Ecology of Education

Major seismic shifts can transform educators, and by proxy, instruction. However, more often than not, it’s just the opposite. Here are 15 implementable small steps that lead to transformation.

In a fantastic session at NCSS Annual Conference, a couple of education specialists from the National Archives and Records Administration presented a small sampling of the incredible wealth of primary source materials available for free.  From Nixon’s resignation letter to Regan’s landmark Berlin speech (his speaking copy!), they employed resources that can bring history alive [...]

A simple yet effective look at technology tools available to the 21st century classroom educator.

Web 2.0 for younger students: Glogster For younger kids use the “edu” version for elementary.  Use plain old dot com for standard teenage angst. Weebly Free website design that students can use to do a bit o’ blogging. Simply Box Cool tool for grabbing pieces of sites and compiling them. Kerpoof Site for creating animated [...]

Sarah Martabano and Linda Brandon‘s presentation on using Web 2.0 to differentiate in the classroom had the potential to do one of three things for participants: Open the floodgate of excitement for the myriad options (go2web20.net). Open the floodgate of fear of the unfathomable options (go2web20.net). Paralyze with options (go2web20.net). For those already in the know about Web [...]

Would you like to understand our culture better than you already do?  Does technology scare you most of the time?  If your answer is yes, you need to embrace some of the latest tools that make life simpler. We all seem to think that if something is more advanced, it is more difficult.  But technology is always [...]