Kevin Blissett: Out of the Cave

I’m currently enrolled in a master’s class from Lehigh University labeled “Supervision and Professional Development.” As part of the class we were asked to contribute a “best learning experience.” Given my enthusiasm for classroom tech, I offered the following submission: “The best learning experience I’ve had in the last couple of years is one that [...]

Informative TEDTalk here about how current communication technologies are not driving us apart; rather they’re bringing us together. I can relate to this personally. Since June, the powers that be in China have been blocking Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, YouTube and a host of other social networking sites. As a result, I was connecting much less [...]

Lots of new and exciting debuts and upgrades are here or coming up, and Lifehacker is here to introduce the new products. In its view, the top 4 new technologies are Google Wave, Windows 7, Snow Leopard, and the new generation of smartphones, including iPhone 3G S and the Palm Pre. I’m really excited to [...]

The next big challenger to the iPhone is out, and it does indeed look sweet! My main, and perhaps only, dig on the iPhone was the lack of a tactile QWERTY keyboard; the Pre has that. It also has a pop out battery, which the iPhone does not have, so you can easily put in [...]

Kelly Tenkely at The Apple posts a useful article titled “Ten Technology Tips for New Teachers.” It’s a great resource for teachers just getting started or old dogs learning new tricks. Among her tips: Develop a Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter. Take charge of professional development. Involve parents by creating a link between home [...]

An outstanding and comprehensive slide show by SlideShare’s tcooper66 on introducing and integrating web 2.0 technologies into the classroom. One of the best I’ve seen. Integrating Web 2.0 Tools Across the Curriculum View more Microsoft Word documents from tcooper66.

Larry Ferlazzo has apparently found the best educational sites for everything! Believe me, his list is not for the faint of heart (because of its magnitude), but if you’re looking for a comprehensive list of Larry’s “Best of” in education, you need to check him out. I’m beginning to trudge my way through categories of [...]

My interest in Twitter continues unabated. David Hopkins posts a nice slideshow highlighting Twitter’s usefulness and application to teaching. Twitter in Education View more presentations from hopkinsdavid.

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills serves up an informative and useful white paper about structuring schools for the challenges inherent in this century. Included in the paper is a discussion of these topics: Structures for learning Time for learning Tools for learning Communities for learning Policy in support of learning This paper should be required reading [...]

As mentioned in several previous posts, I began including classroom blogs as part of my high school English curriculum this year. (I know, I should’ve been doing a long time ago!)  The Tidertechie blog outlines more great reasons to include them as part of any class curriculum and includes suggestions on how to set things [...]