Digital Skills in Higher Education

Free Software and Free Culture Lesson Plan

How to Twitter

EduTech for Christmas

Celebrate Holiday Traditions with @ThingLink & @amyk_librarian @camaher @AuntyTech @edutech20 @ZigZagsTech @sue_fitz http://t.co/1qewEmLqUq
— Susan Oxnevad (@soxnevad) December 13, 2014

Twitter Cheat Sheet

Guide to Twitter

Using Twitter makes students more engaged?

http://www.edudemic.com/a-useful-social-media-cheat-sheet/

Google Drive Resources in the Cloud

Neat collection of resources compiled, selected and curated by the great Nikki D. Robertson. She describes herself as: a veteran educator and Instructional Technology Facilitator who is passionate about 1:1 Digital Initiatives, collaboration w/other education professionals, and assisting students in becoming well informed, critically thinking digital citizens.

Fixed vs Growth Minsdet

Until the 1960s, people were believed to be either intelligent and smart or less so, to put it mildly. This theory of cognitive development was widely accepted until UC Berkley professor Mark Rosenzweig turned the idea of innate intelligence upside down.

Can intelligence grow or is it fixed and static?

Listen to the podcast below and complete the activities below.

 

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Revisited

Teachers Technology Use in the Classroom

According to a recent survey in the U.S. three-quarters of teachers surveyed link educational technology to a growing list of benefits saying that:

• Technology enables to reinforce and expand on content (74%), 
• to motivate students to learn (74%), 
•  and to respond to a variety of learning styles (73%). 

 Seven in 10 teachers (69%) surveyed said educational technology allows them to “do much more than ever before” for their students.

“Technology is a critical part of learning and teaching in today’s classrooms,” commented Alicia Levi, PBS Education. “Teachers today need access to high-quality digital content to keep pace with schools’ investment in interactive whiteboards, tablets and other devices to maximize the educational benefits of technology in classrooms.”

Source: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/12/amazing-facts-about-teachers-technology.html

5 Levels of Student Engament

A must see infographic showing the 5 levels of student engament.

 The original creator of this graphic is Dr. Roland Rios

How to Integrate Technology in Education

This is one of my favourite and controversial isssues relating to tech-integration in the classroom, sort of a long standing hobbyhorse for me.

In one of the webs (for educators) I follow I found quite by chance this neat chart below, a bit disturbing if you have never considered the issue but quite stimulating and thought-provoking if you are one of those techy teachers your colleagues call simply techy-geeks.

You can read another interesting post about the proper role of education technology states  that basically technology is a tool and that it’s all about what you do with it, not all the bells and whistles you see in an advertisement (....)Professor Chris Hoadley outlines many things. One of the key takeaways is that there are 3 laws of education technology:

Law 1: It's not the technology. It's what you do with it.

Law 2: It's not what the technology makes possible. It's what technology makes easy.

Law 3: Pay attention to the trends in learning, not in technology.

Last but not least I would also like to recommend this post here, it makes quite a few interesting reflections about teachers' obligation to integrate technology into their classes. Written by  @pernilleripp.
I copy here just one of Pernille's great reflections on the topic, I couldn't agree more.

It Is Not About the Gadgets - Why Every Teacher Should Have to Integrate Tech Into Their Classroom

• Some teachers feel that integrating technology is optional.  Integrating technology is no more optional than teaching how to use a pencil.  And while many may find that extreme, we cannot equip our students with the skills they need to be successful learners and teachers without teaching them to use technology properly.  Many schools see typing as a necessity but then cannot bring that view into how to stay safe on the internet, how to search properly on a computer and myriads of other things that technology can offer us.  How to use computers effectively is now a life-skill and as teachers it is our job to equip students with these.