David Lee EdTech

Google Reader will retire on July 1, 2013!  According to the official Google blog, the RSS service will be dropped due to the decline in users, and Google's goal to improve overall user experience by focusing on fewer products. Google Reader is a great tool for teachers because it provides them with specific & relevant content that they can utilize in their teaching and classrooms. Google Reader is where I get the majority of my educational technology content and news. I implement the ideas I find into my computer class, or help other teachers integrate them into their classrooms/curriculum.  Luckily, there is a solution! Feedly, a RSS app, has promised to duplicate Google Reader's API so that the service can continue. At my school, I have suggested teachers use Feedly to access a news feed of their students' Blogger posts! Transitioning from Google Reader to feedly  SIGN A PETITION TO STOP GOOGLE READER FROM RETIRING!

Angela Spitzman , our reading specialist at KIS (who happens to be my lovely girlfriend), started an App Review club for 3rd-5th grade students. The main objective for the students was to  identify, evaluate, and write a review about an educational app of their choice . The students utilized a rubric that was adapted from  Mayra Aixa Villar's "7 Essential Criteria for Evaluating Mobile Educational Applications"  to evaluate their apps. This has inspired me to implement an App Evaluation unit into my ICT curriculum. I will require my students to type their app reviews onto their blogs.  Blogging their app evaluations will give them the opportunity to develop their writing skills in an authentic way. The publishing aspect of blogging will also increase motivation and engagement in the students' writing process.  Here is the Google presentation Angela presented to her students: Class Discussion (Slide 1 and 2):   The students collaboratively dis...