Technology for Learning

Also called Learning Management Systems (in some contexts) or Portals, I’ve used this fun video to introduce the concept to teachers and parents. This is about using technology to engage and connect – and ultimately to enhance the support of student learning.
Thanks to Chris Thomson in Sheffield, UK for delivering this great work. [...]

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photo credit: quinn.anya
Some time ago I read a post helping teachers determine what they should and should not post on their classroom websites. It was a very positive list from Mrs. Smoke who posts often with helpful hints.
But when Alec Couros had a bad experience with someone favouriting his daughter’s photos on flickr, I [...]

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I had the chance to help a friend get her blog started. What a privilege. And now her blog already has a rich entry, where she explores the excitement of the language we are creating in our online world.
She even invented a new word – GLEU2C (glu-tic). Check out her blog – Make a Difference [...]

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Footprints in the sand
Originally uploaded by Welshdan

Jesse Bradley, in his recent post about the invisible audience, touched on the trail of his person that was collecting in cyberspace. He wondered what his children would come to know about him through his digital footprint online.
Gottsela touched on similar issues as she explored what should be posted [...]

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I had the good fortune recently to keynote a technical symposium – about 70 IT professionals engaged in supporting technology in K-12 schools. I spoke about the social web and our need as IT professionals to understand the social web and its role in our schools.
The call to action is to immerse yourself in order [...]

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photo credit: courosa
Donna DesRoches recently tweeted about it, Matt Townsley blogged about it, Dr. Alec Couros is passionate about it. Learning for teachers that is open, connected, personal. As 21st century educators we are committed to personalizing learning for our students, so why not for ourselves?
Authentic learning is as critical for the adults, yet [...]

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I’m blogging this.
Originally uploaded by Foxtongue

I live in the middle of a Venn diagram. My circles are IT, edtech, and learning. Women figure prominently in one of these circles – learning – but less so in edtech and perhaps even less in IT. What a wonderful event Ada Lovelace Day is to celebrate women in [...]

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Improvement Cycle School Family Partnerships
Originally uploaded by rdrunner

As I have often posted here about the development of the Implementation Guide for K-12 Parent Portals, I am pleased to report that the work is ready. I will not use the word “finished”, because it will always be open for improvements. You can access the guide here:
K-12 [...]

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Are you the technical leader in your school district? Whether you are an educator or an information technology professional, you are faced with two distinct challenges – first to align the work of the technology department with the district learning goals and second to ensure that IT best practice is employed to deliver a [...]

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For some time I have been frustrated by the limited research data available in the Canadian context relative to the American context. I attributed this to population size, until now.
I believe the issue is constitutional. Let me explain.
[note: The following sentence appeared in the original post. It is a factual error - while the presence [...]

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