Pearson Research & Innovation Network

The School of Thought video series, by Pearson, demonstrates how technology integrates smoothly into everyday life and learning. The focus of the series is to show how “innovative connections among technology, educational psychology, and cognitive neuroscience can change how we think about learning.” The five videos are part of Pearson’s Research & Innovation Network and feature some of the products included in Pearson’s vision of the future. You’ll especially enjoy the videos featuring the students Rey and Victoria.

Video Capture in the Classroom

Video capture is a great way for teachers to observe the effectiveness of their teaching. For example, while watching a video of themselves and their students in action, they’ll think of ways they can improve their techniques and interact more effectively with students.

Teachscape, a company that provides solutions for professional learning and teacher evaluation, offers a variety of software and hardware tools to enhance professional development. Coming soon to Teachscape will be the Teachscape Pano Camera System—the latest in video capture technology. This camera can record over 8 hours of instruction, view classrooms at any angle, and with its omnidirectional microphone, can “hear” student voices no matter where they are in a room.  It’s also easy to set up and move among classrooms.

textHelp: Lots of Great Resources for Reading, Writing, & Speech

Dedicated to the development of innovative software for those with reading, writing, speech, and language difficulties, textHelp provides excellent products that students can use with Macs, PCs, and mobile devices. The software is especially designed for students with literacy problems and those learning English as a second language. New to the textHelp library of resources is Read&Write for Google and the iPad app, Reading Champion. Read&Write for Google works with Google Drive in the Chrome browser making Google Docs, PDF files, and ePubs all available on PCs, Macs, and Chromebooks. The Reading Champion app gives students the impetus to practice and enjoy their reading. (You can try the $6.99 app free for 30 days.)  Other products offered by textHelp include Read&Write, Fluency Tutor, BrowseAloud, English Hero, Lexiflow, Read&Write app, and SpeechStream.

Fun Gumdrop Cases for Mobile Devices

Rugged protection in gumdrop colors -- Gumdrop’s Drop Tech Series cases provides virtually indestructible protection for mobile devices such as iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, and other devices and tablets. The cases feature dual material construction and reinforced rubber corners for shock absorption. Replaceable screen covers are included, as is access to ports and controls. There’s even a Designer Series, which includes Gumdrops in blue with pink, orange with blue, purple with pink, and yellow with blue. Of course, the cases also come in basic black. Then, there’s Army Green, red, etc . . . . The cases have been put to use in schools, by fire departments—even on fire engines, by medic units, and with children with disabilities. Volume discounts are available for schools. 

According to our six-year-old quality testers:

Zoe: “I have a pink and blue one, which is really pretty. My mom says if I drop it, it won’t break, but I’m not supposed to drop it.”

Lebby: “Mine is black. I use my iPad all the time because I make movies and read books with Raz-Kids. The Gumdrop is really safe for my iPad, and that is very important.”

StraightAce: English, Writing & Mathematics

StraightAce Learning, by Benesse, provides a review of mathematics, writing, and English (grammar and vocabulary) topics for Middle School level students and encourages students toward positive study habits. The programs can be used on computers and with mobile devices as long as there is Internet access. When using StraightAce, students are given “targeted” practice that is fun to use and supplementary to the regular curriculum. Teachers can track student progress as their students move through programs that feature hundreds of topics (105 in writing, 450 in math, and 105 in English) and thousands of assessment questions (1,050 in English, 4,500 in math, and 1,050 in writing).

Educator Roles in 21st Century

“23 Roles of the 21^st Century Educator” offers a nice graphic, by Stephen Downes, showing how the roles of those of us in education have changed. Downes’ mind map of what an educator must be today includes the following: Learner, Tech Support, Convener, Lecturer, Salesperson, Coach, Theorizer, Bureaucrat, Designer, Demonstrator, Coordinator, Sharer, Programmer, Collector, Facilitator, Alchemist, Agitator, Curator, Evaluator, Mentor, Critic, Moderator, and Connector.  What other roles do you think educators must take on today?  How about writer, developer, curriculum designer, guide, counselor, protector, . . . ?

Hummingbird Robotics for All Ages

As soon as I spotted the cardboard happy dragon-alligator at an ISTE booth, I fell in love with the Hummingbird Robotics Kit. With the kit, students, ages about 9 and up, can create all sorts of wonderful programmable 3D animals, people, and objects. They’ll especially like figuring out how to give their sculptures moving parts—like the jaw of the dragon-alligator or perhaps its tail.

Take a look at the tutorials, which show you how to program Hummingbird in 30 minutes, give examples of robots, and introduce you to squishy circuits, raspberry Pi support, making battery packs, using virtual programmer, and much more. The inexpensive Hummingbird Robotics Kit is a great way to incorporate STEM and STEAM (the A stands for Art & Design) into just about any classroom.

Interactive Sites for Education

Technology Integration Specialist Karen Ogen, of Columbia, South Carolina, has compiled a chart of sites for teachers of Grades 1-5. The sites are divided into the following categories: Math, English/Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Brainteasers, Art, Music, Typing, Holidays, Teacher Tools, and Spanish. Sites are submitted to Ogen for posting, but the content of sites belongs to, and is kept current by, the respective owners of the individual sites. Ogen says that the activities on the site work well with interactive whiteboards and can also be used for whole group, small group, computer lab, at home, or individual learning.

Jones eGlobal Library

The Jones eGlobal Library provides “powerful federated search technology” that allows you and your students to search using multiple databases. With one query, databases such as ProQuest, Gale, and others—even your own school library—will be searched. Results of searches through this research library are integrated/merged to make finding just that right content easy for you and your students. Whether you are searching for ebooks, curriculum collections, digital tools, or other resources and content, the eGlobal library gives access to “curated” content, which is available in various media formats. The collections can be tailored to your school curriculum and branded with your school logo or emblem. There are many other advantages (student technical support, accessibility, personal library space, detailed reporting, homepage widgets, etc.) to using the Jones eGlobal Library, so check out what else is available and find out if this research library will benefit your students by going to the eGlobal site.

Shake the Proteins

Simply shake and tilt an iPad to learn about proteins that break down sugar in cells. Sugar Shake includes a free version with eleven levels and an interactive menu. The app helps older students understand how chemical reactions work at the molecular level. All they have to do to get points is to set off a chemical reaction. Fun.