Tech Talk Roundtable 10 | Have You Heard of Email?

  Chris, Jamie and Michael discuss the articles of the week and share their tech tips.

Articles of the week

1. Bringing Down Walls (Literally) to Foster Classroom Collaboration
   Design consultant Kate Mraw has been working on the layout to support collaborative learning at The Academy, a 320-student public charter high school for foster teens being established by the Orangewood Children’s Foundation in Orange County, CA. One distinguishing feature of the space is that learning areas will have a variety of shapes and sizes. Students will move throughout the building during their day and participate in project-based activities that demand different approaches for each of their foundational studies. In The Academy’s design, the technology and the classroom furniture are different in each space. One teacher might need students working in pairs, another in groups of four. Another may want the students in a circle to work on a play. As the students move through the day, each room they come to will be set up differently. “That variety is engaging,” Mraw says. “It also allows for classes to open on to each other for team teaching.”
2. Tech & Innovation Daily: How New Technology is Changing the Face of Education (Part 2)
   “What happens when you add cutting-edge technology, analytics and Big Data to the education sector and apply them to a student’s learning experience? Answer: You get a radical new concept called ‘adaptive learning.'”
3. Education World: Encouraging Teacher Technology Use
   “It appears that technology use varies greatly from school to school. In some schools, technology use among teachers nears 100 percent; in other schools, it is virtually non-existent.” What is the difference? This article lists some of the major reasons for the dichotomy.
4. Copyright Chief Urges Congress to Produce ‘Next Great Copyright Act’ | Threat Level | Wired.com
   Nobody doubts the United States is in need of reforming copyright law. Register of Copyrights Maria Pallante told a House congressional subcommittee Wednesday that everything from anticircumvention provisions and fair use to length of copyright and performance royalties should be on the table. The hearing comes a month after the White House announced publicly that Americans should be able to unlock their mobile phones and use them with any compatible carrier they choose. The announcement was in response to a Copyright Office directive that mobile-phone unlockers could be subject to criminal or civil penalties — which prompted a massive public outcry that reforming copyright law was long overdue.

Tech tips

High School:  100 Incredibly Useful YouTube Channels for Teachers  If you ever access YouTube for education, this is your webpage! For teachers hoping to infuse multimedia into their classrooms, YouTube makes for an excellent starting point.

Middle School:   Guidebook for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store   With so many presentations and talks going on, academic conference schedules can get complicated. A searchable, customizable schedule that is always up-to-date makes it easier on your attendees and on you.  Read reviews, get customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Guidebook on the App Store. Download Guidebook and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS