The Educators' Guide to Electronic Tools and Resources for K-12
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Articles By Johanna Riddle
Most of today's teachers are comfortable with the notion of technology inclusion. On nearly every campus today, you will see students using online or software programs to supplement and extend learning. Infusion is another paradigm altogether, one that emphasizes technology as an essential partner—and many times, as the creative element—in traditional learning. Technology applications become one of many parts that contribute to the everyday education of students. Learning remains curriculum-based, but those tech apps—research, digital storytelling, websites—are now embedded into the disciplines.
Posted 01 Mar 2010 / Mar/Apr 2010 Issue
Podcasting, a morph of the words "iPod" and "broadcast," was first coined by U.K. journalist Ben Hammersley. (In fact, it was declared to be 2005's Word of the Year by The New Oxford American Dictionary, edging out both "Sudoku" and "trans fat" for the philological nod.) The digital medium quickly found its way into the classroom, and why not? After all, it's free, easy, and accessible, and it has the ability to power up education for students from kindergarten to college.
Posted 01 Jan 2010 / Jan/Feb 2010 Issue
Samsula School has been a successful institution since its inception in 1912, in no small part due to the commitment and involvement of the Samsula, Fla., community. But the school community had to think on its feet in February 2008 when the public school district announced its intention to close the doors of the small, rural campus, along with those of several other rural and minority schools across the county. Johanna Riddle recounts how that thinking led to action … and the hammering out of an alliance with a successful charter school that kept Samsula's doors open.
Posted 01 Nov 2009 / Nov/Dec 2009 Issue
A 9-year-old girl is poised on the surface of the moon, a spaceship and stars in the background. Her fellow voyager, in the form of an orange, cylindrically shaped robot, responds to her conversation with an unintelligible mechanized beep. These two space pioneers are engaged in a lively discourse about the nature and origin of constellations. Is it a Nickelodeon special? The latest remix of Lost in Space? A juvenile version of 2001: A Space Odyssey? Nope. Just business as usual as an elementary school class Johanna Riddle reports on produces another Pawprint Production educational video.
Posted 01 Sep 2009 / Sep/Oct 2009 Issue
Collaboration is certainly the way that today’s learners prefer to work. Technology-savvy students are creating a demand for learning and communicating collaboratively at school, just as they do at home. This trend is not only creating a new kind of learner but a new kind of educator as well—one who specializes in developing and sustaining a nexus for cooperative learning and who has the skills, knowledge, and contacts to connect students with resources. Enter Roxana Hadad—“The Collaborator.”
Posted 01 Jul 2009 / Jul/Aug 2009 Issue
It’s a celebration of creative learning through technology. It’s a day filled with minds-on, hands-on, collaborative learning experiences. It’s a mini-Oscar event, complete with red carpet, lights, and paparazzi. It’s the 34th annual International Student Media Festival. Read all about it in Johanna Riddle's report.
Posted 01 Mar 2009 / Mar/Apr 2009 Issue
Do you still remember the thrill of receiving a summer postcard from your teacher? How exciting it was to open the mailbox and find that personal piece of mail waiting—and to realize that your teacher was thinking of you. Perhaps the photograph on the face of the card led you to the encyclopedia to learn more about a particular place, while a handwritten line or two described a cultural experience, unusual food, or new language. Travel postcards, sent by thoughtful teachers over the years, have broadened the world of many a child. Yesterday’s postcards have gone high-tech. Weblogs, or blogs, enable today’s teachers to send a new kind of post, sharing their travel experiences as they unfold. Blogs provide an up-to-the-minute opportunity for teachers to continue to educate their students through semester breaks, to interact with their school communities, and to share experiences and locales that encourage understanding of the broader world. And those 21st century postcards come complete with the ability to upload and publish journal entries, photos, slideshows, audio, video, and educational links.
Posted 01 Jan 2008 / Jan/Feb 2008 Issue
In this article, Johanna Riddle offers four elementary-level projects that use technology as the mortar of interdisciplinary and inter-literacy learning. Some of the technology applications are as simple as scanning an image or clicking a digital camera. All four of these projects spring from works of literature that are common to most school media centers. They follow a framework that includes introducing a work of literature, learning a technology process, providing reading and working time, self-evaluation, and group discussion of outcomes The communication skills garnered by the students build on each other from project to project and year to year.
Posted 01 Mar 2006 / Mar/Apr 2006 Issue