Teaching, Learning & Technology in Higher Education

Imagine a future where all students
are confident in approaching the unknown,
armed with the ability to explore and
the desire to constantly learn...

Sure, Second Life is an "acquired taste", but having just participated as a guest speaker in the ISTE Eduverse Talks show, I came away thinking, "This is a WHOLE lot more fun than a typical webinar." In case you missed the live broadcast in SecondLife, the archive of my appearance on the ISTE Eduverse Talks show is now online at the ISTE Eduverse Talks blog:

Fund-raising is getting more and more Web 2.0, and if like me you hadn't noticed, there's a great website for public schools in the US called DonorsChoose. To make it even more fun, HP is sponsoring this year's Social Media Competition, challenging bloggers to get their readers to donate more than other bloggers' readers. I guess you could say it's "social media envy for a good cause"...

While the focus of most of our grants are high-tech tools like HP Tablet PCs, for the last several funding rounds we've been including HP DesignJet wide-format printers. "What would we do with a wide-format printer at school?" Glad you asked. Here are some ideas - including ways to get the ink to pay for itself...

I recently had the privilege of introducing 50 middle school teachers to their new tablet pcs. It was great fun, and everyone left with something simple they could try the first time they fired up their tablet in class. If you've just acquired a tablet pc to enhance your teaching, or if you're still thinking about it, below are my favorite, simple, "5 First Steps" that I shared during my workshops...

Are you using tablet pcs in K-12 (primary or secondary ed) or higher education settings to support innovative teaching and learning experiences? Now's your chance for some fame - and possibly $3000...

Everyone's talking about data. But it isn't the results of high-stakes tests that's going to help students, because they don't always measure what's important and the data takes too long to show up. It's sort of like grading beef - the cow is dead. Real-time (formative) data is where the excitement is. Time after time, I'm hearing examples of how tablet pcs deployed in a classroom 1:1 (one per student) or shared 2:1 or 3:1, can expose very powerful data about students - and change the way we teach...

The "Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education" (WIPTE, usually pronounced "WHIPPED-tee" by attendees) is a great event for anyone looking for innovations in education through the use of pen technologies such as tablet pcs. This year, the conference is going to be held at Virginia Tech, and it's not too late for early registration...