Check out this podcast by Northern State University Student and South Dakota teacher, Brennan Goehring about Tizmos and the SAMR model. This podcast shares some excellent ideas for using Tizmos!

Check out this podcast by Northern State University Student and South Dakota teacher, Quintin Pease about Symbaloo and the SAMR model (with the help of a guest). This podcast shares some excellent ideas for using Symbaloo!

Check out this podcast by Northern State University Student and second grade teacher, Kaci Ulrich about twitter and the SAMR model. She shares some excellent ideas for using twitter, especially on the Modification and Redefinition levels.

Have you ever wondered if there are any opportunities out there where you can apply and be awarded money for technology items in your classroom. Of course it isn't easy or guaranteed to get money or technology for your classroom, but it can be well worth it. Here are links to the opportunities that I discuss in the podcast episode:

• Ed Tech Team Grants - https://www.edtechteam.com/grant/
• Donors Choose - http://www.donorschoose.org/
• Adopt a Classroom - http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/
• Digital Wish - http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/grant_awards - Receive additional support for a 1:1 classroom.
• Toshiba America Foundation - http://www.toshiba.com/taf/
• Best Buy - ttps://corporate.bestbuy.com/community-grants-page/
• RGK foundation - http://rgkfoundation.org/public/guidelines - Through principal/superintendent only. 
• Entertainment Software Association - http://www.esafoundation.org/challenge-grant.asp
• Teachers Count - http://www.teacherscount.org/grants/ - List of different grants available. 

Also, don't forget about opportunities that may be available through your local school district and through your state department of education. 

Throughout our history, we have asked important questions, such as, "why is there air?" "How many people does it take to change a light bulb?" and "Did the chicken or the egg come first?" One age old question that teachers have asked is, "should I create a class website or a class blog?" In this podcast episode I help to answer this age old question  by discussing when you might want a blog or a website. I also discuss alternatives to both approaches and some of the tools that teachers use to create websites, blogs, online photo albums and text/email message blasters.


Here are some of the tools I mention in this episode:

Website creation tools:

• Weebly
• Wix
• Google Sites

Blog creation tools:

• Blogger.com
• Kidblog.org

Online photo albums:

• iCloud
• Picasa Web Albums

General Classroom Management (with message/blog sharing):

• Class Dojo

Text/Email Message Blaster:

• Remind.com

Have you been asked to integrate technology in your classroom, but you don't know where to start? In this episode, I share some ideas from Doug Johnson's book, The Classroom Teacher's Technology Survival Guide. First I share some ideas to change non-technology-based activities into technology-based ones. Then I share about some basic and easy activities and technologies that can be incorporated into classroom learning.  

Have you ever wondered what types of interventions, teaching and learning practices and other items really make a difference for student learning? In this episode, we take a look at the interventions, teaching and learning practices and other elements have an above average effect on student learning.
I discuss John Hattie's framework for Visible Learning to help answer some of these questions.

Visible Learning, and Visible Learning for Teachers

In our last podcast episode for this school year, I discuss the principles of Universal Design for Learning. Here is a nicely organized list of these principles:

• Provide multiple means of representation
  • Provide options for perception
  • Provide options for language, mathematical expressions and symbols
  • Provide options for comprehension
• Provide multiple means of action and expression
  • Provide options for physical action
  • Provide options for expression and communication
  • Provide options for executive functions
• Provide multiple means of engagement 
  • Provide options for recruiting interest
  • Provide options for sustaining effort and persistence
  • Provide options for self-regulation

Some of the tools mentioned in this podcast are:

• Visuwords.com
• https://www.wikipedia.org/  
• http://www.nbclearn.com/science-and-engineering-of-the-2014-olympic-winter-games

This week, Dr. Alan Neville, an expert in Multiple Intelligences, guest stars as we discuss learning styles and Multiple Intelligences. We dispel some myths surrounding these ideas and also discuss what the research says. Here are the multiple intelligences:

• Spatial
• Linguistic 
• Logical-Mathmatical
• Bodily-Kinesthetic
• Musical
• Interpersonal
• Intrapersonal
• Naturalist
• Existential

Here are some reference links from this episode:

• Howard Gardner's original book - Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences
• Multiple intelligences survey

This week, I discuss a model of intrinsic motivation and how the proper use of technology can support intrinsic motivation for learning. Here are the four main elements of the taxonomy of intrinsic motivations:

• Control
• Challenge 
• Curiousity
• Contextualization

Reference:
Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E. Snow & J. F. Marshall (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction (Vol. 3, pp. 223–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

This week, My students discuss four different technologies and how they might be used on the four different levels of the SAMR model.  Here are the four levels of the SAMR model:

• Substitution
• Augmentation
• Modification
• Redefinition

Here are the four different tools:

• Webex
• Google Drive
• Google Hangouts
• Tizmos