Tag Archives: curriculum

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Tips and tricks for using video in the classroom

Uncertain CrossingFree Technology for Teachers recently published a great post that is sure to help any number of librarians rise to the “information guru” status they truly deserve. The article is geared toward using YouTube in the classroom, which more schools are now unblocking for teachers. Read the full post to get instructions and access to easy tools so you know how to:

  • Remove sidebar distractions,
  • Show just a portion of a video,
  • Create a playlist of videos to use at a moment’s notice!

Tip: If you have access to YouTube in your school, consider using tools like ViewPure and Watchkin to display videos without showing the “related” videos comments from YouTube.

Can’t use YouTube? No problem, check out this post with 40 alternatives to YouTube… Remember, where there is a will, there is a way!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/pa2wv2g, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General

Academics: Heard of the Open Syllabus Project?

So, what do you get when you gather one million college course syllabuses off of university websites, extract some of their key components (metadata), dump it all into a big database, and add a powerful search engine named Syllabus Explorer? You get the Open Syllabus Project!

According to the New York Times….”The hope and expectation is that this tool will enable people to learn new things about teaching, publishing and intellectual history. We think that the Syllabus Explorer demonstrates how more open strategies can support teaching, diversify evaluation practices and offer new perspectives on publishing, scholarship and intellectual traditions.”

Without a doubt, this Project is controversial, but I will let you read the full article to weigh in on the issues. Read more now….

General, School Media Specialist

Chicken or the egg : Curriculum or the technology

UntitledWhat comes first, the chicken or the egg? What comes first, curriculum or technology? This is the question proposed by Elise Ecoff on Edudemic. Technology integration is more than buying devices, “every school must first have a great, robust and adaptable academic curriculum,” Ecoff says. “Only then can you begin to find ways in which technology can help to elevate it. It’s important to never force fit technology.”

Think Curriculum Enhancements, Not Technology Implementations

Here are five ways to ensure you’re putting the curriculum before the technology:

1) Learn How Students Are Using Technology at Home
2) Don’t Use Technology for the Sake of Using Technology
3) Focus on Just One Tech Implementation
4) Utilize the SAMR Model
5) Actively Seek Out Professional Development Opportunities

Read the entire article here.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/n8776fk, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Summer Learning Resources!

Image by Ahmad Hammound-some rights reserved
Image by Ahmad Hammound-some rights reserved

Edudemic (May 2013) posted an article on Ten Resources for Learning Over the Summer.  This is a quick, easily read post for all educators looking to enhance a program or instructional design. Below is a list of the general content areas discussed. Click here to read the full article.

  1. How Do Teachers Inspire Curiosity in Their Students
  2. Teaching and Learning with Videos
  3. Creative Classroom Ideas
  4. Add Multimedia Components to Presentations
  5. PBL (Project Based Learning)
  6. Engage, Inspire, and Educate Interactively Online
  7. Game Statistics and Game Simulation Applications for PE Teachers
  8. Eureka Moments–Fostering & Inspiring Creativity & Innovation
  9. No Homework
  10. Tools for Creating

Tip: When you are ready to begin planning for the 2013/14 school year, consider introducing at least one new idea into your classroom/media center. 

School Media Specialist

Free Website/Tool – Making Curriculum Pop!

http://mcpopmb.ning.com/

Making Curriculum Pop (MC POP) is a resource-sharing community for educators interested in best practices and teaching with/about pop culture. It’s difficult for individual teachers and media specialists to catch every cool website, video clip, song, study guide or comic, but collectively MC POP is a forum where educators can share resources to reinvent the core curriculum and the larger dialogue on public education. So if you use popular and common cultures to reflect, refract, refocus and reinvent your core curriculum, visit MC POP and join a group or set up one of your own. Groups in the community include Media Education/Literacy, New Media and Technology, Math and Science Educators, Sustainable/Green Educators, Digital Storytelling, Graphic Novels & Comics, Modern Languages & ELL, Adolescent Literature—and more.