An Educator's Guide to Technology and the Web
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Articles By Victor Rivero
A learning management system (LMS) is the Holy Grail of education: an online system to manage it all. In this month's Tools for Learning feature, writer Victor Rivero names a range of companies that have ventured into this territory, along with the products and services they offer.
Posted 01 Jan 2012 / Jan/Feb 2012 Issue
Online education is a $34 billion industry, and it has been growing by an astronomical rate. Today, says author Victor Rivero, elearning is a paradigm shift. Here are some of the companies he's identified as being on board with this 21st-century transformation.
Posted 01 Nov 2011 / Nov/Dec 2011 Issue
Julie Young is president and CEO of Florida Virtual School, now one of the largest public online school districts in the U.S. In this interview by Victor Rivero, we take a closer look at this virtual school and hear what its leader has to say about the field of virtual learning.
Posted 01 Nov 2011 / Nov/Dec 2011 Issue
The e-everything revolution charges ahead in the education realm. This month, Victor Rivero reprises and updates the discussion he started last year in his article "E Is for Explosion: E-Readers, Etextbooks, Econtent, Elearning, E-Everything."
Posted 01 Sep 2011 / Sep/Oct 2011 Issue
"As fast as a trending Twitterstorm and as powerful as a flood of Facebook fans, there's a curious phenomenon moving through our schools these days: social media." Read all about the phenomenon … and the tools that comprise it … in Victor's feature.
Posted 01 May 2011 / May/Jun 2011 Issue
The professional development scene for teachers has advanced to the point that the web is a true gift to educators. Here are some excellent online professional development resources to help move you toward a 21 st-century classroom.
Posted 01 Mar 2011 / Mar/Apr 2011 Issue
Online. Blended. Mobile. 21 st-century. Collaborative. Project-based. Any way you label it, learning is changing. We're now settling into an exciting new paradigm of connected, engaged learning. To get a sense of all this, take a look at the sites, services, and resources we've noted right here in this article.
Posted 01 Jan 2011 / Jan/Feb 2011 Issue
There's a quiet—or not so quiet—shift happening in school libraries across America. The social media revolution—reflected in all manner of shiny iPhone apps, blogs, Nings, Facebook pages, and other social networking tools, sites, and platforms—is real, and it's running like a loud line of students straight through the stacks, into the common areas, taking a sharp turn, and heading right on up to the teacher librarian/media specialist's desk. Are you ready for it? In this article, Victor Rivero addresses issues, answers, and resources to help.
Posted 29 Oct 2010 / Nov/Dec 2010 Issue
In this article, Victor Rivero draws on educators' and educational technology product developers' thinking that he picked up during a visit to this summer's ISTE conference. Victor cruised the show, talking with attendees and presenters, as well as with representatives from organizations such as the Partnership for 21st-Century Skills and The Software & Information Industry Association, to get their opinions on 21st century education.
Posted 01 Sep 2010 / Sep/Oct 2010 Issue
Victor Rivero reviews Cognite from Follett Software Co., a digital learning environment that integrates discovery and organization tools, collaboration, and communication.
Posted 01 Sep 2010 / Sep/Oct 2010 Issue
In "E Is for Explosion …" Victor Rivero sets the scene with an overview of recent happenings in the world of e-reading devices as well as etexts, then focuses in on more than 15 kinds of electronic texts and content and their producers/providers.
Posted 01 Jul 2010 / Jul/Aug 2010 Issue
For this story, Victor researched and describes a couple of real-life ways in which curriculum content is moving in the direction of an all-electronic format. He looks first at a school district's move to acquire interactive, digital textbooks from publishers in place of traditional paper-based books. Then he discusses Discovery Education's adaptation of its rich content into digital "basal textbook" format—but "basal textbooks" like you've never seen before!
Posted 01 Jul 2010 / Jul/Aug 2010 Issue
In this age of technology-enabled openness, how much protecting is too much? And, going further, if our students are completely isolated from the benefits of the information age, will they ever learn? In this month's Tools for Learning feature, Victor Rivero examines some products, services, and solutions that address the question "How can our students stay safe and secure while simultaneously getting access to rich learning resources—and continue to fall in love with learning?"
Posted 01 May 2010 / May/Jun 2010 Issue
With online learning growing by a rate of 30% over the past few years, according to the International Association for K-12 Online Learning, once-lonely and isolated education professionals are now taking advantage of tech-based tools and platforms and connecting like never before. From self-paced courses, product training, instructional seminars, and real-time information resources to video segments and streaming content, educators have plenty of ways to hone up on just about anything.
Posted 01 Mar 2010 / Mar/Apr 2010 Issue
According to the SIIA's Vision K-20 survey, the lowest level for its Five Measures of Progress is in the use of technology-based assessment tools, with an average score of just 46%. Clearly, there's room for improvement! And since knowing more about these tools is a good first step to using them to your advantage, Victor Rivero brings you a sampling of some of the more recent excellent products and services you may find useful when it comes to gaining much-needed assistance with assessment.
Posted 01 Jan 2010 / Jan/Feb 2010 Issue