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The Top 100 Most Influential *People* in IT
The title of this article published by eWeek should really be, “The Top 100 Most Influential Men, with a couple of women tossed in, in IT. By my count there were a total of seven women in this list. Seven??? I guess its no suprise that men dominate the IT industry, given the stereotypical image…
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Visual Thesaurus
I just completed the final set of extra work hours for my school – they are still a ridiculous paperwork nightmare for everyone, but they continue to provide focused time for study and reflection. I spent today with the work of Robert Marzano, specifically on his research into building adacademic backround knowlege and academic vocabulary.…
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Digital Storytelling
I’m just finishing up with some of my required extra work hours for school. While these hours are a ridiculous paperwork nightmare for everyone, the purpose and focus allows for good study and reflection time. In a post earlier this year, Video is Hot, I talked about how video captures the minds of students. I…
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Ride the Digital Wave 2007
I attended the Erie 1 BOCES Ride the Digital Wave Conferene on Staff Development Day, March 30th. The sessions I attended were as follows, along with some commentary and interesting pieces: Keynote by Dr. Ron Owsten, York Universtiy, Toronto. Dr. Owston spoke about how we need to rethink learning in the context that the students…
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Learning Toolbox
Everyone has a toolbox in the garage/basement/kitchen/wherever. It contains key tools to perform necessary tasks around the house. The digital learning toolbox is the equivalent in the realm of schools. What tools do we have access to right now that will perform the necessary tasks to “build” learning? WITS (classroom communication) NoodleTools (citation creation/management and…
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What should our model classroom look like?
This is a question we ponder regularly, and is a question we should ponder regularly. Its been on my mind again recently as we (district technology facilitators and IT staff) think about major upgrades to our computer technology hardware. So, what should our classrooms have in them as far as computer technology? We have started…
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When will state exams be word processed?
Its ELA testing time – all of our 6th, 7th and 8th grade students are busy writing furiously in their test books. In the era we are entering, where the web is our medium of choice, kids spend far more time keyboarding (correctly or incorrectly) than writing. In the work force the same is true…
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SMART Board Sweetness
So with the current focus on updating our 5-year Technology Plan, I’ve been thinking about new hardware. In the area of interactive whiteboards, the newest thing is an all-in-one solution that includes the whiteboard, a projector, speakers and all necessary computer hookups in one wall-mountable system. The version from SMART Technologies, our district’s standardized brand,…
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flibbertigibbet
How fun is that word??? It was the Dictionary.com Word of the Day for December 22nd. It means a silly, flighty, talkative person, and the word certainly matches the definition. Regardless of its meaning, its just plain fun to say – try it – you’ll see what I mean. I subscribe to the Dictionary.com Word…
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Time’s Person of the Year 2006 – You, me, him, her…everyone (almost…)
So Time Magazine announced that anyone who contributes to/uses the Internet in the current Web 2.0 sphere to be the Person of the Year for 2006. It’s an intriguing concept, but I’m not sold on this being the most news-worthy “person” this year. Reading the introduction piece to the story, it is absoluteley optimistic about…