Schoology Blog » Education Technology

Digital Learning Day 2012

Cassandra Cappello — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:56:23 +0000

Today’s is “Digital Learning Day,” a nationwide initiative that draws attention to the very positive, transformative role that technology can — and should — play in today’s classrooms.

If you haven’t heard about Digital Learning Day — today is the first of its kind — be sure to visit the website that has been set up with tons of information about national and state events, as well as a toolbox for teachers interested in what other educators are doing to participate in Digital Learning Day. An estimated 1.7 million students will be working on related projects and assignments today — with a great many of them powered and supported no doubt on Schoology!

Obviously, we share in the vision behind National Digital Day and in its broader message that we can meaningfully enhance the learning process through digital learning strategies that foster stronger student engagement, communication, and collaboration. As Jeremy Friedman, our CEO, said earlier today in a press release:

“Pick virtually any industry or sector and you will find that technological innovation is at the core of all major game-changing advancements; the same will be true for education. Today’s students are growing up surrounded by…

Assistive Technology and Special Education

Schoology — Wed, 18 May 2011 21:33:01 +0000

This guest post is written by Danielle Martino, a graduate student at Manhattanville College in New York finishing her Masters in Special Education. Danielle is conducting her thesis on the effectiveness of Assistive Technology in the classroom relative to students with mild disabilities. Please take a second to read her letter below, and we would greatly appreciate you contributing to her research by participating in the survey. If you have any questions please reach out to her at AssistiveTechnologySurvey@gmail.com.

Hello Fellow Educators:

I am conducting research to analyze the relationship between Assistive Technology and students with mild disability. I am currently completing the last of the requirements for my Master’s Degree in Special Education. I would appreciate any teachers that have experience instructing students with mild disabilities (impairments that are sufficiently mild, so that generally normal functioning is possible when adequate medical, educational, or other special services are provided) and that have some familiarity with Assistive Technology (low-tech: pencil grips, highlighting tape; high-tech: devices that are computer based; and/or other similar technologies) to complete this electronic survey.

It is important to note that your participation in this survey…

Why #SocialMedia is Important for #Education

Crystal — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 23:12:16 +0000

This morning Alec Couros (@courosa), a Professor of Educational Technology & Media at the University of Regina in Saskatchewan, Canada, reached out to his Personal Learning Network by tweeting to #SAChat the following,

“Speaking with a group of Student Affair Managers. Please say hi, Tell us where you’re from and why social media is important for education”

The conversation triggered from this tweet was great! In fact, the instant response from educators from all around the world displayed the perfect example of why social media and education work so well together. Here we have a group of educators, sharing their views, answering a question they were actually living by. It was refreshing to see this process in motion and hearing positive feedback on the topic was great too.

Cristina Costa (@cristinacost), currently the Research Technologies Development officer at the University of Salford in Southhampton, UK, pointed out how “Social media is great to keep in touch, share ideas, connect, learn, network, raise profile, and outreach”. Here at Schoology, we could not agree more. We take pride in being able to incorporate social media with education.…

ReCap #Web20Chat 7/28/10

Crystal — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:50:32 +0000

We had another successful chat yesterday, the topic at hand:

“How do we adapt our curriculum to the technologies that kids are already using?“

The topic generated some great responses, and all related to integrating digital media and technology into the classroom. What makes this the place to be? Once the clock strikes six (6pm EST/ 3pm PST), the hashtag #Web20Chat becomes an open forum to comfortably learn, add your own opinions, and discover.

Some of the themes targeted during the hour long chat:

Filters and blocks severely limiting accessibility to existing tools and platforms, making it difficult for teachers to integrate technology within their curriculum
Administrators are (or seem to be) focused on the risks of incorporating these technology tools, while teachers are fighting to get them available in their classrooms
Online Responsibility, along side personal responsibility on the web. Teaching students to properly conduct and protect themselves online
Do not be afraid to ask your students what type of tools they are using outside of class. Drop the ego and just ask.
When incorporating tools into a lesson, try to find the purpose. Do not use a tool for the sake of using a

…

ReCap #Web20Chat 7/21/10

Crystal — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 15:59:13 +0000

For those of you who may not know, the first Twitter chat devoted to learning about Web 2.0 tools took place this past Wednesday, July 21.

This week’s topic was: How to help educators feel comfortable deciding on Web 2.o Tools.

It was a great success with over 35 people contributing to the conversation with over 300 total tweets. What originally was a 30 minute chat will now be a full hour thanks to the the great educators who joined us to start it off. It is clear that there is a want and need and hope to provide an open meeting and discussion place for learning about Web 2.0 tools.

Going with the idea the learning does not end in the classroom (the classroom being our #web20chat) you are welcomed to join in the conversation on the webpage. The official #Web20Chat webpage, Web 2.0 Learning, is now live and ready for interaction. We will be using the blog at Web 2.0 Learning to:

Matter Monday : Topics for the next chat will be posted. The discussion is chosen by you so make sure to vote before Wednesday.
Theme Tuesday

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#Web20chat

Crystal — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:16:09 +0000

As a semi-newbie to #Edchat , a Twitter hashtag that is used as a collaborative tool for educators to debate and evaluate solutions to various problems, many of the discussions I have engaged with has led me wanting more. The education topics brought up during #edchat are relevant and important, but it is clear there is an absence of discussion focused on technology integration in education. For many, incorporating these web 2.0 tools in class can be scary, but it does not have to be.

So we have created: #web20chat

What is #web20chat ?

A comfortable setting for educators to come together to discuss their issues and concerns, share their advice, and give input about using web 2.0 tools in our modern day classrooms. The goal behind #web20chat is to encourage a productive dialogue between educators in hopes to answer those mysterious questions we may have about these new tools, as well as bring new ideas on how to make better use of these tools in our schools. We welcome everyone!

When is #web20chat ?

Our motto: Wednesday’s are for Web 2.0

Join us every Wednesday at 6PM EST via Twitter

How to join #web20chat ?

Follow #web20chat using the Twitter browser…

Top 50 Tweeting Teachers

Crystal — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:31:31 +0000

No matter the subject, these teachers know how to Tweet.

Just in time for #FollowFriday, here is your list of the Top 50 Tweeting Teachers.

Online Responsibility: Do You Have It?

Crystal — Thu, 27 May 2010 00:39:10 +0000

Plain and Simple. Using a computer for school just makes everything easier, but without teaching online responsibility you could be making it harder on yourself and your students.

Here’s a little background on where I’m coming from:

I remember back when I was in grade school every assignment had to be hand-written with a pencil on an 8″ x 10″ piece of lined paper. The rule was to write on every other line and no matter how hard I tried, I still smudged the lead all over my paper and hand.

The giant electronic boxes that they called computers sat in the back corner of the classroom and could only be used by students during recess. There was always a long line with a sign-up sheet to wait and play Oregon Trail. Please tell me you remember Oregon Trail!

There was a small computer lab in the library on which I remember playing SimCity; other than that, computers weren’t a part of my learning experience. As I got older, computers were used more for academics and it became acceptable to type your papers. Computers became more widely used in high school; however even then they weren’t the centerpiece of my educational experience.

Today,…

On the State of Ning and Education

Schoology — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 18:07:46 +0000

The recent news that Ning will no longer be offering their free social networks for free is unfortunate.
The news that they are forcing existing users to either pay or leave instead of just charging new customers is unsettling, especially for educators and academic institutions who have spent months migrating from their existing systems over to Ning, who had promised free social networking.
Facts 1 and 2 combined with their lack of an open API is even more troublesome.

At first glance, Ning was an olive branch to innovative educators: a free network in exchange for occasional advertisements. Adopters soon learned that because of the advertisements, the domain was being blocked by many school networks.

It is no surprise that Ning’s free advertising-backed model could not support it. Most of today’s biggest free services (such as Facebook, Twitter) use advertising as a supplement to additional revenue streams, and others (such as SurveyMonkey) do not rely on ads at all.

Although there were many holes in today’s educational web 2.0 offerings that were filled by Ning’s services, one simple fact remains:

Ning was not created for education.

That is why it was blocked on…