- fittingly named TED-Ed -- with a YouTube channel showcasing teachers' lessons presented as animated videos. Today, the program moved forward, as TED opened up a beta version of a website meant to complement those lessons. Though there are plenty of study aides here, ed.ted.com is really about the grown-ups on the other side of the classroom. The site lets teachers with a TED account "flip" videos from TED-Ed and YouTube -- i.e., customize them to include multiple-choice and open-answer questions and links to additional info on a topic. Currently there are 62 videos and 238 "flips" available for viewing, but TED is gearing up for a full launch to be timed with the new school year in September.
Apple announces free iBooks Author OS X app for publishing books to the App Store
We're here at Apple's education-themed event at the Guggenheim museum in New York City, and the company's just followed up its long-awaited textbook announcement with something unexpected: iBooks Author, a free OS X program for creating books. The intent is really for teachers and other educators to produce educational materials, but Apple says the format can apply to any genre. Aside from the free part, the real story here is ease of use, with the ability to drag and drop photos, videos and even Microsoft Word files into various templates. If you use Apple's own suite of office apps, in particular, you can drag and drop a Keynote presentation into the doc, and it'll live on as an interactive widget. (You can whip up other widgets, too, though you'll need to know Javascript or HTML.) Moving beyond the main text, authors can also arrange glossaries by highlighting and clicking words, and clicking again to add a definition. In a surprise move, Apple also said authors can publish straight to the store, though we're waiting for clarification that textbook writers and other scribes are actually exempt from Cupertino's notorious approval process. In any case, the app is available now in the App Store (for OS X Lion only, sadly) so you can cracking on that definitive Kurt Vonnegut glossary you never knew you had in you. Update: We've got our hands-on up! Update 2: Apple has confirmed some key approval and revenue-sharing details. First, authors will be subject to the same App Store approval process as developers. Writers can offer their books for free, or for as much as $14.99 -- the same price cap for textbooks sold in the store. And, like developers, authors must agree to a 70/30 revenue split, with writers pocketing 70 percent after Apple takes its share.
YouTube launches education-only site, won't teach evolution of dance (video)
The bandages are barely off after a recent nip-tuck and the internet's biggest time sink is going under the knife again with its new YouTube EDU initiative. Imagine your favorite video site with all the fun stuff stripped off -- it's essentially that. Gone are comments and related videos, and all the non brain-enhancing stuff, leaving just what's good for the grey matter. Why? Well, in the VHS era teachers had control, but now it's a minefield. With its wealth of knowledge, YouTube is an obvious choice for educators, but with so many ways to get RickRolled, or catch-up on the latest keyboard cat, pupils' attention can be lost in seconds. The project has content provided by over 600 educational outlets such as TED and the Smithsonian, with subjects broken down into more than 300 teacher-friendly playlists. We're not sure if "national constitutions"is going to be one of them, but hit the promo video after the break to find out more.
University iPad program reveals room for improvement
The University of San Francisco has revealed the results of a six month 2010 iPad study involving 40 faculty members that looked at how teachers could use the device as a tool in the classroom. The result: while many teachers found the device useful, all thought there was room for improvement. The study asked the participants to call out the iPad's weaknesses, listed below. The original study was done using the first iPad, so I've noted in parenthesis advancements the features of the iPad 2 and iOS 5 have addressed. VGA-out issues (the iPad 2 resolved this) Lack of a USB port Difficulty using the keyboard primarily due to size (iOS 5 introduced a detached/split keyboard) Inability to play Flash video Lack of a file management system TabTimes points out that when the teachers were asked what Apple-installed and third-party apps were the most useful in a classroom setting, they chose Safari, Mail, Keynote, iAnnotate, GoodReader, Evernote, Pages, Dropbox, Blackboard Mobile and YouTube. Interestingly, AllThingsD has reported on a separate research survey by Piper Jaffray that found virtually all educational technology directors surveyed were deploying or getting ready to deploy iPads in the classroom. For those of you interested in delving into the findings of USF's iPad study, you can find a PDF of the research methods and result here. You can also view a YouTube video with interviews of the participants in the study.
Dell Latitude ST tablet gets official with vague press release, dead links (video)
Remember that Latitude ST that Dell gave us a sneak peek at earlier in the week? Well it's slowly inching its way towards an official release, appearing on Dell's Corporate Blog early this morning. The Windows 7-based enterprise tablet is powered by an Intel Atom processor and includes a 10-inch multi-touch display with stylus, WiFi, mobile broadband options, front and rear webcams and a mic. There are also durability features like Gorilla Glass and a rubber bumper, enabling it to survive violent impacts with plush office carpeting. Port details are rather vague in the PR, though USB, HDMI and an SD card reader get their 15 seconds of fame in the promo video. There are also security features, like remote hard drive wipe, Microsoft Bitlocker support (this is a Windows 7 tablet, after all) and a Kensington Lock slot. Pricing details are absent and the product page isn't live quite yet (though that didn't stop Dell from linking to it from the blog post), but it looks like we could see these ship as soon as November 1st. Ready to get your tap and sketch on? Jump past the break for an enterprise montage, complete with doctors, educators and suit-sporting business pros. Update: Looks like the specs have leaked out overseas, so we're guessing it'll get official soon enough. Update 2: And here come the unboxing videos! Update 3: And Dell's business page is up! Thanks, One Love!
Older iPads donated to Teach for America participants
Teach For America is a program that recruits teachers fresh from the best colleges and universities and places them in low-income schools. To help them in the important job of instructing the next generation, teachers this year were offered a free iPad 1. According to Fortune 2.0, Apple collected these iPads from customers who were no longer using the tablet device. The Cupertino company supposedly collected and distributed iPads to over 9,000 teachers in 38 states.
HP unleashes Digital Sketch and Pocket Whiteboard, becomes the new teacher's pet
Nope, that's not the rumored HP / Palm WebOS educational tablet we've heard about, but it's a wireless tablet alright. That up there is HP's new Digital Sketch, and it's actually meant solely for the classroom -- it wirelessly connects to a laptop or desktop allowing teachers to control lesson plans or draw diagrams while they're walking around the room making sure no one's passing notes. The pad itself, which will be available in March, works with HP's Sketchbook Windows software and is said to last for over 25 hours on a charge. But that's not all HP wants to put in schools. It's also got a new Pocket Whiteboard up its educational sleeve. It's a lot like other digital whiteboards in that it can turn almost any surface into a canvas, but it's apparently much more portable than the others out there, so teachers can easily move it from class to class. It will come with a three-button stylus and connect to any laptop or desktop via USB. So, what's the deal with all the education-friendly tools? They're all part of HP's new Digital Learning Suite and push to start providing really comprehensive tech tools for K through 12 classrooms. The company's nothing but serious about providing an array of products, and beyond the two previously mentioned, HP's also releasing new laptop carts, a Thin Client, and presentation stand for laptops. Hey, we get it, the children are our future, and we've got to teach them well -- but don't blame us HP, for just wanting to see the tablets of our future next week. Full press release and a low-resolution picture of the whiteboard after the break.
Tennessee school requires iPads of all 4th-12th grade students
Starting next year, fourth to 12th grade students attending the Webb School in Knoxville, Tennessee will be required to have an iPad for classes. Jim Manikais, technology director at the private school, said this new policy was designed to let students "use that technology whenever they need it." Currently, students have to "check out a cart, a laptop cart, or schedule lab time to take a class to a lab" which made it difficult for both teachers and students to use technology regularly in the classroom. The school has a three-year rental plan for parents who are unable to purchase an iPad. This payment plan will cost about $200 per academic year or $20 per month for the ten-month school year. School officials will block Facebook and Twitter on the school campus and English teacher, Elli Shellist, already has a plan to monitor web browser usage in class. The savvy teacher will randomly perform a flip check that requires students to flip their iPad towards the teacher so he can check what application they have opened. Of course, it won't take very long for even more savvy students to write an app that switches back to the appropriate application when the iPad is flipped forward rapidly. We won't even mention the antics that may ensue when the dual-camera iPad 2 makes its inevitable debut in the classroom. Despite the potential for abuse, this is an excellent use of technology that will continue to expand in the future. Other academic institutions like Seton Hill and the University of Notre Dame encourage the usage of iPads in the classroom, while textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are developing applications for use in academic settings. [Via KSLA]
Schools in Singapore issuing iPads to teachers and students
Reuters is reporting that, at an initial cost of S$135,000 (about US$100,000), a pilot program handing out iPads to 140 students and 10 teachers at Nanyang Girls High School, Tampines Secondary School, Nanhua Primary School and Dunman Secondary School in Singapore aims to replace textbooks and increase interactivity in the classroom. Students can connect to the internet, download books and notes, share workbooks and access course materials all from their iPads. In talking to Reuters, 14-year-old student Chloe Chen said, "It's much more convenient. Teachers can just tell us to go a website, and we can immediately go and do our work." While the iPad has been used to help feed the hungry and by doctors in surgery, the education world seems to be where it is destined to have the biggest impact. So far, we have seen examples of colleges in the US handing out iPads to students and of textbook publishers like Houghton Mifflin Harcourt testing a full year Algebra course app, so one can imagine just how many places tablet computers will show up once they become even more popular than they already are. I have heard from two teacher friends that they would love to have an iPad in their classroom, saying that it would help them stay up-to-date and organized, but neither one of them said they would want the students to have them because it would just be a distraction. However, if for no other reason, iPads in the classroom would help them facilitate paperless courses for students, and that alone could save them a lot of headaches. [via MacStories and 9to5 Mac]
This Apple really is for the teacher (and students)
iPads for high school students? Yes, thanks. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reports that Monte Vista Christian School has 60 iPads ready to serve advanced placement students with e-books instead of the clunky old paper variety. The pilot project may expand to more students if all goes well. Teachers love the ability to get definitions of words with a click, and the access to video and newspapers. In some classes, students are using the iPads for anatomy demonstrations. The paper says English teacher Marcus Schwager is excited to show students how to look up obscure words in Shakespeare and get the proper pronunciations. While the school is among the first to explore the iPad as an educational resource, it surely won't be the last. To smooth the way, Apple has provided a US$50 discount on the iPads, and it has a program to train teachers in how to use them. [Via MacDailyNews]
Sal Soghoian talks Automator use in education
Total Apps has published a nice guest post from Sal Soghoian, Apple's Production Manager for Automator, intended for teachers. He describes how educators have a limited amount of instruction time with the kids, and even less for maintenance tasks like making sure the proper software is installed, that students are on the proper web page, and so on. Sal wants to help, and points out a number of links useful to anyone (not just teachers) who wants to automate these repetitive and often time-consuming tasks. Best of all, he shares a link to The Teacher's Helpers (scroll down a bit), which is a free collection of Automator actions specifically written to assist teachers with Macs in their classrooms. If you've been put off by AppleScript, give Automator a try. Its drag-and-drop interface is much easier to use.
Using WoW for learning in schools
We've heard about WoW in schools before, but usually it's at schools of higher learning, where they're studying social networks or how society evolves. But a group in North Carolina is planning to put WoW in schools in a different way: by using situations in World of Warcraft to develop literacy, mathematics, and other competencies. WoWinSchools has math lessons and other tests based around WoW terms and knowledge: one example question asks "Which types of heals produce a greater number of recovered hit points during an encounter?" Another wants to know "Which buff (a spell that enhances a character's abilities) is more effective for your character, Blessing of Kings or Blessing of Might?" The idea is to use situations that the kids are familiar with in World of Warcraft (raiding, for example), and apply higher level thinking to those situations.There are even creative writing suggestions dedicated to the game, from writing an RP story about a character in Azeroth, to writing a song parody (that one should be taught by Professor Turpster) or designing a quest chain. And lest you think they're just joking around, there's a whole slew of research behind the idea, too, and it definitely makes sense: kids who play World of Warcraft are much more likely to be interested in problems about DPS and Healing rather than Susie and Bobby's apples that we added and subtracted back when we were kids in school.It seems like the only place this is implemented is in one afterschool program -- while there are lots of good ideas here, it's not necessarily being used in many classrooms yet (and my guess is that not every student in schools would vibe with a World of Warcraft-based curriculum, either). But it is a plan in development, and anything that better helps teachers understand what their students are interested in is probably worthwhile.
