David Lee EdTech

Sammamish High School was given a federal grant to redesign their curriculum and school with project-based learning (PBL). The school plans to transition the whole school to a PBL curriculum by 2015. Edutopia created this video to document the school's first year of PBL implementation. Here are some of the things Edutopia found out:  All disciplines and grade levels are shifting from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning.  There is a great focus in engaging students with authentic challenges. Students are learning academic content through the process of finding the solutions to authentic problems.  The hands-on experiences also help students to retain information better. Students were motivated to created quality work when clients were involved.  Teachers are required to attend a five-day professional development on PBL in the beginning of the year.  ELLs can benefit from projects that require them to work in groups. These ...

4 year olds creating #wordle images to practice typing: #edtech #education #preschool #kindergarten

Here is what the new update features (via Educreations email): View and manage all of your lessons from any iPad Lesson deletions are now synced to educreations.com Bug fixes and performance enhancements

Android Police's  Ron Amadeo  reported a new  Evernote -like service called Google Keep on March 17th. Sadly, he reported later in the day that the website was gone (www.drive.google.com/keep). It seems that Google is not ready to push out this service to the public, but it is great to know that  Google is working on a project that will allow you to clip web pages and take notes.  I have been hesitant in using Evernote or any other note-taking service because want to stay in Google's ecosystem for my work. When Keep comes out I will never have to!  Google Keep screenshots via  Android Police Through Android Police's screenshot, you can see the service looks very similar to  Google Notebook , which was shut down in  July 2012 .  The screenshot shows that your notes can be color-coded, archived, or deleted. You can also add an image to your notes, and view your notes in a list or as thumbnails. At the top, you can see Google's f...

I was sent an email from Prezi stating that audio can be included into your Prezi presentations.  Voiceover can be added so that students at home can view a presentation with the teacher speaking. This would be a great addition to the tools you use to flip your classroom! Here are some of the audio options you have: background track sound to a path step For more information visit the  Prezi site!

Next year, our elementary school will roll out a 1:1 iPad program for 3rd and 4th grade classrooms. A time-consuming step in the implementation process is setting up students with the proper software, user accounts, and educational bookmarks on their iPad.  This post will describe a quick method for students to bookmark essential educational websites to their web browsers.  Teachers usually have a list of essential websites that they require students to use in a regular basis throughout the year. Here is how it works: 1. Create QR codes with a QR code generator (I prefer qrstuff.com). 2. Download the QR codes onto their computer, and drag the codes onto a document  like the one below . Make sure to label the codes with the name of the websites. 3. Print out the document and make copies. Pass out the documents to the students at the start of the year.  4. Students will use a scanning app to scan the QR codes. A window will appear to link your stud...

Teacher/Student Benefits: Teachers can monitor what their students are doing on the tablet. There is an app blocking feature for teachers (block any/all apps on your students' tablet).   Lessons can blend both preloaded academic content and content on the Web.  Add preloaded content and content on the Web to your own playlist. This playlist can be shared with students.  Quick Poll feature: Teachers can view poll results to see if specific content from their playlist needs to be resent to students who are struggling with the concepts.  Students are alerted with assignment, project, and test notifications. IT Management Benefits: When receiving their tablets, students can scan a QR code that immediately syncs with school info.  IT can update and push/pull apps over the Internet. Specs: Amplify looks similar to the ASUS Transformer Pad TF300TL  NVIDIA Tegra 3, quad-core CPU 10 inch tablet Camera HDMI port SD card slot Android ...

Teachers can capture and share student learning moments easily and quickly with  YouTube Capture.  Its newest update (version 1.1) now allows teachers to upload 1080p video.  The app can automatically enhance your video with color correction and stabilization. You can also edit your video with a trimming feature and by adding music tracks.  Many of us have multiple social media accounts for our classrooms. You may communicate with your students on Facebook or Google+, and use Twitter to communicate to parents. With YouTube Capture, you can share your video simultaneously to these sites. That is probably my favorite feature of the app. Make sure you have permission from parents to record and share video of your students. I also recommend sharing your video as "unlisted" instead of "public."

What is WWF Together? The World Wildlife Fund, a nature conservation organization, has created an iOS app that lets students learn interactively about different endangered animals (rhino, whale, giant panda, jaguar, marine turtle, elephant, polar bear, bison, tiger, shark, snow leopard, and gorilla). Implementation Example: 3rd Grade Animal Unit (Life Sciences) This app would be a great research tool for 3rd grade students to learn about the physical and behavioral adaptions animals make to better survive in their environments (CA Science Contant Standard 3.0).  Adaptations in physical structure or behavior may improve an organism's chance for survival. WWF Together First you will need to download the app onto your iOS device.    After you choose an animal, you will see 9 cards that contain different information. You can navigate the cards by swiping.  Title Page: Includes an Adjective that Describes the Animal  Introductory Fact ...

Chade-Meng Tan: Everyday compassion at Google According to Chade-Meng Tan's TED Talk, "Everyday compassion at Google,"  the secret to happiness is compassion. To prove his point, the software engineer at Google introduced the audience to the happiest man on earth, a French Buddhist monk named Matthieu Ricard.  Science has recently been able to quantify happiness through the measurement of a person's "relative activation of the left prefrontal cortex" in a fMRI . In Chade-Meng's words, Mattheiu's fMRI results were "off the charts!" So what is Mattheiu's secret to happiness? He practices the art of compassion. Chade-Men Tan believes that the company he works for, Google, uses this idea to create a happy working environment. He believes compassion in the workplace brings two benefits: Compassion transforms a good company into a great one. Compassion produces an inspired workforce. After listening to this TED Talk, it got me thinking.  ...