The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Using Cell Phones to Support Student Engagement & ... May 6, 2012,	6421
Fear is not an option when it comes to social medi... Sep 24, 2014,	3790
Does Twitter have a minimum age requirement? Jun 13, 2013,	3199
Teachers Get Your Tech On with PBS Learning Media Sep 10, 2014,	2846
Don't Follow the Lead of @cshirky in Banning Techn... Oct 1, 2014,	1894

Bring Learning to Life Anytime/Anywhere with MS Office Mix

Innovative educators know that teaching and learning is shifting. Today students can watch lessons on their devices and progress at their own pace and teachers don’t have to waste time giving the same lecture multiple times a day. While watching lessons automates what is done in the traditional classroom, there is a new tool called Microsoft Office Mix which brings lectures and lessons to life by turning PowerPoints into interactive lessons called “Mixes” that are very simple to create.

All you need to do is record lectures while you write and draw on your slides, and add audio, video, assessments or labs, and also the stuff that really makes lessons pop, like as animations, live links, or quizzes.

Fitting into teacher’s lifestyle is analytics, and OfficeMix has built that in so you can track every student, quiz, and slide to see how they’re performing. OfficeMix is free if you have PowerPoint 2013 for Windows.  Or if you have a Mac, then you can run Windows on it, and still use Office Mix with PowerPoint 2013 on your Mac.

6 SMART Tips for Effective Professional Development

This summer my department partnered with technology companies (such as PBS Learning, Google, and SMART Technologies) that provide resources used and loved by NYCDOE teachers to provide an innovative professional learning experience. The goal of the program was to create and connect teachers across the district who are power-users of the same resources so they could become area experts supporting others back in their school and districts.

What was terrific about the partnership is that these companies really came to life with real people building relationships with our staff to support them and help them grow. In the end it was a win, win. The participants loved this type of learning. Our partners enjoyed the new connections and communities they were able to build and they will be expanding this work to other districts as well. 

Here are six tips for SMART professional development opportunities.

The hottest posts everyone's reading

Here’s the roundup of what's been popular on The Innovative Educator blog. Below you’ll see the top posts along with the number of page views. I hope there's something that looks of interest to you.  If it does, check it out. If you’re inspired use one of those icons below the post to share it with others and/or leave a comment.

Entry	Pageviews
Fear is not an option when it comes to social medi... Sep 24, 2014,	2688
Don't Follow the Lead of @cshirky in Banning Techn... Oct 1, 2014,	2020
10 Ways Social Media Can Improve Writing in Your C... Jun 22, 2014,	1007
8 Real Ways Facebook Enriched Ms. Schoening’s Firs... Jul 15, 2010,	948

Don't Follow the Lead of @cshirky in Banning Technology

Clay Shirky author and professor of media studies at New York University, recently penned a guest article for the Washington Post sharing why he decided to ban technology in his class.  He explains how it was challenging to be more interesting than the devices. The following quote captures some of his thinking:  

“The practical effects of my decision to allow technology use in class grew worse over time. The level of distraction in my classes seemed to grow, even though it was the same professor and largely the same set of topics, taught to a group of students selected using roughly the same criteria every year. The change seemed to correlate more with the rising ubiquity and utility of the devices themselves, rather than any change in me, the students, or the rest of the classroom encounter.”

While banning might be a good idea for the “sit, listen, discuss, repeat” style of teaching, for the rest of us, not so much.  The disengaged classroom Shirky describes brings to mind the scene from the 1985 comedy “Real Genius” where eventually most every desk had a tape recorder and eventually the professor also gives in and replaces himself with a reel to reel to deliver his lecture.

Set up Anonymous Bully Reporting with Cel.ly

While innovative educators know that empowering students to use their own devices for learning is necessary for student success, the conversation of bullying often comes up as well. Not only are student-owned devices great learning tools, they also are great tools for helping to address bullying. A resource like Cel.ly provides a powerful tool for teaching and learning as shared in my book Teaching Generation Text and on my blog. As I've also shared on my blog, it is among several texting tools that can be used to report bullying. What's nice is that if you want, with Cel.ly you can make the reports anonymous.   Here is how schools can setup their own anonymous tip lines.