Don't Fall for These Cyber Tricks

It's amazing how many people people still find themselves tricked by "something-for-nothing" e-mails and messages asking for personal information. This short video points out some of the perils and pitfalls.

Is Your Phone Tree Outdated?

In the last post, we examined the value of using your voice mail's "temporary greeting" function to give callers accurate information as to when you are available. Far too many people record a greeting and then forget about it. A second common area of neglect is the telephone tree. Since the people who work  in a business day-to-day are not the ones who call in and hear what customers hear, they may miss information which is no longer accurate.

Change of Hours
Has your business changed its hours of operation? In particular, does your business change its hours during a particular season of the year?

The most common situation I run across, due to my connection with the education world, is school systems which are closed on Friday during the summers. They work extended hours Monday through Thursday and are closed Friday, realizing a cost savings in air conditioning and employee gasoline consumption, just to name a couple of advantages.

The problem becomes that the telephone tree, which was accurate from September through May, is now inaccurate from June through mid-August. Anyone who calls the school or school district on Friday hears a greeting which indicates today is business as usual, yet the person cannot get through to anyone. No matter what extension one selects, voice mail is the result. Leave a message early Friday morning, with the expectation of having the call returned later in the day, and you will be sadly disappointed.

Does your business change its hours during a particular season? If so, has your organization assigned one particular person to be responsible for updating that greeting? Do you even know how to update the greeting on that telephone tree? Typically, the focus is on setting up the tree when a new phone system is installed. Once the initial setup is complete, maintenance of it is forgotten.

When people call your business, do they hear a list of extensions which include people who haven't worked there for four years? Change of Personnel
When people call your business, do they hear a list of extensions which include people who haven't worked there for four years? Has your company reconfigured departments, yet no change has been made to the telephone tree? From your end, you are frustrated with people who keep calling your department when they clearly need to be talking to someone else. From their end, they did exactly what the outdated telephone tree prompted them to do.

When someone is hired or someone leaves the organization, who is responsible for updating that extension in the message customers will hear? What is the procedure for keeping that person updated on personnel changes?

Call Your Own Business
One of the best tips I received as a new school administrator was, "Call your own school." You then see how long the phone rings before someone answers and the manner in which the call is answered. In addition, you get a chance to work through your own telephone tree and see how accurate it is.

"Call your own school." Checklists are the Answer
We are busy people. We are often too busy to put in place the systems which will maintain our work. Simple checklists serve as the vehicle for identifying the tasks which must be done, by whom, and when, in order to keep the the system maintained.

What are the steps to be taken when someone is hired? For those who handle hiring, does the list of steps include informing the person who updates the voice mail extensions? What are the "to-dos" when someone leaves the organization? In addition to being sure you get their keys, does that list include notifying the person who will remove this person's extension from the telephone tree?

Do the hours of business change seasonally? If so, does a particular person have as a repeating task to update the greeting on the telephone tree? And, since changing that greeting involves a number of steps, is the list of steps readily available when it's time to update the tree?

The first question for some businesses will be, "Where is the manual explaining how to do all of this stuff, anyway?" My question is, "Who will be the one responsible for finding it or making the phone call to secure a new one from the company which installed your telephone system?"

Our technology needs to work for us. But for the technology to work, we must be serious about maintaining it.

Who's Not Cutting It?

The start of a new school year is an exciting time. It provides a chance to start fresh, whether you are a teacher, a student, or a parent. It provides the opportunity to correct those things which did not go well last year and strive for a repeat performance of those things which did go well.

On that first day, hallways are freshly waxed, lockers are neatly organized, and notebooks are pristine. On that first day, nobody has failed a test or missed a homework assignment, but  alas, we know this will change. When it does, will we recognize a pattern early enough to prevent a downward spiral?

Some years ago, I listened to a speaker talk about identifying "who's not cutting it" after only 15 days into the school year. While the objective was noble, the speaker gave no specifics as to how the deficient students would be identified. In my mind, I envisioned principals who listened to the speaker going home to create paper forms which would be distributed to all teachers. Teachers would, in turn, examine their grade books and record on the forms the names of the students who were not "cutting it" and then submit those forms to the guidance counselor. The poor guidance counselor would then have yet one more pile of papers on the desk and have to somehow make sense of it all. By the time the data was assimilated, another week would have passed, and the information would now be obsolete.

The more cumbersome the process, the less likely  the process will be sustained. The more cumbersome the process, the less likely  the process will be sustained. The result is a continuation of a pattern where students are well on their way to failure before any intervention happens.

The student information system used in most any school will provide current averages for any subset of students. Examine the options available when printing progress reports in your own system.

Don't make the mistake of thinking a "progress report" can only be run at the mid-point of the grading period, the time when progress reports are normally printed and sent home. A progress report can be run at any time, and using this valuable tool before the first two weeks of school have past sends a message that the school is serious about early intervention.

Look for an option which filters results of the progress report to those students who have a certain maximum average. For example, selecting a maximum average of 70 will yield a list of students who have a current average of 70 or less for the grading period along with the name of the course for which the low grade is occurring and the up-to-the-minute average.

Look for the ability to save the results of the report to a filter. This filter could then be used to print a list of the failing students along with parents' names and phone numbers. It could be used to print schedules of the failing students, or print any other report which would make early intervention easier.

Setting It Up
I am a fan of repeating tasks. No staff member should have to remember each year to identify these students who are not "cutting it" after those first couple of weeks of school. Identification will become one of those scores of repeating tasks to be performed every year.

1. Choose someone who will be responsible for identifying students who are showing early signs of failure. A guidance counselor is a logical choice. A member of the clerical staff could produce the desired report as well.
2. Identify exactly what report(s) and exactly what options on the report(s) should be selected. 
3. The person taking on this assignment should create a new task in his/her electronic to-do list that reads something like, "Identify students who are not cutting it." In the note section of the task, record the details for exactly how to produce the report(s) as well as how to use the results.
4. Set a due date for when the task needs to be seen and set the task to repeat annually.  

Collecting the data becomes a one-person job. A reminder to do it is generated every year on the prescribed date. The instructions for how to produce the data are included, eliminating the procrastination which accompanies "fuzzy" tasks.

Who's not cutting it? Find out very early in the school year and provide intervention before failure becomes a pattern. The school's student information system makes it easy. A repeating task system makes it automatic.

First Impressions of Windows 8

I recently purchased a new laptop computer, and it is running Windows 8. After hearing much complaining around Cyberspace about the absence of the "Start "menu, I was surprised at how quickly I was able to get up to speed on the new operating system.

For all practical purposes, Microsoft has taken the Start menu and the Launcher and merged them into a Start Screen. For those unfamiliar with Windows 8, give it a try the next time you are in any store which  has display models. Yes, the screen look different. But, if the press the Windows key, you suddenly see a desktop that look exactly like what you have always seen.

Here is short video (around 3 minutes) which gives a good overview of Windows 8:




For those who have worked with Windows 8 for a while, what are your thoughts on Windows 8 versus Windows 7?

What's My IP Address?...and More

Could you answer the following questions about the device on which you are reading this blog post:

• What operating system are you running?
• What browser are you running and what version?
• What's your IP address?
• Do you have Javascript enabled?
• Do you have cookies enabled?
• What's your screen resolution?
• What's your browser size?
• What's the color depth?
• What version of flash are you running (if any)?

You could answer every one of these questions if you knew about this website:

http://supportdetails.com

Go to the site, and you will see the information about the device you are using. Think about times when you have needed to know your IP address and didn't know how to find it. Going to this site on your computer gives the answer. Perhaps you weren't sure what version of system software your phone is running. Go to this site on your phone and the answer will be revealed.

Add this site to your social bookmarks and let your friends know about it. It may not be something you will use often, but when you need it, it's nice to have,

EdLeaders Network Followup

Thanks to everyone who was part of the "Free Tech Tools That Increase Productivity" webinar today. We covered a great deal of ground in 60 minutes. In addition to what you gained through the webinar and downloadable ebook, a number of posts on this blog will give you additional information about the tools and concepts from this event:

igHome  Friday's post (February 15) is all about this tool. Check back then.
No More iGoogle? What Will We Do?
Netvibes: When You Can't Find a Widget
Sharing on Netvibes
Free Dropbox Ebook
From Outlook to Evernote
New to Evernote? The Notebooks You Will Need
Survey Results are In! Learn About Google Forms
Conducting a Classroom Walkthrough Using Google Docs Forms
reQall: CLAS Conference Follow-Up
Vlingo: Your Personal Assistant

Technology is a moving target, so you will notice some differences between the tools as described in the blog posts and what covered in the webinar, In particular, Google has made some changes to the way the screen looks as you create forms. The concepts are still the same.

I welcome your questions here or on the ELN blog, using the link Arlin gave at the end of the webinar.

You can also follow me on Twitter, join the community on my Facebook page, or connect with me on Linkedin.

Of Water Wings and Bicycles and the "Digital Haves"

Chairing District Accreditation teams, delivering software training, and conducting workshops have brought me in contact with schools and school personnel in a number of states. As we talk about technology, the topic is invariably raised of just what percentage of households has Internet access. We have sound educational objectives that involve student use of the Internet at home. Yet, we hesitate to move forward because of those who “don’t have the Internet.”

The discrepancies between the libraries in large cities and those in small towns are enormous. So too are the discrepancies between resources in affluent versus poverty-ridden schools. The great equalizer is the Internet. The Internet is the same in the Library of Congress as it is in the library down the street.

We must re-frame the question from, “Do you have Internet access?” to “How do you have Internet access?” Do you have access at home? If not, what about at work? Can you get to a public library on a regular basis? Can you go to a neighbor’s house?

As long as we operate in a mode that assumes part of our population will not access the Internet, we can never fully use this tool in the homework or projects we assign. We further the disconnect that so many see between our educational system and how the real world operates.

People generally rise to the expectations set before them. If we proceed with the assumption that our students can gain Internet access, they will find a way. If we proceed with the assumption that our parents can gain Internet access, they will find a way. Our communication methods can become more streamlined. Our assignments and the resources required to complete them can mirror how resources are used in the real world to solve problems. In short, we can move to a new level.

At the same time, we tend to rely on the crutches that are available to us. As long as you give me water wings, I don't have to learn to swim. As long as you let me keep the training wheels, I don't have to really learn to ride the bike. As long as you continue to send me a paper copy of everything, I never have to figure out a way to become one of the "digital haves."

 When we continue to make allowances for those who have yet to make joining the “digital haves” a priority, we become part of the problem. We send the message that access to the unlimited body of knowledge available with a few mouse clicks is just not that important. Perhaps it’s time to take away the water wings. Perhaps it’s time to take away the training wheels. Perhaps it’s time to stop duplicating every digital communication with a paper copy.

Let’s change the conversation. As we move through 2013, let's refuse to allow a segment of the population to ignore a tool that holds so much potential. No longer ask the question, “Do you have the Internet?” Assume the answer to be "Yes." The only question is the “How?”

Technology PLU Though CLAS

If you are an Alabama administrator and want to gain a Professional Learning Unit (PLU) in technology, read on.

I have just finished a five-part webinar series with CLAS which focuses on the nut & bolts uses of technology which administrators can apply every day.

For more information and to register, go to this address.

Need a Free Plagiarism Checker?

Plagiarism has been the scourge of English teachers for generations. With the advent of the Internet, the problem of plagiarism has only become worse.

Face it, back in the days when term papers were produced on a typewriter, the plagiarizer had to do a little work. If you were going to lift someone's words, you at least had to go to the trouble of typing them onto your paper. In fact, it was often  just as easy to paraphrase, to combine ideas from multiple sources, and to insert some of your own thoughts as it was to blindly steal word-for-word from another source.

Today, the easiest thing is to copy entire paragraphs or pages from a single source and paste them into ones own paper. With this temptation. what is a teacher to do?

Problems caused by technology often have their solutions with technology. If technology is encouraging plagiarism, let's use technology to solve plagiarism.

A free site called Plagiarisma.Net gives the teacher a way to spot-check student work.Copy and paste a selection from a student's submission into the site and watch the results. You will see URLs for the various pieces of text which were plagiarized.

It's just enough help to the teacher battle the problem a good Google search can cause. It may be just enough to keep students from replying on a cut-and-paste to pass for a term paper.

No More iGoogle? What Will We Do?

iGoogle has been my homepage for six years. Every time my browser opens, I see my dashboard of tools. It's always the same from device to device. I can log into it from any computer. If I make a change, the change shows up on all of my devices.

Imagine my shock when I opened my browser this past Tuesday evening to see an announcement that Google is shutting down iGoogle effective November 2013. I am not alone. A post on the subject appeared on Lifehacker the same day. A poll at the bottom of that post demonstrates just how popular iGoogle is.

Yes, I know November 2013 is more than a year away and much can change in a year. Google may reconsider. Google may come up with something better. But the reality is I have shown countless people the magic of iGoogle as a way to organize all Internet resources in a single place. Starting now, I will be offering another option.

Enter Netvibes
In June 2007, Mashable published this article comparing 14 different personalized homepages. While the article is five years old, it was the most on-point resource I found. Being impressed with the description for Netvibes, I created an account and started building my page.

• To begin, go to Netvibes.com.
• Click on "Get Started" and select "Go Basic" for your account.

Get Started With Netvibes

• You are presented with a a box asking you to create a dashboard. I clicked on "Productivity" and my dashboard was built.

Creating a Dashboard

• A helpful directions box walked me through the steps to adding and managing content. The green "Add Content" button at the extreme upper left of the screen is the secret. Just like iGoogle, once a widget is added to the dashboard, you can drag it to any position or use the controls on the title bar of the widget to make modifications.

Adding Widgets is easy

• You will probably find you want to keep a number of the widgets that Netvibes automatically included. Likewise, you will want to delete others and add your own. I was pleased with the variety of widgets available.
• Just like iGoogle, you may choose from a variety of "themes."  Click the "Settings" icon in the upper right just to the left of the word "Dashboard."

Netvibes offers a wide variety of themes

• The very last step is to chose a user name and password. This action will save the dashboard you created. Look for a confirmation email from Netvibes sent to the email address you provided. You will need to respond to that e-mail.

So far, here are the widgets I have added to my page:
Productivity Apps

• Google Calendar
• ToodleDo
• Gmail
• Calculator
• Stock Portfolio
• Google Bookmarks
• Google Reader
• GoogleDocs
• Bit.ly Link Shortener
• Google/Bing Maps Search

Social Media

• Twitter
• Facebook

News

• CNN News
• Fox News
• ESPN
• People

Here is the finished product

On Wednesday, we will examine how a workaround when you cannot find a widget you need. On Friday, we will look at how you can share widgets or entire tabs with other Netvibes users.

Thanks, Hampton Cove & Huntsville Middle Schools!

As promised, this post is a follow-up to today's workshop. The items I want to cover here are very much the same as those in a post following a workshop for the Alabama National Board Certified Teachers Network on January 28. So, instead of re-writing it all here, let me direct you to that post.

Click here for the follow-up information.

Importance of Organization with Technology and Teaching

Computers began to appear in classrooms almost 30 years ago. How best to integrate them into the learning process remains a popular topic. This guest post, written by Lindsey Wright, offers practical advice.

While the use of technology has been touted for awhile now as an essential part of the educational process, many teachers and administrators are baffled by how to integrate computers and other technological tools into the classroom environment and make them a meaningful part of learning. It’s not simply enough to say that you’ll designate time each week for students to work on computers or require them to type their papers. To truly integrate current technology with curriculum, you must be crafty, think outside of the box, and develop new organizational methods for classroom management.

Successful Models for Computer Integration

Science teacher Judi Heitz wrote an article way back in 1999 discussing the problems she encountered working with students. While some of her ideas are a bit dated, especially in an era in which the online school has become increasingly prevalent, her solutions for integrating computers into students’ academic lives still hold up. The first thing that is essential to successful classroom integration of technology is in making its use meaningful to goals of the lesson. Simply letting the computer be a means to an end is not enough.

As such, Heitz required students to communicate with each other via e-mail and use search engines to develop models for a genetically engineered product. While the computing requirements she set forth for the project might seem a bit lax for the current generation, the principles remain sound. Teaching students to work cooperatively across a digital medium is essential. So is teaching them to evaluate internet sources to broaden their knowledge base and develop original theory and thought. While genetically engineered products might not have been part of the basic science curriculum, by asking students to create their own genetically engineered products, Heitz introduced them to a new level of genetics and led them to explore it. Ultimately, as Heitz noted, the project taught the students to explore, to evaluate sources, and to work with one another to develop new levels of knowledge.

Another teacher, Kenneth Beare, who specializes in ESL, makes a number of excellent suggestions in his article “How to Use a Computer in Class” for successfully organizing a lesson that uses the computer. However, the primary thought to keep in mind when developing the lesson is to keep it simple. Having students dashing willy-nilly from the Internet to word processing to spreadsheets doesn’t help them or you. To create a meaningful lesson, the computer should be used as a facilitating tool. The goal should be to master a particular aspect of the curriculum while at the same time mastering a particular aspect of computing.

Beare also emphasizes that, as lessons are typically divided into warm-ups, introduction of materials, class work, and summary, it behooves the teacher to incorporate the computer aspect of the curriculum into at least two areas of the lesson. For an example, the teacher might begin class one day by introducing the topic and including a discussion of how the computer will be used during class work. During the introduction, the students will model the teacher’s use of the computer. Following this, the students will work to complete the class assignment, using the computer as a tool. The next day, a review of the previous day’s material might require them to complete a smaller-scale version of the assignment as a warm-up.

It is also essential that computers be integrated in such a way that students expect them to be part of the lesson. If it’s not possible for every student to have a computer at his or her desk, a computer work center is an excellent solution. As detailed on Scholastic.com, there are a number of solutions that will keep computer centers running smoothly and facilitate independent use and detailed investigation by students. For instance:

• Index cards or posters that provide computer instructions can help to keep students oriented as to the basic goals and rules of computer use.
• Developing activities or assigning students to research or work on a particular website that corresponds to the lesson keeps the computer center relevant and current.
• Lessons completed in one session tend to work best at computer centers, unless the students can work on the same lesson for several weeks.

By maintaining center organization and encouraging relevant study, the teacher can organize the computer center to foster creative thinking. These centers, due to their somewhat informal nature, are also great for encouraging group work. Keeping extra chairs at the computer center further encourages this, reinforcing the collaborative nature that characterizes good research and digital learning.

Computers don’t belong just in the school computer lab, nor should they be used only as word processors. Rather, the careful organization and integration of computers into the classroom means that students, regardless of their technological capacities at the outset, will learn valuable skills while broadening their knowledge of different subjects. Ultimately with careful lesson planning, a creative mindset, and a willingness to experiment in their organizational styles to discover what works best for them, teachers can integrate computer-based learning seamlessly into their classrooms.

Lindsey Wright is fascinated with the potential of emerging educational technologies, particularly the online school, to transform the landscape of learning. She writes about web-based learning, electronic and mobile learning, and the possible future of education.

Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing?

Some questions are easy:
Is it important that kids write well?
Do we want them to write better than they do?
Would we like to use some of the technology available to help with the process?

Some questions are hard:
How?

A new book written by a 5th grade teacher answers that question. Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing? by Julie D. Ramsay walks us through a year in Mrs. Ramsay's classroom, a year in which students take the kind of ownership for their learning we wish could happen everywhere. The book is written in language even the techno-novice can understand, yet touches on such a wide variety of tools that even the most tech-savvy will learn something.

Can We Skip Lunch and Keep Writing? contains so much dialogue, I truly felt I was right there in the classroom with the students. I started reading one afternoon and found I was two-thirds of the way through before I could put it down. By the next day, I was finished. It's specific enough, a teacher can use it as his/her guide for improving writing, finally figuring out how to incorporate technology, and finally making learning irresistible.

If you are looking for a "how to do it" book that delivers, this one is a must-read! School's about to start. You need to pick up your copy now.

A Tech Support Care Package

I couldn't help laughing when a friend shared this site with me. After laughing, however, I added it to my bookmarks, and for a very good reason. When it comes to technology, holes in the knowledge base of a vast number of people occur at fairly low levels. Regardless of where we are on the continuum, we are either needing to plug our own holes or help people we care about get up to speed with technology. Either way, we are going to need good resources that make concepts easy to understand. That's why I bookmarked TeachParentsTech.org. 

To use the site, you complete a "form" that is guaranteed to make you smile:

 

Click "Preview," and it you like what you see, e-mail it to your mom, dad, aunt, uncle...well, you get the idea. Here is what they see:

The videos are short and easy to digest. In all, there are 52 videos in the collection. They include "copy and paste," but they also include topics that even fairly tech savvy folks may not know.

Alabama Educational Technology Conference Recap

Thanks to everyone who came to one of my sessions today at AETC. As promised, all you had to do was sit back and listen. All of the notes you could have taken are in the handouts. To get to them, go to my website and click on the Free Resources link. Or, simply click on the appropriate link below to get the handout for the session you attended. Each handout required a password to open. Use the one we gave you in the session.

Get Organized With Your BlackBerry
Now you can keep your calendar digitally. All of your "to-do" items will be in one place. You can now enter all of the repeating appointments once and let the BlackBerry handle the rest. Plus, you can anything in a flash.

Syncing your BlackBerry with Outlook makes a huge difference. The one-time setup is well worth it! You will also want to grab a copy of Configuring Outlook. 


Why Your PowerPoints are Awful and What to Do About It
Hopefully, you will never think of PowerPoint presentation the same way again. Now, the text is  in a document, the presentation is in your head, and beautiful pictures that are worth 1,000 words are on the screen. Your audience will not only stay awake, but they will remember what you said. Just don't tell anyone how easy this was to do!

Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity
Yes, there is a lot of neat stuff out there. But just how much do you have the time to master. With what you learned here, you just put time back in your day, reduced your stress, and remembered why it was you liked technology!

If you are interested in adding to your iGoogle page some of the same gadgets I have on mine, here is an easy way to get them. As you click each link, you will be taken to a page that describes the gadget and let's you click a button to automatically add it to your iGoogle page.

Google Bookmarks
Google Reader
Yahoo News
Twitter
Facebook 
Dropbox
Bit.ly URL Shortener
Weather
CNN.com
CNN Technology
reQall
People.com
ESPN.com
MapQuest Driving Directions
Area/Zip Code Lookup
Music
YouTube
Document to PDF
Movies
GoogleDocs
GoogleCalendar
Google Map Search
Portfolio Monitor
Calculator
Stopwatch
Flight Status
Wolfram/Alpha

Want to set up a Dropbox account? Here is an easy way for you to set up an account and get an extra 250MB of free storage for both you and me. Click here to sign up.

We mentioned briefly about students being able to take tests on the computer which are instantly graded and item analysis conducted. Here is a post that goes into more depth on that concept.

If you are a first-time visitor at this blog, you will find 6 years of posts here designed to help you organize your life (with technology being a big part of it) and have more fun along the journey.


The right-hand column of this blog gives you the opportunity to subscribe, so that with every time there is a new post, you get the information in your e-mail. You can also sign-up for a free monthly e-mail newsletter, examine free resources on the website, or follow me on Twitter.


If your school could benefit by having everyone get what you got today, bringing me to your school can start by simply clicking here.

Going to AETC? Three Sessions You Don't Want to Miss

Are you attending the Alabama Educational Technology Conference? Join me for these three sessions:

Get Organized With Your BlackBerry
(June 16, 8:00, East Hall Room N)
Have a BlackBerry, but just use it to make phone calls, get e-mail, and take a few pictures? You don't want to miss this session. Learn how to maintain a complete calendar. Keep all of your "to-dos" at hand where you always know what's next. Learn how easily you can search for any piece of information. We will also preview the new BlackBerry Playbook, Blackberry's entry into the tablet arena.

Why Your PowerPoints are Awful and What to Do About It
(June 16, 10:00, East Hall Room N)
After this session, you will never create a PowerPoint the same way again. Out with all of the bullet points that slide in. Forget reading text from a slide while your audience sits bored to tears. Lose the handouts that are nothing more than screen shots of the slides. In this session, you will learn how to design slides that are beautiful, memorable, and help you sell your point. You will also learn where to get great images for free and how to plan the entire presentation.

Free Digital Tools That Increase Productivity
(June 16, 3:30, East Hall Room O)
Technology really can make your life easier. You will learn to organize the entire Internet, and that's just one of the topics we will cover using tools that are free for the taking.

Free door prize drawing at each session for your choice of Get Organization!: Time Management for School Leaders or Organization Made Easy!: Tools for Today's Teachers.

The Networked Student

"The Networked Student" was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler's high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros' Networked Teacher. Teachers may use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century.

21st Century Education

This video was produced by the New Brunswick (Canada) Department of Education. Its purpose is to stimulate discussion among educators and other public education stakeholders within the province of New Brunswick. The video demonstrates the rapid change in our society due to technology and the changes predicted for the future. The video explores the world of students today and the world that students will step into following graduation.

Next is Now

"Next is Now" depicts the human connections empowered by rapid changes in communications technology both in Canada and around the world. "Next is Now" was produced by Rogers with support from 76design and Thornley Fallis.

How Delicious Helps Us Learn from One Another

I first explained the concept of Delicious in this post called Del.icio.us is Delicious. Later, we examined the concept of "tagging" in this post.

Today, we look at how Deli.icio.us can be used to make the teaching profession easier for all of us. To illustrate the concept, imagine you are a teacher who has a SMART Board. Little by little, you come across excellent Internet resources related to the SMART Board. How can you save these for later reference?