Bring the News Into Your Classroom

I just learned of this site DOGO News, from Richard Byrne's blog, Free Technology for Teachers. You can check out what Byrne had to write about the site at his post, DOGO News Create and Share Lessons about the News.

One thing that intrigued me about the site is that once a news story is accessed, a teacher can grab an embed code and post the story right within a blog post. I am trying it out now with one of the stories. Perhaps this specific story won't interest you, so I will try a second embed code and post another story. What captured my attention is that a teacher can easily embed one of the stories from the site and then post on a blog or website questions to ask students related to the story. The site also has a variety of other features for sharing as well as a link to CCSS and vocabulary terms. Be sure to check the options, and let us know what you think about how DOGO News can be used in the classroom.

Theory Into Practice: Learner-Centered Classrooms

Came across this presentation archived in HaikuDeck, and thought many of the points spoke to how the ideas of theorists translate into using technology in the classroom to create a learner-centered environment. You might recognize the names of such theorists as Alan November and Sr. Kenneth Robinson, who have long promoted that we turn the classroom into a learner-centered, social constructivist setting. If you view the presentation right within the HaikuDeck website by clicking which I recommend, you will also see the speaker's notes to accompany each slide. Here's a direct link to see it there. ED/Tech Brisbane.


http://www.haikudeck.com/p/gxUZzUNZzA/edutech-brisbane-2013

Student's Rant Questions Instructional Practice and Goes Viral

By now, you have heard about Jeff Bliss video that has gone viral. If not, here's the video.



 I was wondering about posting the video on this blog that focuses on computers in the classroom but on second thought, it's relevant. The video speaks to the fact any student can pull out a cell phone and videotape what happens in the classroom or school building. The fact that the video has had well over one million views and has been discussed in all sorts of social media forums points to how classrooms quickly become public spaces. As one educator posted recently on Twitter:

Since the video went viral, it has had remixes, another phenomenon of living in a digital age, where anything online can be remixed to change the message. Here's one remix.




 Now that you've seen both videos, what's your take on teaching in an age where what we do in the classroom can instantly become public knowledge?

Much of the discussion about the original video has focused on the teacher's teaching style and Bliss's reaction to it. What is your impression of the classroom scenario that we see in the original video?

To give you a sense of the discussions online about the original video, this past week, one of the one-hour chats on Twitter addressed the Bliss video. A moderator for the chat afterwards archived the tweets using a tool called Storify. Here's a link to the Storify, which starts with people introducing themselves, but if you scroll down and use the Click to See More options, you can follow the chat as it unfolded. Storify: #IAedchat--Jeff Bliss Video: What Have We Learned

And for more on the Bliss video see this article and the comments from Edutopia: "The Digital Live of Teens: Revolutionary "Bliss"?