Wired Educator has Moved to www.WiredEducator.com

Wired Educator has Moved to www.WiredEducator.com

 

Please join us.

We Moved! Wired Educator Has a NEW home! Please Join Us.

Wired Educator’s new site is: http://www.wirededucator.com

We really want you to see the new site.  It looks better, reads better, and contains our most recent articles.

Please consider:

• Subscribing to our email updates at the new site.

• Bookmarking our new site address.

• Adding our RSS to your feed.

• Recommending our new site to a friend.

Thank you!

Please Join Us at Our New and Improved Location: We Moved.

Wired Educator’s new site is: http://www.wirededucator.com

We really want you to see the new site.  It looks better, reads better, and contains our most recent articles.

Please consider:

• Subscribing to our email updates at the new site.

• Bookmarking our new site address.

• Adding our RSS to your feed.

• Recommending our new site to a friend.

Thank you!

We Moved!

Wired Educator’s new site is: http://www.wirededucator.com

We really want you to see the new site.  It looks better, reads better, and contains our most recent articles.

Please consider:

• Subscribing to our email updates at the new site.

• Bookmarking our new site address.

• Adding our RSS to your feed.

• Recommending our new site to a friend.

Thank you!

Schools Using GPS to Track Chronically Absent Students: Logan’s Run Becomes Reality

(Please visit our NEW site at: http://www.wirededucator.com to update your subscription. We are closing this site down on March 23rd. We need you to update your bookmarks, RSS Feed, and email subscription please.  Thank you.)

The Anaheim Union School District in California is assigning GPS trackers to identified gang members and potential gang members.

When I was little I remember watching a bizarre Science Fiction movie called Logan’s Run.  Everyone in this futuristic dystopia had a jewel embedded in their hand.  They had to turn themselves in when it turned from red to black.  If they didn’t they would run for Sanctuary and be hunted by Sandmen. As strange as this movie premise sounds, that is exactly what I thought of when I read about school districts using GPS to track chronically absent students. Perhaps I am being unfair.  Is this a good idea? You tell me, but obviously accountability and appropriate-use are paramount as this idea proceeds.

Chronically absent seventh and eighth graders are assigned a GPS tracking device during a six week pilot program  that authorities and administrator hope will break the truancy habit.  When a student is recorded as to having four unexcused absences in a year, the parents can volunteer to have a GPS tracker assigned to their child. The child will need to enter a code five times a day  and successfully pass three calls from a coach in order to graduate out of the program.

The principle behind the idea is as simple as having the child in school more hours will decrease the probability of interest and activity in gang behavior and involvement. About 75 students are currently involved and the program is set to expand.

Wired Educator will keep an eye on this and hopefully be able to report some measurable results.

Wired Educator Grade: Incomplete

Wired Educator Comments: A little creepy, but something needs to be done and technology may be a start.  The only gang I was interested in as a kid was the Boy Scouts, so I am not qualified to comment, however, technology can only be one ingredient of a bigger program and cannot be used alone. Give them iPads while at school and they might come every day willingly.

(Please visit http://www.wirededucator.com to update your subscription. We are closing this site down on March 23rd. We need you to update your bookmarks, RSS Feed, and email subscription please.  Thank you.)

Apple Files Patent to Assist Differentiated Learning for Special Needs Students

(Please note: Wired Educator has moved to www.wirededucator.com with an entirely new look. This is one of the last posts on this old site. You will need to change your bookmark, email subscriptions, and RSS feeds. Thank you.)

Is Apple filing a patent to address differentiated learning on mobile devices? Recent patent filings make it appear so.

Differentiated learning also known differentiated instruction is simply the focus of providing students with different ways to acquire content. The idea is that different students have different primary learning methods (e.g. visual, kinetic, tactile, audio, etc.)and need the lessons and content to address their primary learning style.

According to the US Patent and Trademark Office (via AppleInsider) a recent patent was disclosed this week for “new methods” of delivering educational content to students in a classroom setting to multiple devices in a format that accommodates the individual need of each user.

The patent describes an attempt to help educators address the diverse learning needs of students. (Braille, speech, font size, etc.) My sister, Kathy, who works at the famed Perkins School for the Blind will be pleased to read this.  She has asked me to become an advocate to Apple for the visually impaired. This is great news!

The individual user will see the same content differently on their mobile learning device based on their user settings automatically. Apple highlights that this patent filing is focused on providing for the specific needs for students with disabilities, tailored for each individual user.

During the announcement of the iPad 2 on March 2, Steve Jobs gave a demonstration on how the iPad can help a child with autism. Apple’s mobile learning devices already provides users with a unique personalized experience, and if this patent is fully developed and realized it may very well pioneer a new direction and focus in education the truly provides for the education of each learner.

Wired Educator likes this a lot.  Bravo. 

TED Announces the TED-ED Brain Trust: Seeking Visionary Educators

Are you passionate about education? TED, Ideas Worth Spreading, is seeking the input of visionary educators for a new Brain Trust called TED-ED.

Some of the most memorable TED talks have been about education. With this in mind, TED is excited about announcing their brand new initiative to help impact the lives of children, teachers, and classrooms around the world. TED is making a commitment to global education.  They wish to be a force in the educational reformation and revolution and see their part as providing an archive of TED Talks focused on education. These educational TED Talks will be highly engaging and shorter than regular TED Talks, and can be created by anyone.

They want the input of visionary educators like those who read Wired Educator  to help lead this new initiative.

“Your input will define TED ED.”

“They must be undeniably catalytic to learning”

http://education.ted.com/

Watch the Video Announcing TED ED by Clicking Here!

 

‘iPods in the Classroom’ Go Green With Solio Chargers

We really hope every Wired Educator out there has a least one iPod Touch in the classroom by now.  We’ve been singing the usefulness of the device for years. We hope you are podcasting and doing amazing things with those iOS devices, and now we want to help you ‘Go Green’ by utilizing an awesome device that Wired Educator just received called the Solio Mono-A solar charger.  (Currently doesn’t work on the iPad.)

Even though Apple has done an amazing job increasing the battery life on our iOS devices we wear down the charges with our constant use.  That’s wear Solio comes in and saves the day. The Solio Charger is an a really sleek device that is incredibly light, super portable, and extremely useful in keeping our devices charged. They not only work with iPods, iPod Touches, and iPhones, they work with game systems and other phones as well.

The Solio Charger has a built in solar panel that charges your device, but you can still charge you iPhone up even when the sun goes down.  You see the Solio doesn’t just charge your phone’s battery, it is an external battery in itself, and it receives a charge in three different ways:

1. Solar Panels
2. Wall outlet
3. USB Port

The device holds a charge for a long time too.  It comes with lots of adapters for every imaginable device, super-easy instructions, and even has a hole built in it so you can attach it to things to collect sunlight.

Wired Educator Grade for the Solio Mono-A Charger: A+

Comments: Great device. Must have for anyone that is on the go and often needs an extra charge on their iPhone or iPod. Wish it had a little travel bag to keep everything in while it’s in my book bag. Also wish the indicator gave a readout with a % of battery life left, but for $59.00 (at www.solio.com other sites cheaper) this it is worth every penny and more. Solio does make higher models with more features and sells accessories for the devices.  I wish it worked with the iPad and will contact the company about this, I am sure they are working on something. Wired Educator really likes this device.

I am sending it down to our science teacher Mr. Laderach and ask him to have the students test out charging times, etc. Should be fun to experiment and teach students about environmental obligations and reducing our carbon footprint.

I like that the Solio charger not only works great, but also that it teaches our students to reduce their carbon footprint, to think differently, to think conservatively.

It is sleek, elegant, and simple. A little thicker then I imagined. I like the eyelet. I can see myself using a caribener clip to attach this to my book bag (beltloop) while at a college football game or out and about somewhere I know that I won’t have access to a power outlet.

Just great.  Works just like you think it should.

Here is my video review: 

Wired Educator Moves March 22, 2011 to www.WiredEducator.com

Wired Educator’s new home starting March 22, 2011 will be www.wirededucator.com and the www.wirededucator.wordpress.com will no longer be updated. I have been working on the new site for awhile and posting the articles on each, and it is now time to stop and focus on the new site entirely.

Please reset your subscription, RSS feed, and bookmarks from the new site: www.wirededucator.com. You will have to do this yourself as they will not automatically transfer to the new site.

After March 22, 2011 the automatic email updates, booksmarks, and RSS feeds from this site will no longer be sent, and we don’t want to lose you, so please take just a minute to update them.

Why the new site? Well, it looks stunning, and we can do a lot more with the Standard Theme we have chosen and the Word Press plugins. We are also generating enough traffic now to entice advertisers, and we plan on announcing our first paid advertiser on March 22.  We hope any funds generated by advertising will help us publish more articles, more frequently, to help teachers use technology, and hopefully offer more giveaways and prizes.

All in all, the move to the new site is going to be great for everyone and we are excited. We hope you keep reading Wired Educator and recommend it to others.

Thank you.

~Kelly

Why I Want My Students to Read Books on the iPad.

I’m as close to a bibliophile as you can get.  I love books. I love the new, the old, and all in between. I have a nice collection of some rare older books, and I would actually consider a few hours perusing around Barnes and Nobles as a vacation.  I love ‘em! Knowing all of this, please understand that my next statement is not easy for me to make and has been formed with much consideration; I want my students to read books on the iPad.

As I outline my reasons for wanting my students to read on the iPad please keep in mind that I am a seventh grade English teacher.

1. Portability: Students can carry thousands of books with them everywhere they travel.  Books to read, books to listen to, PDFs, and books created by their teachers in Pages and exported to iBooks. iPads hold an incredible amount of content. The battery life is an easy ten hours. The device is incredibly thin, light, and durable. If you don’t think portability is important to students you better take another gander at all of the books and supplies they haul around to each class! The Library holds a lot of books and they can be found easily. A great looking, easy to use interface.
2. Reading Assistance Functions: The iPad has built-in functions that assist readers. My students are allowed to write in the iPad iBooks using the Notes function, or emphasize text with Highlight they can look up a word using the built-in dictionary, Copy and paste text from a book to some other application or email, and perform a search in the book for a key word or phrase. The Search function can even extend onto Google or Wikipedia. Your highlighted text and bookmarks are all organized in the Contents section for future reference. The iPad even remembers where the student left off reading, even from device to device. Awesome features. (The feature I most want iBooks to acquire is pronunciation at a touch.)
3. Free Books and Samples: I primarily use iBooks, but you also have access to other great reading apps like: Kindle, Nook, Google Books and more. Magazines can be included with apps like Zinio, and you can even grab pages off the Net for later reading using Instapaper. (And that is just scratching the surface of the great reading apps out there.) I want my students to read and the best way to do that is get them in front of lots of great books. The free samples in all of these apps and especially iBooks does this and more as you can download free samples and begin reading. Don’t forget the 33,000 free books on Project Gutenberg for eReading devices. Nice. Teachers and students can have that new book now, and without shipping charges. (Not knowing the legality, I believe one book syncs with five iOS devices too.)
4. Don’t Underestimate ‘The Cool Factor’: If a good looking cover can sell books think of what the iPad can do. It’s the coolest cover a book has ever had. Students will be drawn to the books on the fact that they are reading it on the iPad alone. What about distractions on the iPad? Are you kidding me? Ever seen a student with a mechanical pencil? The iPad will draw them to the activity. Students can be distracted from or to anything depending entirely on what is placed in front of them and the guidance they are given. You will be surprised.
5. It Contains Everything Else I Want My Students to Do: Unlike the Kindle, Nook, and other eReaders, the iPad does everything else I want my students to do with a mobile learning device. Everything. They can word process, research on the internet, work on a presentation, use the thousands of educational apps, and yet so much more.
6. It’s Better Than a Text Book: The information in the iPad will be up to date and less expensive. Using built in search functions, hyperlinks, animation, movies, and more, it will be easier for our students to use and more effective. Students will be able to interact with information in ways never before with any other text.

So what is holding us back from having every student read on an iPad? Good question.  First, educational publishers need to get on board. We need more textbooks available now. There is money to be made here, and the first publishers to get it right with entry price, updates, etc. is going to lead for a long time. If I were the publisher I’d even try to supply the iPads. Second, administrators need to get on board.  Teachers and students want this.  Will the iPad completely replace all computers in schools? No, but they will indeed come close. More powerful computers will be needed for big projects but the class to class necessities are more than met with the iPad. Wired Educator has been highlighting schools brave enough to take this leadership position.

Where do we start as teachers? Keep voicing you interest and needs in these devices and try to get your hands on just one iPad and start showing everyone what you are capable of doing with it.

Let me know what I forgot in the comments below.