Technology for Learning

photo credit: Hermin
Mr. Balcom, a thoughtful grade four teacher, wrote a great post recently about the history of parent involvement in elementary schools. He spoke of the importance of communicating with parents, and proposed a k.n.o.w.l.e.d.g.e. approach to communicating with parents.
Without saying so, what he addressed was the importance of understanding the context that each [...]

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The Parents as Partners webcast had a very lively conversation tonight about Parents and Web 2.0 tools. So lively that I wanted to capture some of the great ideas while they were fresh in my mind.
Steve Hargadon of Classroom 2.0 was the guest tonight on Lorna Costantini’s hosted webcast. The chatroom was filled [...]

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Content Filtering refers to the use of some computer hardware or software to block certain content from being accessed on the Internet. Some people equate content filtering with any blocking activity, but it is important to separate Internet traffic that is blocked because it has the potential to do damage to the hardware and software, [...]

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I’ve been doing a lot of reading about Parent Engagement in K-12 Schools. What has struck me is the relative lack of controversy in the literature.
There are two consistent themes in the literature:
1. The parent engagement models are both limited and validated in the research. Parents want to engage, engagement declines over the [...]

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Parents and Students
Originally uploaded by PGoGS

Meaningful parent involvement requires more than just programming. Some would argue it begs for major school reform.
Mark Holmes, Honourary Patron of the Society for Quality Education and Professor Emeritus at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education lays bare his personal bias [...]

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I spent the evening doing online research on parental involvement in K-12 education.  There is significant research to demonstrate a link between parental involvement and student achievement (which I will document in a future post).  I wanted to write about an insightful paper by Dr. Debbie Pushor from the University of Saskatchewan.  In Parent Engagement:  [...]

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As part of my readings about Parent Voice I just finished a book by Elaine K. McEwan on How to Deal with Parents….  The book is a mix of understanding parent needs (with sources) and how-to’s for school administrators in creating a healthy school environment by working effectively with parents.  Here’s her list of what parents want:

Instructional [...]

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Thanks to all who responded to my last post.  I’d like to try to summarize the responses, which wove threads into the same fabric:  we are being over-protective:
1.  There is a difference between safety and literacy.  Children must learn to survive in this new culture they themselves are creating.  Ignorant children cannot grow up to [...]

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Can you believe the technologies available to support and enable learning today? I’m starting this blog, rather fittingly on the first day of a new year, to chronicle my journey through my M.Ed. degree in Educational Communications and Technology. I have been working in technology for 30 years, but only the last nine in K-12 [...]

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