
Ok...so I am really excited about a new "blog revelation" I have
had in my life recently. Last week I conducted an interview for another class
with an individual who is in charge or creating and conducting instructional
technology training for the region I live in. She talked about the importance
of using blogs to keep up with the latest and greatest in educational
technology. Coincidentally, EdTech Magazine also published their "
The Honor Roll: 50 Must-Read K–12 Education IT Blogs"
story. These two things combined to inspire my "blog revelation". One
of my favorite iPad apps is called
Flipboard. If you haven't used it, Flipboard is a social
reader that allows you to download all kinds of different magazines that
specialize in anything from news to sports to the weird and wacky. You can also
access your
Google
Reader feed through Flipboard. Soooo...one by one I went through EdTech's
50 best list and added them to my Google Reader. This allows me to easily read
through blog posts and get ideas and inspiration for my own technology integration.
A couple
of the recent gems I have discovered:
Edudemic - An educational
technology magazine that you can download on your iPad. The app is free but you
will need to pay for each issue or get a subscription. I started off just
downloading the current issue "
10
Incredibly Powerful Teaching Tools of the Future" for $1.99.
I really enjoyed the articles and ideas. The magazine also included a
"student bio". This particular one was for a 9th grade student from
Houston, Texas who had the opportunity to present a
TED talk. Her views are an
inspiration for teachers trying to move beyond the standard way of doing
things. She states, "While working on my TED talk, I had to overcome a
true fear of public speaking, a real life skill, in pursuit of passion. If
schools allowed students to pursue their passions, improving weaknesses would
not be such a daunting task; having the opportunity to work on a project they
are passionate about allows students to excel at their strengths while
improving their weaknesses in a way that doesn't seem as frustrating or
discouraging as a typical classroom environment" (Edudemic, 2012, p. 19).
That sentiment fit in perfectly with another gem about gamification in the
classroom:
We have talked repeatedly about the value of games in education throughout
the program. However, I haven't heard any concrete ways a teaching is using it
in practice. If you have a chance, check out
Gamification in the Classroom: How (And Why) One Teacher Did It.
The story includes a case study on a teacher in Michigan and how she turned her
entire math class into a game she calls MathLand. It is an inspirational story
on the possibilities that are out there with a little creativity and hard work.
I am really excited about this new use of blogs, Google Reader, and my iPad
to help in my pursuit of knowledge and ideas to help transform my (future)
classroom. If you have access to these technologies I highly recommend adding
some (or all) of the "50 Best" blogs to your reading list.