IdeaPaint

I realize that this is a technology blog.  I also realize that sometimes, something that is not necessarily technology can change how we teach.  I also went to a public school that did not follow the standard "rules" that you see in several schools today.  We called teachers by their first name, had couches and comfortable chairs in several of our classes, and we did not use a bell system to go from one class to the next.  Very non-traditional, but very rewarding. 

So with that I mention IdeaPaint which is a paint that you can apply to your wall that turns the entire wall into a whiteboard.  Imagine the ability to complete group work and have students present ideas from anywhere in the room and then when finished, just erase it.

IdeaPaint provides a way for teachers to teach from anywhere in the room and can remove the standard desk in rows mentality of teaching.  No more poster boards or using rolls of large paper to have groups present information, they can just go to the wall and start writing.

See the video below for how it started

Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education

I have shared Khan Academy on this blog before, which is a website containing videos explaining various content from across a lot of the curriculum in schools.  There are over 2200 videos spanning across arithmetic and, science, and history.  There are over 1 million visitors a month watching over 100,000 videos each day.  

Recently, the producer of Khan Academy, Salman Khan did a talk at TED.  This talk was titled: Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education.  You can see the video embedded below.

Albert Einstein said that when video cameras were invented it would end the teaching profession because we could just record teachers teaching and then show the videos in the classroom.  That never happened.  Now with the availability of recording and sharing video could we be going down that path?

Are sites like Khan Academy going to take education down this path?  Or will the idea of flipping how we teach...watch lessons on video at home and do homework in the classroom take off and be a possibility? 

At the end of the video, Bill Gates makes an appearance and states that this is the "Future of Education"  Do you agree or disagree?  

And when he says future of education, which part, teachers being replaced by video lessons or flipping how we teach?

Here is another blog post by the Hack Education blog that I follow discussing some of the same questions I have.

What are your thoughts?

Time Warp - Posts from March 2010

IT is always good to look back and reflect on where you have come from and each month I will hope to reflect back on the year before.  This month I bring you some of the best post from March of 2010.

1.) My Best....No Most Influential Teacher is a post where I discuss a teacher who really influenced me and changed how I looked at my own education.  We all have a teacher like that, if not more than one. 

2.) To Follow or Not to Follow...That is the Question - My post examining the increase of Twitter use in schools and districts, also an examination of the Kentucky Commissioner of Education who uses Twitter, but prefers followers over following.

3.) A Few New Web 2.0 Tools that are actually older now, but still worth looking at.  Picaboo is a site to create online photo books.  Preceden is a simple timeline creation tool.  Headmagnet is a flashcard creation tool.  Keepvid is for downloading YouTube.

4.) TextServ - Using your email to send SMS to students.  I added this to my Tools for the 21st Century Teacher: Volume 2 eBook as well because I think it is a great idea.

5.) Think Twice Thursday - Video Games in Education - A post with resources for teaching with video games.

Does Education Lead to Happiness?

An interesting infographic that I thought I would share considering that my blog is about educational technology and the pursuit of happiness when it comes to integrating it.  This is some interesting data.

Click to enlarge or visit the source

SpeakingImage

I am a big fan of fotobabble because of the ability to "talk" about pictures.  SpeakingImage is similar but it is more about annotating images then talking about them.  With each image you can color over parts with free hand or pre-made shapes.  You can draw lines and bookmark specific sections of the image.  You can also insert a text blocks for the bookmarks that you create.  For more information on each part of the software, there are several videos you can watch to learn more.

You could use Paint or some other software, but with SpeakingImage you have the ability to collaborate on an image on the web and discuss the various parts of the image.  You can create groups and wikis to discuss an image.  I could really see this being used in science classrooms and geography classrooms.  You could also use it in a history classroom.  You can see the sample below for the JFK assassination and see all that you can do with this software.