Blended Bulletin, Issue 13

Cool Tools

If you do one thing today, you need to check out the NEW Smithsonian Learning Lab. As a fair warning, it may be the only thing you do today, because it will be easy to get lost in all of the open educational resources (OER) on this site. The Smithsonian Institute has put together a comprehensive educational website that allows students and educators to discover materials from any of their museums/zoos, create collections of the materials, and share with peers and classes. While they have not created quizzes or anything like that about the materials, they have made a clean and simple website that puts the Smithsonian's vast collection at your finger tips. In a quick search, I came across a photo of the Seinfeld "Puffy Shirt" from the National Museum of American History, a video about astrophotographers from Smithsonian Education, and a video of the National Zoo's adorable Sloth Bear cub playing harmonica. Have fun with this one, I know I will!

If you are worried about the degradation of the English language caused by texting, then you and your students need to check out Words U. Available in the App Store for iOS, this free app integrates into the phone's messaging system, much like integrating emojis. When turned on, a user will type a text as normal, but upon clicking send, the app will replace certain words with SAT-level with vocabulary while maintaining sentence structure and even idiomatic expressions. The vocab. word will be highlighted in blue and the user can click on the word to get the definition. Sounds like a great way to learn vocabulary in a very frequently used context. Check out a demo video here.

Interested in creating instructional videos in your class? Read these reviews of three tools: Screencastify, Screencast-O-Matic, and Quicktime (for Mac only).

Professional Learning

Courtney Belolan, an instructional coach at a Nellie Mae school in Maine, shares tips on the intricacies of student-centered learning in Learners in the Center, Not Learners on Their Own.

In Reflections on Student-Centered Learning Part 1- Student Perspective, Sarah Hatton from Students at the Center Hub shares her lessons learned from the student panels at the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) Symposium. These panels were by far the most popular sessions at the symposium (I should know as I couldn't get in the door!).

My former assistant principal in high school, and current superintendent of Meriden Public Schools, Mark Benigni, makes the case for bringing back the fun in learning through student-centered and blended learning in Putting the Fun Back in Education: Incorporating Enrichment Into Your Daily Instruction.

Read about how the Every Student Succeeds Act, the bill replacing No Child Left Behind, seeks to define important language for digital learning in Revisions to No Child Left Behind Attempt to Define Education Technology.

Here is what looks to be a great, free webinar. Even if you can't view it at the scheduled time, you will get a recording sent to you later! Questioning for Classroom Discussion: Developing Students As Thinkers and Learners.